GETTING STARTED WITH MQTT IN

GROOV PRODUCTS

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 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products
Form 2350-210514—May 2021
Copyright © 2020-2021Opto 22.
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responsibility for possible inaccuracies or omissions. Specifications are subject to change without notice.
Opto 22 warrants all of its products to be free from defects in material or workmanship for 30 months from the
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Wired+Wireless controllers and brains are licensed under one or more of the following patents: U.S. Patent No(s). 5282222,
RE37802, 6963617; Canadian Patent No. 2064975; European Patent No. 1142245; French Patent No. 1142245; British Patent
No. 1142245; Japanese Patent No. 2002535925A; German Patent No. 60011224.
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ii Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting Started with MQTT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
In this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
For Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Related Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
OptoForums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Product Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
General prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Comparing groov MQTT clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
String vs. Sparkplug B payloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Enabling public tag access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Exposing I/O data in groov Manage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Exposing I/O and tag data in PAC Control (groov EPIC only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Configuring simple data collection and control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Option 1: groov Manage with string payloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Option 2: Node-RED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Configuring high-reliability SCADA/IIoT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Option 1: groov Manage with Sparkplug B payloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Option 2: Ignition Edge (groov EPIC only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Option 3: Node-RED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter 2: Fault Tolerance and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Configuring additional fault tolerance options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Failover connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
groov Manage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Ignition Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Node-RED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Primary host ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
groov Manage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Ignition Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Store-and-forward history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
groov Manage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Ignition Edge (groov EPIC only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Enabling MQTT security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
For all clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products iiiiii

 Security in groov Manage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Security in Ignition Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Security in Node-RED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 3: Build a Proof of Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Building a quick proof of concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Appendix A: MQTT Brokers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Selecting an MQTT broker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

iv Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 1: Getting Started with MQTT

INTRODUCTION
Opto 22’s groov EPIC® edge programmable industrial controller and groov RIO® edge I/O give you many ways
to use MQTT data communications—via groov Manage, Node-RED, or Ignition Edge from Inductive
Automation®. The goal of this guide is to help you understand which approach is best for you and to help you
get started fast.
If you already know which approach you’ll take, you can jump to the how-to section that best describes the
application you have in mind. If you’re still thinking about your approach, continue reading for a perspective
on the general trade-offs between the available options.
If you are a groov product user but you’re on the fence about whether MQTT is for you, we’ve also included a
chapter to help you build your own proof-of-concept system.

In this Guide
This guide includes:
Chapter 1: Getting Started with MQTT—This chapter, which includes how-to steps for enabling public tag
access, configuring simple data collection, and configuring high-reliability SCADA/IIoT using MQTT
Chapter 2: Fault Tolerance and Security—Configuring system security and additional options for fault
tolerance in communications
Chapter 3: Build a Proof of Concept—Steps to build a simple proof of concept
Appendix A: MQTT Brokers—Help for choosing an MQTT broker if you don’t already have one

For Help

Related Documents

groov product user’s guides are available under Help in groov Manage, and the most recent versions are
available on our website. Follow the links below or go to www.opto22.com and search on the form number.
Guide name Contents Form #
Installing and using a groov EPIC system; using
groov EPIC User’s Guide 2267
Node-RED, MQTT, and Ignition or Ignition Edge
Installing and using a groov RIO module; using
groov RIO User’s Guide 2324
Node-RED and MQTT
Using groov products in your network and over the
Guide to Networking groov Products 2161
internet

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 11

GENERAL PREREQUISITES

OptoForums

OptoForums focused on groov products and their tools are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so you can
get advice from experienced groov product users:
• groov EPIC Forum
• groov RIO Forum
• Node-RED Forum
• Ignition Edge Forum

Product Support

If you can’t find the help you need in this guide or in the product user’s guides, contact Opto 22 Product
Support. Product Support is free.
Phone: 800-TEK-OPTO (800-835-6786 toll-free NOTE: Email messages and phone calls
in the U.S. and Canada) to Opto 22 Product Support are
951-695-3080 grouped together and answered in the
Monday through Friday, order received.
7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time

