---
title: "Setting up an Aedes Websocket MQTT broker on Plesk (Phusion Passenger)"
date: 'Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:22:02 -0400'
author: jmcouillard
image: https://jmcouillard.com/sites/default/files/styles/fixed_width_1200/public/articles/104/okkkk.jpg.webp?itok=2DvdES1l
published: true
type: blog
url: https://jmcouillard.com/en/blog/setting-aedes-websocket-mqtt-broker-plesk-phusion-passenger
language: en
id: 104
---

Using Websocket and MQTT through Plesk requires a bit of tinkering. Here are the main points to keep in mind.

### nginx Setup

In *Apache & nginx Settings*,  uncheck *Proxy mode*:
![Proxy mode checbox](https://jmcouillard.s3.amazonaws.com/public/jmcouillard/plesk-passenger-websocket-nginx.png)
  
Then, add the following *Additional nginx directives*:  
  
```  
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noindex, nofollow" always;  
proxy_http_version 1.1;  
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;  
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";  
proxy_set_header Host $host;  
```

## Phusion Passenger entry point setup  

If you use ES module Javascipt in you app.js file, then Phusion Passengeger will look for a `.bootstrap.cjs` file and throw an error : 

> Error: Cannot find module '/your/projet/path/.bootstrap.cjs'

To resolve this issue, create a file that use CommunJS syntax and import your module: 
```
(async () => {  
  await import('./app.mjs'); // Point to your actual ESM entry file  
})();
```

## Basic application example

Here is a minimal `app.mjs` example that enables MQTT over websocket and that is compatible with Phusion Passenger and can be run using Plesk built-in support for node.js application

```
import express from 'express';
import {Aedes} from 'aedes'
import http from 'node:http';
import {WebSocketServer, createWebSocketStream} from 'ws'
import dotenv from 'dotenv';

dotenv.config({quiet: true});

const app = express();
const server = http.Server(app);
const aedes = await Aedes.createBroker({persistence: 0})

/**
 * Enable if you're behind a reverse proxy (Heroku, Bluemix, AWS ELB, Nginx, etc)
 * see https://expressjs.com/en/guide/behind-proxies.html
 */
app.set('trust proxy', ((parseInt(process.env.BEHIND_PROXY) === 1)));

// Index page
app.get(["/"], (req, res) => {
  res.send("200");
});

// Create Websocket server
const wss = new WebSocketServer({
  server: server
})

// Bind the websocket server with Aedes
wss.on('connection', (websocket, req) => {
  const stream = createWebSocketStream(websocket)
  aedes.handle(stream, req)
})

// Launch app.
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 8080;
server.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`App listening on port ${PORT}`);
  console.log('Press Ctrl+C to quit.');
});
```