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Install MQTT and Openhab 3 in Docker Raspberry Pi 4

/ Raspberrypi

This tutorial is about installing MQTT and Openhab 3 in a docker container. It will use docker-compose to run yaml file with MQTT and Openhab 3 configuration.

First, we need to install Docker on Rasbperry Pi.

Install Docker Compose on Raspberry Pi 4

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Add pi user to docker group.

sudo usermod -aG docker pi

To install docker compose, we need to install Python and Pip first

sudo apt-get install libffi-dev libssl-dev python3-dev python3 python3-pip -y

Then install Compose using Pip

sudo pip3 install docker-compose

To avoid problems, we need to reboot.

sudo reboot

Install Mosquitto on a Docker

To install Eclipse Mosquitto on Raspberry Pi 4, we need to create configuration file first.

We will create a docker folder first. We recommend installing samba and share this folder. Because It’s easy to create and modify yaml file using Microsoft Code.

cd
mkdir docker

Create folders for MQTT and Openhab inside docker folder.

cd docker

mkdir smarthome
mkdir smarthome/mqtt
mkdir smarthome/mqtt/config

Write the MQTT configuration file.

nano smarthome/mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf

Paste this code:

# Config file for mosquitto

listener 1883

persistence true

persistence_location /mosquitto/data/

log_dest file /mosquitto/log/mosquitto.log

allow_anonymous false

Save it and exit.

Now let write docker-compose yaml file inside the smarthome folder:

cd smarthome
nano docker-compose.yaml

Paste this code:

version: '3'

services:
    #mqtt
    mosquitto:
        container_name: mqtt
        #hostname: mosquitto
        restart: always
        image: eclipse-mosquitto
        ports:
            - "1883:1883"
            - "9001:9001"
        volumes: 
            - ./mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf:/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf
            - ./mqtt/data:/mosquitto/data
            - ./mqtt/log:/mosquitto/log
        networks:
            - default


networks:
    default:

Save and exit

Run docker compose

docker-compose up -d

To check if it is running:

docker ps

Run a new command in the running MQTT container

docker exec -it mqtt sh

Now that we are the MQTT container command, we can change the username and password of MQTT.

  • Username: mymqtt
  • Password: mypassword
mosquitto_passwd -c /mosquitto/data/pwfile mymqtt

You will be asked to enter a password twice.

Let us exit the command:

exit

To configure Mosquitto, we have to stop the container first

docker stop mqtt

Edit Mosquitto config file:

sudo nano ~/docker/smarthome/mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf

Paste this at the bottom

password_file /mosquitto/data/pwfile

Start the container

docker start mqtt
docker ps

Let us test if it works.

Now we will need two ssh terminal. First terminal for subscription and second terminal to issue publish command.

On the first terminal, subscribe to topic home/bedroom 

docker exec -it mqtt sh


mosquitto_sub -u mymqtt -P mypassword -d -t home/bedroom

On the second terminal, publish a hello message

docker exec -it mqtt sh

mosquitto_pub -u mymqtt -P mypassword -d -t home/bedroom -m "Hello from Terminal 2!"
Mqtt Publish Openhab
Second terminal published a hello message
Mqtt Subscribe Openhab
Terminal 1 subscribed and received hello message.

You should see a hello message received on Terminal 1

Install Openhab 3 using Docker Compose

We need to edit the docker-compose.yaml file we created earlier and add Openhab service.

But to avoid confusion, we will delete the docker-compose.yaml and create a new one:

cd ~/docker/smarthome

rm docker-compose.yaml

Create an new yaml file

nano docker-compose.yaml

Paste this code:

version: '3'

services:
    #mqtt
    mosquitto:
        container_name: mqtt
        #hostname: mosquitto
        restart: always
        image: eclipse-mosquitto
        ports:
            - "1883:1883"
            - "9001:9001"
        volumes: 
            - ./mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf:/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf
            - ./mqtt/data:/mosquitto/data
            - ./mqtt/log:/mosquitto/log
        networks:
            - default

