After getting Home Assistant up and running, the next thing I wanted to do was to add MQTT so I could connect sensors. I decided to use mosquitto for MQTT.
First to install mosquitto server, client and python mosquitto packages.
sudo apt-get install mosquitto mosquitto-clients python-mosquitto Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: libmosquitto1 The following NEW packages will be installed: python-mosquitto The following packages will be upgraded: libmosquitto1 mosquitto mosquitto-clients 3 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded. Need to get 214 kB of archives. After this operation, 148 kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Get:1 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main mosquitto-clients armhf 1.3.4-2+deb8u1 [39.5 kB] Get:2 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main libmosquitto1 armhf 1.3.4-2+deb8u1 [37.1 kB] Get:3 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main mosquitto armhf 1.3.4-2+deb8u1 [102 kB] Get:4 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie/main python-mosquitto all 1.3.4-2+deb8u1 [34.8 kB] Fetched 214 kB in 2s (93.1 kB/s) Reading changelogs... Done (Reading database ... 35121 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../mosquitto-clients_1.3.4-2+deb8u1_armhf.deb ... Unpacking mosquitto-clients (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) over (1.3.4-2) ... Preparing to unpack .../libmosquitto1_1.3.4-2+deb8u1_armhf.deb ... Unpacking libmosquitto1 (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) over (1.3.4-2) ... Preparing to unpack .../mosquitto_1.3.4-2+deb8u1_armhf.deb ... Unpacking mosquitto (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) over (1.3.4-2) ... Selecting previously unselected package python-mosquitto. Preparing to unpack .../python-mosquitto_1.3.4-2+deb8u1_all.deb ... Unpacking python-mosquitto (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ... Processing triggers for systemd (215-17+deb8u7) ... Setting up libmosquitto1 (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) ... Setting up mosquitto-clients (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) ... Setting up mosquitto (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) ... Setting up python-mosquitto (1.3.4-2+deb8u1) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-18+deb8u9) ...
Now that it’s installed, lets set it up. First lets create the directory where it will keep it’s persistence db files, not forgetting to change the directory owner to the mosquitto user.
mkdir /var/lib/mosquitto/ sudo chown mosquitto:homeassistant /var/lib/mosquitto/ -R
Now lets update the configuration file. Below is what I’ve got in mine.
sudo nano /etc/mosquitto/mosquitto.conf
listener 1883 persistence true persistence_location /var/lib/mosquitto/ persistence_file mosquitto.db log_dest syslog log_dest stdout log_dest topic log_type error log_type warning log_type notice log_type information connection_messages true log_timestamp true allow_anonymous false password_file /etc/mosquitto/passwd pid_file /var/run/mosquitto.pid log_dest file /var/log/mosquitto/mosquitto.log include_dir /etc/mosquitto/conf.d
Now to add some usernames/passwords.
This is how you’ll create the passwd file with the first user.
sudo mosquitto_passwd -c /etc/mosquitto/passwd username prompt for passwd
After that, you add more users without the -c parameter, like this.
sudo mosquitto_passwd /etc/mosquitto/passwd ha prompt for passwd
Now lets restart mosquitto.
sudo systemctl restart mosquitto
After the service has restarted, verify that mosquitto has started
pi@hassbian:~ $ sudo /etc/init.d/mosquitto status ● mosquitto.service - LSB: mosquitto MQTT v3.1 message broker Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/mosquitto) Active: active (running) since Sat 2017-06-03 23:29:23 AEST; 15s ago Process: 30495 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/mosquitto stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Process: 30501 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/mosquitto start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) CGroup: /system.slice/mosquitto.service └─30507 /usr/sbin/mosquitto -c /etc/mosquitto/mosquitto.conf Jun 03 23:29:23 hassbian systemd[1]: Starting LSB: mosquitto MQTT v3.1 message broker... Jun 03 23:29:23 hassbian mosquitto[30501]: Starting network daemon:: mosquitto. Jun 03 23:29:23 hassbian systemd[1]: Started LSB: mosquitto MQTT v3.1 message broker. Jun 03 23:29:23 hassbian mosquitto[30507]: mosquitto version 1.3.4 (build date 2017-05-29 22:25:09+0000) starting Jun 03 23:29:23 hassbian mosquitto[30507]: Config loaded from /etc/mosquitto/mosquitto.conf. Jun 03 23:29:23 hassbian mosquitto[30507]: Opening ipv4 listen socket on port 1883.
Alright, now it’s up and running, lets give it a test. I tested mine connecting to my raspberry pi with two SSH sessions, one to test subscribing to messages and one to test sending messages. You’ll need to update the IP Address, port number and username/password to suit you.
Subscribe to messages with topic test_mqtt
mosquitto_sub -t test_mqtt -u -P password -h 172.16.1.13 -p 1883
Send a message to the topic test_mqtt
mosquitto_pub -d -t test_mqtt -m "Test Message" -h 172.16.1.13 -p 1883 -u -P password
You should see the “Test Message” message arrive in your SSH session running the mosquitto subscribe.
Now lets add to Home Assistant
We now need to add some additional configuration to the Home Assistant configuration file for MQTT.
sudo nano /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml
You would add similar to the following, but customise it to IP Address and port number you are running mosquitto on (from the mosquitto configuration file) and a valid username/password.
mqtt: broker: 172.16.X.Y port: 1883 client_id: home-assistant-1 user: ha passwd: hapassword
And then restart Home Assistant
This will get mosquitto up and running. You can now use MQTT with Home Assistant and send/receive message to MQTT sensors and clients.