HiveMQ license as a Kubernetes Secret

HiveMQ requires a valid license file placed in the /opt/hivemq/license directory within the HiveMQ container to operate properly. You can specify this license file using HiveMQ Operator in three different ways: as a raw value in the values.yaml file, as a configMap in the values.yaml file, or as a Secret in the values.yaml file. This article will guide you through the process of using a Kubernetes Secret.

\uD83D\uDCD8 Instructions

1. If you don't have the values.yaml file for the HiveMQ Operator yet, you can retrieve it from the HiveMQ Helm repository and save it to a file named values.yaml using the following command:

   helm show values 'hivemq/hivemq-operator' > values.yaml

2. Edit the values.yaml file to configure the mapping of the HiveMQ license Secret to mount it into the HiveMQ container directory /opt/hivemq/license. Find the hivemq section in the values.yaml file and add the following lines:

   hivemq:
   ...
     secrets: 
     # Secrets to mount to the HiveMQ pods. These can be mounted to existing directories without shadowing the folder contents as well.
     - name: hivemq-license
       path: /opt/hivemq/license
   ...

3. Create a Kubernetes Secret with the name hivemq-license using the kubectl command. Make sure to place the license file, in this case, hivemq-2023.lic, in the same namespace where the HiveMQ Operator is running (replace 'hivemq-namespace' with your actual namespace):

   kubectl create secret generic 'hivemq-license' \
     --from-file 'hivemq-license.lic' \
     --namespace 'hivemq-namespace'

4. Now, you can install HiveMQ with the specified license. Use the following helm upgrade command, providing a release name (e.g., 'hivemq-release'), the Helm chart ('hivemq/hivemq-operator'), the target namespace ('hivemq'), and the values.yaml file you edited earlier:

   helm upgrade 'hivemq-release' \
     --install 'hivemq/hivemq-operator' \
     --namespace 'hivemq' \
     --values 'values.yaml'

   HiveMQ will be installed with the license file from the Kubernetes Secret, ensuring that it operates with the appropriate licensing.

   That's it! You've successfully configured HiveMQ to use a license file from a Kubernetes Secret using HiveMQ Operator.

\uD83D\uDCCB Related articles

• Page:
  Inject license via Hashicorp Vault Agent Annotations | HiveMQ Platform Operator (new) —

  Vault Agent Sidecar Injector service leverages the sidecar container pattern and Kubernetes mutating admission webhook to intercept pods that define specific annotations and inject a Vault Agent container to manage these secrets.

  This is beneficial because:

  • Applications remain Vault unaware as the secrets are stored on the file-system in their container.

• Page:
  Inject license via Hashicorp Vault Agent Init Container | HiveMQ Platform Operator (new) —

  Vault Agent provides a number of different helper features, specifically addressing the following challenges:

  • Automatic authentication

• Page:
  Inject license via Hashicorp Vault Agent | HiveMQ Operator (legacy) —

  In this knowledge base article, we set up Hashicorp Vault and injector service with the Hashicorp Vault Helm chart and store a HiveMQ License as a secret. Then we will deploy the HiveMQ broker cluster with the hivemq-operator Helm chart to demonstrate how the Hashicorp Vault injector service retrieves, decodes and writes the secret to /opt/hivemq/license/hivmq.lic file on the pod for the HiveMQ application to use.

• Page:
  Set the HiveMQ License File from a Kubernetes Secret —

  HiveMQ requires a valid license file placed in the /opt/hivemq/license directory within the HiveMQ container to operate properly. You can specify this license file using HiveMQ Operator in three different ways: as a raw value in the values.yaml file, as a configMap in the values.yaml file, or as a Secret in the values.yaml file. This article will guide you through the process of using a Kubernetes Secret.

• Page:
  Retrieving HiveMQ licence information —

  Question

  How can I access information about the loaded HiveMQ license?

  Answer