Fax: 951-695-3017

Email: [email protected]

Opto 22 website: www.opto22.com

GENERAL PREREQUISITES
This guidebook is best for people who have some background knowledge of MQTT and want to try it out on
their Opto 22 hardware. In addition, the following are required to make use of the examples in this guide:
• Administrator access to a groov RIO or groov EPIC device (If you don’t have access to one, reach out to
Opto 22 for a demo. For steps to log in or complete initial setup, see the groov EPIC User’s Guide or the
groov RIO User’s Guide.)
• The basic information to connect to an MQTT broker, such as:
– Broker URL and port number
– Username
– Password
If you don’t have access to a broker or aren’t sure which one is right for you, take a look at Appendix A: MQTT
Brokers or at Chapter 3: Build a Proof of Concept, a walkthrough that will help you set up a complete MQTT
system quickly.

Comparing groov MQTT clients

When determining which approach is right for a given application, there are a few key points to consider, like
network size, engineering effort, fault tolerance, and budget. The table below summarizes details of these and
other points.
In general, both groov Manage and Node-RED let you get started quickly with publishing a small amount of
data and do not require any additional licensing costs. With either one, you can take advantage of the basic
network and data protections that MQTT and groov devices provide, like device-originating connections,
authentication, encryption, and certification.

2 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WITH MQTT

If your application requires something more resilient, configuring groov Manage for Sparkplug payloads gives
you the guarantee of state awareness, important if you rely on high-quality data for operations, auditing, or
historization. (With some extra work, Node-RED can work with Sparkplug data also.) Sparkplug also unlocks
additional fault tolerance features and makes it easier to work with larger data sets.
Ignition Edge can handle even larger data sets and provides more integration and fault tolerance options, but
it does impose some additional licensing costs.
groov Manage w/ string groov Manage w/
Node-RED Ignition Edge
payloads Sparkplug B payloads
groov EPIC groov EPIC groov EPIC
Platform groov EPIC
groov RIO groov RIO groov RIO
Tag count < 50 < 50 <1000 1000+
Strings, JSON, Strings, JSON,
Payload Strings Sparkplug B
Sparkplug B Sparkplug B
Local I/O, PAC Control1, PAC Control, databases,
Data source Local I/O, PAC Control™1 databases, web services, Local I/O, PAC Control1 legacy PLCs, devices, or
OPC, and more OPC2
Subscribe to other Yes, with MQTT Engine
No Yes No
publishers' topics module
User authentication User authentication User authentication User authentication
Security SSL/TLS encryption SSL/TLS encryption SSL/TLS encryption SSL/TLS encryption
Certificate management Certificate management Certificate management Certificate management
Non-volatile storage
Volatile storage
Historization None None (optional)
Max 65K records
100K records or 1 week
Multiple brokers
Multiple brokers Multiple failover groups
Failover Multiple brokers None
Primary host designation Multiple clients
Primary host designation
$8003
Additional Cost $0 $0 $0
+$2004 w/ MQTT Engine
1 groov EPIC only
2 Other data sources are possible through the use of additional Ignition modules.
3 GROOV-LIC-EDGE current list pricing as of 6/10/20.
4 Special pricing when purchased with Ignition Edge license; all Ignition features are free to try with unrestricted functionality.

String vs. Sparkplug B payloads

In addition to providing multiple client options, groov devices give you the option of working with two
different payload formats: strings and Sparkplug B. How do you know which is right for you?
For simple data collection and control, string payloads are easy to use and flexible, although they involve
some engineering effort that limits scalability and interoperability. For example, you’ll need to manage the
topic structure for each device or application client and give instructions on how to interpret the data you are
publishing, which can be difficult if the network is large or heterogeneous. Similarly, while MQTT includes
features to monitor client connection status, it requires manually configuring status messages for each client,
increasing engineering overhead. This kind of administrative overhead is one reason we recommend keeping
a low tag count when working with basic string payloads.
In contrast, Sparkplug payloads make it easier to bring MQTT publishers and subscribers online, and to work
with devices from different vendors, so we recommend it when looking to grow and manage a large network.
And if state-awareness is critical for your application, you’ll definitely want to look at Sparkplug, because it
eliminates the overhead that MQTT normally requires to make these features work for you.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 3

ENABLING PUBLIC TAG ACCESS

A general consideration when working with Sparkplug B, however, is the need for compatible clients. Since
MQTT is data-agnostic, any broker can handle Sparkplug B traffic alongside string payloads without an issue.
However, any device or application clients that want to use your Sparkplug data will need to support
Sparkplug as well.

