Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) extension
- Latest Dynatrace
- Extension
- Published Oct 27, 2025
Observe MSMQ with end-to-end traces and metrics for producers and consumers.
With Dynatrace you can get observability for the MSMQ without touching any code thanks to auto-instrumentation.
Get started
If your MSMQ is running directly on a virtual machine, install OneAgent on that virtual machine to get started. If your MSMQ is running as a workload in Kubernetes, set up Dynatrace on Kubernetes. If your MSMQ is running as a workload in OpenShift, set up Dynatrace on OpenShift.
Activate the following OneAgent feature for MSMQ to get full tracing insight:
- .NET messaging MSMQ
Activate the MSMQ Extension to get additional metrics, a custom MSMQ dashboard, and the ability to view MSMQ instances and queues on a Unified Analysis page. Metrics include:
- Messages in Queue (MSMQ)
- Bytes in Queue (MSMQ)
Activate log monitoring to get full log insight.
Overview
Seamless end-to-end traces for connected producer and consumer services will help you to better understand the potential anomalies that may impact your mission-critical applications. Comprehensive metrics give you insights about the performance of queues.
Use cases
- End-to-end, trace connected producer and consumer services end-to-end
- Troubleshoot service problems on code-level
- Identify message processing anomalies quickly
- Monitor the performance of queues
Feature sets
When activating your extension using monitoring configuration, you can limit monitoring to one of the feature sets. To work properly the extension has to collect at least one metric after the activation.
In highly segmented networks, feature sets can reflect the segments of your environment. Then, when you create a monitoring configuration, you can select a feature set and a corresponding ActiveGate group that can connect to this particular segment.
All metrics that aren't categorized into any feature set are considered to be the default and are always reported.
A metric inherits the feature set of a subgroup, which in turn inherits the feature set of a group. Also, the feature set defined on the metric level overrides the feature set defined on the subgroup level, which in turn overrides the feature set defined on the group level.
Deprecated metrics
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|
default
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bytes in Journal Queue | msmq.MSMQQueue.BytesinJournalQueue | The total number of bytes in all Message Queuing messages that currently reside in the selected journal. For the Computer Queues instance, this counter represents the computer journal. |
| Bytes in Queue (MSMQ) | msmq.BytesInQueue | The total number of bytes in all Message Queuing messages that currently reside in the selected queue. For the Computer Queues instance, this counter represents the dead-letter queue. |
| Messages in Journal Queue | msmq.MSMQQueue.MessagesinJournalQueue | The total number of Message Queuing messages that currently reside in the selected journal. For the Computer Queues instance, this counter represents the computer journal. |
| Messages in Queue (MSMQ) | msmq.MessagesinQueue | The total number of Message Queuing messages that currently reside in the selected queue. For the Computer Queues instance, this counter represents the dead-letter queue. |
MSMQ Service
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Incoming messages per second | msmq.MSMQService.IncomingMessagesPersec | The rate at which incoming Message Queuing messages are placed in queues on the selected computer by the Message Queuing service. |
| IP sessions | msmq.MSMQService.IPSessions | The number of open IP sessions involving the selected computer. |
| MSMQ incoming messages | msmq.MSMQService.MSMQIncomingMessages | The total number of incoming Message Queuing messages placed in queues on the selected computer by the Message Queuing service. |
| MSMQ outgoing messages | msmq.MSMQService.MSMQOutgoingMessages | The total number of outgoing Message Queuing messages sent from the selected computer by the Message Queuing service. |
| Outgoing messages per second | msmq.MSMQService.OutgoingMessagesPersec | The number of open outgoing HTTP sessions involving the selected computer. |
| Sessions | msmq.MSMQService.Sessions | The total number of open network sessions involving the selected computer. |
| Total bytes in all queues | msmq.MSMQService.Totalbytesinallqueues | The total number of bytes in all Message Queuing messages residing in active queues on the selected computer. |
| Total messages in all queues | msmq.MSMQService.Totalmessagesinallqueues | The total number of Message Queuing messages residing in active queues on the selected computer. |
Message Queues