1. Overview of Strimzi

Strimzi simplifies the process of running Apache Kafka in a Kubernetes cluster.

1.1. Kafka capabilities

The underlying data stream-processing capabilities and component architecture of Kafka can deliver:

  • Microservices and other applications to share data with extremely high throughput and low latency

  • Message ordering guarantees

  • Message rewind/replay from data storage to reconstruct an application state

  • Message compaction to remove old records when using a key-value log

  • Horizontal scalability in a cluster configuration

  • Replication of data to control fault tolerance

  • Retention of high volumes of data for immediate access

1.2. Kafka use cases

Kafka’s capabilities make it suitable for:

  • Event-driven architectures

  • Event sourcing to capture changes to the state of an application as a log of events

  • Message brokering

  • Website activity tracking

  • Operational monitoring through metrics

  • Log collection and aggregation

  • Commit logs for distributed systems

  • Stream processing so that applications can respond to data in real time

1.3. How Strimzi supports Kafka

Strimzi provides container images and Operators for running Kafka on Kubernetes. Strimzi Operators are fundamental to the running of Strimzi. The Operators provided with Strimzi are purpose-built with specialist operational knowledge to effectively manage Kafka.

Operators simplify the process of:

  • Deploying and running Kafka clusters

  • Deploying and running Kafka components

  • Configuring access to Kafka

  • Securing access to Kafka

  • Upgrading Kafka

  • Managing brokers

  • Creating and managing topics

  • Creating and managing users

1.4. Operators

Strimzi provides Operators for managing a Kafka cluster running within a Kubernetes cluster.

Cluster Operator

Deploys and manages Apache Kafka clusters, Kafka Connect, Kafka MirrorMaker, Kafka Bridge, Kafka Exporter, and the Entity Operator

Entity Operator

Comprises the Topic Operator and User Operator

Topic Operator

Manages Kafka topics

User Operator

Manages Kafka users

The Cluster Operator can deploy the Topic Operator and User Operator as part of an Entity Operator configuration at the same time as a Kafka cluster.

Operators within the Strimzi architecture

Operators

1.5. Document Conventions

Replaceables

In this document, replaceable text is styled in monospace and italics.

For example, in the following code, you will want to replace my-namespace with the name of your namespace:

sed -i 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml

2. Getting started with Strimzi

Strimzi is designed to work on all types of Kubernetes cluster regardless of distribution, from public and private clouds to local deployments intended for development. Strimzi supports a few features which are specific to OpenShift, where such integration benefits OpenShift users and cannot be implemented equivalently using standard Kubernetes.

This guide assumes that a Kubernetes cluster is available and the kubectl command-line tool is installed and configured to connect to the running cluster.

When no existing Kubernetes cluster is available, minikube can be used to create a local cluster. More details can be found in Installing Kubernetes clusters.

If you want to use OpenShift-specific features and have no OpenShift cluster minishift can be used to create a local cluster. More details can be found in Installing OpenShift clusters.

Note
 To run the commands in this guide, your cluster user must have the rights to manage role-based access control (RBAC) and CRDs.

2.1. Installing Strimzi and deploying components

To install Strimzi, download the release artefacts from GitHub.

The folder contains several YAML files to help you deploy the components of Strimzi to Kubernetes, perform common operations, and configure your Kafka cluster. The YAML files are referenced throughout this documentation.

Additionally, a Helm Chart is provided for deploying the Cluster Operator using Helm. The container images are available through the Docker Hub.

The remainder of this chapter provides an overview of each component and instructions for deploying the components to Kubernetes using the YAML files provided.

Note
 Although container images for Strimzi are available in the Docker Hub, we recommend that you use the YAML files provided instead.

2.2. Custom resources

Custom resources allow you to configure and introduce changes to a default Strimzi deployment. In order to use custom resources, custom resource definitions must first be defined.

Custom resource definitions (CRDs) extend the Kubernetes API, providing definitions to add custom resources to a Kubernetes cluster. Custom resources are created as instances of the APIs added by CRDs.

In Strimzi, CRDs introduce custom resources specific to Strimzi to a Kubernetes cluster, such as Kafka, Kafka Connect, Kafka Mirror Maker, and users and topics custom resources. CRDs provide configuration instructions, defining the schemas used to instantiate and manage the Strimzi-specific resources. CRDs also allow Strimzi resources to benefit from native Kubernetes features like CLI accessibility and configuration validation.

CRDs require a one-time installation in a cluster. Depending on the cluster setup, installation typically requires cluster admin privileges.

Note
 Access to manage custom resources is limited to Strimzi administrators.

CRDs and custom resources are defined as YAML files.

A CRD defines a new kind of resource, such as kind:Kafka, within a Kubernetes cluster.

The Kubernetes API server allows custom resources to be created based on the kind and understands from the CRD how to validate and store the custom resource when it is added to the Kubernetes cluster.

Warning
 When CRDs are deleted, custom resources of that type are also deleted. Additionally, the resources created by the custom resource, such as pods and statefulsets are also deleted.
Additional resources

2.2.1. Strimzi custom resource example

Each Strimzi-specific custom resource conforms to the schema defined by the CRD for the resource’s kind.

To understand the relationship between a CRD and a custom resource, let’s look at a sample of the CRD for a Kafka topic.

Kafka topic CRD
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: CustomResourceDefinition
metadata: (1)
  name: kafkatopics.kafka.strimzi.io
  labels:
    app: strimzi
spec: (2)
  group: kafka.strimzi.io
  versions:
    v1beta1
  scope: Namespaced
  names:
    # ...
    singular: kafkatopic
    plural: kafkatopics
    shortNames:
    - kt (3)
  additionalPrinterColumns: (4)
      # ...
  subresources:
    status: {} (5)
  validation: (6)
    openAPIV3Schema:
      properties:
        spec:
          type: object
          properties:
            partitions:
              type: integer
              minimum: 1
            replicas:
              type: integer
              minimum: 1
              maximum: 32767
      # ...

  1. The metadata for the topic CRD, its name and a label to identify the CRD.

  2. The specification for this CRD, including the group (domain) name, the plural name and the supported schema version, which are used in the URL to access the API of the topic. The other names are used to identify instance resources in the CLI. For example, kubectl get kafkatopic my-topic or kubectl get kafkatopics.

  3. The shortname can be used in CLI commands. For example, kubectl get kt can be used as an abbreviation instead of kubectl get kafkatopic.

  4. The information presented when using a get command on the custom resource.

  5. The current status of the CRD as described in the schema reference for the resource.

  6. openAPIV3Schema validation provides validation for the creation of topic custom resources. For example, a topic requires at least one partition and one replica.

Note
 You can identify the CRD YAML files supplied with the Strimzi installation files, because the file names contain an index number followed by ‘Crd’.

Here is a corresponding example of a KafkaTopic custom resource.

Kafka topic custom resource
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaTopic (1)
metadata:
  name: my-topic
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster (2)
spec: (3)
  partitions: 1
  replicas: 1
  config:
    retention.ms: 7200000
    segment.bytes: 1073741824
status:
  conditions: (4)
    lastTransitionTime: "2019-08-20T11:37:00.706Z"
    status: "True"
    type: Ready
  observedGeneration: 1
  / ...

  1. The kind and apiVersion identify the CRD of which the custom resource is an instance.

  2. A label, applicable only to KafkaTopic and KafkaUser resources, that defines the name of the Kafka cluster (which is same as the name of the Kafka resource) to which a topic or user belongs.

    The name is used by the Topic Operator and User Operator to identify the Kafka cluster when creating a topic or user.

  3. The spec shows the number of partitions and replicas for the topic as well as the configuration parameters for the topic itself. In this example, the retention period for a message to remain in the topic and the segment file size for the log are specified.

  4. Status conditions for the KafkaTopic resource. The type condition changed to Ready at the lastTransitionTime.

Custom resources can be applied to a cluster through the platform CLI. When the custom resource is created, it uses the same validation as the built-in resources of the Kubernetes API.

After a KafkaTopic custom resource is created, the Topic Operator is notified and corresponding Kafka topics are created in Strimzi.

2.2.2. Strimzi custom resource status

The status property of a Strimzi custom resource publishes information about the resource to users and tools that need it.

Several resources have a status property, as described in the following table.

