HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension

Data lakes are centralized repositories that allow organizations to store vast amounts of raw and processed data in its native format. This type of storage system can handle large volumes of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. The flexibility to store such a wide range of data types is a key feature of data lakes. Unlike traditional relational databases and data warehouses that typically require data to be structured and processed before storage, data lakes let you store data without extensive pre-processing or data transformation.

The HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension makes it possible to forward MQTT messages directly to your data lake without the need for additional infrastructure.

Features

Convert MQTT messages into Parquet table rows with column mappings.
Forward MQTT messages from IoT devices to one or more Amazon S3 buckets via your HiveMQ broker.
Forward MQTT messages from IoT devices to one or more Azure Blob Storage containers via your HiveMQ broker.

The HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension does not offer message delivery guarantees. MQTT data transferred to the data lake is sent with the equivalent of a QoS 0 guarantee. In the event of network or disk failure, data being transferred may be lost.

Requirements

A running HiveMQ Professional or Enterprise Edition installation, version 4.23 or higher.
An active Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure account.
For production use, a valid HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension license.

If you do not provide a valid license, HiveMQ automatically uses a free trial license. Trial licenses for HiveMQ Enterprise Extensions are valid for 5 hours. For more license information or to request an extended evaluation license, contact HiveMQ sales.

Installation

Place your HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension license file (.elic) in the license folder of your HiveMQ installation. (Skip this step if you are using a trial version of the extension).

└─ <HiveMQ folder>
    ├─ bin
    ├─ conf
    ├─ data
    ├─ extensions
    │   ├─ hivemq-data-lake-extension
    │   └─ ...
    ├─ license
    ├─ log
    └─ ...

Before you enable the extension, you need to configure the extension to match your individual data lake setup.
For your convenience, we provide an example configuration conf/examples/config.xml that you can copy and modify as desired.
The included config.xsd file outlines the schema and elements that can be used in the XML configuration.
Your completed configuration file must be named config.xml and located in HIVEMQ_HOME/extensions/hivemq-data-lake-extension/conf/config.xml.
For detailed information on configuration options, see Configuration.
To enable the HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension, locate the hivemq-data-lake-extension folder in the extensions directory of your HiveMQ installation and remove the DISABLED file (if present).

To function properly, the HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension must be installed on all HiveMQ broker nodes in your HiveMQ cluster and the configuration file on each node must be identical.

Configuration

The extension configuration depends on the cloud provider you want to use.

Amazon S3
- AWS Credential Profiles: Provides information about the credential profiles used to interact with AWS.
- MQTT to S3 Routes: Defines how MQTT messages are sent from your HiveMQ broker to the configured Amazon S3 bucket.
Azure Blob Storage
- Azure Blob Storage Connections: Provides information about the authentication method used to interact with Azure.
- MQTT to Azure Blob Storage Routes: Defines how MQTT messages are sent from your HiveMQ broker to the configured Azure Blob Storage container.

Extension Configuration File

The config.xml file for your HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension must be located in the hivemq-data-lake-extension/conf/ folder within the extensions folder of your HiveMQ installation.

The extension uses a simple but powerful XML-based configuration.

The conf/examples/config.xml file is a configuration example that has all the parameters you need to send MQTT messages from your HiveMQ MQTT broker to your data lake.

If you copy and reuse the conf/examples/config.xml file, be sure to move the file to /conf/config.xml before you enable your extension. For more information, see Installation.

Amazon Web Services S3 configuration

Example data lake connection configuration for Amazon S3

<hivemq-data-lake-extension xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                           xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="config.xsd">

    <aws-credential-profiles>
        <aws-credential-profile>
            <id>my-aws-credential-profile-id</id>
            <profile-name>default</profile-name>
            <profile-file>~/.aws/credentials</profile-file>
        </aws-credential-profile>
    </aws-credential-profiles>

    <mqtt-to-s3-routes>
        <mqtt-to-s3-route>
            <id>my-s3-route</id>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
            <mqtt-topic-filters>
                <mqtt-topic-filter>#</mqtt-topic-filter>
            </mqtt-topic-filters>
            <aws-credential-profile-id>my-aws-credential-profile-id</aws-credential-profile-id>
            <bucket>my-bucket</bucket>
            <region>eu-central-1</region>
            <file-name-template>${VAR:DATE_ISO_8601}/${VAR:NODE_ID}-${VAR:ROUTE_ID}-${VAR:TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601}.${VAR:FILE_EXTENSION}</file-name-template>
            <processor>
                <parquet>
                    <columns>
                        <column>
                            <name>topic</name>
                            <value>mqtt-topic</value>
                        </column>
                        <column>
                            <name>payload</name>
                            <value>mqtt-payload</value>
                        </column>
                    </columns>
                </parquet>
            </processor>
        </mqtt-to-s3-route>
    </mqtt-to-s3-routes>

</hivemq-data-lake-extension>

AWS Credential Profiles

To interact with Amazon S3, your HiveMQ extension must provide AWS security credentials to verify your identity and access permissions.