#OPENHAB
    openhab:
        container_name: openhab
        image: "openhab/openhab:3.2.0"
        restart: always
        volumes:
            - ./openhab/addons:/openhab/addons
            - ./openhab/conf:/openhab/conf
            - ./openhab/userdata:/openhab/userdata
        environment:
            OPENHAB_HTTP_PORT: "8080"
            OPENHAB_HTTPS_PORT: "8443"
            EXTRA_JAVA_OPTS: "-Duser.timezone=Asia/Dubai"
        network_mode: host

networks:
    default:

Save it, exit and run it.

docker-compose up -d

Check the container if it is running

docker ps

Please wait for a minute for openhab service completely up and running.

Open your browser and type in the URL the IP address of your Raspberry Pi following with port 8080. Something like this http://192.168.1.20:8080

Openhab docker raspberry pi

Enter your desired username and password

You are done, you just installed MQTT and Openhab 3.

Easier way to Install MQTT and Openhab 3

Using Docker Compose, we can install MQTT and Openhab 3 in a much easier way. We will write a yaml file and edit the configuration of MQTT.

Please remember that this is a repeat of the tutorial above.

To get started, we need to have a clean everything we did. So, we have to delete the container and delete all the files inside the docker directory smarthome.

docker stop mqtt
docker stop openhab
docker rm mqtt
docker rm openhab

#please be careful. Make sure you are deleting in the right location.

cd ~/docker/smarthome
sudo rm * -R

Now that we had a clean directory, let’s get started.

Create a compose yaml file:

nano docker-compose.yaml

Paste this code:

version: '3'

services:
    #mqtt
    mosquitto:
        container_name: mqtt
        #hostname: mosquitto
        restart: always
        image: eclipse-mosquitto
        ports:
            - "1883:1883"
            - "9001:9001"
        volumes: 
            - ./mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf:/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf
            - ./mqtt/data:/mosquitto/data
            - ./mqtt/log:/mosquitto/log
        networks:
            - default

#OPENHAB
    openhab:
        container_name: openhab
        image: "openhab/openhab:3.2.0"
        restart: always
        volumes:
            - ./openhab/addons:/openhab/addons
            - ./openhab/conf:/openhab/conf
            - ./openhab/userdata:/openhab/userdata
        environment:
            OPENHAB_HTTP_PORT: "8080"
            OPENHAB_HTTPS_PORT: "8443"
            EXTRA_JAVA_OPTS: "-Duser.timezone=Asia/Dubai"
        network_mode: host

networks:
    default:

Save, exit, and run docker compose.

docker-compose up -d

You will receive an error: Cannot start service Mosquitto OCI runtime create failed.

simple mqtt openhab installation

Go to mqtt configuration file:

cd mqtt
cd config
ls

You will see a folder name mosquitto.conf was created. Delete this folder.

sudo rm mosquitto.conf -R

Now create a new file called mosquitto.conf

sudo nano mosquitto.conf

Paste this configuration:

# Config file for mosquitto

listener 1883

persistence true

persistence_location /mosquitto/data/

log_dest file /mosquitto/log/mosquitto.log

allow_anonymous false

Save, exit, and run docker compose again, or start the docker container

#go back to directory first
cd ~/docker/smarthome

docker-compose up -d

It should work.

Set username and password for Mqtt

Run a new command in the running mqtt container

docker exec -it mqtt sh

Now that we are the mqtt container command, we can change the username and password of mqtt.

  • Username: mymqtt
  • Password: mypassword
mosquitto_passwd -c /mosquitto/data/pwfile mymqtt

You will be asked to enter a password twice.

Let’s exit the command:

exit

To configure Mosquitto, we have to stop the container

docker stop mqtt

Edit Mosquitto config file:

sudo nano ~/docker/smarthome/mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf

Paste this at the bottom

password_file /mosquitto/data/pwfile

Start the container

docker start mqtt
docker ps

Let us test if it works.

Follow the next tutorial:

Configure Openhab 3 and MQTT on a Raspberry Pi 4