Strimzi resource Schema reference Publishes status information on…​

Kafka

KafkaStatus schema reference

The Kafka cluster.

KafkaConnect

KafkaConnectStatus schema reference

The Kafka Connect cluster, if deployed.

KafkaConnectS2I

KafkaConnectS2Istatus schema reference

The Kafka Connect cluster with Source-to-Image support, if deployed.

KafkaConnector

KafkaConnectorStatus schema reference

KafkaConnector resources, if deployed.

KafkaMirrorMaker

KafkaMirrorMakerStatus schema reference

The Kafka MirrorMaker tool, if deployed.

KafkaTopic

KafkaTopicStatus schema reference

Kafka topics in your Kafka cluster.

KafkaUser

KafkaUserStatus schema reference

Kafka users in your Kafka cluster.

KafkaBridge

KafkaBridgeStatus schema reference

The Strimzi Kafka Bridge, if deployed.

The status property of a resource provides information on the resource’s:

  • Current state, in the status.conditions property

  • Last observed generation, in the status.observedGeneration property

The status property also provides resource-specific information. For example:

  • KafkaConnectStatus provides the REST API endpoint for Kafka Connect connectors.

  • KafkaUserStatus provides the user name of the Kafka user and the Secret in which their credentials are stored.

  • KafkaBridgeStatus provides the HTTP address at which external client applications can access the Bridge service.

A resource’s current state is useful for tracking progress related to the resource achieving its desired state, as defined by the spec property. The status conditions provide the time and reason the state of the resource changed and details of events preventing or delaying the operator from realizing the resource’s desired state.

The last observed generation is the generation of the resource that was last reconciled by the Cluster Operator. If the value of observedGeneration is different from the value of metadata.generation, the operator has not yet processed the latest update to the resource. If these values are the same, the status information reflects the most recent changes to the resource.

Strimzi creates and maintains the status of custom resources, periodically evaluating the current state of the custom resource and updating its status accordingly. When performing an update on a custom resource using kubectl edit, for example, its status is not editable. Moreover, changing the status would not affect the configuration of the Kafka cluster.

Here we see the status property specified for a Kafka custom resource.

Kafka custom resource with status
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
spec:
  # ...
status:
  conditions: (1)
  - lastTransitionTime: 2019-07-23T23:46:57+0000
    status: "True"
    type: Ready (2)
  observedGeneration: 4 (3)
  listeners: (4)
  - addresses:
    - host: my-cluster-kafka-bootstrap.myproject.svc
      port: 9092
    type: plain
  - addresses:
    - host: my-cluster-kafka-bootstrap.myproject.svc
      port: 9093
    type: tls
  - addresses:
    - host: 172.29.49.180
      port: 9094
    type: external
    # ...

  1. Status conditions describe criteria related to the status that cannot be deduced from the existing resource information, or are specific to the instance of a resource.

  2. The Ready condition indicates whether the Cluster Operator currently considers the Kafka cluster able to handle traffic.

  3. The observedGeneration indicates the generation of the Kafka custom resource that was last reconciled by the Cluster Operator.

  4. The listeners describe the current Kafka bootstrap addresses by type.

    Important
    		 The address in the custom resource status for external listeners with type nodeport is currently not supported.
Note
 The Kafka bootstrap addresses listed in the status do not signify that those endpoints or the Kafka cluster is in a ready state.
Accessing status information

You can access status information for a resource from the command line. For more information, see Checking the status of a custom resource.

2.3. Cluster Operator

The Cluster Operator is responsible for deploying and managing Apache Kafka clusters within a Kubernetes cluster.

2.3.1. Cluster Operator

Strimzi uses the Cluster Operator to deploy and manage clusters for:

  • Kafka (including ZooKeeper, Entity Operator and Kafka Exporter)

  • Kafka Connect

  • Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Kafka Bridge

Custom resources are used to deploy the clusters.

For example, to deploy a Kafka cluster:

  • A Kafka resource with the cluster configuration is created within the Kubernetes cluster.

  • The Cluster Operator deploys a corresponding Kafka cluster, based on what is declared in the Kafka resource.

The Cluster Operator can also deploy (through configuration of the Kafka resource):

  • A Topic Operator to provide operator-style topic management through KafkaTopic custom resources

  • A User Operator to provide operator-style user management through KafkaUser custom resources

The Topic Operator and User Operator function within the Entity Operator on deployment.

Example architecture for the Cluster Operator

Cluster Operator

2.3.2. Watch options for a Cluster Operator deployment

When the Cluster Operator is running, it starts to watch for updates of Kafka resources.

Depending on the deployment, the Cluster Operator can watch Kafka resources from:

Note
 Strimzi provides example YAML files to make the deployment process easier.

The Cluster Operator watches for changes to the following resources:

  • Kafka for the Kafka cluster.

  • KafkaConnect for the Kafka Connect cluster.

  • KafkaConnectS2I for the Kafka Connect cluster with Source2Image support.

  • KafkaConnector for creating and managing connectors in a Kafka Connect cluster.

  • KafkaMirrorMaker for the Kafka Mirror Maker instance.

  • KafkaBridge for the Kafka Bridge instance

When one of these resources is created in the Kubernetes cluster, the operator gets the cluster description from the resource and starts creating a new cluster for the resource by creating the necessary Kubernetes resources, such as StatefulSets, Services and ConfigMaps.

Each time a Kafka resource is updated, the operator performs corresponding updates on the Kubernetes resources that make up the cluster for the resource.

Resources are either patched or deleted, and then recreated in order to make the cluster for the resource reflect the desired state of the cluster. This operation might cause a rolling update that might lead to service disruption.

When a resource is deleted, the operator undeploys the cluster and deletes all related Kubernetes resources.

2.3.3. Deploying the Cluster Operator to watch a single namespace

Prerequisites

  • This procedure requires use of a Kubernetes user account which is able to create CustomResourceDefinitions, ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings. Use of Role Base Access Control (RBAC) in the Kubernetes cluster usually means that permission to create, edit, and delete these resources is limited to Kubernetes cluster administrators, such as system:admin.

  • Modify the installation files according to the namespace the Cluster Operator is going to be installed in.

    On Linux, use:

    sed -i 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml

    On MacOS, use:

    sed -i '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml
Procedure

  • Deploy the Cluster Operator:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator -n my-namespace

2.3.4. Deploying the Cluster Operator to watch multiple namespaces

Prerequisites

  • This procedure requires use of a Kubernetes user account which is able to create CustomResourceDefinitions, ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings. Use of Role Base Access Control (RBAC) in the Kubernetes cluster usually means that permission to create, edit, and delete these resources is limited to Kubernetes cluster administrators, such as system:admin.

  • Edit the installation files according to the namespace the Cluster Operator is going to be installed in.

    On Linux, use:

    sed -i 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml

    On MacOS, use:

    sed -i '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml
Procedure

  1. Edit the file install/cluster-operator/050-Deployment-strimzi-cluster-operator.yaml and in the environment variable STRIMZI_NAMESPACE list all the namespaces where Cluster Operator should watch for resources. For example:

    apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
spec:
  # ...
  template:
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: strimzi-cluster-operator
      containers:
      - name: strimzi-cluster-operator
        image: strimzi/operator:0.16.2
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        env:
        - name: STRIMZI_NAMESPACE
          value: watched-namespace-1,watched-namespace-2,watched-namespace-3

  2. For all namespaces which should be watched by the Cluster Operator (watched-namespace-1, watched-namespace-2, watched-namespace-3 in the above example), install the RoleBindings. Replace the watched-namespace with the namespace used in the previous step.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator/020-RoleBinding-strimzi-cluster-operator.yaml -n watched-namespace
kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator/031-RoleBinding-strimzi-cluster-operator-entity-operator-delegation.yaml -n watched-namespace
kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator/032-RoleBinding-strimzi-cluster-operator-topic-operator-delegation.yaml -n watched-namespace

  3. Deploy the Cluster Operator

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator -n my-namespace

2.3.5. Deploying the Cluster Operator to watch all namespaces

You can configure the Cluster Operator to watch Strimzi resources across all namespaces in your Kubernetes cluster. When running in this mode, the Cluster Operator automatically manages clusters in any new namespaces that are created.