When you set up your AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) security credential on the AWS management console, verify that your setup includes the required permissions for the configured routes. For more information, see Controlling Access to S3 Resources Using IAM.

Example AWS IAM policy configuration for an MQTT to S3 route:

{
	"Version": "2012-10-17",
	"Statement": [
		{
			"Sid": "mqttToS3",
			"Effect": "Allow",
			"Action": [
				"s3:PutObject"
			],
			"Resource": "*"
		}
	]
}

The AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) service helps to securely control access to Amazon S3 and other AWS resources. In the AWS management console, you can create users and assign user permissions. To access resources on AWS, you create security credentials in the AWS management console and save the credentials for use in the extension profile file. For more information, see IAM access policies.

The aws-credential-profiles section of the extension configuration defines one or more sets of security credentials for your connections to AWS. If desired, use this section to override the default AWS credential provider chain.

Example AWS credential profile configuration

<aws-credential-profiles>
    <aws-credential-profile>
        <id>my-aws-credential-profile-id</id>
        <profile-file>/opt/hivemq/extensions/hivemq-data-lake-extension/aws-credentials</profile-file>
        <profile-name>my-profile-name</profile-name>
    </aws-credential-profile>
</aws-credential-profiles>

Each <aws-credential-profile> tag contains the file path to the credentials file that stores the associated security credentials. If your credentials file holds more than one set of credentials, use the optional <profile-name> tag to specify the credentials set that you want to use.

You can define as many <aws-credential-profile> tags as your use case requires.

Table 1. AWS credential profile parameters
Parameter	Type	Description
`id`	ID	The unique identifier of the AWS credential profile. This string can only contain lowercase alphanumeric characters, dashes, and underscores.
`profile-file`	String	Optional setting that provides the path to a file that contains AWS profile credentials. If unset, information is taken from the default AWS credentials location.
`profile-name`	String	Optional setting to select a specific profile in the defined `<profile-file>` tag. If unset, the profile name `default` is used.

MQTT to S3 Routes

The <mqtt-to-s3-routes> section of your extension configuration defines how MQTT messages are sent from the HiveMQ broker to Amazon S3 buckets.

You can define as many <mqtt-to-s3-route> tags as your use case requires.

Example MQTT to S3 route

<mqtt-to-s3-route>
    <id>my-s3-route</id>
    <enabled>true</enabled>
    <mqtt-topic-filters>
        <mqtt-topic-filter>#</mqtt-topic-filter>
    </mqtt-topic-filters>
    <aws-credential-profile-id>my-aws-credential-profile-id</aws-credential-profile-id>
    <bucket>my-bucket</bucket>
    <region>eu-central-1</region>
    <file-name-template>${VAR:DATE_ISO_8601}/${VAR:NODE_ID}-${VAR:ROUTE_ID}-${VAR:TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601}.${VAR:FILE_EXTENSION}</file-name-template>
    <processor>
        <parquet>
            <columns>
                <column>
                    <name>topic</name>
                    <value>mqtt-topic</value>
                </column>
                <column>
                    <name>payload</name>
                    <value>mqtt-payload</value>
                </column>
            </columns>
        </parquet>
    </processor>
</mqtt-to-s3-route>

