Dead-letter queue
On this page
The Dead-letter queue sensor connects to a RabbitMQ broker from a private agent and counts the messages waiting in a queue. Use it on dead-letter queues: messages that could not be processed pile up there silently, and nobody notices until a customer complains.
In the wizard: Message queue. Requires an Enterprise plan and an Advanced private agent.
Settings#
Broker connection
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Secret | The RabbitMQ connection string, stored as a RabbitMQ secret. |
| Timeout | Time allowed for the connection. |
| Check type | Connect: only open a connection. Dead letter queue: also count the messages in a queue. |
| Queue name | The queue to watch, for example orders.failed. |
| Max messages | The highest acceptable number of messages. |
When is it healthy?#
When the connection opens and the queue holds Max messages or fewer. The message count is recorded and charted.
Example#
Orders — Failed messages: queue orders.failed, max 20. A payment provider outage sends hundreds of orders to the queue: the incident opens as soon as the count passes 20.