ENABLING PUBLIC TAG ACCESS

In order for the MQTT clients on groov EPIC or groov RIO to publish your I/O and tag data, you need to allow
that data to be read by other services.
Exception: If you are using Node-RED with groov I/O nodes only (node-red-contrib-groov-io), you do
not need to enable public tag access.

Exposing I/O data in groov Manage

Enabling public access in groov Manage lets I/O data be read by the groov Manage MQTT service (when the
Device Type is set to OptoMMP) and by Node-RED nodes or other applications capable of using OptoMMP.
1. groov EPIC: From the Home page, navigate to I/O > Module # > Channel # > Configure.
groov RIO: From the Home page, navigate to I/O > Channel # > Configure.
2. Under Public Access, enable Value (Read) for each I/O point that you want to publish.

Exposing I/O and tag data in PAC Control (groov EPIC only)
Use PAC Control to expose I/O or variable tags from a control strategy running on your groov EPIC processor to
Ignition Edge, the groov Manage MQTT service (when the Device Type is set to Controller), or by the PAC
Control nodes (node-red-contrib-pac) in Node-RED.

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 CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WITH MQTT

To enable access, open the edit dialog box of each I/O point or variable to be published, and check Make
Public (Readable). Then save and run your control strategy.

CONFIGURING SIMPLE DATA COLLECTION AND CONTROL

Let’s say you have a small sensor network or equipment group with a low number of I/O (fewer than 50 tags or
so). How do you quickly take that data and publish it from your groov device using MQTT? As usual, we give
you a couple of options: groov Manage or Node-RED.
NOTE: If you want to publish tags from a PAC Control strategy running on your groov EPIC, you’ll need to be familiar
with I/O and tag configuration and how to create and run a control strategy. If you need help, check out our online
training for PAC Control.

Option 1: groov Manage with string payloads

The option for plain text (string) payloads is available in groov RIO and in groov EPIC firmware release 1.4.2+. It
is, by far, the simplest way to get started with MQTT.
You can do it in just a few steps:
1. Log into your groov EPIC or groov RIO, and navigate to MQTT > Configuration:
a. Set MQTT Payload to MQTT with string payloads.
b. Configure an appropriate topic path (see an example in the image on the next page).

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 5

CONFIGURING SIMPLE DATA COLLECTION AND CONTROL

2. Configure a broker connection:

a. Click Add MQTT Broker, and enter the appropriate URL and security details (if needed; see “Security
in groov Manage” on page 19) to point the client to your MQTT broker.
b. Click OK.
3. Configure your device profile:
a. Click Add Device.
b. (groov EPIC only) Select the appropriate Device Type:
– Controller, if you want to publish tags from your PAC Control strategy
– OptoMMP, if you want to publish I/O directly from groov Manage
c. Enter an MQTT Device Topic name for your groov device (for example, epic).
d. Click OK.
4. Back on the MQTT page, save your configuration.

Voila! Your broker will pick up your tags as new MQTT topics, and from there, your back-end applications can
become subscribers using this path:
<Base Topic>/<Group Topic>/<Subgroup Topic>/<Device Topic>/#
In our example, the path would look like this:
opto22/warehouse/shipping/epic/#
For more information on using groov Manage for MQTT, see Chapter 8 in the groov EPIC User’s Guide or
Chapter 9 in the groov RIO User’s Guide.

