Azure Service Bus Queue - how to limit consumption rate to 1 message per minute per consumer instance?

Azure Service Bus does not natively provide a configuration to limit the message consumption rate on a per-consumer-instance basis. You might be able though to accomplish your objective by using one of the following alternatives:

1. Throttling at the Consumer Level Each consumer instance can implement logic to limit the rate of processing. Here’s how:

• Use ReceiveAndDelete or PeekLock Mode:
  • In PeekLock mode, you receive a message and process it within the lock duration.
  • In ReceiveAndDelete mode, you remove the message immediately upon receiving.
• Introduce a Delay:
  • Add a delay between processing messages in your consumer code. For example, after processing a message, wait for 1 minute before fetching the next one.
  • For example (C# with .NET SDK):

        while (true)
        {
            var message = await queueClient.ReceiveAsync(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
            if (message != null)
            {
                // Process the message
                await ProcessMessageAsync(message);
    
                // Complete the message
                await queueClient.CompleteAsync(message.SystemProperties.LockToken);
    
                // Wait 1 minute before processing the next
                await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1));
            }
        }
    

2. Using a Custom Message Processing Scheduler Deploy an intermediary system (like an Azure Function or a custom service) that pulls messages from the Service Bus Queue and pushes them into a rate-limited queue. The consumers then process messages from the rate-limited queue.

• Steps:
  1. Use an Azure Function or a service that pulls messages from the Service Bus Queue.
  2. Implement rate-limiting logic in this intermediary system.
  3. Use a lightweight message broker (like Redis or an in-memory queue) for the consumers to pull from.

3. Alternative with Azure Logic Apps If you prefer a low-code/no-code solution:

• Use Azure Logic Apps to:
  • Pull messages from the Service Bus Queue.
  • Enforce a delay (using a time interval) before forwarding messages to consumers.

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hth

Marcin