supermq/docker/supermq-docker

Docker Composition

Configure environment variables and run SuperMQ Docker Composition.

*Note**: docker-compose uses .env file to set all environment variables. Ensure that you run the command from the same location as .env file.

Installation

Follow the official Docker Compose installation guide to install Docker Compose.

Usage

Run the following commands from the project root directory.

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yaml up

To start additional addon services:

docker compose -f docker/addons/<path>/docker-compose.yaml up

To pull docker images from a specific release you need to change the value of SMQ_RELEASE_TAG in .env before running these commands.

Broker Configuration

SuperMQ supports configurable MQTT broker and Message broker, which also acts as an events store. SuperMQ uses two types of brokers:

1. MQTT_BROKER: Handles MQTT communication between MQTT adapters and message broker. This can either be RabbitMQ or NATS.
2. MESSAGE_BROKER: Manages message exchange between SuperMQ core, optional, and external services. This can either be NATS or RabbitMQ. This is used to store messages for distributed processing.

Events store: This is used by SuperMQ services to store events for distributed processing. SuperMQ uses a single service to be the message broker and events store. This can either be NATS or RabbitMQ. Redis can also be used as an events store, but it requires a message broker to be deployed along with it for message exchange.

Supported Combinations

This is the same as MESSAGE_BROKER. This can either be NATS or RabbitMQ or Redis. If Redis is used as an events store, then RabbitMQ or NATS is used as a message broker.

The current deployment strategy for SuperMQ in docker/docker-compose.yaml is to use RabbitMQ as a MQTT_BROKER and NATS as a MESSAGE_BROKER and EVENTS_STORE.

Depending on the desired setup, the following broker configurations are valid:

• MQTT_BROKER: RabbitMQ, MESSAGE_BROKER: NATS, EVENTS_STORE: NATS
• MQTT_BROKER: RabbitMQ, MESSAGE_BROKER: NATS, EVENTS_STORE: Redis
• MQTT_BROKER: RabbitMQ, MESSAGE_BROKER: RabbitMQ, EVENTS_STORE: RabbitMQ
• MQTT_BROKER: RabbitMQ, MESSAGE_BROKER: RabbitMQ, EVENTS_STORE: Redis
• MQTT_BROKER: NATS, MESSAGE_BROKER: RabbitMQ, EVENTS_STORE: RabbitMQ
• MQTT_BROKER: NATS, MESSAGE_BROKER: RabbitMQ, EVENTS_STORE: Redis
• MQTT_BROKER: NATS, MESSAGE_BROKER: NATS, EVENTS_STORE: NATS
• MQTT_BROKER: NATS, MESSAGE_BROKER: NATS, EVENTS_STORE: Redis

For non-default brokers (e.g. RabbitMQ as message broker), adjust the environment variables appropriately and rebuild Docker images. Example:

SMQ_MESSAGE_BROKER_TYPE=msg_rabbitmq make dockers

Then in .env:

SMQ_MESSAGE_BROKER_TYPE=msg_rabbitmq
SMQ_MESSAGE_BROKER_URL=${SMQ_RABBITMQ_URL}

For Redis as an events store, you would need to run RabbitMQ or NATS as a message broker. For example, to use Redis as an events store with rabbitmq as a message broker:

SMQ_ES_TYPE=es_redis SMQ_MESSAGE_BROKER_TYPE=msg_rabbitmq make dockers

SMQ_MESSAGE_BROKER_TYPE=msg_rabbitmq
SMQ_MESSAGE_BROKER_URL=${SMQ_RABBITMQ_URL}
SMQ_ES_TYPE=es_redis
SMQ_ES_URL=${SMQ_REDIS_URL}

For MQTT broker other than RabbitMQ, you would need to change the docker/.env. For example, to use NATS as a MQTT broker:

SMQ_MQTT_BROKER_TYPE=nats
SMQ_MQTT_BROKER_HEALTH_CHECK=${SMQ_NATS_HEALTH_CHECK}
SMQ_MQTT_ADAPTER_MQTT_QOS=${SMQ_NATS_MQTT_QOS}
SMQ_MQTT_ADAPTER_MQTT_TARGET_HOST=${SMQ_MQTT_BROKER_TYPE}
SMQ_MQTT_ADAPTER_MQTT_TARGET_PORT=1883
SMQ_MQTT_ADAPTER_MQTT_TARGET_HEALTH_CHECK=${SMQ_MQTT_BROKER_HEALTH_CHECK}
SMQ_MQTT_ADAPTER_WS_TARGET_HOST=${SMQ_MQTT_BROKER_TYPE}
SMQ_MQTT_ADAPTER_WS_TARGET_PORT=8080
SMQ_MQTT_ADAPTER_WS_TARGET_PATH=${SMQ_NATS_WS_TARGET_PATH}

RabbitMQ configuration (as MQTT broker or MESSAGE_BROKER)

services:
  rabbitmq:
    image: rabbitmq:3.12.12-management-alpine
    container_name: supermq-rabbitmq
    restart: on-failure
    environment:
      RABBITMQ_ERLANG_COOKIE: ${SMQ_RABBITMQ_COOKIE}
      RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER: ${SMQ_RABBITMQ_USER}
      RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS: ${SMQ_RABBITMQ_PASS}
      RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_VHOST: ${SMQ_RABBITMQ_VHOST}
    ports:
      - ${SMQ_RABBITMQ_PORT}:${SMQ_RABBITMQ_PORT}
      - ${SMQ_RABBITMQ_HTTP_PORT}:${SMQ_RABBITMQ_HTTP_PORT}
    networks:
      - supermq-base-net

Redis configuration (as events store)

services:
  redis:
    image: redis:7.2.4-alpine
    container_name: supermq-es-redis
    restart: on-failure
    networks:
      - supermq-base-net
    volumes:
      - supermq-broker-volume:/data

Nginx Configuration

Nginx is the entry point for all traffic to SuperMQ. By using environment variables file at docker/.env you can modify the below given Nginx directive.

Environment Variable	Description
SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_NAME	SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_NAME environmental variable is used to configure nginx directive server_name. If environmental variable SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_NAME is empty then default value localhost will set to server_name.
SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_CERT	SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_CERT environmental variable is used to configure nginx directive ssl_certificate. If environmental variable SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_CERT is empty then by default server certificate in the path docker/ssl/certs/supermq-server.crt will be assigned.
SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_KEY	SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_KEY environmental variable is used to configure nginx directive ssl_certificate_key. If environmental variable SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_KEY is empty then by default server certificate key in the path docker/ssl/certs/supermq-server.key will be assigned.
SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_CLIENT_CA	SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_CLIENT_CA environmental variable is used to configure nginx directive ssl_client_certificate. If environmental variable SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_CLIENT_CA is empty then by default certificate in the path docker/ssl/certs/ca.crt will be assigned.
SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_DHPARAM	SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_DHPARAM environmental variable is used to configure nginx directive ssl_dhparam. If environmental variable SMQ_NGINX_SERVER_DHPARAM is empty then by default file in the path docker/ssl/dhparam.pem will be assigned.

Adjust these values in .env to configure TLS / SSL behavior for your deployment.

Makefile Integration

The included Makefile defines build and Docker‑build targets for all SuperMQ services. Key points:

• SERVICES: list of core services (auth, clients, channels, http, coap, mqtt, ws, etc.)

• DOCKERS, DOCKERS_DEV: build targets for production and development Docker images

• Build arguments embed version, commit hash, and build timestamp into the binary

Build all services:

make all        # builds all services
make dockers    # builds all Docker images

Start services with Docker compose:

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yaml up

To clean up:

make cleandocker

To run tests(unit tests + API tests)

make test