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 CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WITH MQTT

Option 2: Node-RED
While groov Manage is great for straightforward tag publishing, for more flexibility and granularity, consider
Node-RED. It has several advantages for basic publishing.
First, Node-RED makes it easy to combine tags with data from other sources, like OPC or web services.
Node-RED can also subscribe to topics published by other MQTT clients, where groov Manage can only detect
updates communicated on its own topics. And in addition to plain strings, Node-RED lets you publish
JSON-formatted data, commonly used with cloud IoT platforms and other services. Finally, Node-RED lets you
configure quality of service (QoS) levels and last will and testament (LWT) messages for each topic, if you want
to take advantage of these features.
Prerequisite: You should be familiar with the basics of the Node-RED environment and how to build,
configure, and deploy flows. If not, check out our online training first or review the beginning of Chapter 14 of
the groov EPIC User’s Guide or Chapter 10 of the groov RIO User’s Guide.
Here is how you would set up basic publishing in Node-RED:
1. Log into your groov EPIC or groov RIO, navigate to the Node-RED page, and open the Node-RED editor.
2. Install the groov I/O nodes (node-red-contrib-groov-io) or your data source of choice, add a
groov I/O input node to the workspace, and configure it to grab the I/O data you want to publish. (For
help with configuration, see the groov I/O Nodes section on developer.opto22.com.)

3. Add an MQTT Out node to the workspace and connect it to your data node.
4. Double-click the MQTT Out node, click the pencil next to Add new mqtt-broker, and enter your broker
URL, port, and security details (if needed; see “Security in Node-RED” on page 20). Click Add when
finished.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 7

CONFIGURING SIMPLE DATA COLLECTION AND CONTROL

5. Back in the MQTT node configuration panel, enter your desired topic path and click Done.

6. Click Deploy to start publishing on the configured topic path.

The process for creating a subscription flow using the MQTT In node is very similar. Take a look at our video on
Node-RED and MQTT for details.
For more information on Node-RED, see Chapter 14 of the groov EPIC User’s Guide or Chapter 10 of the groov
RIO User’s Guide.

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 CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WITH MQTT

CONFIGURING HIGH-RELIABILITY SCADA/IIOT

Do you need to tap into the scalability and fault tolerance features that Sparkplug B offers? Or maybe your
groov device needs to publish a large number of tags (up to 1000 or more). If so, follow the steps in this
section for the most direct Sparkplug B setup path for each groov MQTT client: groov Manage, Ignition Edge,
and Node-RED.
To increase reliability and tap into the advanced features of Sparkplug B, also explore Chapter 2: Fault
Tolerance and Security.

Option 1: groov Manage with Sparkplug B payloads

For Sparkplug B publishing on groov EPIC or groov RIO, groov Manage is the quickest way to get started. It
supports some of the same fault tolerance features as Ignition Edge but without the added cost.
Follow the steps in “Option 1: groov Manage with string payloads” on page 5 with two exceptions:
1. Set the MQTT Payload to MQTT with Sparkplug payloads.
2. Enter the elements of your topic path in the Group and Edge Node ID fields.

groov Manage will generate a topic path based on the ID fields in combination with others required by
Sparkplug B, as follows:
spBv1.0/<Group ID>/+/<Edge Node ID>/<Device ID>/#
In this example, MQTT subscribers would use the following topic path:
spBv1.0/opto22/+/shipping/epic/#
More details are available in Chapter 8 of the groov EPIC User’s Guide and Chapter 9 of the groov RIO User’s
Guide.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 9

CONFIGURING HIGH-RELIABILITY SCADA/IIOT

Option 2: Ignition Edge (groov EPIC only)

