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How to Configure Sensu to Monitor RabbitMQ and Redis

By Freedom251 Team · · 11 min read

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Configure Sensu by installing the RabbitMQ and Redis runtime assets, assigning subscriptions to the agents that can reach each service, and creating CheckConfig resources that call the asset binaries. Sensu agents execute those checks locally; the Sensu backend stores and schedules them, then receives the resulting events. RabbitMQ checks can cover broker availability, node and cluster health, queues, consumers, messages, partitions, and metrics. Redis checks can cover ping, INFO data, keys, list lengths, memory, connection capacity, replica status, and metrics.

This guide shows a production-oriented layout, explains the important scheduling and exit-code rules, and gives a validation path that does not require creating an outage.

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How Sensu monitoring is arranged

A Sensu backend stores CheckConfig resources and decides when to publish check executions. Sensu agents register as entities, advertise subscriptions, run matching checks on the monitored host, and publish results back to the backend. A check is not executed merely because it exists in the backend: at least one subscription in the check must match a subscription on the target agent.

Run checks where the service is reachable

For a host-local RabbitMQ or Redis process, install the Sensu agent on that host and execute the checks there. This gives the check local network access and makes host-specific failures visible. For a remote service, use a proxy entity or a dedicated monitoring agent with network access to the endpoint. In either design, validate the plugin’s authentication and TLS options rather than assuming that a command that works without encryption will also work with TLS.

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Prerequisites

  • A working Sensu backend that can store and schedule CheckConfig resources.
  • At least one running Sensu agent registered as an entity.
  • sensuctl configured for an administrative user that can create resources and assets.
  • Network reachability from the executing agent to the RabbitMQ or Redis endpoint.
  • Monitoring credentials with only the permissions required by the selected checks.

The official getting-started workflow establishes the backend, agent, and administrative sensuctl access before checks are added. Complete that setup first; otherwise a correctly written check can appear to be “not running” when the actual problem is agent registration or backend connectivity.

Install the RabbitMQ and Redis runtime assets

Sensu runtime assets make plugin binaries available to an agent when a check runs. Add the assets with sensuctl rather than copying Ruby scripts manually to every host.

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RabbitMQ asset

sensuctl asset add sensu-plugins/sensu-plugins-rabbitmq

The versioned RabbitMQ asset includes these check programs:

  • check-rabbitmq-alive.rb and check-rabbitmq-amqp-alive.rb for reachability and protocol-level liveness.
  • check-rabbitmq-node-health.rb and check-rabbitmq-cluster-health.rb for node and cluster condition.
  • check-rabbitmq-queue.rb for queue-specific conditions.
  • check-rabbitmq-consumers.rb and check-rabbitmq-messages.rb for consumer and message observations.
  • check-rabbitmq-network-partitions.rb for partition detection.
  • Metric commands for an overview and for queues.

Redis asset

sensuctl asset add sensu-plugins/sensu-plugins-redis

The Redis asset includes:

  • check-redis-ping.rb for basic reachability.
  • check-redis-info.rb for Redis INFO-derived health data.
  • check-redis-keys.rb and check-redis-list-length.rb for data-structure-specific thresholds.
  • check-redis-memory.rb and check-redis-memory-percentage.rb for absolute and percentage memory usage.
  • check-redis-connections-available.rb for remaining connection capacity.
  • check-redis-slave-status.rb for replica status.
  • Metric commands that emit time-series data.

Pin and verify versions

The published asset pages are versioned and some referenced pages are several years old. Treat the asset version as a deployment dependency: select a version compatible with the agent’s operating system and runtime, test it in a non-production environment, and pin that tested version for production. Before an upgrade, read the asset’s release notes and run each command’s help output so changed flags do not silently invalidate a CheckConfig.

