Amqp subscriber plugin

Note: This plugin requires InfluxDB 3 Enterprise.8.2 or later.

The AMQP Subscriber Plugin enables real-time ingestion of AMQP messages (RabbitMQ and other AMQP-compatible brokers) into InfluxDB 3 Enterprise. Subscribe to queues and automatically transform messages into time-series data with support for JSON, Line Protocol, and custom text formats. The plugin provides flexible message acknowledgement policies and comprehensive error tracking with statistics.

Configuration

Plugin parameters may be specified as key-value pairs in the --trigger-arguments flag (CLI) or in the trigger_arguments field (API) when creating a trigger. This plugin supports TOML configuration files for complex mapping scenarios, which can be specified using the config_file_path parameter.

Plugin metadata

This plugin includes a JSON metadata schema in its docstring that defines supported trigger types and configuration parameters. This metadata enables the InfluxDB 3 Explorer UI to display and configure the plugin.

Required parameters

Connection parameters

Authentication parameters

Authentication mechanisms:

• plain - Username/password authentication (SASL PLAIN). Both username and password are required; the plugin no longer falls back to the RabbitMQ default guest/guest credentials.
• external - Client TLS certificate authentication (SASL EXTERNAL). Requires ssl_ca_cert, ssl_client_cert, and ssl_client_key. username/password are ignored.

TLS/SSL parameters

Note: For mutual TLS, both ssl_client_cert and ssl_client_key must be provided together. SSL is automatically enabled when ssl_ca_cert is provided.

Message handling parameters

Acknowledgement policies:

• on_success - Acknowledge only after successful processing. Failed messages are rejected (requeue controlled by requeue_on_failure).
• always - Acknowledge all messages at the end of processing, regardless of success or failure.

Logging parameters

In TOML configuration, enable_full_logging is placed directly under the [amqp] section.

Message format parameters

Format-specific timestamp_field syntax:

The timestamp field format differs between JSON and Text formats:

Note: In CLI arguments, JSON paths are specified without $. prefix (added automatically). In TOML configuration, use full JSONPath syntax with $. prefix.

Note: Text format uses the last colon to split, allowing regex patterns to contain colons (for example, time patterns).

Supported timestamp formats:

• ns - nanoseconds (Unix timestamp)
• ms - milliseconds (Unix timestamp)
• s - seconds (Unix timestamp)
• datetime - ISO 8601 string (for example, “2021-12-01T12:00:00Z”)

JSON format parameters

Field specification format: "temp:float=temperature hum:int=humidity status:bool=online"

Supported field types: int, uint, float, string, bool

Text format parameters

Tag specification format: "room=room:([^,\\s]+) sensor=sensor:(\\w+)"

Field specification format: "temp:float=temp:([\\d.]+) status:bool=(true|false)"

TOML configuration

To use a TOML configuration file, specify the config_file_path in the trigger arguments.

File path resolution

All file paths in the plugin (configuration file, TLS certificates) follow the same resolution logic:

• Absolute paths (for example, /etc/amqp/config.toml) are used as-is
• Relative paths (for example, config.toml, certs/ca.crt) are resolved from PLUGIN_DIR environment variable

If a relative path is specified and PLUGIN_DIR is not set, the plugin will return an error.

Example TOML configuration

amqp_config_example.toml - comprehensive configuration example with all three message formats

Data requirements

The plugin automatically creates the target measurement table on first write. Field mappings are required for JSON and Text formats to specify which fields to extract and their data types.

Message encoding requirements

• UTF-8 text only: The plugin only processes UTF-8 encoded text messages. Binary messages are automatically skipped with a warning logged.
• Non-empty payloads: Empty or whitespace-only messages are automatically skipped.

