HiveMQ is a MQTT based messaging platform designed for the fast, efficient and reliable movement of data to and from connected IoT devices. It uses the MQTT protocol for instant, bi-directional push of data between your device and your enterprise systems. HiveMQ is built to address some of the key technical challenges organizations face when building new IoT applications, including:
- Building reliable and scalable business critical IoT applications
- Fast data delivery to meet the expectations of end users for responsive IoT products
- Lower cost of operation through efficient use of hardware, network and cloud resources
- Integrating IoT data into existing enterprise systems
While at its core, HiveMQ is an MQTT 3.1, MQTT 3.1.1 and MQTT 5.0 compliant MQTT broker, HiveMQ excels with its additional features designed for enterprise use cases and professional deployments.
See Features for more information.
This repository provides the Dockerfile and context for the images hosted in the HiveMQ Docker Hub repository.
The HiveMQ base image installs and optimizes the HiveMQ installation for execution as a container.
It is meant to be used to build custom images or to run a dockerized HiveMQ locally for testing purposes.
The image can then be built by running the command HIVEMQ_VERSION=4.7.3 ./build.sh in the hivemq4/base-image folder. An alternative image name can be specified with the environment variable TARGETIMAGE, example: TARGETIMAGE=myregistry/custom-hivemq:1.2.3 HIVEMQ_VERSION=4.7.3 ./build.sh
The HiveMQ DNS discovery image is based on the HiveMQ base image and adds the HiveMQ DNS Discovery Extension.
We recommend using the HiveMQ DNS discovery image to run HiveMQ in a cluster.
To build the DNS discover image, you must first obtain the HiveMQ DNS Discovery Extension, unzip the file and copy the folder to the hivemq4/dns-image folder.
The image can then be built by running docker build -t hivemq-dns . in the hivemq4/dns-image folder.
The HiveMQ Docker Hub repository provides different versions of the HiveMQ images using tags:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| latest | This tag will always point to the latest version of the HiveMQ base image |
| dns-latest | This tag will always point to the latest version of the HiveMQ DNS discovery image |
<version> |
Base image providing the given version of the broker (e.g. 4.0.0) |
dns-<version> |
DNS discovery image based on the given version base image |
To start a single HiveMQ instance and allow access to the MQTT port as well as the Control Center, get Docker and run the following command:
docker run --ulimit nofile=500000:500000 -p 8080:8080 -p 8000:8000 -p 1883:1883 hivemq/hivemq4
You can connect to the broker via MQTT (1883) or Websockets (8000) or the Control Center (8080) via the respective ports.
For running HiveMQ in a cluster, we recommend using the DNS discovery image. This image has the HiveMQ DNS Discovery Extension built in. It can be used with any container orchestration engine that supports service discovery using a round-robin A record.
A custom solution supplying the A record could be used as well.
The following environment variables can be used to customize the discovery and broker configuration respectively.
| Environment Variable | Default value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_ADDRESS | - | Address to get the A record that will be used for cluster discovery |
| HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_INTERVAL | 31 | Interval in seconds after which to search for new nodes |
| HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_TIMEOUT | 30 | How long to wait for DNS resolution to complete |
| HIVEMQ_CLUSTER_PORT | 8000 | Set the port to be used for the cluster transport |
| HIVEMQ_BIND_ADDRESS | - | Set the cluster transport bind address, only necessary if the default policy (resolve hostname) fails |
| HIVEMQ_CLUSTER_TRANSPORT_TYPE | UDP | Set the cluster transport type |
| HIVEMQ_LICENSE | - | base64 encoded license file to use for the broker |
| HIVEMQ_CONTROL_CENTER_USER | admin | Set the username for the HiveMQ Control Center login |
| HIVEMQ_CONTROL_CENTER_PASSWORD | SHA256 of hivemq (default) |
Set the password hash for HiveMQ Control Center authentication |
| HIVEMQ_ALLOW_ALL_CLIENTS | true | Whether the default packaged allow-all extension (starting from 4.3.0) should be enabled or not. If this is set to false, the extension will be deleted prior to starting the broker. This flag is inactive for all versions prior to 4.3.0. |
| HIVEMQ_REST_API_ENABLED | false | Whether the REST API (supported starting at 4.4.0) should be enabled or not. If this is set to true, the REST API will bind to 0.0.0.0 on port 8888 at startup. This flag is unused for versions prior to 4.4.0. |
| HIVEMQ_VERBOSE_ENTRYPOINT | false | Whether the entrypoint scripts should print additional debug info. |
Following are two examples, describing how to use this image on Docker Swarm and Kubernetes respectively.
Other environments are compatible as well (provided they support DNS discovery in some way).
There is a /docker-entrypoint.d directory which you can COPY custom entrypoint scripts to which will be executed before running HiveMQ.
The scripts must follow the XX_name.sh naming scheme, where XX is an integer number that will determine the ordering in which the entrypoint scripts are executed.
Depending on the executable bit within the image, they will be either executed normally, or if the executable bit is not set, they will be sourced and run in the parent shell. Sourcing allows you to set custom environment variables from an entrypoint script before startup.
To start a HiveMQ cluster locally, you can use Docker Swarm.
Note: Using Docker Swarm in production is not recommended.
- Start a single node Swarm cluster by running:
docker swarm init
- Create an overlay network for the cluster nodes to communicate on:
docker network create -d overlay --attachable myNetwork
- Create the HiveMQ service on the network
docker service create \
--replicas 3 --network myNetwork \
--env HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_ADDRESS=tasks.hivemq \
--publish target=1883,published=1883 \
--publish target=8080,published=8080 \
-p 8000:8000/udp \
--name hivemq \
hivemq/hivemq4:dns-latest
This will provide a 3 node cluster with the MQTT (1883) and HiveMQ Control Center (8080) ports forwarded to the host network.
