meshcore-hub/docs/upgrading.md

Upgrading MeshCore Hub

This guide covers upgrading from a previous MeshCore Hub release to the current version. Check the relevant version section below before upgrading.

v0.9.0

This release includes breaking changes to the MQTT broker, packet capture service, data ingestion pipeline, and public key handling.

Overview of Changes

Area	Before	After
MQTT broker	Eclipse Mosquitto (TCP)	meshcore-mqtt-broker (WebSocket, JWT auth)
Packet capture	Proprietary interface-receiver service	meshcore-packet-capture (LetsMesh Observer model)
Auth model	MQTT username/password for publishing	JWT signed by device hardware public key
Collector MQTT	Anonymous subscriber	Subscriber account (admin-level) with credentials
Decoder	Node.js meshcore-decoder CLI subprocess	Native Python meshcoredecoder library
Python	3.13	3.14
DB columns	receiver_node_id	observer_node_id
DB table	event_receivers	event_observers
API commands	/api/v1/commands/*	Removed
Compose profiles	receiver, sender, mock	observer
Compose files	Single docker-compose.yml	Base + environment overrides (.dev.yml, .prod.yml)
Container names	meshcore-*	Parameterized via COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME (default: hub-*)
Volume names	meshcore_*	Parameterized via COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME (default: hub_*)
Public key case	Mixed (uppercase/lowercase)	Normalized to lowercase

Public Key Case Normalization

Previously, the tag importer stored public_key as lowercase while the LetsMesh packet normalizer stored it as UPPERCASE. This could create duplicate nodes for the same physical device — with tags linked to one node and mesh events linked to another.

An Alembic migration (b1c2d3e4f5a6) automatically:

1. Merges duplicate nodes (keeping the one with the earliest first_seen)
2. Re-points all foreign key references to the surviving node
3. Deletes the duplicate node
4. Normalizes all remaining public_key values to lowercase

No manual action is required — the migration runs as part of meshcore-hub db upgrade (or the migrate Docker Compose service).

Step 1: Backup

Do not skip this step. Back up all data volumes before proceeding.

Back up the database volume. Volume names use the old meshcore_* prefix:

mkdir -p backup
docker run --rm -v meshcore_hub_data:/data -v $(pwd)/backup:/backup \
  alpine tar czf /backup/meshcore_hub_data-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz -C / data

To restore from backup if needed:

# Extract the volume name from the backup filename
docker run --rm -v meshcore_hub_data:/data -v $(pwd)/backup:/backup \
  alpine sh -c "cd / && tar xzf /backup/meshcore_hub_data-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz"

Step 2: Stop and Remove Containers

Stop all services and remove orphaned containers from the old configuration:

docker compose --profile all down --remove-orphans

Important: Do NOT use --volumes / -v. That would delete your database. The --remove-orphans flag cleans up old services (like interface-receiver, interface-sender) that no longer exist in the new compose file.

Step 3: Rename Docker Volumes

Container and volume names are now parameterized via COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME. The default is hub, so volumes are renamed from meshcore_* to hub_*.

First, check which volumes you have:

docker volume ls | grep meshcore

Volumes to migrate

These volumes always need migrating:

Old Name	New Name
meshcore_hub_data	hub_data

Note: observer_data and mqtt_data are new — they are created automatically on first run and do not need migrating.

Option A: Rename (Docker Engine 23.0+)

Note: docker volume rename is not available in all Docker builds (e.g., Docker Desktop). If the command is not found, use Option B instead.

docker volume rename meshcore_hub_data hub_data

Option B: Copy (all Docker versions)

If docker volume rename is not available in your Docker build:

# Create new volume, copy data, remove old
docker volume create hub_data
docker run --rm -v meshcore_hub_data:/from -v hub_data:/to alpine sh -c "cp -a /from/. /to/"

# Verify the new volume has data, then remove old one
docker volume rm meshcore_hub_data

Note: If any volumes show "in use", remove any stopped containers first: docker rm -f <container_id>.

Note: If setting up a multi-instance deployment (e.g., hub-prod, hub-beta), use that project name instead of hub.