Ignition Edge is available only on groov EPIC, and setting it up involves more steps than groov Manage. But for
a reasonable licensing fee, the platform offers higher performance, a wide range of integration options, and
the most complete set of fault tolerance options of any of the groov MQTT clients.
In addition to EPIC data, if you need to connect to and publish data from legacy systems or PLCs like
Allen-Bradley® or Siemens®, or any Modbus®/TCP compatible device, you can follow the same process to add
those devices, using Ignition Edge on EPIC as the gateway to your MQTT network. It's one of the primary
advantages of the Ignition Edge MQTT client.
You don’t need a license to set up Ignition Edge initially. You can follow all the steps below and see how MQTT
works on your groov EPIC on a trial basis. The trial lasts for two hours and can be repeated as often as you wish.
Prerequisite: Java installed on your computer (required by Ignition Designer).
1. Log into your groov EPIC, navigate to the Ignition page, and enable Ignition Edge and Ignition Designer.
Click Save.
2. Click the link to Open Ignition Edge, and log in using your credentials (default: admin/password).
3. Install groov EPIC drivers:
a. Navigate to Configure > (System) Modules, and scroll down until you see the Opto 22 groov EPIC
and SNAP PAC Driver module. Click Install.
b. Confirm that you want to install the module, review the Module License Agreement, check “I accept
the terms in the License Agreement,” and click Accept License.
4. Add groov EPIC as an OPC UA device:
a. Navigate to Configure > (OPC-UA Server) Devices, and click Create new Device.
b. Select Opto 22 groov EPIC and SNAP PAC. Then click Next.
c. Enter a Name and use localhost as the Address. Click Create New Device.
5. Install the MQTT Transmission module:
a. In the top navigation, click Configure, and scroll down till you see MQTT. Click Install+.
b. On the next page, scroll down to Quarantined modules, and click the install button for MQTT
Transmission.
c. Follow directions on the screen to accept the license.
d. Check “I want to add this certificate to my trusted certificates and install the module.” Click the
button to install.
6. Add a broker connection to the MQTT Transmission module:
a. Navigate to Configure > (MQTT Transmission) Settings
b. Select the Servers tab, and click Create new MQTT Server.
c. Enter a Name, URL, Server Type, and security details (if needed; see “Security in Ignition Edge” on
page 20). Then click Create New MQTT Server.
Server Type options:
– Chariot: Cirrus Link’s Chariot MQTT Server
– MQTT_Distributor: Ignition MQTT Distributor Module
– Third_Party: An MQTT server other than the two above

10 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WITH MQTT

7. Open Ignition Designer, configure your topic path, and publish your tags:
a. In the upper right-hand corner of Ignition Edge, click Launch Designer and open the designer.jnlp
file when the download is complete.
b. Log in with your credentials (default: admin/password).
c. In the Tag Browser panel, navigate to All Providers > edge > Edge Nodes.
d. Right-click the Edge Nodes folder and select New Folder. Then enter a name to represent the Group
ID, and click OK.
e. Right-click the new folder and click New Folder again. Then enter a name to represent the Edge
Node ID, and click OK.
f. Right-click the latest folder and click New Folder again. Then enter a name to represent the Device
ID, and click OK.
Here’s an example of the folder structure:

8. Open the OPC Browser (View > Panels > OPC Browser), open the Devices folder, and drag the desired
tags from your EPIC device folder into the Device ID folder you have just created.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 11

CONFIGURING HIGH-RELIABILITY SCADA/IIOT

9. Publish tags by navigating to MQTT Transmission > Transmission Control in the Tag Browser and clicking
the checkbox next to the Refresh tag.

A dialog box may appear with the prompt “Change to Read/Write Mode?” If so, click Enable Read/Write
Mode.
The checkbox is checked and then immediately cleared when refresh has been completed.
10. Repeat step 9 any time you modify the folder structure or add a new tag.
11. Once you have finished adding tags, return to the Ignition page in groov Manage, disable Ignition
Designer, and click Save.
This setup produces an MQTT/Sparkplug B topic path according to the folder structure you have created:
spBv1.0/<Group ID>/+/<Edge Node ID>/<Device ID>/#
In this example, MQTT subscribers would use the following topic path:
spBv1.0/opto22/+/shipping/epic/#
Out of the box, you’ll have unrestricted access to all of the features of Ignition Edge on a two-hour timer. At the
end of two hours, just reset the timer. For uninterrupted use, you can purchase an Ignition Edge license
(GROOV-LIC-EDGE).
See Chapter 8 of the groov EPIC User’s Guide for more information on using Sparkplug B with Ignition Edge.