Table 2. S3 parameters
Parameter	Type	Description
`id`	ID	The unique identifier of the `mqtt-to-s3-route`. This string can only contain lowercase alphanumeric characters, dashes, and underscores.
`enabled`	Boolean	Optional setting that defines whether the selected `mqtt-to-s3-route` is enabled or disabled. The default setting is `true`. To disable the route, set to `false`.
`mqtt-topic-filters`	Complex	A list of one or more MQTT topic filters to apply on this route. `mqtt-topic-filter`: The topic filter to apply.
`aws-credential-profile-id`	IDREF	Optional setting that identifies the `aws-credential-profile` from your `<aws-credential-profiles>` configuration to use for the route. When unset, the default AWS credential retrieval order applies. If the default credentials are not found, the selected `<mqtt-to-s3-route>` does not start and HiveMQ logs an error message.
`bucket`	String	The name of the Amazon S3 bucket.
`region`	String	Optional setting that defines the AWS region the extension uses to access S3. When unset, the default AWS region selection logic determines the region. If the default region is not found, the selected `<mqtt-to-s3-route>` does not start and HiveMQ logs an error message.
`file-name-template`	String	Optional setting to configure the naming of the files and folders in the Amazon S3 bucket. Use forward slashes to organize files in your Amazon S3 folders. Defaults to `${VAR:DATE_ISO_8601}/${VAR:NODE_ID}-${VAR:ROUTE_ID}-${VAR:TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601}.${VAR:FILE_EXTENSION}`. You can use `${VAR:+PLACEHOLDER_NAME+}` to refer to the following placeholders: `TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601`: The instant the selected file was created in ISO 8601 format. `DATE_ISO_8601`: The date the selected file was created in ISO 8601 format. `YEAR`: The year the selected file was created as a number. `MONTH`: The month the selected file was created as a number. `DAY`: The day the selected file was created as a number. `HOUR`: The hour the selected file was created as a number. `MINUTE`: The minute the selected file was created as a number. `SECOND`: The second the selected file was created as a number. `MILLISECOND`: The millisecond the selected file was created as a number. `NODE_ID`: The identifier of the HiveMQ broker node on which the extension runs. `ROUTE_ID`: The identifier of the mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route. `FILE_EXTENSION`: The file suffix that identifies the format of the file. Currently, only `parquet` is supported.
`processor`	Complex	Defines the format HiveMQ uses to transfer MQTT messages to the Amazon S3 bucket in the selected route. `parquet`: Configures how the extension inserts rows into parquet files. For an example configuration, see Parquet processor. `columns`: A list of the columns where values are inserted. `column`: A column name and value binding. `name`: The name of the column where the value is inserted. `value`: The MQTT property to replace and bind to the selected column.

Azure Blob Storage configuration

Example data lake connection configuration for Azure Blob Storage

<hivemq-data-lake-extension xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                           xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="config.xsd">

    <azure-blob-storage-connections>
        <azure-blob-storage-connection>
            <id>my-abs-connection-id</id>
            <authentication>
                <connection-string>DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=my-account;AccountKey=my-key;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net</connection-string>
            </authentication>
        </azure-blob-storage-connection>
    </azure-blob-storage-connections>

    <mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-routes>
        <mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route>
            <id>my-abs-route</id>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
            <mqtt-topic-filters>
                <mqtt-topic-filter>#</mqtt-topic-filter>
            </mqtt-topic-filters>
            <azure-blob-storage-connection-id>my-abs-connection-id</azure-blob-storage-connection-id>
            <container>my-container</container>
            <file-name-template>${VAR:DATE_ISO_8601}/${VAR:NODE_ID}-${VAR:ROUTE_ID}-${VAR:TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601}.${VAR:FILE_EXTENSION}</file-name-template>
            <processor>
                <parquet>
                    <columns>
                        <column>
                            <name>topic</name>
                            <value>mqtt-topic</value>
                        </column>
                        <column>
                            <name>payload</name>
                            <value>mqtt-payload</value>
                        </column>
                    </columns>
                </parquet>
            </processor>
        </mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route>
    </mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-routes>

</hivemq-data-lake-extension>

Azure Blob Storage Connections

To interact with Azure Blob Storage, your HiveMQ extension must provide Azure security credentials to verify your identity and access permissions.

The azure-blob-storage-connections section of the extension configuration defines one or more sets of security credentials for your connections to Azure.

Connection String

The connection string authentication includes the required authorization information to connect to your Azure Blob Storage account using Shared Key authorization.

Example Azure Blob Storage connection configuration using connection string

<azure-blob-storage-connections>
    <azure-blob-storage-connection>
        <id>my-abs-connection-id</id>
        <authentication>
            <connection-string>DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=my-account;AccountKey=my-key;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net</connection-string>
        </authentication>
    </azure-blob-storage-connection>
</azure-blob-storage-connections>

Microsoft Entra ID

Microsoft Entra ID enables secure passwordless connections to your Azure Blob Storage account.

