MQTT Broker: Homey or Raspberry Pi?

Questions & Help
1

Finally started playing with MQTT, which is fun!

I started with the MQTT Broker on Homey.

Now that I want to take this more seriously, which device is better suited as a broker?

  • Homey 2019 (regular, non-Pro version)
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

(And why? Performance? Security?)

Current MQTT plans (that might impact resource usage):

  • Use TLS (only)
  • Use authorization
  • Use MQTT Hub/Gateway on Homey (publishing data for about 30 devices)
  • Publish a few topics from my router

Both devices already have some load (Homey continuously gets smart (electricity) meter data from a Pi Zero, Pi 3B+ runs Homebridge for a few devices). If performance is really bad on both the Homey and the Pi I could use a spare Pi 3 Model B (non-plus), but if either device can easily handle this (on top of the existing load) I’d rather not add another device to the mix…

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2

Why TLS only?

3

Security.

Wouldn’t the authorization password be communicated in plain text if I allow insecure connections (disable TLS)?

(I plan to access the broker from the internet, not only within my home network)

4

Ah okay, if you’re planning to access it remotely, it makes sense :slight_smile: Any idea how many data/messages you’re planning to publish? If it’s a couple of 100 a day at most, I think it’ll run on Homey just fine. Even a couple of thousand, probably.

5

When possible I would like to publish topics/messages for every device managed by my Homey, including the data from the smart electricity meter. That would mean a lot more than a thousand messages per day…

However, I’m also considering to use MQTT on the Pi Zero (instead of a custom Python script) to upload the data to the Homey (if feasible / better than my current solution). Then the amount of messages sent by the MQTT Hub on the Homey would be rather limited (I think).

6

MQTT is pretty lightweight, so you could start out running it on Homey and keep an eye out for CPU/RAM usage for the broker in Insights.

7

Going for Raspberry Pi for now.

Main reason: automatic Let’s Encrypt certificates instead of a self-signed certificate.

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8

FYI i have stress tested the MQTT broker on Homey with a endless loop resulting in a message througput of around 20 msg/second. So performance wise there should be no problem of using the broker on Homey. Besides i am using Lets Encrypt certs, but manually import them from my server.

But anyway really does not matter where you run your broker.

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