Option 3: Node-RED
If you need your groov device to only subscribe to Sparkplug B data, it’s possible to read in and decode
Sparkplug messages directly in a data flow. Besides being free to use, Node-RED has the advantage of easily
mashing up data from other sources and even creating dashboards or a light UI as well.
Using this method, Node-RED does not become a Sparkplug-compliant device; it is just a data consumer
subscribed to an MQTT broker. But sometimes that’s all you need.
Here’s the procedure:
1. Log into your groov EPIC or groov RIO, navigate to the Node-RED page, and open the Node-RED editor.
2. Place an MQTT In node, and configure the broker connection, security details (if needed; see “Security in
Node-RED” on page 20), and topic path. The path should use this format:
spBv1.0/<Group ID>/+/<Edge Node ID>/<Device ID>/#

12 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED WITH MQTT

3. Download the sparkplug_b.proto file from the Eclipse Tahu Project on GitHub, and place it in the
unsecured file section of your groov device.
4. Install the protocol buffer nodes (node-red-contrib-protobuf), add the Decode node to the
workspace, and connect it to the MQTT In node.
5. Configure the Decode node by setting Proto File to the .proto file path and setting Type to Payload.

6. Connect the output of the Decode node to wherever you want to send the subscribed data, and click
Deploy to start receiving data.
Publishing Sparkplug payloads with Node-RED is also possible but is much more involved. Check out this
guide published by Cirrus Link if you are seriously considering that option:
https://docs.chariot.io/display/CLD79/B%3A+Example+Node-RED+Client

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 13

CONFIGURING HIGH-RELIABILITY SCADA/IIOT

14 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 2: Fault Tolerance and Security

CONFIGURING ADDITIONAL FAULT TOLERANCE OPTIONS

groov EPIC and groov RIO allow you to take full advantage of MQTT’s built-in reliability features. If you are using
Sparkplug B, you will have even more options. This section explains how to configure these features in each
MQTT client. Features include:
• Failover connections
• Primary host ID
• Store-and-forward history

Failover connections
A basic fault tolerance measure is to set up multiple MQTT brokers and configure your groov device with
connections to each.
NOTE: By default, the MQTT client connects to the first available broker and switches round-robin if it loses
connection. However, this behavior changes if you configure the Primary Host ID property (see page 16).

groov Manage

To set up failover connections, navigate to MQTT > Configuration > Add Broker, and create as many
connections as you want.

The example above shows a connection to Opto 22’s on-site Mosquitto broker as well as a second connection
to a Chariot broker hosted on AWS.

Ignition Edge

Add new server connections from the (MQTT Transmission) Settings > Servers tab. Any broker connections
that share the same Server Set property become part of an automatic failover group.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 15

15
CONFIGURING ADDITIONAL FAULT TOLERANCE OPTIONS

Ignition Edge allows you to create additional failover groups under the (MQTT Transmission) Settings > Sets
tab.
For advanced scenarios where you might group MQTT clients around specific brokers, you can create
additional MQTT clients, each with its own server set and history store, by defining custom transmitter settings
under (MQTT Transmission) Settings > Transmitters > Custom > Create new Settings.

Node-RED

In Node-RED, broker connections are configured individually for each MQTT node, but only one connection
can be configured per node. To add some redundancy, you can create duplicate nodes with connections to
different brokers.

Primary host ID
If you’ve configured multiple broker connections for failover (see page 15) in groov Manage or Ignition Edge,
you can also set a Primary Host ID. This setting causes the MQTT client to give preference to broker
connections that publish an ONLINE status for the specific client ID you enter.
Be aware that if none of the available broker connections is publishing an ONLINE status for that ID, the MQTT
client will continue to rotate through available brokers without staying connected.
In these examples, an Ignition SCADA server running on a local laptop (not Ignition Edge, but full Ignition), has
a client ID of laptop-ignition-scada.

groov Manage

To designate a primary host application, go to the main MQTT configuration screen and set the Primary Host
ID to the MQTT client ID of your target application.