Prerequisites

  • This procedure requires use of a Kubernetes user account which is able to create CustomResourceDefinitions, ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings. Use of Role Base Access Control (RBAC) in the Kubernetes cluster usually means that permission to create, edit, and delete these resources is limited to Kubernetes cluster administrators, such as system:admin.

  • Your Kubernetes cluster is running.

Procedure

  1. Configure the Cluster Operator to watch all namespaces:

    1. Edit the 050-Deployment-strimzi-cluster-operator.yaml file.

    2. Set the value of the STRIMZI_NAMESPACE environment variable to *.

      apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
spec:
  # ...
  template:
    spec:
      # ...
      serviceAccountName: strimzi-cluster-operator
      containers:
      - name: strimzi-cluster-operator
        image: strimzi/operator:0.16.2
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        env:
        - name: STRIMZI_NAMESPACE
          value: "*"
        # ...

  2. Create ClusterRoleBindings that grant cluster-wide access to all namespaces to the Cluster Operator.

    Use the kubectl create clusterrolebinding command:

    kubectl create clusterrolebinding strimzi-cluster-operator-namespaced --clusterrole=strimzi-cluster-operator-namespaced --serviceaccount my-namespace:strimzi-cluster-operator
kubectl create clusterrolebinding strimzi-cluster-operator-entity-operator-delegation --clusterrole=strimzi-entity-operator --serviceaccount my-namespace:strimzi-cluster-operator
kubectl create clusterrolebinding strimzi-cluster-operator-topic-operator-delegation --clusterrole=strimzi-topic-operator --serviceaccount my-namespace:strimzi-cluster-operator

    Replace my-namespace with the namespace in which you want to install the Cluster Operator.

  3. Deploy the Cluster Operator to your Kubernetes cluster.

    Use the kubectl apply command:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator -n my-namespace

2.3.6. Deploying the Cluster Operator using Helm Chart

Prerequisites

  • Helm client has to be installed on the local machine.

  • Helm has to be installed in the Kubernetes cluster.

Procedure

  1. Add the Strimzi Helm Chart repository:

    helm repo add strimzi https://strimzi.io/charts/

  2. Deploy the Cluster Operator using the Helm command line tool:

    helm install strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator

  3. Verify whether the Cluster Operator has been deployed successfully using the Helm command line tool:

    helm ls
Additional resources

2.3.7. Deploying the Cluster Operator from OperatorHub.io

OperatorHub.io is a catalog of Kubernetes Operators sourced from multiple providers. It offers you an alternative way to install stable versions of Strimzi using the Strimzi Kafka Operator.

The Operator Lifecycle Manager is used for the installation and management of all Operators published on OperatorHub.io.

To install Strimzi from OperatorHub.io, locate the Strimzi Kafka Operator and follow the instructions provided.

2.4. Kafka cluster

You can use Strimzi to deploy an ephemeral or persistent Kafka cluster to Kubernetes. When installing Kafka, Strimzi also installs a ZooKeeper cluster and adds the necessary configuration to connect Kafka with ZooKeeper.

You can also use it to deploy Kafka Exporter.

Ephemeral cluster

In general, an ephemeral (that is, temporary) Kafka cluster is suitable for development and testing purposes, not for production. This deployment uses emptyDir volumes for storing broker information (for ZooKeeper) and topics or partitions (for Kafka). Using an emptyDir volume means that its content is strictly related to the pod life cycle and is deleted when the pod goes down.

Persistent cluster

A persistent Kafka cluster uses PersistentVolumes to store ZooKeeper and Kafka data. The PersistentVolume is acquired using a PersistentVolumeClaim to make it independent of the actual type of the PersistentVolume. For example, it can use Amazon EBS volumes in Amazon AWS deployments without any changes in the YAML files. The PersistentVolumeClaim can use a StorageClass to trigger automatic volume provisioning.

Strimzi includes several examples for deploying a Kafka cluster.

  • kafka-persistent.yaml deploys a persistent cluster with three ZooKeeper and three Kafka nodes.

  • kafka-jbod.yaml deploys a persistent cluster with three ZooKeeper and three Kafka nodes (each using multiple persistent volumes).

  • kafka-persistent-single.yaml deploys a persistent cluster with a single ZooKeeper node and a single Kafka node.

  • kafka-ephemeral.yaml deploys an ephemeral cluster with three ZooKeeper and three Kafka nodes.

  • kafka-ephemeral-single.yaml deploys an ephemeral cluster with three ZooKeeper nodes and a single Kafka node.

The example clusters are named my-cluster by default. The cluster name is defined by the name of the resource and cannot be changed after the cluster has been deployed. To change the cluster name before you deploy the cluster, edit the Kafka.metadata.name property of the resource in the relevant YAML file.

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
# ...

2.4.1. Deploying the Kafka cluster

You can deploy an ephemeral or persistent Kafka cluster to Kubernetes on the command line.

Prerequisites

  • The Cluster Operator is deployed.

Procedure

  1. If you plan to use the cluster for development or testing purposes, you can create and deploy an ephemeral cluster using kubectl apply.

    kubectl apply -f examples/kafka/kafka-ephemeral.yaml

  2. If you plan to use the cluster in production, create and deploy a persistent cluster using kubectl apply.

    kubectl apply -f examples/kafka/kafka-persistent.yaml
Additional resources

2.5. Kafka Connect

Kafka Connect is a tool for streaming data between Apache Kafka and external systems. It provides a framework for moving large amounts of data into and out of your Kafka cluster while maintaining scalability and reliability. Kafka Connect is typically used to integrate Kafka with external databases and storage and messaging systems.

In Kafka Connect, a source connector is a runtime entity that fetches data from an external system and feeds it to Kafka as messages. A sink connector is a runtime entity that fetches messages from Kafka topics and feeds them to an external system. The workload of connectors is divided into tasks. Tasks are distributed among nodes (also called workers), which form a Connect cluster. This allows the message flow to be highly scalable and reliable.

Each connector is an instance of a particular connector class that knows how to communicate with the relevant external system in terms of messages. Connectors are available for many external systems, or you can develop your own.

The term connector is used interchangably to mean a connector instance running within a Kafka Connect cluster, or a connector class. This guide uses the term connector when the meaning is clear from the context.

Strimzi allows you to:

  • Create a Kafka Connect image containing the connectors you want

  • Deploy and manage a Kafka Connect cluster running within Kubernetes using a KafkaConnect resource

  • Run connectors within your Kafka Connect cluster, optionally managed using KafkaConnector resources

Kafka Connect includes the following built-in connectors for moving file-based data into and out of your Kafka cluster.

File Connector Description

FileStreamSourceConnector

Transfers data to your Kafka cluster from a file (the source).

FileStreamSinkConnector

Transfers data from your Kafka cluster to a file (the sink).

To use other connector classes, you need to prepare connector images by following one of these procedures:

The Cluster Operator can use images that you create to deploy a Kafka Connect cluster to your Kubernetes cluster.

A Kafka Connect cluster is implemented as a Deployment with a configurable number of workers.

You can create and manage connectors using KafkaConnector resources or manually using the Kafka Connect REST API, which is available on port 8083 as the <connect-cluster-name>-connect-api service. The operations supported by the REST API are described in the Apache Kafka documentation.

2.5.1. Deploying Kafka Connect to your cluster

You can deploy a Kafka Connect cluster to your Kubernetes cluster by using the Cluster Operator.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • Use the kubectl apply command to create a KafkaConnect resource based on the kafka-connect.yaml file:

    kubectl apply -f examples/kafka-connect/kafka-connect.yaml
Additional resources

2.5.2. Extending Kafka Connect with connector plug-ins

The Strimzi container images for Kafka Connect include the two built-in file connectors: FileStreamSourceConnector and FileStreamSinkConnector. You can add your own connectors by:

  • Creating a container image from the Kafka Connect base image (manually or using your CI (continuous integration), for example).

  • Creating a container image using OpenShift builds and Source-to-Image (S2I) - available only on OpenShift.

Creating a Docker image from the Kafka Connect base image

You can use the Kafka container image on Docker Hub as a base image for creating your own custom image with additional connector plug-ins.

