Dockerfile to build a ActiveMQ container image

Based on bellsoft/liberica-openjdk-alpine:25, as lightweight as possible and multi-architecture (including Apple Silicon / ARM64).

Published on the Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/symptoma/activemq

Usage

docker run -it -p 61616:61616 -p 8161:8161 symptoma/activemq:latest

Bind more ports if you need to.

Example with environment variables:

docker run -it \
-p 61616:61616 \
-p 8161:8161 \
-e ACTIVEMQ_USERNAME=myactivemquser \
-e ACTIVEMQ_PASSWORD=myactivemquserpass \
-e ACTIVEMQ_WEBADMIN_USERNAME=roos \
-e ACTIVEMQ_WEBADMIN_PASSWORD=TestTest \
symptoma/activemq:latest

ActiveMQ version

Current version of ActiveMQ is 6.3.2: https://activemq.apache.org/components/classic/download/classic-06-03-02

ActiveMQ 6 uses Java 17 or later and a modular Jetty 12 configuration. This image uses Java 25, the Java version recommended by ActiveMQ when virtual threads are available.

Settings

You can define the following environment variables to control the behavior.

Environment Variable	Default	Description
ACTIVEMQ_USERNAME	unset	Enables broker JAAS authentication when set together with ACTIVEMQ_PASSWORD
ACTIVEMQ_PASSWORD	unset	Password for ACTIVEMQ_USERNAME
ACTIVEMQ_WEBADMIN_USERNAME	admin	Web Console administrator in the shared JAAS user store
ACTIVEMQ_WEBADMIN_PASSWORD	admin	Web Console administrator password
ACTIVEMQ_WEBCONSOLE_USE_DEFAULT_ADDRESS	false	Preserve the upstream Jetty bind address and loopback-only IP filter when true; otherwise listen on container interfaces and allow private container networks
ACTIVEMQ_ADMIN_CONTEXTPATH	/admin	Web Console context path
ACTIVEMQ_API_CONTEXTPATH	/api	Jolokia API context path
ACTIVEMQ_ENABLE_SCHEDULER	false	Enable the scheduler by setting schedulerSupport to true in activemq.xml

Broker authentication is disabled unless both broker credential variables are set. ActiveMQ 6 uses the same JAAS property files for broker and Web Console authentication. Broker and Web Console users may be different; if the same username is used for both, its passwords must also match.

Exposed Ports

The following ports are exposed and can be bound:

Port	Description
1883	MQTT
5672	AMPQ
8161	WebConsole
61613	STOMP
61614	WS
61616	OpenWire

Build

./build.sh

Publish

First, commit your change to Git.

git commit -m "Update ActiveMQ to 6.3.2"

Then tag it.

git tag -a v6.3.2 -m 'Release 6.3.2'

Then push it to Github.

git push && git push origin --tags

Publishing manually works like this (after docker login):

docker tag <image> symptoma/activemq:6.3.2
docker push symptoma/activemq

Multi Architecture Docker Build

Prepare the buildx context and use it:

• BUILDER_NAME=$(docker buildx create) && docker buildx use $BUILDER_NAME

Then build for multiple platforms:

• docker buildx build --push --platform linux/arm64,linux/amd64 --tag symptoma/activemq:6.3.2 .
• docker buildx build --push --platform linux/arm64,linux/amd64 --tag symptoma/activemq:latest .