Resolving Tableau Messaging Service (ActiveMQ) Startup Failure After Upgrading to Tableau Server 2025.3.6

After successfully upgrading our Tableau Server environment to version 2025.3.6, we encountered an issue where the Messaging Service (ActiveMQ) failed to start on two nodes in our multi-node deployment. This caused the affected nodes to remain in a degraded state, preventing the cluster from becoming fully operational

This article describes the symptoms we observed, the troubleshooting steps we performed, and the solution that successfully restored the Messaging Service.
Problem

 The log output below has been sanitized to remove environment-specific information, and repetitive log entries have been omitted for brevity.

C:\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\services\activemqserver_<version>\status.cmd

Java class name: com.tableausoftware.activemq.ActiveMQApp
Method name: main
Arguments: status
"currentDeploymentState": "NONE",
"details": {
"message": "Connect to localhost:8099 [localhost/127.0.0.1,
localhost/0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1] failed:
Connection refused: connect"
},
"name": "activemqserver_0",
"processStatus": "DOWN",
"version": "<2025.3.x>"
Exit code: 4

Resolution

1. Go to:
C:\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\services\activemqserver_<version>

2. Run:
disable.cmd

Expected (sanitized):
Connecting to JMX URL:
service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://localhost:1099/jmxrmi
INFO: Broker now available at:
service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://localhost:1099/jmxrmi
Exit code: 0

3. Rename:
C:\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\services\activemqserver_0\kahadb

To:
kahadb.old

4. Run:
enable.cmd

Expected (sanitized):
Java class name: com.tableausoftware.activemq.ActiveMQApp
Method name: main
Arguments: enable
Exit code: 0

5. Restart Tableau Server:
tsm restart

All Tableau Servers came online without any warnings or issues

The embedded ActiveMQ broker stores its persistent message data in the KahaDB directory. If the message store becomes corrupted or incompatible during an upgrade, ActiveMQ may fail to start. Renaming the KahaDB folder causes Tableau to create a fresh message store during startup.

Best Practices
- Take a Tableau backup before making changes.
- Verify all nodes become Active after restart.
- Review ActiveMQ logs if the problem persists.
- Contact Tableau Support if the issue continues.

In this case, disabling the Messaging Service, renaming the KahaDB folder, re-enabling the service, and restarting Tableau Server successfully restored the Messaging Service and returned all nodes to a healthy state.

Thanks

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