16 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 CHAPTER 2: FAULT TOLERANCE AND SECURITY

Ignition Edge

A broker failover group, called a Server Set in Ignition Edge, can have a designated Primary Host ID.
Set it up by editing the desired server set under the (MQTT Transmission) Settings > Sets tab.

Store-and-forward history
With a primary host ID set, groov devices can also store MQTT records temporarily when they lose connection
to the broker, and then forward these records to the primary application when the connection is restored.
To get the full advantage of store-and-forward history, you’ll need to be communicating with an in-network
MQTT subscriber that is watching for these historical records. Currently, there are two applications that can do
this: the Ignition MQTT Engine module and the Canary Labs MQTT Sparkplug B Data Collector.
You can set up store-and-forward history in groov Manage or, for groov EPIC only, in Ignition Edge.

groov Manage

To enable historization, navigate to MQTT > Configuration > Device and enter a number into the Historic
Queue field.

We recommend a queue size of 3,600 to strike a balance between storage and performance, but you could go
much higher, depending on the rate of data production.
Note that records are stored in RAM and will be lost in the event of a power failure.

Additional performance details on the Historic Queue can be found in Chapter 8 of the groov EPIC User’s Guide
and Chapter 9 of the groov RIO User’s Guide.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 17

CONFIGURING ADDITIONAL FAULT TOLERANCE OPTIONS

Ignition Edge (groov EPIC only)

groov EPIC’s Ignition Edge client offers larger capacity and a non-volatile storage option. If you select the
disk-backed option, you get the additional benefit of groov EPIC’s power-fail-safe file system and industrial SSD
(solid state drive).
1. To enable historization, navigate to Configure > (MQTT Transmission) History and edit the Default
In-Memory Store. Select Enable this History Store and change Type to Disk-Backed (if desired).

2. Click Save Changes.

3. (Optional) Adjust the history capacity here if you want.
The default setting buffers up to 100,000 records for 1 week.
4. Once done, navigate to the (MQTT Transmission) Settings menu and select the Transmitters tab. Scroll
down and set History Store to the name of the store you just enabled (“Default Store” in this example).

5. Click Save Changes.

18 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 CHAPTER 2: FAULT TOLERANCE AND SECURITY

ENABLING MQTT SECURITY

Cybersecurity is a top concern for industrial IoT, so groov devices are designed to help you create a secure
foundation for MQTT communication.
All MQTT clients on groov EPIC and groov RIO allow you to specify a username and password to authenticate
broker connections, to apply certificates of trust, and to enable encrypted communications.

For all clients

The following sections give the specifics of each MQTT client related to enabling security, but for all clients you
need to input the appropriate protocol and port designations in your broker URL to indicate you are using an
encrypted connection. TCP ports 8883 and 1883 are registered with IANA for MQTT TLS and non-TLS
communication, respectively.
For example:
Replace unencrypted URL... with encrypted URL
tcp://mqtt.groov.com:1883 ...ssl://mqtt.groov.com:8883

See the groov EPIC User’s Guide and groov RIO User’s Guide for more information on security features, including
certificate creation and management.

Security in groov Manage

1. When adding an MQTT broker, in addition to entering the correct broker URL and user credentials, also
enable the SSL option and select the appropriate CA certificate.

2. To upload a security certificate to your groov device, navigate to the Security > Client SSL page, click
Add/Update, and locate the appropriate file.
Once this is done, the certificate appears as an option in the MQTT Broker > Select Certificate dialog box.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 19

ENABLING MQTT SECURITY

Security in Ignition Edge

1. When adding a broker connection, specify the appropriate protocol and port in the URL, enter a
username, and check the box next to Change Password. Then enter the appropriate password twice.

2. In the TLS section below, click Choose File next to Certificate File Upload, and locate the desired
certificate file.

3. At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.

Security in Node-RED
1. When editing the MQTT broker details, be sure to specify TLS port 8883. Then check the box to Enable
secure (SSL/TLS) connection and click the pencil next to Add new tls-config.