Software Requirements

• InfluxDB 3 Enterprise: with the Processing Engine enabled
• Python packages:
  • pika (AMQP client library)
  • jsonpath-ng (JSON path parsing for JSON format)

Installation steps

1. Start InfluxDB 3 Enterprise with the Processing Engine enabled (--plugin-dir /path/to/plugins):

   influxdb3 serve \
     --node-id node0 \
     --object-store file \
     --data-dir ~/.influxdb3 \
     --plugin-dir ~/.plugins

2. Install required Python packages:

   influxdb3 install package pika
   influxdb3 install package jsonpath-ng

Trigger setup

Scheduled ingestion with TOML configuration

Recommended for production use with complex mappings:

# 1. Set PLUGIN_DIR environment variable
export PLUGIN_DIR=~/.plugins

# 2. Copy and edit configuration file
cp amqp_config_example.toml $PLUGIN_DIR/my_amqp_config.toml
# Edit my_amqp_config.toml with your broker and mapping settings

# 3. Create the trigger
influxdb3 create trigger \
  --database mydb \
  --plugin-filename gh:influxdata/amqp_subscriber/amqp_subscriber.py \
  --trigger-spec "every:10s" \
  --trigger-arguments config_file_path=my_amqp_config.toml \
  amqp_ingestion

Scheduled ingestion with command-line arguments

For simple JSON message ingestion:

influxdb3 create trigger \
  --database mydb \
  --plugin-filename gh:influxdata/amqp_subscriber/amqp_subscriber.py \
  --trigger-spec "every:5s" \
  --trigger-arguments 'host=localhost,queues=sensor_data alerts,format=json,table_name=sensor_data,fields=temp:float=temperature hum:int=humidity,tags=location sensor_id' \
  amqp_sensors

Secure AMQP connection with TLS

influxdb3 create trigger \
  --database mydb \
  --plugin-filename gh:influxdata/amqp_subscriber/amqp_subscriber.py \
  --trigger-spec "every:10s" \
  --trigger-arguments 'host=secure-broker.example.com,port=5671,queues=secure_data,format=json,table_name=secure_data,ssl_ca_cert=certs/ca.crt,username=myuser,password=mypass,fields=value:float=value' \
  secure_amqp

Message Formats

JSON Format

The primary use case for structured IoT data. Supports nested fields using JSONPath expressions.

TOML Configuration

[amqp]
host = "localhost"
port = 5672
queues = ["sensor_data", "alerts"]
format = "json"

[mapping.json]
table_name = "sensor_data"
timestamp_field = "$.timestamp:ms"

[mapping.json.tags]
location = "$.location"
sensor_id = "$.sensor.id"

[mapping.json.fields]
temperature = ["$.temp", "float"]
humidity = ["$.humidity", "int"]
status = ["$.online", "bool"]

Example Message

{
  "timestamp": 1638360000000,
  "location": "warehouse_a",
  "sensor": {
    "id": "sensor_001"
  },
  "temp": 22.5,
  "humidity": 65,
  "online": true
}

Resulting Data

sensor_data,location=warehouse_a,sensor_id=sensor_001 temperature=22.5,humidity=65i,status=true 1638360000000000000

JSON Array Support

Process batch messages containing arrays of JSON objects:

[
  {"timestamp": 1638360000000, "sensor_id": "001", "temperature": 22.5},
  {"timestamp": 1638360001000, "sensor_id": "002", "temperature": 23.1},
  {"timestamp": 1638360002000, "sensor_id": "003", "temperature": 21.8}
]

Array processing behavior:

• Each array element is processed independently as a separate data point
• If one element fails to parse, the others continue processing (partial success)
• Parse errors for individual elements are logged to amqp_exceptions table
• Statistics count each AMQP message as one unit (messages_received+=1, messages_processed+=1), regardless of array size

Line Protocol Format

For messages already in InfluxDB line protocol format, use passthrough mode. No mapping configuration needed - messages are validated and written directly.

TOML Configuration

[amqp]
host = "rabbitmq.example.com"
queues = ["influxdb_metrics"]
format = "lineprotocol"

CLI Configuration

influxdb3 create trigger \
  --database mydb \
  --plugin-filename amqp_subscriber.py \
  --trigger-spec "every:10s" \
  --trigger-arguments 'host=rabbitmq.example.com,queues=influxdb_metrics,format=lineprotocol' \
  amqp_lineprotocol

Example Message

sensor_data,location=warehouse_a,sensor_id=001 temperature=22.5,humidity=65i 1638360000000000000

Supported Line Protocol Types

Text Format

Parse plain text messages using regular expressions:

TOML Configuration

[amqp]
format = "text"

[mapping.text]
table_name = "sensor_logs"
timestamp_field = "ts:(\\d+):ms"

[mapping.text.tags]
location = "location=([^,\\s]+)"

[mapping.text.fields]
temperature = ["temp:([\\d.]+)", "float"]
humidity = ["hum:(\\d+)", "int"]
status = ["status:(true|false)", "bool"]

Example Message

location=warehouse_a,temp:22.5,hum:65,status:true,ts:1638360000000

Statistics and Monitoring

The plugin tracks comprehensive statistics and writes them to the amqp_stats table on every plugin invocation.

