FAQ > Developing ActiveMQ > How do I debug ActiveMQ from my IDE
One option is to run your broker in the same JVM as your application; see How To Unit Test JMS Code.
Or you can try uncommenting ACTIVEMQ_DEBUG_OPTS in your activemq start script (bin/activemq or bin\activemq.bat) and start remote debugging in your IDE.
For IDEA, see this article http://www.javaranch.com/journal/200408/DebuggingServer-sideCode.html