How to Download and Install Apache ActiveMQ on Windows

Do you want to download and install Apache ActiveMQ on Windows?

Then check this out:

In this tutorial, I’ll show where to download ActiveMQ.

How to start and stop a broker. And how to access the admin console.

So let’s begin.

What is Apache ActiveMQ?

Apache ActiveMQ is an open source message broker written in Java. It offers JMS, REST and WebSocket interfaces.

Other protocols like AMQP, MQTT, OpenWire, and STOMP are also supported. You can use these to connect applications written in different programming languages.

The ActiveMQ project is part of the Apache Software Foundation. A decentralized open source community of developers.

Step #1: Check Prerequisites

Apache ActiveMQ requires Java to work. So let’s check if you have Java configured on your system.

Click on the search button. Then type “cmd” (without quotes).

If you have Windows 7 click on the Windows button.

Click on the Command Prompt shortcut.

Wait for the command prompt to open.

Type “java -version” and press ENTER.

The above command prints the installed Java version.

For ActiveMQ 5.11 and onward you need Java version 1.7 or higher.

If you do not have Java installed on your system. Check following post which details how to install a JDK on Windows 10.

Step #2: Download

Head over to the ActiveMQ download page.

Click on the link under the Latest Releases section.

Locate the Getting the Binary Distributions section.

Click on the link for the Windows distribution.

Wait for the download to complete.

Step #3: Install

Open the location of the downloaded binary distribution.

Select the ZIP archive file. Right-click and then click on the Extract All… menu item.

Select an extract destination for the ActiveMQ files.

In this example, we extract in C:\Users\Downlinko\tools.

Click on Extract. This extracts all ActiveMQ files under C:\Users\Downlinko\tools\apache-activemq-5.15.6.

From now on we refer to this location as [ACTIVEMQ_INSTALL_DIR].

Step #4: Start

To start ActiveMQ, we need to open a command prompt.

Click on the search button. Then type “cmd”.

Click on the Command Prompt shortcut.

Wait for the command prompt to open.

Navigate to [ACTIVEMQ_INSTALL_DIR] and then change to the bin subdirectory.

Type “activemq start” and press ENTER.

ActiveMQ will generate some log statements at start-up as shown below:

One of the log entries mentions Apache ActiveMQ started. This indicates that ActiveMQ was started.

Step #5: Admin Console

Apache ActiveMQ ships with a web-based administration GUI.

To access the admin console enter following URL in a web browser: http://localhost:8161/

If ActiveMQ is up and running a welcome page is displayed.

Now click on the Manage ActiveMQ broker link to access the console.

A pop-up appears. Enter the following credentials:

User name=”admin” and Password=”admin”.

On the homepage, you can find some basic statistics on the ActiveMQ broker. Also, there are some menus that allow you to explore the different configuration items (queues, topics, connections, …) of the broker.

Step #6: Stop

To wrap up this tutorial we will stop the running ActiveMQ instance.

Switch back to the command prompt that you used to start ActiveMQ and press CTRL+C.

When prompted to Terminate batch job, Type “Y” followed by ENTER.

The console will return to the prompt and Apache ActiveMQ is shut down.

Congratulations, you have installed Apache ActiveMQ on Windows 10!

Leave a comment if you found this post helpful.

Or if you have any questions.

Thanks!