MQTT Broker

An MQTT broker is a server that receives all client messages and then routes the messages to the appropriate destination clients. An MQTT client is any device (from a microcontroller up to a fully-fledged server) that runs an MQTT library and connects to an MQTT broker over a network.

An open-source MQTT broker, LEAPS Mosquitto is a copy of docker image eclipse-mosquitto:1.5.11 with integrated custom mosquitto.conf file located in /mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf. For additional information, please see eclipse-mosquitto

Installation

System requirements

Note

Docker’s system requirements vary based on the operating system.

  • For Linux, you need a 64-bit architecture, compatible kernel version, and specific kernel features.

  • On Windows, use Docker Desktop on Windows 10 with virtualization enabled

  • On macOS, use Docker Desktop with macOS 10.13 or newer. In terms of hardware, a minimum of 2GB RAM is recommended, along with sufficient CPU and disk space.

Refer to Docker official documentation for up-to-date details.

Instructions

  1. Install Docker on your PC

Install Docker Desktop on Linux

Additionally, you can refer to the following commands to install:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh ./get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Install Docker Desktop on Windows

Install Docker Desktop on Mac

  1. Open a command prompt or terminal window on your PC, then install the LEAPS Mosquitto Docker packages, run:

docker run -d -p 1883:1883/tcp -p 15675:15675 --name some_name leapslabs/leaps_mosquitto:latest mosquitto ---cfg /mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf

where some_name is the name you want to assign to your container and tag is the tag specifying the leaps-mosquitto version you want.

  • Recommended run options

    • --user $(id -u):$(id -g) Run the instance under a specific user and group.

    • --restart unless-stopped Restart the instance automatically in case the server crashes.

  1. The LEAPS Mosquitto installation process will begin.

For example, on Ubuntu (Linux):

docker run -d -p 1883:1883/tcp -p 15675:15675 --name leaps_mosquitto leapslabs/leaps_mosquitto:latest mosquitto ---cfg /mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf

Unable to find image 'leapslabs/leaps_mosquitto:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from leapslabs/leaps_mosquitto
f7dab3ab2d6e: Already exists
2a0a6c9fa787: Already exists
a211eff771d6: Already exists
d362e2a9c11b: Already exists
Digest: sha256:a97752d6e2d81e2701c7cd5f807eb4256322983f8aa3135da8235b647e6a9b4e
Status: Downloaded newer image for leapslabs/leaps_mosquitto:latest
1f526e755ad9a356c439003b93c200802628ae9bc046827e7327d0334804b565

  1. Verify that the installation is successful, run:

For example, on Ubuntu (Linux):

docker ps

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                      COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS                          PORTS     NAMES
b1145b72db35   leapslabs/leaps_mosquitto:latest  "sh -c 'cd /app &&  …"   37 seconds ago   11 seconds ago                            leaps_mosquitto

So, you have successfully installed and started LEAPS Mosquitto on your PC.

Getting started

LEAPS Mosquitto Docker

  • Start LEAPS Mosquitto, run: docker start leaps_mosquitto

  • Stop LEAPS Mosquitto, run: docker stop leaps_mosquitto

  • Restart LEAPS Mosquitto, run: docker restart leaps_mosquitto

  • Remove LEAPS Mosquitto, run docker rm --force leaps_mosquitto

Customized options

Mandatory options

  • port 1883 - default listener port

  • listener 1884 enabling listener at 1884

  • listener 15675 enabling listener at 15675

Recommended options

  • user mosquitto - Drop root priviledges

  • max_inflight_messages 200 - increase infighting QoS messages per client as few QoS1 could be sent at once.

  • max_queued_messages 1000 - increase the maximum number of QoS 1 and 2 messages to hold in a queue per client above those currently in-flight.

  • allow_zero_length_clientid true - allow client ID to be zero lenghth

  • persistent_client_expiration 14d - Auto protection from poorly designed clients

Troubleshooting

  • Use the following command docker restart leaps_mosquitto to restart LEAPS Mosquitto.

  • Check the logs when the LEAPS Mosquitto is running, open the docker desktop, and select the leaps_mosquitto container.