Turn EMQX into a working IoT message hub
Start by installing the Woow EMQX add-on and building the MQTT mental model. From there, work through authentication and ACL, Listeners and TLS, the Rule Engine, Connectors and Sinks, and Home Assistant integration, then on to monitoring, backup and secure deployment. 22 chapters guide you step by step, turning open source EMQX 5.8.9 into a reliable IoT message backbone. The Sales Handbook, the Prompt Library and the Skill Handbook are in the Resource Hub.
Basics: what it is and how to install it
Getting to know EMQX and the MQTT Broker
Start from what an MQTT broker does, then see how EMQX differs from Mosquitto, how it is built, and what the Dashboard covers.
02Install the Woow EMQX add-on
Add the repository, install, set host_network and the five ports, then log in for the first time and change the default password.
03A tour of the EMQX Dashboard
Get to know the EMQX Dashboard sidebar modules, the Overview monitoring page, and the language and version information.
04The MQTT mental model
broker, client, topic, QoS, retained, will, keepalive, session and shared subscriptions — the whole mental model in one pass.
Core: connecting and access control
Make your first MQTT connection
Publish and subscribe with the built-in WebSocket client, verify QoS, and make your first MQTT connection.
06Authentication
The Password-Based built-in database, creating users, and JWT plus HTTP/LDAP concepts, so you guard the way in.
07Authorization and ACL
Authorization order, the built-in ACL, topic rule matching and deny strategy, paired with authentication for least privilege.
08Listeners and TLS
1883/8083/8084/8883, adding and editing listeners, TLS certificates and mTLS, and handling port conflicts.
Advanced: rules, integrations and data bridging
Rule Engine
SQL SELECT/FROM/WHERE, events and topics as the source, and built-in functions — write your first rule.
10Built-in actions and message republishing
Console Output, Republish and rewriting the topic turn a rule match into a real action.
11Connectors and Sinks
Connectors and Sinks for Webhook, HTTP, Kafka and PostgreSQL/MySQL, built hands-on over Webhook/HTTP.
12Sources and data import
MQTT event sources, bridging across brokers, and writing messages back into EMQX.
13Home Assistant integration
The HA MQTT integration, discovery, birth/will, state topics, Zigbee2MQTT, and migrating from Mosquitto.
Operations: monitoring, management and recovery
Client and subscription management
The Clients list, kicking clients out, statistics, Subscriptions, Slow Subscriptions and topic monitoring.
15Monitoring and Metrics
Dashboard statistics, node status, system resources, Prometheus and message rate metrics.
16Message and topic management
Message publish, managing retained messages, the topic tree, Topic Metrics and Delayed Publish.
17Configuration
Dashboard settings, EMQX_ environment variables, config files and managing secrets.
18Logs, API and diagnosis
Log & Trace, the Diagnose tools, REST API concepts and Health Check.
19ngrok TCP tunnel
The add-on's own ngrok TCP 1883 tunnel, the authtoken, a reserved address and the security risks.
20Backup, restore and updates
What the backup covers, authentication/ACL/bridge settings, restoring, updating and migrating from Mosquitto.
21Secure deployment
host_network risks, external exposure, Rate Limit, TLS requirements and least privilege.
22Complete troubleshooting
Diagnose and fix a broker that will not start or connect, a locked-out Dashboard, port conflicts, resource limits and authentication failures.