Start EMQX

Start EMQX broker in the background

bash

$ emqx start
EMQX Broker v4.0.0 is started successfully!

systemctl start

bash

$ sudo systemctl start emqx
EMQX Broker v4.0.0 is started successfully!

service start

bash

$ sudo service emqx start
EMQX Broker v4.0.0 is started successfully!

TIP

If you are using EMQX Enterprise, you need to import a license to use it. For the import steps, see Start EMQX Enterprise below.

EMQX Broker installed via ZIP archive does not support systemctl and service startup.

Check the status of EMQX Broker

EMQX Broker starts normally:

bash

$ emqx_ctl status
Node 'emqx@127.0.0.1' is started
emqx 4.0.0 is running

EMQX Broker failed to start normally:

bash

$ emqx_ctl status
Node 'emqx@127.0.0.1' not responding to pings。

You can check the log file from logs and confirm whether it belongs to Common Error.

After 4.2-rc.1, EMQX has added telemetry, Please learn more before starting.

EMQX Enterprise needs a license file to start normally. EMQX can skip this step.

EMQX Enterprise requires a license file to start normally. EMQX Broker can skip this step.

Visit the EMQX Enterprise download page, click Get FREE Trial License.
Apply for a trial license file, then download the license file.
Change the path to the license file in the config: modify license.file in the etc/license.conf file, and make sure that the license file is indeed in the updated path and EMQX Enterprise has read permission to it. Then, start EMQX Enterprise. EMQX Enterprise is started in the same way as EMQX Broker.
Alternatively, if the running EMQX Enterprise cluster needs to update the license file, you can use the emqx_ctl license reload [path of the license file] command to directly update the license file without restarting any nodes. It should be noted that the certificate loaded by the emqx_ctl license reload command will be applied to the whole EMQX cluster, and it will be saved in EMQX's data directory under the licenses subdirectory (i.e.: data/licenses/emqx.lic) in each node. Even if the broker is restarted, this new license file will be loaded and applied.