The following procedure explains how to create your custom image and add it to the /opt/kafka/plugins directory. At startup, the Strimzi version of Kafka Connect loads any third-party connector plug-ins contained in the /opt/kafka/plugins directory.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Create a new Dockerfile using strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 as the base image:

    FROM strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0
USER root:root
COPY ./my-plugins/ /opt/kafka/plugins/
USER 1001

  2. Build the container image.

  3. Push your custom image to your container registry.

  4. Point to the new container image.

    You can either:

    • Edit the KafkaConnect.spec.image property of the KafkaConnect custom resource.

      If set, this property overrides the STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_IMAGES variable in the Cluster Operator.

      apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect-cluster
spec:
  #...
  image: my-new-container-image

      or

    • In the install/cluster-operator/050-Deployment-strimzi-cluster-operator.yaml file, edit the STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_IMAGES variable to point to the new container image, and then reinstall the Cluster Operator.

Additional resources
Creating a container image using OpenShift builds and Source-to-Image

You can use OpenShift builds and the Source-to-Image (S2I) framework to create new container images. An OpenShift build takes a builder image with S2I support, together with source code and binaries provided by the user, and uses them to build a new container image. Once built, container images are stored in OpenShift’s local container image repository and are available for use in deployments.

A Kafka Connect builder image with S2I support is provided on the Docker Hub as part of the strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 image. This S2I image takes your binaries (with plug-ins and connectors) and stores them in the /tmp/kafka-plugins/s2i directory. It creates a new Kafka Connect image from this directory, which can then be used with the Kafka Connect deployment. When started using the enhanced image, Kafka Connect loads any third-party plug-ins from the /tmp/kafka-plugins/s2i directory.

Procedure

  1. On the command line, use the oc apply command to create and deploy a Kafka Connect S2I cluster:

    oc apply -f examples/kafka-connect/kafka-connect-s2i.yaml

  2. Create a directory with Kafka Connect plug-ins:

    $ tree ./my-plugins/
./my-plugins/
├── debezium-connector-mongodb
│   ├── bson-3.4.2.jar
│   ├── CHANGELOG.md
│   ├── CONTRIBUTE.md
│   ├── COPYRIGHT.txt
│   ├── debezium-connector-mongodb-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── debezium-core-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── LICENSE.txt
│   ├── mongodb-driver-3.4.2.jar
│   ├── mongodb-driver-core-3.4.2.jar
│   └── README.md
├── debezium-connector-mysql
│   ├── CHANGELOG.md
│   ├── CONTRIBUTE.md
│   ├── COPYRIGHT.txt
│   ├── debezium-connector-mysql-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── debezium-core-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── LICENSE.txt
│   ├── mysql-binlog-connector-java-0.13.0.jar
│   ├── mysql-connector-java-5.1.40.jar
│   ├── README.md
│   └── wkb-1.0.2.jar
└── debezium-connector-postgres
    ├── CHANGELOG.md
    ├── CONTRIBUTE.md
    ├── COPYRIGHT.txt
    ├── debezium-connector-postgres-0.7.1.jar
    ├── debezium-core-0.7.1.jar
    ├── LICENSE.txt
    ├── postgresql-42.0.0.jar
    ├── protobuf-java-2.6.1.jar
    └── README.md

  3. Use the oc start-build command to start a new build of the image using the prepared directory:

    oc start-build my-connect-cluster-connect --from-dir ./my-plugins/
    Note
    		 The name of the build is the same as the name of the deployed Kafka Connect cluster.

  4. Once the build has finished, the new image is used automatically by the Kafka Connect deployment.

2.5.3. Creating and managing connectors

When you have created a container image for your connector plug-in, you need to create a connector instance in your Kafka Connect cluster. You can then configure, monitor, and manage a running connector instance. For example, you can:

  • Check the status of a connector instance

  • Increase or decrease the number of tasks for a connector instance

  • Restart failed tasks

  • Pause a connector instance

  • Delete a connector instance

Strimzi provides two APIs for creating and managing connectors:

  • KafkaConnector resources (referred to as KafkaConnectors)

  • Kafka Connect REST API

Note
 Currently, KafkaConnectors do not support restarting failed tasks. You need to use the Kafka Connect REST API to do this.
KafkaConnector resources

KafkaConnectors allow you to create and manage connector instances for Kafka Connect in a Kubernetes-native way, so an HTTP client such as cURL is not required. Like other Kafka resources, you declare a connector’s desired state in a KafkaConnector YAML file that is deployed to your Kubernetes cluster to create the connector instance.

You manage a running connector instance by updating its corresponding KafkaConnector, and then applying the updates. You remove a connector by deleting its corresponding KafkaConnector.

To ensure compatibility with earlier versions of Strimzi, KafkaConnectors are disabled by default. To enable them for a Kafka Connect cluster, you must use annotations on the KafkaConnect resource. For instructions, see Enabling KafkaConnector resources.

When KafkaConnectors are enabled, the Cluster Operator begins to watch for them. It updates the configurations of running connector instances to match the configurations defined in their KafkaConnectors.

Strimzi includes an example KafkaConnector, named examples/connector/source-connector.yaml. You can use this example to create and manage a FileStreamSourceConnector.

Availability of the Kafka Connect REST API

The Kafka Connect REST API is available on port 8083 as the <connect-cluster-name>-connect-api service.

If KafkaConnectors are enabled, manual changes made directly using the Kafka Connect REST API are reverted by the Cluster Operator.

2.5.4. Deploying a KafkaConnector resource to Kafka Connect

Deploy the example KafkaConnector to a Kafka Connect cluster. The example YAML will create a FileStreamSourceConnector to send each line of the license file to Kafka as a message in a topic named my-topic.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Edit the examples/connector/source-connector.yaml file:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: `KafkaConnector`
metadata:
  name: my-source-connector (1)
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-connect-cluster (2)
spec:
  class: org.apache.kafka.connect.file.FileStreamSourceConnector (3)
  tasksMax: 2 (4)
  config: (5)
    file: "/opt/kafka/LICENSE"
    topic: my-topic
    # ...

    1. Enter a name for the KafkaConnector resource. This will be used as the name of the connector within Kafka Connect. You can choose any name that is valid for a Kubernetes resource.

    2. Enter the name of the Kafka Connect cluster in which to create the connector.

    3. The name or alias of the connector class. This should be present in the image being used by the Kafka Connect cluster.

    4. The maximum number of tasks that the connector can create.

    5. Configuration settings for the connector. Available configuration options depend on the connector class.

  2. Create the KafkaConnector in your Kubernetes cluster:

    oc apply -f examples/connector/source-connector.yaml

  3. Check that the resource was created:

    oc get all --selector strimzi.io/cluster: my-connect-cluster -o name

2.6. Kafka Mirror Maker

The Cluster Operator deploys one or more Kafka Mirror Maker replicas to replicate data between Kafka clusters. This process is called mirroring to avoid confusion with the Kafka partitions replication concept. The Mirror Maker consumes messages from the source cluster and republishes those messages to the target cluster.

For information about example resources and the format for deploying Kafka Mirror Maker, see Kafka Mirror Maker configuration.

2.6.1. Deploying Kafka Mirror Maker

Prerequisites

  • Before deploying Kafka Mirror Maker, the Cluster Operator must be deployed.

Procedure

  • Create a Kafka Mirror Maker cluster from the command-line:

    kubectl apply -f examples/kafka-mirror-maker/kafka-mirror-maker.yaml
Additional resources

  • For more information about deploying the Cluster Operator, see Cluster Operator

2.7. Kafka Bridge

The Cluster Operator deploys one or more Kafka bridge replicas to send data between Kafka clusters and clients via HTTP API.

For information about example resources and the format for deploying Kafka Bridge, see Kafka Bridge configuration.

2.7.1. Deploying Kafka Bridge to your Kubernetes cluster

You can deploy a Kafka Bridge cluster to your Kubernetes cluster by using the Cluster Operator.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • Use the kubectl apply command to create a KafkaBridge resource based on the kafka-bridge.yaml file:

    kubectl apply -f examples/kafka-bridge/kafka-bridge.yaml
Additional resources

2.8. Deploying example clients

Prerequisites

  • An existing Kafka cluster for the client to connect to.

