Integrations

MQTT to Kafka, without a script.

Subscribe to the plant's MQTT topics with MaestroHub, check each message against its schema and quality, and produce it to Kafka topics with a key such as the machine id. Messages wait on disk if the Kafka cluster is unreachable and are delivered in order.

The flow

One value, from the machine to Kafka. Illustrative.

MQTTmessage brokerplant/line2/+/+

MaestroHub

Filler 2 speed · 412 bpm · Good

named, unit, quality
origin stamped
buffered on disk

Kafkaevent streamingplant.telemetry (key: line2/filler2)

Why do it with MaestroHub

More than a pipe from MQTT to Kafka.

Schema-checked before Kafka

Messages that don't match their schema are stopped or flagged before they reach downstream consumers.

Order kept where it matters

Kafka is an ordered destination, so buffered messages are delivered in order after an outage.

Keys from the plant model

Partition keys come from the asset structure, so each machine's events stay together.

What lands in Kafka

An example. You choose the fields in the pipeline.

key	signal	value	unit	quality	ts
line2/filler2	speed	412	bpm	good	2026-10-03T06:00:01Z

Set it up in three steps

1
Connect MQTT
Add the broker and subscribe to the topics you need; the Discover tab shows what the broker already carries.
2
Give the values meaning
Map each value to a topic in the namespace with its name, unit and schema. Quality and origin are stamped on every value.
3
Deliver to Kafka
Add a Kafka produce output, choose the topic and the message key, for example the machine id.

Before you start

What each side needs, from the connector documentation.

MQTT

A reachable MQTT broker: hostname, port (typically 1883 plain, 8883 for TLS) and protocol tcp, ssl, ws or wss.
Broker credentials if the broker requires them. A password needs a username.
For verified TLS or mutual TLS: the CA certificate, client certificate and private key in PEM format.

Example settings

Protocol: ssl
Broker Hostname: broker.example.com
Port: 8883
MQTT Version: 3.1.1
Client ID: <your-client-id>
Keep Alive (sec): 60

MQTT connector documentation

Kafka

Bootstrap broker addresses as host:port, comma separated. Default ports are 9092 for PLAINTEXT, 9093 for SSL/TLS and 9094 for SASL_PLAINTEXT; use the port of your broker's listener.
SASL credentials if the cluster requires them, using PLAIN, SCRAM-SHA-256 or SCRAM-SHA-512.
A consumer group ID for consume functions, set on the connection or overridden per function.

Example settings

Brokers: broker1:9092,broker2:9092
Client ID: maestrohub-producer
Consumer Group ID: maestrohub-consumers
Enable SASL: true
SASL Mechanism: SCRAM-SHA-256
Enable TLS: true

Kafka connector documentation

Things to know

Pitfalls and limits the documentation calls out, so they don't surprise you on site.

MQTT

Plain ws cannot use TLS. Use wss for TLS over WebSocket.
The certificate fields appear only when TLS is on and certificate verification is not skipped.
On MQTT 5.0, write a shared subscription in the topic filter to load-balance across clients: $share/<group>/<topic>.

Limits

Reconnection, subscription recovery and message acknowledgement are handled by the platform and cannot be configured on the connection.

Kafka

Keep Auto Commit off. Offsets are then committed after the pipeline succeeds, which gives at-least-once delivery. With it on, a message can be lost if processing fails.
Set Session Timeout to at least 3 times the Heartbeat Interval, or the broker can consider the consumer dead and rebalance.
Use SASL PLAIN together with TLS to protect credentials in transit.

Limits

Consume functions are triggers and do not accept runtime parameters. Templates work in Produce functions only.

What teams use it for

OT data into the enterprise event bus

Plant events available to every team on Kafka.

Stream processing

Flink or Kafka Streams jobs on clean, keyed telemetry.

Decoupling apps from the broker

Consumers read Kafka without touching the plant's MQTT broker.

Ways to connect MQTT to Kafka

In general terms. Check any specific product for its own details.

Compare a custom script, a flow tool, a cloud vendor's edge service and MaestroHub

Swipe sideways to see every column

	A custom script	A flow tool	A cloud vendor's edge service	MaestroHub
Talks MQTT	A library you choose	Community plug-ins	Depends on the vendor	Built in, one of 90+ connectors
Names, units and schema	You write it	You build it	Partly, in the vendor's model	One governed namespace
Quality on every value	You write it	You build it	Depends on the vendor	Built in, carried through calculations
Where each value came from	You write it	You build it	Depends on the vendor	Stamped on every value
Survives a network outage	You build it	You build it	Usually, to that vendor's cloud	On disk, per destination, in order
Several destinations at once	One script each	Yes, flow by flow	Mostly that vendor's cloud	Any mix, each with its own buffer
Permissions and audit	You build it	You build it	Cloud account permissions	Roles, single sign-on, audit trail
AI agents can use the data	You build it	You build it	Depends on the vendor	Through the MCP server

Questions

How do I bridge MQTT data to Kafka?

Do I need to write code to connect MQTT to Kafka?

No. You configure the MQTT connection and the Kafka output in MaestroHub and join them with a pipeline. Transformations can be added where you need them.

Where does MaestroHub run for this?

On your own infrastructure next to the machines: an edge box, a virtual machine or Kubernetes. Nothing has to leave your network.

Why not just write a script for MQTT to Kafka?

A script works on day one. The cost comes later: decoding and naming values, handling bad quality, buffering through outages, keeping credentials safe, and doing it again for the next machine and the next destination. MaestroHub does those once, for every connector.

What else can MQTT data go to?

More than 90 connectors are included in every edition, among them historians, databases, cloud warehouses, message brokers and business systems, so the same values can feed several destinations at once.

Other integrations

All integrations