SecureMQ

Secure messaging service, like axon or zeromq, but secure.

SecureMQ uses HTTPS for transport rather than plain TCP, this allows SecureMQ to have:

• encryption (TLS/SSL).
• authentication (Basic).
• firewall friendliness (single port).

SecureMQ is completely written in javascript for nodeJS and does not need a binding like zeromq.

Installation

From your terminal, requires nodeJS.

npm install securemq

If using the secure option you will need to have TLS (SSL) key and certificate files. These can be built using OpenSSL, for example:

Key, key.pem file:

openssl genrsa -out key.pem 1024

Certificate, cert.pem file:

openssl req -new -key key.pem -out cert.pem

To create a self-signed certificate:

openssl x509 -req -in cert.pem -signkey key.pem -out cert.pem

Message Patterns

• push / pull
• pub / sub
• chit / chat

Events

• closed when peer closes.
• error (err) when an un-handled socket error occurs.
• reconnect attempt when a reconnection attempt is made.
• connected (connection as object) when connected to the peer, or a peer connection is accepted.
• queued (msg) when a message is enqueued, can use to save unsent messages.
• flushed (total messages) queued when messages are flushed on connection.
• message (msg) the message received by peer.

Examples

See examples folder. To print debugging info use the --preview argument when running the app, for example:

node examples/pushpull/push.js --preview

Push / Pull Example

pushs distribute messages round-robin:

var securemq = require('securemq');

var options = {
  hostname: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 3443,
  secure: true,
  key: __dirname + '/key.pem',
  cert: __dirname + '/cert.pem',
  apikeys: ['za91j2bk72f483ap62x'] 
};
var service = securemq.bind(options);

var myService = new service('myService', 'push');
console.log('myService:push server started');

setInterval(function(){
  myService.send('hello');
}, 100);

Receiver of push messages:

var securemq = require('securemq');

var options = { 
  hostname: '127.0.0.1', 
  port: 3443, 
  secure: true, 
  rejectUnauthorized: false,
  apikey: 'za91j2bk72f483ap62x'
};
var service = securemq.connect(options);

var myService = new service('myService', 'pull');

myService.on('message', function(msg){
  console.log(msg.toString());
});

Chit / Chat Example

chits is bi-directional, broadcast to all chat peers and can receive messages back:

var securemq = require('securemq');

var options = {
  hostname: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 3443,
  secure: true,
  key: __dirname + '/key.pem',
  cert: __dirname + '/cert.pem',
  apikeys: ['za91j2bk72f483ap62x'] 
};
var service = securemq.bind(options);

var myService = new service('myService', 'chit');
console.log('myService:chit server started');

myService.on('message', function(msg){
  console.log(msg.toString());
});

setInterval(function(){
  myService.send('hello chat');
}, 100);

chats is bi-directional, can receive and send messages to chit:

var securemq = require('securemq');

var options = { 
  hostname: '127.0.0.1', 
  port: 3443, 
  secure: true, 
  rejectUnauthorized: false,
  apikey: 'za91j2bk72f483ap62x'
};
var service = securemq.connect(options);

var myService = new service('myService', 'chat');

myService.on('message', function(msg){
  console.log(msg.toString());
});

setInterval(function(){
  myService.send('hello chit');
}, 1000);

Options

• hwm (number) of messages before High Water Mark is breached.
• server_name (string) HTTP 'server' name.
• throw_error (boolean) if catch socket connection error, throw error.
• retry (number) of times to try reconnecting.
• secure (boolean) if true: will use HTTPS key, cert and apikey as Basic Auth, if false: uses HTTP.
• key (filename) if secure true: path to TLS/SSL key file.
• cert (filename) if secure true: path to TLS/SSL certificate file.
• apikeys (array) if secure true and bind peer, will use this as Basic Auth.
• apikey (string) if secure true and connecting peer, will use this as Basic Auth.
• rejectUnauthorized (boolean) if secure true and if using a self-signed certificate.
• hostname (IP/domain) address to bind or connect.
• port (number) port to bind or connect.
• protocol (amp|ldjson) messages can be sent in either: 'amp' (Abstract Message Protocol) or 'ldjson' (Line Delimited JSON).
• reconnecttime (milliseconds) after reconnection attempt.

Refresh apikeys

Can refresh the bind peers list of apikeys:

kurunt.refreshApikeys(['mynewapikey']);

Message Protocol

SecureMQ has two message protocols for you to choose from; AMP protocol, with node-amp-message, the second protocol available is Line Delimited JSON.

SecureMQ uses AMP by default as it is fastest and most flexible. AMP allows you to apply any message codec, such as: json, msgpack, or to use node.js objects like buffer (binary). Line Delimited JSON is useful for connecting peers written in different languages.

Set message protocol options amp, ldjson:

{
  protocol: 'amp'   // (default), or: 'ldjson' for Line Delimited JSON.
}

Performance

You can benchmark securemq. With secure set to true will be slower as messages are encrypted.

Benchmark without batching:

make bench

Benchmark with batching:

make benchbatch

Results

Sending a 200 byte sized batched unsecure message, on my laptop (dual-core i7), I get around 211,513 messages per second:

  [2569 ops/s] [10001]

      min: 2,569 ops/s
     mean: 2,548 ops/s
   median: 2,594 ops/s
    total: 12,571 ops in 4.933s
  through: 0.49 mb/s

------------------------------
   events: 1,043,393
       id: 24,723
 *** mean: 211,513 ops/s.
------------------------------

License

Choose either: MIT or Apache 2.0.