Procedure

  1. Deploy the producer.

    Use kubectl run:

    kubectl run kafka-producer -ti --image=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 --rm=true --restart=Never -- bin/kafka-console-producer.sh --broker-list cluster-name-kafka-bootstrap:9092 --topic my-topic

  2. Type your message into the console where the producer is running.

  3. Press Enter to send the message.

  4. Deploy the consumer.

    Use kubectl run:

    kubectl run kafka-consumer -ti --image=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 --rm=true --restart=Never -- bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server cluster-name-kafka-bootstrap:9092 --topic my-topic --from-beginning

  5. Confirm that you see the incoming messages in the consumer console.

2.9. Topic Operator

The Topic Operator is responsible for managing Kafka topics within a Kafka cluster running within a Kubernetes cluster.

2.9.1. Topic Operator

The Topic Operator provides a way of managing topics in a Kafka cluster through Kubernetes resources.

Example architecture for the Topic Operator

Topic Operator

The role of the Topic Operator is to keep a set of KafkaTopic Kubernetes resources describing Kafka topics in-sync with corresponding Kafka topics.

Specifically, if a KafkaTopic is:

  • Created, the Operator creates the topic

  • Deleted, the Operator deletes the topic

  • Changed, the Operator updates the topic

Working in the other direction, if a topic is:

  • Created within the Kafka cluster, the Operator creates a KafkaTopic

  • Deleted from the Kafka cluster, the Operator deletes the KafkaTopic

  • Changed in the Kafka cluster, the Operator updates the KafkaTopic

This allows you to declare a KafkaTopic as part of your application’s deployment and the Topic Operator will take care of creating the topic for you. Your application just needs to deal with producing or consuming from the necessary topics.

If the topic is reconfigured or reassigned to different Kafka nodes, the KafkaTopic will always be up to date.

2.9.2. Deploying the Topic Operator using the Cluster Operator

This procedure describes how to deploy the Topic Operator using the Cluster Operator. If you want to use the Topic Operator with a Kafka cluster that is not managed by Strimzi, you must deploy the Topic Operator as a standalone component. For more information, see Deploying the standalone Topic Operator.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka resource to be created or updated

Procedure

  1. Ensure that the Kafka.spec.entityOperator object exists in the Kafka resource. This configures the Entity Operator.

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  #...
  entityOperator:
    topicOperator: {}
    userOperator: {}

  2. Configure the Topic Operator using the fields described in EntityTopicOperatorSpec schema reference.

  3. Create or update the Kafka resource in Kubernetes.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

  • For more information about deploying the Cluster Operator, see Cluster Operator.

  • For more information about deploying the Entity Operator, see Entity Operator.

  • For more information about the Kafka.spec.entityOperator object used to configure the Topic Operator when deployed by the Cluster Operator, see EntityOperatorSpec schema reference.

2.10. User Operator

The User Operator is responsible for managing Kafka users within a Kafka cluster running within a Kubernetes cluster.

2.10.1. User Operator

The User Operator manages Kafka users for a Kafka cluster by watching for KafkaUser resources that describe Kafka users and ensuring that they are configured properly in the Kafka cluster. For example:

  • if a KafkaUser is created, the User Operator will create the user it describes

  • if a KafkaUser is deleted, the User Operator will delete the user it describes

  • if a KafkaUser is changed, the User Operator will update the user it describes

Unlike the Topic Operator, the User Operator does not sync any changes from the Kafka cluster with the Kubernetes resources. Unlike the Kafka topics which might be created by applications directly in Kafka, it is not expected that the users will be managed directly in the Kafka cluster in parallel with the User Operator.

The User Operator allows you to declare a KafkaUser as part of your application’s deployment. When the user is created, the user credentials are created in a Secret. Your application needs to use the user and its credentials for authentication and to produce or consume messages.

In addition to managing credentials for authentication, the User Operator also manages authorization rules by including a description of the user’s rights in the KafkaUser declaration.

2.10.2. Deploying the User Operator using the Cluster Operator

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka resource to be created or updated.

Procedure

  1. Edit the Kafka resource ensuring it has a Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator object that configures the User Operator how you want.

  2. Create or update the Kafka resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

  • For more information about deploying the Cluster Operator, see Cluster Operator.

  • For more information about the Kafka.spec.entityOperator object used to configure the User Operator when deployed by the Cluster Operator, see EntityOperatorSpec schema reference.

2.11. Strimzi Administrators

Strimzi includes several custom resources. By default, permission to create, edit, and delete these resources is limited to Kubernetes cluster administrators. If you want to allow non-cluster administators to manage Strimzi resources, you must assign them the Strimzi Administrator role.

2.11.1. Designating Strimzi Administrators

Prerequisites

  • Strimzi CustomResourceDefinitions are installed.

Procedure

  1. Create the strimzi-admin cluster role in Kubernetes.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f install/strimzi-admin

  2. Assign the strimzi-admin ClusterRole to one or more existing users in the Kubernetes cluster.

    Use kubectl create:

    kubectl create clusterrolebinding strimzi-admin --clusterrole=strimzi-admin --user=user1 --user=user2

2.12. Container images

Container images for Strimzi are available in the Docker Hub. The installation YAML files provided by Strimzi will pull the images directly from the Docker Hub.

If you do not have access to the Docker Hub or want to use your own container repository:

  1. Pull all container images listed here

  2. Push them into your own registry

  3. Update the image names in the installation YAML files

Note
 Each Kafka version supported for the release has a separate image.
Container image Namespace/Repository Description

Kafka

  • docker.io/strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.3.1

  • docker.io/strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0

Strimzi image for running Kafka, including:

  • Kafka Broker

  • Kafka Connect / S2I

  • Kafka Mirror Maker

  • ZooKeeper

  • TLS Sidecars

Operator

  • docker.io/strimzi/operator:0.16.2

Strimzi image for running the operators:

  • Cluster Operator

  • Topic Operator

  • User Operator

  • Kafka Initializer

Kafka Bridge

  • docker.io/strimzi/kafka-bridge:0.15.0

Strimzi image for running the Strimzi kafka Bridge

3. Deployment configuration

This chapter describes how to configure different aspects of the supported deployments:

  • Kafka clusters

  • Kafka Connect clusters

  • Kafka Connect clusters with Source2Image support

  • Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Kafka Bridge

  • OAuth 2.0 token based authentication

3.1. Kafka cluster configuration

The full schema of the Kafka resource is described in the Kafka schema reference. All labels that are applied to the desired Kafka resource will also be applied to the Kubernetes resources making up the Kafka cluster. This provides a convenient mechanism for resources to be labeled as required.

3.1.1. Sample Kafka YAML configuration

For help in understanding the configuration options available for your Kafka deployment, refer to sample YAML file provided here.

The sample shows only some of the possible configuration options, but those that are particularly important include:

  • Resource requests (CPU / Memory)

  • JVM options for maximum and minimum memory allocation

  • Listeners (and authentication)

  • Authentication

  • Storage

  • Rack awareness

  • Metrics

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    replicas: 3 (1)
    version: 0.16.2 (2)
    resources: (3)
      requests:
        memory: 64Gi
        cpu: "8"
      limits: (4)
        memory: 64Gi
        cpu: "12"
    jvmOptions: (5)
      -Xms: 8192m
      -Xmx: 8192m
    listeners: (6)
      tls:
        authentication:(7)
          type: tls
      external: (8)
        type: route
        authentication:
          type: tls
    authorization: (9)
      type: simple
    config: (10)
      auto.create.topics.enable: "false"
      offsets.topic.replication.factor: 3
      transaction.state.log.replication.factor: 3
      transaction.state.log.min.isr: 2
    storage: (11)
      type: persistent-claim (12)
      size: 10000Gi (13)
    rack: (14)
      topologyKey: failure-domain.beta.kubernetes.io/zone
    metrics: (15)
      lowercaseOutputName: true
      rules: (16)
      # Special cases and very specific rules
      - pattern : kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+), clientId=(.+), topic=(.+), partition=(.*)><>Value
        name: kafka_server_$1_$2
        type: GAUGE
        labels:
          clientId: "$3"
          topic: "$4"
          partition: "$5"
        # ...
  zookeeper: (17)
    replicas: 3
    resources:
      requests:
        memory: 8Gi
        cpu: "2"
      limits:
        memory: 8Gi
        cpu: "2"
    jvmOptions:
      -Xms: 4096m
      -Xmx: 4096m
    storage:
      type: persistent-claim
      size: 1000Gi
    metrics:
      # ...
  entityOperator: (18)
    topicOperator:
      resources:
        requests:
          memory: 512Mi
          cpu: "1"
        limits:
          memory: 512Mi
          cpu: "1"
    userOperator:
      resources:
        requests:
          memory: 512Mi
          cpu: "1"
        limits:
          memory: 512Mi
          cpu: "1"
  kafkaExporter: (19)
    # ...

