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MQTT3

Detailed documentation on the MQTT3 pubsub component

Component format

To set up a MQTT3 pub/sub, create a component of type pubsub.mqtt3. See the pub/sub broker component file to learn how ConsumerID is automatically generated. Read the How-to: Publish and Subscribe guide on how to create and apply a pub/sub configuration.

apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: mqtt-pubsub
spec:
  type: pubsub.mqtt3
  version: v1
  metadata:
    - name: url
      value: "tcp://[username][:password]@host.domain[:port]"
    # Optional
    - name: retain
      value: "false"
    - name: cleanSession
      value: "false"
    - name: qos
      value: "1"
    - name: consumerID
      value: "channel1"

Spec metadata fields

Field Required Details Example
url Y Address of the MQTT broker. Can be secretKeyRef to use a secret reference.
Use the tcp:// URI scheme for non-TLS communication.
Use the ssl:// URI scheme for TLS communication.
"tcp://[username][:password]@host.domain[:port]"
consumerID N The client ID used to connect to the MQTT broker. Defaults to the Dapr app ID. "myMqttClientApp"
retain N Defines whether the message is saved by the broker as the last known good value for a specified topic. Defaults to "false". "true", "false"
cleanSession N Sets the clean_session flag in the connection message to the MQTT broker if "true" (more info). Defaults to "false". "true", "false"
caCert Required for using TLS Certificate Authority (CA) certificate in PEM format for verifying server TLS certificates. See example below
clientCert Required for using TLS TLS client certificate in PEM format. Must be used with clientKey. See example below
clientKey Required for using TLS TLS client key in PEM format. Must be used with clientCert. Can be secretKeyRef to use a secret reference. See example below
qos N Indicates the Quality of Service Level (QoS) of the message (more info). Defaults to 1. 0, 1, 2

Communication using TLS

To configure communication using TLS, ensure that the MQTT broker (for example, emqx) is configured to support certificates and provide the caCert, clientCert, clientKey metadata in the component configuration. For example:

apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: mqtt-pubsub
spec:
  type: pubsub.mqtt3
  version: v1
  metadata:
    - name: url
      value: "ssl://host.domain[:port]"
  # TLS configuration
    - name: caCert
      value: |
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        ...
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----        
    - name: clientCert
      value: |
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        ...
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----        
    - name: clientKey
      secretKeyRef:
        name: myMqttClientKey
        key: myMqttClientKey
    # Optional
    - name: retain
      value: "false"
    - name: cleanSession
      value: "false"
    - name: qos
      value: 1

Note that while the caCert and clientCert values may not be secrets, they can be referenced from a Dapr secret store as well for convenience.

Consuming a shared topic

When consuming a shared topic, each consumer must have a unique identifier. By default, the application ID is used to uniquely identify each consumer and publisher. In self-hosted mode, invoking each dapr run with a different application ID is sufficient to have them consume from the same shared topic. However, on Kubernetes, multiple instances of an application pod will share the same application ID, prohibiting all instances from consuming the same topic. To overcome this, configure the component’s consumerID metadata with a {uuid} tag (which will give each instance a randomly generated value on start up) or {podName} (which will use the Pod’s name on Kubernetes). For example:

apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: mqtt-pubsub
spec:
  type: pubsub.mqtt3
  version: v1
  metadata:
    - name: consumerID
      value: "{uuid}"
    - name: cleanSession
      value: "true"
    - name: url
      value: "tcp://admin:public@localhost:1883"
    - name: qos
      value: 1
    - name: retain
      value: "false"

Note that in the case, the value of the consumer ID is random every time Dapr restarts, so you should set cleanSession to true as well.

It is recommended to use StatefulSets with shared subscriptions.

Create a MQTT3 broker


You can run a MQTT broker like emqx locally using Docker:

docker run -d -p 1883:1883 --name mqtt emqx:latest

You can then interact with the server using the client port: tcp://localhost:1883


You can run a MQTT3 broker in kubernetes using following yaml:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: mqtt-broker
  labels:
    app-name: mqtt-broker
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app-name: mqtt-broker
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app-name: mqtt-broker
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: mqtt
          image: emqx:latest
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          ports:
            - name: default
              containerPort: 1883
              protocol: TCP
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: mqtt-broker
  labels:
    app-name: mqtt-broker
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  selector:
    app-name: mqtt-broker
  ports:
    - port: 1883
      targetPort: default
      name: default
      protocol: TCP

You can then interact with the server using the client port: tcp://mqtt-broker.default.svc.cluster.local:1883


Last modified June 14, 2023: updates per mark (fa1cfd5a)