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 CHAPTER 2: FAULT TOLERANCE AND SECURITY

2. In the TLS configuration panel, upload the appropriate certificate files.

3. Click Update.
4. To enter user credentials, switch to the Security tab. Enter your username and password.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 21

ENABLING MQTT SECURITY

5. Click Update when done.

22 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 3: Build a Proof of Concept

BUILDING A QUICK PROOF OF CONCEPT

A starter MQTT network using groov EPIC and Ignition

Here’s our go-to formula for setting up an MQTT network that provides a full set of integration options and can
be fully tested at no additional cost:
1. Download and install Ignition to a local computer (Linux, Mac, Windows). It takes only a few minutes, and
Ignition is fully functional in two-hour increments.
2. Within Ignition, install the Cirrus Link MQTT Distributor module (Modules > Install or Upgrade a Module).
You now have a scalable MQTT broker.
3. Next, install the Cirrus Link MQTT Engine module. Non-MQTT applications can now access your MQTT
data through Ignition's OPC UA Server.
4. Finally, use one of many integration options to turn your groov device into an MQTT gateway for your
legacy systems:
– On your groov EPIC, enable the Cirrus Link MQTT Transmission module in Ignition Edge (see “Option
2: Ignition Edge (groov EPIC only)” on page 10) and install OPC drivers for Allen-Bradley, Siemens, and

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 23

23
BUILDING A QUICK PROOF OF CONCEPT

Modbus/TCP devices; or leverage integration kits for PAC Control to access a variety of serial
protocols.
– On your groov RIO, connect wired I/O signals and serial devices, then publish them through
groov Manage or Node-RED.
Ready to go, and you haven’t spent a dime! Experiment as much as you want, and when you're ready for
production, all you have to do is license the system (for Ignition Edge on groov EPIC, just purchase
GROOV-LIC-EDGE; for other Ignition components, contact Inductive Automation). Or, once you are satisfied
that MQTT can do what you need, you can opt for no-cost components like the Eclipse Mosquitto broker and
groov Manage client, instead.

24 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products

 A: MQTT Brokers

SELECTING AN MQTT BROKER

The focus of this guide is on understanding how to connect your groov device to an MQTT infrastructure, but
field devices are only one part of the equation. The MQTT server is also a critical component, so here are a few
recommended options. All of them are field proven, with many real-world users, and all support user
authentication, certificate-based TLS encryption, and access control lists (ACLs).
Lightweight, fast, and free. A good option if you're comfortable on the command
line. Already included in the groov EPIC repository for users who have installed
the free Shell access license.
Cost: Free, open-source
Eclipse Mosquitto
Capacity: Successfully tested with 100,000 clients.
Requirements: ~120 KB executable; 3 MB RAM is enough to support 1000 cli-
ents.
Technical support: Community support only
Designed for industrial applications, Ignition is easy to set up and boasts features
for scalability and redundancy as well as integration with other features of the Igni-
tion platform.
Cost: $2,950/$4,250*, or free on two-hour timer
Ignition MQTT Distributor Capacity: Available in 50- and 250-client versions.
Requirements: Ignition or Ignition Edge platform. Ignition requires Java, a
dual-core processor, and 4 GB RAM.
Technical support: Free email and forum support. 90-day free post-sales tele-
phone support. Long-term support contracts available.
Designed by the co-inventors of MQTT and Sparkplug B for industrial end-users,
Chariot is a functional replacement for MQTT Distributor for larger deployments
and for non-Ignition users.
Cost: $7,950**, or free on two-hour timer
Chariot MQTT Server
Capacity: Unlimited clients
Requirements: Delivered as an OVF file for native import to VM or cloud comput-
ing platforms. Requires a quad-core processor and 8 GB RAM (or equivalent).
Technical support: Free phone and email support
* List price as of 7/20/20. Discounted Ignition Edge pricing available through Opto 22.
** List price as of 7/20/20.

Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products 25

25
SELECTING AN MQTT BROKER

26 Getting Started with MQTT in groov Products