  1. Replicas specifies the number of broker nodes.

  2. Kafka version, which can be changed by following the upgrade procedure.

  3. Resource requests specify the resources to reserve for a given container.

  4. Resource limits specify the maximum resources that can be consumed by a container.

  5. JVM options can specify the minimum (-Xms) and maximum (-Xmx) memory allocation for JVM.

  6. Listeners configure how clients connect to the Kafka cluster via bootstrap addresses. Listeners are configured as plain (without encryption), tls or external.

  7. Listener authentication mechanisms may be configured for each listener, and specified as mutual TLS or SCRAM-SHA.

  8. External listener configuration specifies how the Kafka cluster is exposed outside Kubernetes, such as through a route, loadbalancer or nodeport.

  9. Authorization enables simple authorization on the Kafka broker using the SimpleAclAuthorizer Kafka plugin.

  10. Config specifies the broker configuration. Standard Apache Kafka configuration may be provided, restricted to those properties not managed directly by Strimzi.

  11. Storage is configured as ephemeral, persistent-claim or jbod.

  12. Storage size for persistent volumes may be increased and additional volumes may be added to JBOD storage.

  13. Persistent storage has additional configuration options, such as a storage id and class for dynamic volume provisioning.

  14. Rack awareness is configured to spread replicas across different racks. A topology key must match the label of a cluster node.

  15. Kafka metrics configuration for use with Prometheus.

  16. Kafka rules for exporting metrics to a Grafana dashboard through the JMX Exporter. A set of rules provided with Strimzi may be copied to your Kafka resource configuration.

  17. ZooKeeper-specific configuration, which contains properties similar to the Kafka configuration.

  18. Entity Operator configuration, which specifies the configuration for the Topic Operator and User Operator.

  19. Kafka Exporter configuration, which is used to expose data as Prometheus metrics.

3.1.2. Data storage considerations

An efficient data storage infrastructure is essential to the optimal performance of Strimzi.

Strimzi requires block storage and is designed to work optimally with cloud-based block storage solutions, including Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). The use of file storage (for example, NFS) is not recommended.

Choose local storage (local persistent volumes) when possible. If local storage is not available, you can use a Storage Area Network (SAN) accessed by a protocol such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI.

Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper storage

Use separate disks for Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper.

Three types of data storage are supported:

  • Ephemeral (Recommended for development only)

  • Persistent

  • JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks, suitable for Kafka only)

For more information, see Kafka and ZooKeeper storage.

Solid-state drives (SSDs), though not essential, can improve the performance of Kafka in large clusters where data is sent to and received from multiple topics asynchronously. SSDs are particularly effective with ZooKeeper, which requires fast, low latency data access.

Note
 You do not need to provision replicated storage because Kafka and ZooKeeper both have built-in data replication.
File systems

It is recommended that you configure your storage system to use the XFS file system. Strimzi is also compatible with the ext4 file system, but this might require additional configuration for best results.

3.1.3. Kafka and ZooKeeper storage types

As stateful applications, Kafka and ZooKeeper need to store data on disk. Strimzi supports three storage types for this data:

  • Ephemeral

  • Persistent

  • JBOD storage

Note
 JBOD storage is supported only for Kafka, not for ZooKeeper.

When configuring a Kafka resource, you can specify the type of storage used by the Kafka broker and its corresponding ZooKeeper node. You configure the storage type using the storage property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

The storage type is configured in the type field.

Warning
 The storage type cannot be changed after a Kafka cluster is deployed.
Additional resources
Ephemeral storage

Ephemeral storage uses the `emptyDir` volumes to store data. To use ephemeral storage, the type field should be set to ephemeral.

Important
 EmptyDir volumes are not persistent and the data stored in them will be lost when the Pod is restarted. After the new pod is started, it has to recover all data from other nodes of the cluster. Ephemeral storage is not suitable for use with single node ZooKeeper clusters and for Kafka topics with replication factor 1, because it will lead to data loss.
An example of Ephemeral storage
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    storage:
      type: ephemeral
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    storage:
      type: ephemeral
    # ...
Log directories

The ephemeral volume will be used by the Kafka brokers as log directories mounted into the following path:

/var/lib/kafka/data/kafka-log_idx_

Where idx is the Kafka broker pod index. For example /var/lib/kafka/data/kafka-log0.

Persistent storage

Persistent storage uses Persistent Volume Claims to provision persistent volumes for storing data. Persistent Volume Claims can be used to provision volumes of many different types, depending on the Storage Class which will provision the volume. The data types which can be used with persistent volume claims include many types of SAN storage as well as Local persistent volumes.

To use persistent storage, the type has to be set to persistent-claim. Persistent storage supports additional configuration options:

id (optional)

Storage identification number. This option is mandatory for storage volumes defined in a JBOD storage declaration. Default is 0.

size (required)

Defines the size of the persistent volume claim, for example, "1000Gi".

class (optional)

The Kubernetes Storage Class to use for dynamic volume provisioning.

selector (optional)

Allows selecting a specific persistent volume to use. It contains key:value pairs representing labels for selecting such a volume.

deleteClaim (optional)

Boolean value which specifies if the Persistent Volume Claim has to be deleted when the cluster is undeployed. Default is false.

Warning
 Increasing the size of persistent volumes in an existing Strimzi cluster is only supported in Kubernetes versions that support persistent volume resizing. The persistent volume to be resized must use a storage class that supports volume expansion. For other versions of Kubernetes and storage classes which do not support volume expansion, you must decide the necessary storage size before deploying the cluster. Decreasing the size of existing persistent volumes is not possible.
Example fragment of persistent storage configuration with 1000Gi size
# ...
storage:
  type: persistent-claim
  size: 1000Gi
# ...

The following example demonstrates the use of a storage class.

Example fragment of persistent storage configuration with specific Storage Class
# ...
storage:
  type: persistent-claim
  size: 1Gi
  class: my-storage-class
# ...

Finally, a selector can be used to select a specific labeled persistent volume to provide needed features such as an SSD.

Example fragment of persistent storage configuration with selector
# ...
storage:
  type: persistent-claim
  size: 1Gi
  selector:
    hdd-type: ssd
  deleteClaim: true
# ...
Storage class overrides

You can specify a different storage class for one or more Kafka brokers, instead of using the default storage class. This is useful if, for example, storage classes are restricted to different availability zones or data centers. You can use the overrides field for this purpose.

In this example, the default storage class is named my-storage-class:

Example Strimzi cluster using storage class overrides
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  labels:
    app: my-cluster
  name: my-cluster
  namespace: myproject
spec:
  # ...
  kafka:
    replicas: 3
    storage:
      deleteClaim: true
      size: 100Gi
      type: persistent-claim
      class: my-storage-class
      overrides:
        - broker: 0
          class: my-storage-class-zone-1a
        - broker: 1
          class: my-storage-class-zone-1b
        - broker: 2
          class: my-storage-class-zone-1c
  # ...

As a result of the configured overrides property, the broker volumes use the following storage classes:

  • The persistent volumes of broker 0 will use my-storage-class-zone-1a.

  • The persistent volumes of broker 1 will use my-storage-class-zone-1b.

  • The persistent volumes of broker 2 will use my-storage-class-zone-1c.

The overrides property is currently used only to override storage class configurations. Overriding other storage configuration fields is not currently supported. Other fields from the storage configuration are currently not supported.

Persistent Volume Claim naming

When persistent storage is used, it creates Persistent Volume Claims with the following names:

data-cluster-name-kafka-idx

Persistent Volume Claim for the volume used for storing data for the Kafka broker pod idx.

data-cluster-name-zookeeper-idx

Persistent Volume Claim for the volume used for storing data for the ZooKeeper node pod idx.

Log directories

The persistent volume will be used by the Kafka brokers as log directories mounted into the following path:

/var/lib/kafka/data/kafka-log_idx_

Where idx is the Kafka broker pod index. For example /var/lib/kafka/data/kafka-log0.

Resizing persistent volumes

You can provision increased storage capacity by increasing the size of the persistent volumes used by an existing Strimzi cluster. Resizing persistent volumes is supported in clusters that use either a single persistent volume or multiple persistent volumes in a JBOD storage configuration.