Note: After migrating volumes, you may see warnings like volume "hub_data" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use \external: true` to use an existing volume`. This is safe to ignore — it appears because the volumes were created manually during migration rather than by Docker Compose. Fresh deployments will not see this warning.

Step 4: Update Configuration Files

Download the latest configuration files:

# Download the base compose file and environment overrides
wget -O docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ipnet-mesh/meshcore-hub/main/docker-compose.yml
wget -O docker-compose.dev.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ipnet-mesh/meshcore-hub/main/docker-compose.dev.yml
wget -O docker-compose.prod.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ipnet-mesh/meshcore-hub/main/docker-compose.prod.yml

# Download the new .env.example for reference
wget -O .env.example https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ipnet-mesh/meshcore-hub/main/.env.example

Then compare your existing .env against the new .env.example and update it (see Step 5).

Step 5: Migrate Your .env File

Variables to Remove

These variables no longer exist and should be removed from your .env:

# Removed: ingest mode is now always LetsMesh upload
COLLECTOR_INGEST_MODE=native

# Removed: decoder is now a native Python library, always enabled
COLLECTOR_LETSMESH_DECODER_ENABLED=true
COLLECTOR_LETSMESH_DECODER_COMMAND=meshcore-decoder
COLLECTOR_LETSMESH_DECODER_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=2.0

# Removed: serial baud is handled by meshcore-packet-capture
SERIAL_BAUD=115200

# Removed: sender service no longer exists
SERIAL_PORT_SENDER=/dev/ttyUSB1
NODE_ADDRESS_SENDER=

# Removed: device name/address now handled by meshcore-packet-capture
MESHCORE_DEVICE_NAME=
NODE_ADDRESS=

# Removed: contact cleanup was specific to the proprietary receiver
CONTACT_CLEANUP_ENABLED=true
CONTACT_CLEANUP_DAYS=7

# Removed: Mosquitto-specific ports
MQTT_EXTERNAL_PORT=1883
MQTT_WS_PORT=9001

Variables to Update

Variable	Old Value	New Value	Notes
MQTT_TRANSPORT	tcp	websockets	Required by the new JWT-based broker
MQTT_WS_PATH	/mqtt	/	New broker accepts connections on /
MQTT_USERNAME	(empty/optional)	Subscriber username	Now required for collector subscriber auth. Set to match your broker's SUBSCRIBER_1 config.
MQTT_PASSWORD	(empty/optional)	Subscriber password	Now required for collector subscriber auth. Generate a secure password: openssl rand -base64 32

Note: The Python-level defaults for MQTT_TRANSPORT and MQTT_WS_PATH are now websockets and /, matching the Docker Compose and .env.example values. No additional configuration is needed for non-Docker users.

Variables to Add

# Docker Compose project name (container and volume prefix)
COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=hub

# JWT audience claim for packet capture authentication tokens
# Must match AUTH_EXPECTED_AUDIENCE on the broker
MQTT_TOKEN_AUDIENCE=mqtt.localhost

# IATA airport code for your observer location (required for packet capture)
# Use the 3-letter code for the nearest airport.
# Look up your code: https://www.iata.org/en/publications/directories/code-search/
PACKETCAPTURE_IATA=LOC

All other PACKETCAPTURE_* variables have sensible defaults in docker-compose.yml and only need to be set in .env if you want to override them. See .env.example for the full list.

Step 6: Run Database Migration

The migration renames receiver_node_id → observer_node_id across all event tables, event_receivers → event_observers, and received_at → observed_at in the event observers table:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile core run --rm migrate

This runs automatically as part of the core profile, but can also be run standalone with the migrate profile:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile migrate run --rm migrate

Step 7: Start Services

With local MQTT broker (single-host deployment)

# Start everything including the MQTT broker
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile mqtt --profile core up -d

# Or include packet capture on the same host
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile mqtt --profile core --profile observer up -d

With external MQTT broker

# Start core services only (broker runs elsewhere)
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile core up -d

Verify

# Check all containers are running
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile all ps

# Check collector connected to MQTT
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile all logs collector | grep -i "connected to mqtt"

# Check the web dashboard
open http://localhost:8080

Notes

JWT-Based Packet Capture Authentication

The new packet capture service (meshcore-packet-capture) uses the LetsMesh Observer model:

• No custom MQTT credentials needed for publishing. Authentication is handled via JWT tokens signed by the capture device's hardware public key. The MQTT broker validates the JWT and authorizes publishing automatically.
• The collector connects as a subscriber to read all published events, including /internal topics. Configure MQTT_USERNAME and MQTT_PASSWORD to match the broker's subscriber account.

