What's New in HiveMQ 4.37?

The HiveMQ team is excited to announce the release of HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Platform 4.37. This release introduces flexible AWS Credential (IAM) authentication support in the HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka, extends HiveMQ Control Center v2 with powerful new client session search capabilities and comprehensive license views, and includes useful fixes and performance improvements.

Highlights

• New Client Session Search in Control Center v2
• Expanded License View in Control Center v2
• AWS Credential (IAM) Authentication Support in the HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka

New Client Session Search in HiveMQ Control Center V2

In HiveMQ 4.32, we introduced the open beta of our new HiveMQ Control Center v2 interface. Now, with HiveMQ 4.37, we’re excited to announce a major upgrade to our client session search functionality. This update features a new design, significantly enhanced search filtering, and expanded sorting capabilities. Users can now filter across more fields and leverage regular expressions for more precise and flexible searches.

How it works

The new Control Center v2 search functionality for client sessions is accessible via the Client Sessions option in the main navigation. By default, the Client Sessions view displays up to 1000 client sessions. The basic search allows filtering by client ID. The advanced search provides additional filtering options, including connection status, queue size, and more refined client ID criteria.

The following example demonstrates an advanced search for clients with a client ID that contains the word Release and sorts results based on the Last Connection Change:

The results returned are limited to 1000 clients with the total number of matching results shown. The limit ensures efficient result handling and minimizes cluster impact. For complex queries requiring more than 1,000 results, we recommend using the client search REST API of the HiveMQ broker. NOTE: During rolling upgrades the client search is temporarily disabled and the Control Center v2 shows a Maintenance Mode notification that indicates the number of HiveMQ nodes currently upgraded.

How it helps

The new client session search provides sophisticated filtering options that make it easier to troubleshoot client connection issues. For example, users can quickly identify clients with large message queues, which can indicate an inability to handle incoming message loads effectively.

While we continue to refine HiveMQ Control Center v2 for production environments, the existing Control Center v1 remains the default interface. Since the new interface is still in development and not yet recommended for production use, access to Control Center v2 is currently restricted to users with the superadmin role.

Expanded License View in Control Center V2

HiveMQ 4.37 introduces a new and expanded License view in Control Center v2 that provides a unified overview of both active and inactive HiveMQ Broker licenses. The new view also includes HiveMQ Enterprise Extension licenses, making it easier to track available functionality, monitor expiration dates, and review previously used licenses - all in one convenient location.

How it works

The new License view can be accessed from the main Control Center v2 menu. By default, the License page displays all active licenses, including HiveMQ Enterprise Extension licenses. It also provides access to the list of available functionality associated with the license. Additionally, a tab at the top of the page lets you view all inactive licenses that are still present.

Authentication with AWS Credential (IAM) in the HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka

HiveMQ 4.37 offers a new authentication mechanism in the HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka. This additional authentication option allows secure access control to Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK) through AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

How it works

When you enable the AWS Credential authentication mechanism, the HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka sequentially evaluates multiple AWS-supported authentication methods to establish a connection with your Kafka cluster.

To learn more about this feature and the authentication methods AWS supports, see AWS Default Credentials Provider Chain and setting up IAM access control for Amazon MSK.

Example AWS Credential authentication configuration using the default AWS credential retrieval order:

<kafka-clusters>
    <kafka-cluster>
        ...
        <authentication>
            <aws-credential/>
        </authentication>
...

How it helps

AWS Credential streamlines access control to Amazon MSK by enabling centralized authentication and authorization management for your cluster. It also supports multiple authentication methods, providing greater security and flexibility when configuring AWS access. Additionally, this feature allows you to authenticate using a specific AWS credential profile, with the option to define a custom profile name instead of the default.

More Noteworthy Features and Improvements

HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Broker

• Fixed an issue that could cause a slow memory leak when removing or re-adding metrics.
• Fixed an issue to ensure message ordering is correctly preserved after an extension is stopped.
• Improved concurrent live replication and topology change replication to prevent missing payloads and ensure client message consumption.

HiveMQ Control Center v2

• Fixed an issue in the Cluster overview that prevented the correct storage and application of the selected time frame.
• Fixed a permission validation issue that could prevent the correct display of license information.
• Added MQTT Last Will information to the Client Session details view.
• Added session attribute information to the Client Session details view.
• Added maintenance mode that temporarily limits available functionality during rolling upgrades.

IMPORTANT: Java 21 will soon be required to run the HiveMQ Platform.

Since the HiveMQ 4.28 release in April 2024, Java 21 is recommended to run the HiveMQ Platform. For all HiveMQ versions released after April 2025, Java 21 will be required.

If you use the official HiveMQ container images, no action is required because these images have shipped with Java 21 since HiveMQ 4.28. If you do not run HiveMQ as a container, or you build your own container image, we recommend updating to Java 21 before the April 2025 deadline.

Get Started Today

To upgrade to HiveMQ 4.37 from a previous HiveMQ version, follow our HiveMQ Upgrade Guide. To learn more about all the features the HiveMQ Platform offers, explore the HiveMQ User Guide.