Note
 You can increase but not decrease the size of persistent volumes. Decreasing the size of persistent volumes is not currently supported in Kubernetes.
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster with support for volume resizing.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

  • A Kafka cluster using persistent volumes created using a storage class that supports volume expansion.

Procedure

  1. In a Kafka resource, increase the size of the persistent volume allocated to the Kafka cluster, the ZooKeeper cluster, or both.

    • To increase the volume size allocated to the Kafka cluster, edit the spec.kafka.storage property.

    • To increase the volume size allocated to the ZooKeeper cluster, edit the spec.zookeeper.storage property.

      For example, to increase the volume size from 1000Gi to 2000Gi:

      apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    storage:
      type: persistent-claim
      size: 2000Gi
      class: my-storage-class
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

    Kubernetes increases the capacity of the selected persistent volumes in response to a request from the Cluster Operator. When the resizing is complete, the Cluster Operator restarts all pods that use the resized persistent volumes. This happens automatically.

Additional resources

For more information about resizing persistent volumes in Kubernetes, see Resizing Persistent Volumes using Kubernetes.

JBOD storage overview

You can configure Strimzi to use JBOD, a data storage configuration of multiple disks or volumes. JBOD is one approach to providing increased data storage for Kafka brokers. It can also improve performance.

A JBOD configuration is described by one or more volumes, each of which can be either ephemeral or persistent. The rules and constraints for JBOD volume declarations are the same as those for ephemeral and persistent storage. For example, you cannot change the size of a persistent storage volume after it has been provisioned.

JBOD configuration

To use JBOD with Strimzi, the storage type must be set to jbod. The volumes property allows you to describe the disks that make up your JBOD storage array or configuration. The following fragment shows an example JBOD configuration:

# ...
storage:
  type: jbod
  volumes:
  - id: 0
    type: persistent-claim
    size: 100Gi
    deleteClaim: false
  - id: 1
    type: persistent-claim
    size: 100Gi
    deleteClaim: false
# ...

The ids cannot be changed once the JBOD volumes are created.

Users can add or remove volumes from the JBOD configuration.

JBOD and Persistent Volume Claims

When persistent storage is used to declare JBOD volumes, the naming scheme of the resulting Persistent Volume Claims is as follows:

data-id-cluster-name-kafka-idx

Where id is the ID of the volume used for storing data for Kafka broker pod idx.

Log directories

The JBOD volumes will be used by the Kafka brokers as log directories mounted into the following path:

/var/lib/kafka/data-id/kafka-log_idx_

Where id is the ID of the volume used for storing data for Kafka broker pod idx. For example /var/lib/kafka/data-0/kafka-log0.

Adding volumes to JBOD storage

This procedure describes how to add volumes to a Kafka cluster configured to use JBOD storage. It cannot be applied to Kafka clusters configured to use any other storage type.

Note
 When adding a new volume under an id which was already used in the past and removed, you have to make sure that the previously used PersistentVolumeClaims have been deleted.
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka cluster with JBOD storage

Procedure

  1. Edit the spec.kafka.storage.volumes property in the Kafka resource. Add the new volumes to the volumes array. For example, add the new volume with id 2:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    storage:
      type: jbod
      volumes:
      - id: 0
        type: persistent-claim
        size: 100Gi
        deleteClaim: false
      - id: 1
        type: persistent-claim
        size: 100Gi
        deleteClaim: false
      - id: 2
        type: persistent-claim
        size: 100Gi
        deleteClaim: false
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  3. Create new topics or reassign existing partitions to the new disks.

Additional resources

For more information about reassigning topics, see Partition reassignment.

Removing volumes from JBOD storage

This procedure describes how to remove volumes from Kafka cluster configured to use JBOD storage. It cannot be applied to Kafka clusters configured to use any other storage type. The JBOD storage always has to contain at least one volume.

Important
 To avoid data loss, you have to move all partitions before removing the volumes.
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka cluster with JBOD storage with two or more volumes

Procedure

  1. Reassign all partitions from the disks which are you going to remove. Any data in partitions still assigned to the disks which are going to be removed might be lost.

  2. Edit the spec.kafka.storage.volumes property in the Kafka resource. Remove one or more volumes from the volumes array. For example, remove the volumes with ids 1 and 2:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    storage:
      type: jbod
      volumes:
      - id: 0
        type: persistent-claim
        size: 100Gi
        deleteClaim: false
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

For more information about reassigning topics, see Partition reassignment.

3.1.4. Kafka broker replicas

A Kafka cluster can run with many brokers. You can configure the number of brokers used for the Kafka cluster in Kafka.spec.kafka.replicas. The best number of brokers for your cluster has to be determined based on your specific use case.

Configuring the number of broker nodes

This procedure describes how to configure the number of Kafka broker nodes in a new cluster. It only applies to new clusters with no partitions. If your cluster already has topics defined, see Scaling clusters.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka cluster with no topics defined yet

Procedure

  1. Edit the replicas property in the Kafka resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    replicas: 3
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

If your cluster already has topics defined, see Scaling clusters.

3.1.5. Kafka broker configuration

Strimzi allows you to customize the configuration of the Kafka brokers in your Kafka cluster. You can specify and configure most of the options listed in the "Broker Configs" section of the Apache Kafka documentation. You cannot configure options that are related to the following areas:

  • Security (Encryption, Authentication, and Authorization)

  • Listener configuration

  • Broker ID configuration

  • Configuration of log data directories

  • Inter-broker communication

  • ZooKeeper connectivity

These options are automatically configured by Strimzi.

Kafka broker configuration

The config property in Kafka.spec.kafka contains Kafka broker configuration options as keys with values in one of the following JSON types:

  • String

  • Number

  • Boolean

You can specify and configure all of the options in the "Broker Configs" section of the Apache Kafka documentation apart from those managed directly by Strimzi. Specifically, you are prevented from modifying all configuration options with keys equal to or starting with one of the following strings:

  • listeners

  • advertised.

  • broker.

  • listener.

  • host.name

  • port

  • inter.broker.listener.name

  • sasl.

  • ssl.

  • security.

  • password.

  • principal.builder.class

  • log.dir

  • zookeeper.connect

  • zookeeper.set.acl

  • authorizer.

  • super.user

If the config property specifies a restricted option, it is ignored and a warning message is printed to the Cluster Operator log file. All other supported options are passed to Kafka.

An example Kafka broker configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    config:
      num.partitions: 1
      num.recovery.threads.per.data.dir: 1
      default.replication.factor: 3
      offsets.topic.replication.factor: 3
      transaction.state.log.replication.factor: 3
      transaction.state.log.min.isr: 1
      log.retention.hours: 168
      log.segment.bytes: 1073741824
      log.retention.check.interval.ms: 300000
      num.network.threads: 3
      num.io.threads: 8
      socket.send.buffer.bytes: 102400
      socket.receive.buffer.bytes: 102400
      socket.request.max.bytes: 104857600
      group.initial.rebalance.delay.ms: 0
    # ...
Configuring Kafka brokers

You can configure an existing Kafka broker, or create a new Kafka broker with a specified configuration.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster is available.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Open the YAML configuration file that contains the Kafka resource specifying the cluster deployment.

  2. In the spec.kafka.config property in the Kafka resource, enter one or more Kafka configuration settings. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    config:
      default.replication.factor: 3
      offsets.topic.replication.factor: 3
      transaction.state.log.replication.factor: 3
      transaction.state.log.min.isr: 1
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Apply the new configuration to create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f kafka.yaml

    where kafka.yaml is the YAML configuration file for the resource that you want to configure; for example, kafka-persistent.yaml.

3.1.6. Kafka broker listeners

You can configure the listeners enabled in Kafka brokers. The following types of listener are supported:

  • Plain listener on port 9092 (without encryption)

  • TLS listener on port 9093 (with encryption)

  • External listener on port 9094 for access from outside of Kubernetes

OAuth 2.0

If you are using OAuth 2.0 token based authentication, you can configure the listeners to connect to your authorization server. For more information, see Using OAuth 2.0 token based authentication.

Kafka listeners

You can configure Kafka broker listeners using the listeners property in the Kafka.spec.kafka resource. The listeners property contains three sub-properties:

  • plain

  • tls

  • external

Each listener will only be defined when the listeners object has the given property.

