HiveMQ Community Edition - Secure MQTT Broker

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for cloudimg support services.

## HiveMQ Community Edition - Secure MQTT Broker

HiveMQ Community Edition is an open-source MQTT broker built for internet-of-things and machine-to-machine messaging. This image delivers it pre-installed, pre-secured, and production-ready - authenticated and accepting clients within minutes of launch with zero manual configuration.

## Why This Image Exists

Upstream HiveMQ Community Edition ships with authentication disabled, meaning any broker exposed to a network accepts anonymous clients. This image changes that posture entirely. It installs the vendor's own file-based access control extension, configures hashed-password mode, and ships with no user file. The broker physically cannot start until first boot generates a unique administrator credential for your instance. Anonymous and wrong-password connections are both rejected from the moment the service comes online.

## Full MQTT Protocol Coverage

Publish and subscribe across MQTT 3.1, 3.1.1, and 5.0 on a single broker with:

• Quality of Service 0, 1, and 2 delivery guarantees
• Retained messages so new subscribers receive the latest value immediately
• Last Will and Testament for detecting client disconnects
• Persistent sessions for intermittently connected devices
• Shared subscriptions for load-balancing consumers across a group

## Ready to Use on AWS

The broker is fully installed on a headless Java runtime, managed by systemd, and configured to listen on port 1883. Launch an EC2 instance, retrieve the generated password over SSH, and connect your first MQTT client - no unpacking, no configuration authoring, and no extension wiring required. This is a headless broker administered over SSH and its configuration files; there is no web console.

Deployment Notes

• Deploy on any standard EC2 instance type; an m5.large (1.5 GB heap) is a comfortable default for moderate workloads
• Place the broker inside an Amazon VPC with security groups restricting port 22 (SSH) and port 1883 (MQTT) to trusted networks
• Any standards-compliant MQTT client library connects, including Eclipse Paho and MQTT.js, for cross-platform device compatibility

## Use Cases

• IoT telemetry ingestion - thousands of intermittently connected devices publishing sensor readings to a single authenticated broker
• Industrial and building automation - a broker sitting close to equipment inside your VPC rather than in a third-party cloud
• Development, test, and staging environments - authenticated message infrastructure from first boot rather than secured later
• Edge gateway messaging - a lightweight broker deployed at the edge for local publish and subscribe before forwarding upstream

## Extending the Broker

The broker is plain upstream software with the standard extension directory. You can add further extensions, configure a TLS listener alongside the plaintext one, or add more users to the access control file. The paired deployment guide walks through adding TLS with your own certificate, designing topic hierarchies, and onboarding devices at scale.

## Free Guided Setup Session

Every customer can request a free guided setup session with the cloudimg team. We walk you through adding TLS, designing your topic hierarchy, onboarding devices, and tuning for your workload. Contact us by email or live chat to book your session.

## cloudimg Support - 24/7

24-by-7 technical support by email and live chat covering deployment, TLS configuration, access control, client connectivity, topic design, and sizing guidance.

HiveMQ Community Edition is distributed under the Apache License 2.0. All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.