This feature enables several authentication methods, such as:

Environment (example: Service principal with secret)
Workload Identity (example: HiveMQ cluster running on Azure Kubernetes Service)
Managed Identity (example: HiveMQ cluster running on virtual machines in Azure)

Regardless of the method, permission to Azure Blob Storage must be granted on Azure. The way you obtain the permission varies based on the Azure service on which your HiveMQ cluster runs. For more information, see passwordless connections with Azure Blob Storage on your Azure hosting environment.

To learn more about this feature and all authentication methods Azure supports, see DefaultAzureCredential in the official Azure documentation.

Example Azure Blob Storage connection configuration using Microsoft Entra ID

<azure-blob-storage-connections>
    <azure-blob-storage-connection>
        <id>my-abs-connection-id</id>
        <azure-blob-storage-endpoint>https://my-storage-account.blob.core.windows.net</azure-blob-storage-endpoint>
        <authentication>
            <microsoft-entra-id/>
        </authentication>
    </azure-blob-storage-connection>
</azure-blob-storage-connections>

You can define as many <azure-blob-storage-connection> tags as your use case requires.

Table 3. Azure Blob Storage connection parameters
Parameter	Type	Description
`id`	ID	The unique identifier of the Azure Blob Storage connection. This string can only contain lowercase alphanumeric characters, dashes, and underscores.
`azure-blob-storage-endpoint`	String	Defines the Azure Blob Storage endpoint to which the extension connects. The endpoint setting is required for `microsoft-entra-id` authentication and optional for `connection-string` authentication. The standard endpoint format is `https://<my-storage-account>.blob.core.windows.net`. You can usually find this endpoint via the Azure portal on Storage Account > Settings > Endpoints > Blob service.
`authentication`	Complex	Defines the authentication mechanism to use to connect to Azure Blob Storage. `connection-string`: Uses an Azure Blob Storage-provided connection string to authenticate. `microsoft-entra-id`: Uses Microsoft Entra ID to authenticate.

MQTT to Azure Blob Storage Routes

The <mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-routes> section of your extension configuration defines how MQTT messages are sent from the HiveMQ broker to Azure Blob Storage containers.

You can define as many <mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route> tags as your use case requires.

Example MQTT to Azure Blob Storage route

<mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-routes>
    <mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route>
        <id>my-abs-route</id>
        <enabled>true</enabled>
        <mqtt-topic-filters>
            <mqtt-topic-filter>#</mqtt-topic-filter>
        </mqtt-topic-filters>
        <azure-blob-storage-connection-id>my-abs-connection-id</azure-blob-storage-connection-id>
        <container>my-container</container>
        <file-name-template>${VAR:DATE_ISO_8601}/${VAR:NODE_ID}-${VAR:ROUTE_ID}-${VAR:TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601}.${VAR:FILE_EXTENSION}</file-name-template>
        <processor>
            <parquet>
                <columns>
                    <column>
                        <name>topic</name>
                        <value>mqtt-topic</value>
                    </column>
                    <column>
                        <name>payload</name>
                        <value>mqtt-payload</value>
                    </column>
                </columns>
            </parquet>
        </processor>
    </mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route>
</mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-routes>

Table 4. Azure Blob Storage parameters
Parameter	Type	Description
`id`	ID	The unique identifier of the `mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route`. This string can only contain lowercase alphanumeric characters, dashes, and underscores.
`enabled`	Boolean	Optional setting that defines whether the selected `mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route` is enabled or disabled. The default setting is `true`. To disable the route, set to `false`.
`mqtt-topic-filters`	Complex	A list of one or more MQTT topic filters to apply on this route. `mqtt-topic-filter`: The topic filter to apply.
`azure-blob-storage-connection-id`	IDREF	Identifies the `azure-blob-storage-connection` from your `<azure-blob-storage-connections>` configuration to use for the route.
`container`	String	The name of the Azure Blob Storage container.
`file-name-template`	String	Optional setting to configure the naming of the files and folders in the Azure Blob Storage container. Use forward slashes to organize files in your Azure Blob Storage virtual directories. Defaults to `${VAR:DATE_ISO_8601}/${VAR:NODE_ID}-${VAR:ROUTE_ID}-${VAR:TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601}.${VAR:FILE_EXTENSION}`. You can use `${VAR:+PLACEHOLDER_NAME+}` to refer to the following placeholders: `TIMESTAMP_ISO_8601`: The instant the selected file was created in ISO 8601 format. `DATE_ISO_8601`: The date the selected file was created in ISO 8601 format. `YEAR`: The year the selected file was created as a number. `MONTH`: The month the selected file was created as a number. `DAY`: The day the selected file was created as a number. `HOUR`: The hour the selected file was created as a number. `MINUTE`: The minute the selected file was created as a number. `SECOND`: The second the selected file was created as a number. `MILLISECOND`: The millisecond the selected file was created as a number. `NODE_ID`: The identifier of the HiveMQ broker node on which the extension runs. `ROUTE_ID`: The identifier of the mqtt-to-azure-blob-storage-route. `FILE_EXTENSION`: The file suffix that identifies the format of the file. Currently, only `parquet` is supported.
`processor`	Complex	Defines the format HiveMQ uses to transfer MQTT messages to the Azure Blob Storage container in the selected route. `parquet`: Configures how the extension inserts rows into parquet files. For an example configuration, see Parquet processor. `columns`: A list of the columns where values are inserted. `column`: A column name and value binding. `name`: The name of the column where the value is inserted. `value`: The MQTT property to replace and bind to the selected column.