Production MQTT Configuration

In production, the MQTT WebSocket server should be hosted behind a TLS/SSL-terminated reverse proxy (e.g., Nginx Proxy Manager, Caddy, Traefik) under the /mqtt path. The proxy handles TLS termination and forwards plain WebSocket connections to the broker on port 1883.

Local / development (default):

MQTT_PORT=1883
MQTT_TRANSPORT=websockets
MQTT_WS_PATH=/
MQTT_TLS=false
MQTT_TOKEN_AUDIENCE=mqtt.localhost

Production (behind reverse proxy):

MQTT_PORT=443
MQTT_TRANSPORT=websockets
MQTT_WS_PATH=/mqtt
MQTT_TLS=true
MQTT_TOKEN_AUDIENCE=mqtt.example.com   # your public domain

Existing LetsMesh Observer Installs

If you already run meshcore-packet-capture separately, configure MQTT server #3 to point at your MeshCore Hub MQTT broker. Servers #1 and #2 are reserved for Let's Mesh US (mqtt-us-v1.letsmesh.net) and Let's Mesh EU (mqtt-eu-v1.letsmesh.net) respectively.

# In your packet-capture .env or docker-compose environment:
PACKETCAPTURE_MQTT3_ENABLED=true
PACKETCAPTURE_MQTT3_SERVER=your-meshcore-hub-host
PACKETCAPTURE_MQTT3_PORT=1883
PACKETCAPTURE_MQTT3_TRANSPORT=websockets
PACKETCAPTURE_MQTT3_USE_TLS=false
PACKETCAPTURE_MQTT3_USE_AUTH_TOKEN=true
PACKETCAPTURE_MQTT3_TOKEN_AUDIENCE=mqtt.localhost

Removed Services

The following Docker Compose services have been removed:

Old Service	Replacement
interface-receiver	observer (profile: observer)
interface-sender	None (removed)
interface-mock-receiver	None (removed)

The observer service uses the meshcore-packet-capture image and is included in docker-compose.yml under the observer profile for an easy transition.

New Docker Compose File Structure

The Docker Compose configuration is now split into multiple files:

File	Purpose
docker-compose.yml	Base shared config (services, profiles, healthchecks, environment)
docker-compose.dev.yml	Development overrides (port mappings for direct access)
docker-compose.prod.yml	Production overrides (external proxy network, no exposed ports)
docker-compose.traefik.yml	Optional Traefik auto-discovery labels

All docker compose commands now require explicit file selection:

# Development (exposes ports for local access)
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.dev.yml --profile all up -d

# Production (connects to reverse proxy network)
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod.yml --profile all up -d

# Production with Traefik
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.prod.yml -f docker-compose.traefik.yml --profile all up -d

Container and volume names are parameterized via COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME in .env. This enables multiple instances (e.g., hub-prod, hub-beta) on the same Docker host.

Removed API Endpoints

The command dispatch API endpoints have been removed:

• POST /api/v1/commands/send-message
• POST /api/v1/commands/send-channel-message
• POST /api/v1/commands/send-advertisement

Native Python Decoder

The Node.js meshcore-decoder CLI tool has been replaced by the native Python meshcoredecoder library. This means:

• No Node.js runtime is needed in the Docker image
• The decoder is always enabled (no toggle)
• The COLLECTOR_LETSMESH_DECODER_* configuration variables have been removed
• COLLECTOR_LETSMESH_DECODER_KEYS has been renamed to COLLECTOR_CHANNEL_KEYS
• New COLLECTOR_INCLUDE_TEST_CHANNEL variable controls whether built-in test channel messages are collected (default: false)