Create subscriptions that target the right agents

Subscriptions are the routing rule between a CheckConfig and an agent. A simple agent configuration might advertise:

subscriptions:
  - rabbitmq
  - redis

Every check that contains rabbitmq will be eligible for this agent, as will every check containing redis. Use separate subscriptions when services run on different hosts or when they require different credentials, schedules, or alert policies. For example, a RabbitMQ production agent can advertise rabbitmq-prod, while a staging agent advertises rabbitmq-staging; the corresponding checks then cannot accidentally execute against the wrong environment.

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After changing subscriptions, confirm the entity in Sensu and verify that the check’s subscription name exactly matches. A spelling difference, capitalization difference, or subscription attached to a different entity is enough to prevent execution.

Define RabbitMQ checks

Begin with a small set of checks that answers whether the broker is reachable and healthy, then add workload and capacity checks that match your service-level objectives. A minimal aliveness CheckConfig is:

---
type: CheckConfig
api_version: core/v2
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-alive
spec:
  command: check-rabbitmq-alive.rb -h rabbitmq.internal -u sensu-monitor -p "$RABBITMQ_PASSWORD"
  runtime_assets:
    - sensu-plugins-rabbitmq
  subscriptions:
    - rabbitmq
  interval: 30
  publish: true

The exact command-line flags vary by asset version, so inspect the installed binary with its help option before finalizing the command. The example demonstrates the resource shape: a unique name, a command, the runtime asset, a matching subscription, a schedule, and publishing enabled.

Choose checks by failure mode

Operational question RabbitMQ check family What it distinguishes
Can the endpoint answer? Alive or AMQP alive Network, listener, authentication, or protocol reachability problems.
Is a broker node functioning? Node health Node-level health rather than merely an open TCP port.
Is the cluster coherent? Cluster health Cluster-wide condition that a single-node probe may miss.
Are messages accumulating? Queue and messages Backlog or message-count thresholds for named queues.
Are consumers keeping up? Consumers Missing or insufficient consumers behind a growing workload.
Are brokers partitioned? Network partitions Partition events that can produce split or degraded behavior.
Do you need dashboards? Overview and queue metrics Metric points for time-series storage rather than only a status event.

Queue, consumer, and message checks

Queue checks should name the queues that matter to an application and define explicit warning and critical thresholds. A single instantaneous spike often reflects normal burst traffic, so use a sustained condition or a drain-time objective when the plugin and alerting design allow it. Pair a queue-depth alert with consumer and node-health checks. A growing queue with healthy consumers suggests workload growth or downstream slowness; a growing queue with zero consumers points to a consumer deployment or connection failure; a queue alert together with node-health failures points toward the broker itself.

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Keep queue names and thresholds in separate CheckConfig resources when they have different service-level objectives. That makes it possible to change a low-priority queue without altering the alert policy for a critical queue.

Credentials and TLS

Use a monitoring account with the minimum RabbitMQ permissions needed by the selected commands. Avoid putting a literal password in a CheckConfig. The example uses an environment variable, but Sensu also supports secrets-management mechanisms; choose the one supported by your deployment and ensure the agent can resolve the secret at execution time. Do not print credentials in plugin arguments, diagnostic output, or custom wrapper scripts. Confirm the asset’s documented TLS and certificate flags before enabling encrypted connections.

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Define Redis checks

Use a ping check as the reachability baseline, then add checks for memory, connections, data structures, and replication according to the role of the Redis instance.

---
type: CheckConfig
api_version: core/v2
metadata:
  name: redis-ping
spec:
  command: check-redis-ping.rb -h redis.internal -p "$REDIS_PORT" -a "$REDIS_PASSWORD"
  runtime_assets:
    - sensu-plugins-redis
  subscriptions:
    - redis
  interval: 30
  publish: true

As with RabbitMQ, verify the installed plugin’s help output because option names and authentication behavior depend on the asset version. Keep the password outside the command string whenever possible and make sure environment-variable substitution does not expose it through process listings.