Parquet processor

The Parquet processor helps you convert MQTT messages into Parquet rows. The extension binds the configured values with the respective MQTT PUBLISH properties.

Example parquet configuration

<processor>
    <parquet>
        <columns>
            <column>
                <name>topic</name>
                <value>mqtt-topic</value>
            </column>
            <column>
                <name>payload</name>
                <value>mqtt-payload</value>
            </column>
        </columns>
    </parquet>
</processor>

The following table lists all values the extension recognizes:

Table 5. Available values
Name	Type	Logical Type	Description
`mqtt-topic`	BYTE_ARRAY	STRING	The topic of the MQTT PUBLISH.
`mqtt-payload`	BYTE_ARRAY		The payload of the MQTT PUBLISH as raw binary data.
`mqtt-payload-utf8`	BYTE_ARRAY	STRING	The payload of the MQTT PUBLISH as a UTF-8 string.
`mqtt-retain`	BOOLEAN		The retain flag of the MQTT PUBLISH.
`mqtt-packet-id`	INT32		The packet ID of the MQTT PUBLISH.
`mqtt-payload-format-indicator`	BYTE_ARRAY	STRING	The payload format indicator of the MQTT PUBLISH.
`mqtt-response-topic`	BYTE_ARRAY	STRING	The response topic of the MQTT PUBLISH.
`mqtt-correlation-data`	BYTE_ARRAY		The correlation data of the MQTT PUBLISH as raw binary data.
`mqtt-correlation-data-utf8`	BYTE_ARRAY	STRING	The correlation data of the MQTT PUBLISH as a UTF-8 string.
`timestamp`	INT_64	TIMESTAMP(isAdjustedToUTC=false, unit=MILLIS)	The arrival timestamp of the PUBLISH message represented as a UNIX timestamp value in milliseconds. The timestamp of an incoming PUBLISH message records the moment the message arrived at the broker. The timestamp of a message created via the Extension SDK records the moment the message passed to the PublishService. The timestamp of a Will Publish message sent to subscribers records the moment the delivery of the message started.

Some properties in an MQTT PUBLISH message are optional. The number of values the Data Lake extension binds varies based on the properties that are present in the MQTT PUBLISH message.

Environment variables

HiveMQ offers placeholders that can be replaced with the content of environment variables when the configuration file is read. For many use cases, it can be beneficial or necessary to use environment variables to configure items such as ports and bind addresses on the system on which you run HiveMQ. For example, when you run HiveMQ in a containerized environment.

You can use ${ENV:+YOUR_ENVVAR_NAME+} in the config.xml file. HiveMQ replaces the placeholder with the value of the specified environment variable during startup.

Example to set an environment variable

export MY_PROFILE_FILE="/path/to/profile/file"

Example use of the environment variable in the configuration

<hivemq-data-lake-extension>

    <aws-credential-profiles>
        <aws-credential-profile>
            <id>my-aws-credential-profile-id</id>
            <profile-name>default</profile-name>
            <profile-file>${ENV:MY_PROFILE_FILE}</profile-file>
        </aws-credential-profile>
    </aws-credential-profiles>

</hivemq-data-lake-extension>

Result of the example configuration in HiveMQ

<hivemq-data-lake-extension>

    <aws-credential-profiles>
        <aws-credential-profile>
            <id>my-aws-credential-profile-id</id>
            <profile-name>default</profile-name>
            <profile-file>/path/to/profile/file</profile-file>
        </aws-credential-profile>
    </aws-credential-profiles>

</hivemq-data-lake-extension>

Make sure that HiveMQ is started in the same context as your environment variables are set, otherwise, HiveMQ will not be able to access them.