What's New in HiveMQ 4.55?

The HiveMQ team is excited to announce the release of HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Broker 4.55. This release adds Java 25 support across the HiveMQ platform and introduces configurable user session timeouts in the HiveMQ Control Center. Additional improvements include default configuration validation for the HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka, new metrics for incoming bandwidth throttling, and a wide range of Control Center usability enhancements.

HiveMQ 4.55 replaces HiveMQ 4.28 as the latest Long Term Support (LTS) release of the HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Broker. For detailed information, see the HiveMQ 4.28 (LTS) to 4.55 (LTS) Migration Guide.

Highlights

• Java 25 Support in the HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Broker.
• New session timeout configuration in the HiveMQ Control Center

Note: Validation of the HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka configuration file is now enabled by default. If you use the Kafka extension, validate your configuration file against the XSD schema before you upgrade to HiveMQ 4.55. An invalid file prevents the extension from starting.

HiveMQ now provides Java 25 compatibility

Starting with HiveMQ 4.55, Java 25 is supported across the HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Broker. Java 25 is the current long-term support (LTS) release of the Java platform.

The Java upgrade covers the HiveMQ broker, all HiveMQ enterprise extensions, the HiveMQ Docker images, and our SDKs and tools. Official HiveMQ container images now ship with a Java 25 runtime.

Your runtime requirements do not change. The HiveMQ system requirements remain on Java 21 as the minimum version, and HiveMQ continues to compile to a Java 21 bytecode target. Deployments that run on Java 21 today continue to run unchanged. However, we recommend using Java 25.

How it works

HiveMQ is now built and verified on Java 25 and runs on Java 21 and later. HiveMQ Docker images ship with a Java 25 runtime. Containerized deployments use the current LTS JVM by default, with no configuration change on your side.

One change affects extension developers. The following SDKs raise their compile target from Java 11 to Java 21:

• HiveMQ Extension SDK
• HiveMQ Enterprise Extension SDK
• HiveMQ Swarm Extension SDK
• All customization SDKs

Custom extensions and customizations that you build against the latest SDK versions now require Java 21 or later at compile time.

How it helps

Java 25 delivers significant performance, stability, and security updates, bug fixes, and many new features and enhancements. Running HiveMQ on Java 25 lets you standardize on the Java version that receives active long-term support. For more on HiveMQ system requirements, see the documentation.

New session timeout configuration in the HiveMQ Control Center

HiveMQ 4.55 adds new configuration options that control user session timeouts in the Control Center. Each time a user logs into the HiveMQ Control Center, a new user session starts. You can now configure how long that session remains valid, including how long a session can stay idle.

How it works

While a user actively works in the Control Center, HiveMQ renews the session automatically in the background. Two settings end a session:

• If a user is idle for longer than the configured idle-timeout period, the session expires. The user must log in again. The default value is 3600 seconds (1 hour).
• A session also expires when it reaches the absolute-timeout value, regardless of user activity. The default value is 86400 seconds (24 hours).

Example Control Center session configuration:

    <control-center>
    ...
    <session>
        <idle-timeout>3600</idle-timeout>
        <absolute-timeout>86400</absolute-timeout>
        <secure-cookies>false</secure-cookies>
    </session>
    ...
</control-center>
  

A third setting, secure-cookies, requires the browser to send session cookies only over HTTPS connections. For full configuration details, see our documentation.

How it helps

Information security standards often require users to be logged out after a set period of inactivity. Many standards also limit total session length. Setting idle and absolute timeouts lets you enforce your organization's session policy directly in the HiveMQ configuration.

More Noteworthy Features and Improvements

HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Broker

• Added two metrics that show the current and cumulative number of client connections throttled by the configured incoming-bandwidth-throttling limit: com.hivemq.networking.incoming-bandwidth-throttling.connections.current and com.hivemq.networking.incoming-bandwidth-throttling.connections.count.
• Improved the parallel processing of shared subscription messages that originate from a single publishing client.
• Fixed an issue where bridge clients could block the calling thread and stall other consumers.
• Fixed an error that prevented Data Hub from loading math libraries on the Eclipse OpenJ9 JVM.
• Fixed an issue that could cause incomplete metrics history data in the diagnostic archive.

HiveMQ Control Center

• Added a link to the HiveMQ Platform in the top navigation bar.
• Added a getting started guide to the Control Center on the HiveMQ platform.
• Added links to referenced schemas, scripts, and policies in Data Hub so that you can navigate directly between related resources.
• Added pagination and default sorting to the Dropped Messages details view.
• Removed the maintenance mode banner animation to reduce CPU usage in remote desktop (RDP) sessions.
• Fixed the search scope in the Dropped Messages details view so that the search filters only the intended columns.
• Fixed an issue where a logout during the creation of a trace recording left the application in a broken state until the page was refreshed.
• Fixed the MQTT packet types listed in the audit log event for Create trace recording.
• Fixed an issue where trace recordings with an invalid topic or client ID filter regex captured all traffic instead of rejecting the filter.

HiveMQ Enterprise Data Lake Extension

• Adjusted the file upload configuration to prevent timeouts on slow connections to Azure.

HiveMQ Enterprise Extension for Kafka

• Added default XSD schema validation of the extension configuration file to catch configuration errors early and prevent unexpected behavior.
• Improved MQTT-to-Kafka throughput with optimized batching settings for Kafka producers.
• Improved message throughput when the extension retries failed deliveries to Kafka.

Get Started Today

To upgrade HiveMQ from a previous version, follow the steps in the HiveMQ Upgrade Guide and review the Known Issues section for any considerations that could affect your deployment. If you plan to upgrade directly from the previous LTS, check the HiveMQ 4.28 (LTS) to 4.55 (LTS) Migration Guide.

To learn more about all the features the HiveMQ Platform offers, explore the HiveMQ User Guide.