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Match Redis checks to the instance role

Operational question Redis check family Typical use
Does Redis respond? Ping Fast reachability and basic command response.
What does the server report? INFO General server health and INFO-derived values.
Is memory approaching a limit? Memory or memory percentage Absolute or relative saturation thresholds.
Can clients still connect? Connections available Early warning before max-client limits cause errors.
Is a data structure growing unexpectedly? Keys or list length Application-specific key-count and list-size limits.
Is a replica synchronized? Replica status Replication role and health checks on replicas.
Do you need trends? Redis metric commands Time-series views of INFO and related measurements.

Do not apply the same thresholds to every Redis instance. A cache, queue-like list store, and primary database have different acceptable memory and key-count ranges. For replicas, a ping-only check can remain green while replication is stalled, so pair it with the replica-status check. For a primary, connection availability and memory percentage may be more actionable than replica status.

Set schedules and interpret check status

Every scheduled check needs either an interval or a valid cron schedule. The interval should follow the failure-detection objective and the cost of polling the RabbitMQ management interface or Redis INFO endpoint. A 30-second interval is a starting example, not a universal recommendation: increase it for expensive metric collection or low-risk services, and shorten it only when the faster detection justifies the additional load.

Exit-code semantics

Sensu uses Nagios-compatible result states:

Exit code State Use
0 OK The observed value is within the configured healthy range.
1 WARNING An early saturation or degradation threshold has been crossed.
2 CRITICAL A service-impacting condition or hard limit has been reached.
Other Unknown or custom The plugin or wrapper returned a state outside the standard mapping.

Design warning thresholds for time to respond, not merely for cosmetic color. For example, a warning at a queue depth that still drains within the service objective gives operators time to investigate; a critical threshold should represent a condition likely to affect users. Preserve the plugin’s output and exit status when wrapping commands so the backend and handlers receive the intended state.

Distribute execution when many agents share a check

If many agents subscribe to the same check and only one execution is needed per interval, consider Sensu’s round_robin behavior to distribute executions. Read the proxy-entity requirements before combining round-robin with TTL-based behavior; those modes have specific entity constraints. For checks that must run on every host, do not use round-robin as a shortcut, because it would leave gaps in host coverage.

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Collect metrics and route them to storage

Status checks answer whether a condition is currently acceptable. Metric checks produce measurements that can be graphed, aggregated, and used for capacity planning. Configure the metric check with the appropriate output_metric_format. Sensu validates the emitted format, extracts metric points, and passes them through a pipeline.

Separate status and metric responsibilities

Keep a fast status check separate from a high-cardinality metric check when practical. A RabbitMQ queue metric for every queue and a Redis metric set for every keyspace can be substantially more expensive than a single liveness probe. Independent resources let you use different intervals, permissions, and failure handling. A metric collection failure should not necessarily page an operator if the service status remains healthy, while a failed liveness check should normally produce an immediate alert.

Route and label measurements

Use a Sensu pipeline and handler to send extracted points to a supported time-series or search system, such as InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, Grafana, or Graphite. Confirm the metric event first, then attach the long-term handler. Tag points with stable dimensions such as environment, cluster, node, queue, or database identifier. Avoid labels containing passwords, request IDs, timestamps that create unbounded cardinality, or queue names that are created and deleted continuously without a retention plan.

For RabbitMQ, decide whether queue-level metrics should include every queue or only queues tied to a service-level objective. For Redis, decide whether INFO fields should be retained individually or reduced to a smaller operational set. These choices affect storage cost and dashboard usability even though the check binary itself remains unchanged.

