HiveMQ integrates with Grafana

Overview

HiveMQ and Grafana work together to visualize IoT data in real-time. Grafana queries data that originated from MQTT messages brokered by HiveMQ, either directly via MQTT data source or through an intermediate time-series database.

Integration architecture

Option 1: Direct MQTT (Grafana MQTT data source)

• Grafana connects directly to HiveMQ using the MQTT data source plugin
• Subscribes to topics and displays live data
• Best for real-time monitoring of individual values

Option 2: Via time-series database (recommended)

• HiveMQ → Node-RED/Telegraf → InfluxDB/TimescaleDB → Grafana
• Enables historical analysis, aggregation, and alerting
• Better for production dashboards

Configuration

For direct MQTT connection in Grafana:

1. Install MQTT data source plugin
2. Configure broker URL (ws:// or wss:// for WebSocket)
3. Set topic subscriptions
4. Configure message parsing (JSON path, regex)

Use cases

• Real-time production line monitoring
• Environmental sensor dashboards
• Alerting on threshold violations

Tradeoffs

• Direct MQTT: Lower latency, no persistence, limited historical data
• Via database: Full history, aggregation capabilities, higher complexity