Important notes:

• Statistics are written on every plugin invocation
• Each queue is tracked separately with independent statistics
• Statistics persist across plugin restarts using the InfluxDB cache

amqp_stats Table

Querying Statistics

# Get latest statistics
influxdb3 query --database mydb \
  "SELECT * FROM amqp_stats ORDER BY time DESC LIMIT 10"

# Success rate over time
influxdb3 query --database mydb \
  "SELECT queue, success_rate, messages_processed, messages_failed
   FROM amqp_stats
   WHERE time > now() - INTERVAL '1 hour'
   ORDER BY time DESC"

Error Handling

Parse errors and message processing failures are logged to the amqp_exceptions table:

amqp_exceptions Table

Checking for Errors

influxdb3 query --database mydb \
  "SELECT * FROM amqp_exceptions ORDER BY time DESC LIMIT 10"

Troubleshooting

Check Plugin Logs

influxdb3 query --database _internal \
  "SELECT * FROM system.processing_engine_logs
   WHERE trigger_name = 'amqp_ingestion'
   ORDER BY time DESC LIMIT 20"

Common Issues

“pika library not installed”

influxdb3 install package pika

“Configuration file not found”

• For relative paths, ensure PLUGIN_DIR environment variable is set
• For absolute paths, verify the file exists at the specified location

# For relative paths
export PLUGIN_DIR=~/.plugins
ls $PLUGIN_DIR/my_amqp_config.toml

# Or use absolute path
ls /etc/amqp/my_amqp_config.toml

“Failed to connect to AMQP broker”

• Verify broker address and port
• Check network connectivity
• For TLS connections, verify certificate paths
• Verify authentication credentials
• Verify auth_mechanism matches the broker configuration (plain requires username/password; external requires client certificates)

“Both ssl_client_cert and ssl_client_key must be provided for mutual TLS”

For mutual TLS authentication, both client certificate and key are required.

“No fields were mapped from JSON data”

• Verify JSONPath expressions in field mappings (use $. prefix)
• Check that JSON structure matches your paths
• Review amqp_exceptions table for detailed errors

Messages not being processed

• Check trigger status: influxdb3 show summary --database mydb
• Verify AMQP connection in plugin logs
• Ensure the queue exists and has messages
• Check that the queue name is correct

Failed messages are being discarded

By default, failed messages are rejected without requeue (requeue_on_failure=false):

• Set requeue_on_failure=true to return failed messages to the queue for retry
• Use ack_policy=always to acknowledge all messages regardless of errors
• Check amqp_exceptions table to diagnose parsing issues
• Configure a dead-letter queue in RabbitMQ to capture rejected messages for analysis

Architecture

How It Works

1. Scheduled Trigger: Plugin runs on schedule (for example, every:10s)
2. Configuration Caching: Plugin configuration is parsed once and cached between executions
3. Message Retrieval: Plugin connects, retrieves up to max_messages from queue using basic_get
4. Parse & Write: Messages parsed according to format and written to InfluxDB
5. Acknowledgement: Messages acknowledged based on ack_policy setting
6. Error Tracking: Parse errors logged to amqp_exceptions table
7. Statistics: Written to amqp_stats table on every plugin invocation
8. Disconnect: Connection closed after processing

Performance Optimization

The plugin includes several optimizations for high-throughput scenarios:

• Configuration Caching: Plugin configuration is parsed once and reused across all trigger executions
• Pre-compiled Patterns: JSONPath expressions and regex patterns are compiled once during parser initialization, not per-message
• Batch Retrieval: Multiple messages retrieved in a single connection session
• QoS Control: Prefetch count limits memory usage on consumer side

Report an issue

For plugin issues, see the Plugins repository issues page.

Find support for InfluxDB 3 Enterprise

The InfluxDB Discord server is the best place to find support for InfluxDB 3 Core and InfluxDB 3 Enterprise. For other InfluxDB versions, see the Support and feedback options.