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Validate the deployment without causing an outage

  1. Confirm control-plane access. Verify that the backend is active and that sensuctl can reach it with the intended administrative identity.
  2. Confirm the target entity. Check that the agent is registered, connected, and advertising the exact rabbitmq or redis subscription used by the CheckConfig.
  3. Confirm the runtime asset. Verify that the matching asset is assigned and that the agent can resolve the check binary at execution time.
  4. Run the command manually. Use non-production credentials and the same endpoint options as the CheckConfig. Capture standard output, standard error, and the numeric exit status.
  5. Apply the CheckConfig. Publish the resource and wait for a scheduled event, or use a safe execution mechanism supported by your Sensu version.
  6. Inspect the event. Confirm the entity, check name, output, status, and timestamp. For a metric check, verify that the metrics section contains parsed points.
  7. Test alert routing safely. Point a test check at a disposable endpoint or use a deliberately invalid test credential in a non-production environment. Verify WARNING and CRITICAL handlers without stopping a production broker or Redis server.
  8. Review upgrades. Before changing an asset version, rerun help output, manual checks, and metric parsing tests.

Troubleshoot common failures

The check never runs

  • Compare the CheckConfig subscription with the agent’s subscriptions character for character.
  • Confirm the check has an interval or valid cron value and that publish is enabled when events should be sent.
  • Check that the agent is connected to the backend and that its entity is not stopped or filtered.
  • Verify that the runtime asset name in the CheckConfig matches the installed asset.

The binary cannot be found

Inspect the asset assignment and the agent log, then run the asset’s command help through the agent environment. A version mismatch, unsupported operating system, or asset that was added to a different Sensu namespace can prevent resolution.

Authentication or TLS fails

Test the endpoint from the same host and network namespace as the agent. Check username, password source, virtual host or database selection, certificate trust, hostname verification, and the plugin version’s flag names. Do not “fix” a TLS failure by disabling verification without documenting the security consequence and an approved exception.

RabbitMQ reports a queue problem

Compare queue depth with consumer count, message rate, node health, and cluster status. A threshold that is too low can create noise during normal bursts; a threshold that is too high can hide a backlog until users are affected. Use a sustained condition or drain-time objective where supported.

Redis reports memory or connection pressure

Check whether the instance is a cache, primary, replica, or list-backed workload before changing thresholds. Review memory percentage alongside available connections and INFO output. A replica-status failure requires replication investigation even when ping remains OK.

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Metrics are missing

Confirm that the plugin emitted the format named by output_metric_format, that Sensu parsed the event’s metrics section, and that the pipeline handler accepts that format. First prove collection with a local event; only then troubleshoot the destination database or dashboard.

Choose the right check set

When two checks appear to cover the same concern, compare them on these dimensions:

  • Reachability versus semantics: a ping or alive check proves response, while node, queue, INFO, or replica checks test application meaning.
  • Status versus metrics: status checks produce alert states; metric checks support trends and capacity analysis.
  • Execution location: local agents provide host context; proxy agents provide reachability to remote services.
  • Polling cost: management and INFO calls may cost more than a simple ping, especially at short intervals.
  • Credential and TLS support: verify that the selected binary supports the authentication method and certificate policy you operate.
  • Threshold control: use checks that expose thresholds appropriate to each queue, database role, or environment.
  • Pipeline compatibility: select metric output that your Sensu handlers can parse and store without lossy conversion.

A practical rollout sequence

  1. Install the backend and one test agent, then verify administrative sensuctl access.
  2. Install and pin the RabbitMQ and Redis assets in a test environment.
  3. Assign narrowly scoped subscriptions to agents that can reach the intended endpoints.
  4. Deploy one alive or ping CheckConfig per service and validate exit statuses.
  5. Add node, cluster, queue, consumer, memory, connection, and replica checks according to actual service objectives.
  6. Add metric checks with conservative intervals and inspect parsed events before enabling storage handlers.
  7. Exercise warning and critical paths against disposable test endpoints.
  8. Promote the tested asset versions and CheckConfigs to production, retaining the same secret-handling and rollback procedure.

This sequence keeps the first failure easy to diagnose: if the initial reachability check is not green, workload thresholds and dashboards cannot yet provide useful evidence.

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