Overview
The Cumulocity Team are excited to introduce you to Cumulocity’s brand new MQTT Service as a public preview – a powerful addition to our IoT platform that’s going to make device integration simpler, more flexible, and more scalable.
In this article we will give an overview what it is about & what you can expect.
If you are interested in more information check out the latest video:
What it is about?
Why a new MQTT Service I hear you ask? The current MQTT endpoint was designed and implemented quite some time ago and since that time we have seen the number of devices per tenant connecting to Cumulocity explode from 100s, perhaps 1000s, to millions. The types of devices have become more complex and diverse, so we want to remove the requirement to have the payload in the Cumulocity canonical format. Supporting MQTT v5 is something we want to include as well as removing the strict topic structure.
Welcome to the new MQTT Service Public Preview which addresses all these concerns, with:
- Complete payload flexibility. The new service allows sending and receiving arbitrary payloads on any MQTT topic. Your devices can speak their native language.
- Customizable message processing. Using microservices that you control, you can map between device-specific payloads and Cumulocity’s APIs. This gives you unprecedented flexibility in handling device data and commands.
- Automatic tenant isolation in line with the rest of the Cumulocity platform
- Enterprise-grade security with bi-directional TLS. All traffic is encrypted, and devices can authenticate using X.509 certificates, ensuring your IoT data remains secure and trusted.
The MQTT Service public preview does not replace our existing MQTT endpoint, it will run alongside it, giving you more flexibility and simpler integration paths for devices that don’t natively speak Cumulocity’s language. Whether you’re a solution provider managing complex multi-tenant deployments, an enterprise integrating legacy equipment, or an OEM looking to connect your devices to the cloud, the MQTT Service provides a powerful new tool in your IoT toolkit.
Messaging Service Monitoring
In tandem with the MQTT Service we are also introducing the Messaging Service Monitoring and Management user interface, as a public preview.
This new feature of the Administration App allows you to manage the topics and consumers, enabling you to take action if a topic starts to build up messages; for instance if a consumer is unable to keep up with the publishing rate. We recommend that you enable this capability at the same time you start your MQTT Service PoC.
Try it out!
If you are interested in trying it, just check if your tenant if it is already subscribed to the MQTT Service as Jane describes in the above video, or follow the information below.
The MQTT Service is available on all Cumulocity SaaS instances, go to the Admin App under the menu item Ecosystem
→ Microservices
and look for Messaging-management and mqtt-service. If your tenant is not subscribed raise a ticket with Global Support. To enable the Monitoring and Management user interface, whilst in the Admin App, select your user profile, top right, you will see a new section in the drop down called Preview features, select ‘Manage preview features’ and then set on the Messaging service-monitoring & management. Now you are good to go.
Note: Please be aware that as a public preview both the MQTT Service and the Monitoring and Management may be altered prior to GA which may introduce breaking changes.