This means you can connect MQTT clients on port 1883. The connection will be forwarded to any of the cluster nodes.
The HiveMQ HiveMQ Control Center can be used in a single node cluster. A sticky session for the HTTP requests in clusters with multiple nodes cannot be upheld with this configuration, as the internal load balancer forwards requests in an alternating fashion. To use sticky sessions the Docker Swarm Enterprise version is required.
To scale the cluster up to 5 nodes, run
docker service scale hivemq=5
To remove the cluster, run
docker service rm hivemq
To read the logs for all HiveMQ nodes in real time, use
docker service logs hivemq -f
To get the log for a single node, get the list of service containers using
docker service ps hivemq
And print the log using
docker service logs <id>
where <id> is the container ID listed in the service ps command.
NOTE: Please consider using the Kubernetes Operator instead, as it makes production deployment of HiveMQ much easier.
For production we recommend using the DNS discovery image in combination with Kubernetes.
On Kubernetes, an appropriate deployment configuration is necessary to utilize DNS discovery. A headless service will provide a DNS record for the broker that can be used for discovery.
Following is an example configuration for a HiveMQ cluster with 3 nodes using DNS discovery in a replication controller setup.
Please note that you may have to replace HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_ADDRESS according to your Kubernetes namespace and configured domain.
apiVersion: v1
kind: ReplicationController
metadata:
name: hivemq-replica
spec:
replicas: 3
selector:
app: hivemq-cluster1
template:
metadata:
name: hivemq-cluster1
labels:
app: hivemq-cluster1
spec:
containers:
- name: hivemq-pods
image: hivemq/hivemq4:dns-latest
ports:
- containerPort: 8080
protocol: TCP
name: hivemq-control-center
- containerPort: 1883
protocol: TCP
name: mqtt
env:
- name: HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_ADDRESS
value: "hivemq-discovery.default.svc.cluster.local."
- name: HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_TIMEOUT
value: "20"
- name: HIVEMQ_DNS_DISCOVERY_INTERVAL
value: "21"
- name: HIVEMQ_CLUSTER_TRANSPORT_TYPE
value: "TCP"
readinessProbe:
tcpSocket:
port: 1883
initialDelaySeconds: 30
periodSeconds: 60
failureThreshold: 60
livenessProbe:
tcpSocket:
port: 1883
initialDelaySeconds: 30
periodSeconds: 60
failureThreshold: 60
---
kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: hivemq-discovery
annotations:
service.alpha.kubernetes.io/tolerate-unready-endpoints: "true"
spec:
selector:
app: hivemq-cluster1
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 1883
targetPort: 1883
clusterIP: None
To access the HiveMQ HiveMQ Control Center for a cluster running on Kubernetes, follow these steps:
- Create a service exposing the HiveMQ Control Center of the HiveMQ service. Use the following YAML definition (as
web.yaml):
kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: hivemq-control-center
spec:
selector:
app: hivemq-cluster1
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 8080
targetPort: 8080
sessionAffinity: ClientIP
type: LoadBalancer
- Create the service using
kubectl create -f web.yaml
Note: Depending on your provider of Kubernetes environment, load balancers might not be available or additional configuration may be necessary to access the HiveMQ Control Center.
To allow access for the MQTT port of a cluster running on Kubernetes, follow these steps:
- Create a service exposing the MQTT port using a load balancer. You can use the following YAML definition (as
mqtt.yaml):
kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: hivemq-mqtt
annotations:
service.spec.externalTrafficPolicy: Local
spec:
selector:
app: hivemq-cluster1
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 1883
targetPort: 1883
type: LoadBalancer
- Create the service using
kubectl create -f mqtt.yaml
Note: The externalTrafficPolicy annotation is necessary to allow the Kubernetes service to maintain a larger amount of concurrent connections.
See Source IP for Services for more information.
The environment variable HIVEMQ_CONTROL_CENTER_PASSWORD allows you to set the password of the HiveMQ Control Center by defining a SHA256 hash for a custom password.
Additionally, you can also configure the username, using the environment variable HIVEMQ_CONTROL_CENTER_USER.
See Generate a SHA256 Password to read more about how to generate the password hash.
To use a license with a HiveMQ docker container, you must first encode it as a string.
To do so, run cat license.lic | base64 (replace license.lic with the path to your license file).
Set the resulting string as the value for the HIVEMQ_LICENSE environment variable of the container.
By default the HiveMQ docker images use the packaged hivemq-allow-all-extension.
This can be circumvented by setting the HIVEMQ_ALLOW_ALL_CLIENTS environment variable to false.
This will cause the entrypoint script to delete the extension on startup.
By default the HiveMQ DNS discovery image attempts to set the bind address using the containers ${HOSTNAME} to ensure that HiveMQ will bind the cluster connection to the correct interface so a cluster can be formed.
This behavior can be overridden by setting any value for the environment variable HIVEMQ_BIND_ADDRESS. The broker will attempt to use the given value as the bind address instead.
By default the HiveMQ DNS discovery image uses UDP as transport protocol for the cluster transport.
If you would like to use TCP as transport type instead, you can set the HIVEMQ_CLUSTER_TRANSPORT_TYPE environment variable to TCP.
Note: We generally recommend using TCP for the cluster transport, as it makes HiveMQ less susceptible to network splits under high network load.
See our documentation for more information on how to build custom HiveMQ images.
If you want to contribute to HiveMQ 4 Docker Images, see the contribution guidelines.
HiveMQ 4 Docker Images is licensed under the APACHE LICENSE, VERSION 2.0. A copy of the license can be found here.