An example of listeners property with all listeners enabled
# ...
listeners:
  plain: {}
  tls: {}
  external:
    type: loadbalancer
# ...
An example of listeners property with only the plain listener enabled
# ...
listeners:
  plain: {}
# ...
Configuring Kafka listeners
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the listeners property in the Kafka.spec.kafka resource.

    An example configuration of the plain (unencrypted) listener without authentication:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      plain: {}
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources
Listener authentication

The listener authentication property is used to specify an authentication mechanism specific to that listener:

  • Mutual TLS authentication (only on the listeners with TLS encryption)

  • SCRAM-SHA authentication

If no authentication property is specified then the listener does not authenticate clients which connect through that listener.

Authentication must be configured when using the User Operator to manage KafkaUsers.

Authentication configuration for a listener

The following example shows:

  • A plain listener configured for SCRAM-SHA authentication

  • A tls listener with mutual TLS authentication

  • An external listener with mutual TLS authentication

An example showing listener authentication configuration
# ...
listeners:
  plain:
    authentication:
      type: scram-sha-512
  tls:
    authentication:
      type: tls
  external:
    type: loadbalancer
    tls: true
    authentication:
      type: tls
# ...
Mutual TLS authentication

Mutual TLS authentication is always used for the communication between Kafka brokers and ZooKeeper pods.

Mutual authentication or two-way authentication is when both the server and the client present certificates. Strimzi can configure Kafka to use TLS (Transport Layer Security) to provide encrypted communication between Kafka brokers and clients either with or without mutual authentication. When you configure mutual authentication, the broker authenticates the client and the client authenticates the broker.

Note
 TLS authentication is more commonly one-way, with one party authenticating the identity of another. For example, when HTTPS is used between a web browser and a web server, the server obtains proof of the identity of the browser.
When to use mutual TLS authentication for clients

Mutual TLS authentication is recommended for authenticating Kafka clients when:

  • The client supports authentication using mutual TLS authentication

  • It is necessary to use the TLS certificates rather than passwords

  • You can reconfigure and restart client applications periodically so that they do not use expired certificates.

SCRAM-SHA authentication

SCRAM (Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism) is an authentication protocol that can establish mutual authentication using passwords. Strimzi can configure Kafka to use SASL (Simple Authentication and Security Layer) SCRAM-SHA-512 to provide authentication on both unencrypted and TLS-encrypted client connections. TLS authentication is always used internally between Kafka brokers and ZooKeeper nodes. When used with a TLS client connection, the TLS protocol provides encryption, but is not used for authentication.

The following properties of SCRAM make it safe to use SCRAM-SHA even on unencrypted connections:

  • The passwords are not sent in the clear over the communication channel. Instead the client and the server are each challenged by the other to offer proof that they know the password of the authenticating user.

  • The server and client each generate a new challenge for each authentication exchange. This means that the exchange is resilient against replay attacks.

Supported SCRAM credentials

Strimzi supports SCRAM-SHA-512 only. When a KafkaUser.spec.authentication.type is configured with scram-sha-512 the User Operator will generate a random 12 character password consisting of upper and lowercase ASCII letters and numbers.

When to use SCRAM-SHA authentication for clients

SCRAM-SHA is recommended for authenticating Kafka clients when:

  • The client supports authentication using SCRAM-SHA-512

  • It is necessary to use passwords rather than the TLS certificates

  • Authentication for unencrypted communication is required

External listeners

Use an external listener to expose your Strimzi Kafka cluster to a client outside a Kubernetes environment.

Additional resources
Customizing advertised addresses on external listeners

By default, Strimzi tries to automatically determine the hostnames and ports that your Kafka cluster advertises to its clients. This is not sufficient in all situations, because the infrastructure on which Strimzi is running might not provide the right hostname or port through which Kafka can be accessed. You can customize the advertised hostname and port in the overrides property of the external listener. Strimzi will then automatically configure the advertised address in the Kafka brokers and add it to the broker certificates so it can be used for TLS hostname verification. Overriding the advertised host and ports is available for all types of external listeners.

Example of an external listener configured with overrides for advertised addresses
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: route
    authentication:
      type: tls
    overrides:
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        advertisedHost: example.hostname.0
        advertisedPort: 12340
      - broker: 1
        advertisedHost: example.hostname.1
        advertisedPort: 12341
      - broker: 2
        advertisedHost: example.hostname.2
        advertisedPort: 12342
# ...

Additionally, you can specify the name of the bootstrap service. This name will be added to the broker certificates and can be used for TLS hostname verification. Adding the additional bootstrap address is available for all types of external listeners.

Example of an external listener configured with an additional bootstrap address
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: route
    authentication:
      type: tls
    overrides:
      bootstrap:
        address: example.hostname
# ...
Route external listeners

An external listener of type route exposes Kafka using OpenShift Routes and the HAProxy router.

Note
 route is only supported on OpenShift
Exposing Kafka using OpenShift Routes

When exposing Kafka using OpenShift Routes and the HAProxy router, a dedicated Route is created for every Kafka broker pod. An additional Route is created to serve as a Kafka bootstrap address. Kafka clients can use these Routes to connect to Kafka on port 443.

TLS encryption is always used with Routes.

By default, the route hosts are automatically assigned by OpenShift. However, you can override the assigned route hosts by specifying the requested hosts in the overrides property. Strimzi will not perform any validation that the requested hosts are available; you must ensure that they are free and can be used.

Example of an external listener of type routes configured with overrides for OpenShift route hosts
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: route
    authentication:
      type: tls
    overrides:
      bootstrap:
        host: bootstrap.myrouter.com
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        host: broker-0.myrouter.com
      - broker: 1
        host: broker-1.myrouter.com
      - broker: 2
        host: broker-2.myrouter.com
# ...

For more information on using Routes to access Kafka, see Accessing Kafka using OpenShift routes.

Accessing Kafka using OpenShift routes
Prerequisites

  • An OpenShift cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Deploy Kafka cluster with an external listener enabled and configured to the type route.

    An example configuration with an external listener configured to use Routes:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      external:
        type: route
        # ...
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    oc apply -f your-file

  3. Find the address of the bootstrap Route.

    oc get routes _cluster-name_-kafka-bootstrap -o=jsonpath='{.status.ingress[0].host}{"\n"}'

    Use the address together with port 443 in your Kafka client as the bootstrap address.

  4. Extract the public certificate of the broker certification authority

    kubectl get secret _<cluster-name>_-cluster-ca-cert -o jsonpath='{.data.ca\.crt}' | base64 -d > ca.crt

    Use the extracted certificate in your Kafka client to configure TLS connection. If you enabled any authentication, you will also need to configure SASL or TLS authentication.

Additional resources
Loadbalancer external listeners

External listeners of type loadbalancer expose Kafka by using Loadbalancer type Services.

Exposing Kafka using loadbalancers

When exposing Kafka using Loadbalancer type Services, a new loadbalancer service is created for every Kafka broker pod. An additional loadbalancer is created to serve as a Kafka bootstrap address. Loadbalancers listen to connections on port 9094.

By default, TLS encryption is enabled. To disable it, set the tls field to false.

Example of an external listener of type loadbalancer
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: loadbalancer
    authentication:
      type: tls
# ...

For more information on using loadbalancers to access Kafka, see Accessing Kafka using loadbalancers.

Customizing the DNS names of external loadbalancer listeners

On loadbalancer listeners, you can use the dnsAnnotations property to add additional annotations to the loadbalancer services. You can use these annotations to instrument DNS tooling such as External DNS, which automatically assigns DNS names to the loadbalancer services.

Example of an external listener of type loadbalancer using dnsAnnotations
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: loadbalancer
    authentication:
      type: tls
    overrides:
      bootstrap:
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-bootstrap.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-broker-0.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
      - broker: 1
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-broker-1.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
      - broker: 2
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-broker-2.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
# ...
Customizing the loadbalancer IP addresses

On loadbalancer listeners, you can use the loadBalancerIP property to request a specific IP address when creating a loadbalancer. Use this property when you need to use a loadbalancer with a specific IP address. The loadBalancerIP field is ignored if the cloud provider does not support the feature.

Example of an external listener of type loadbalancer with specific loadbalancer IP address requests
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: loadbalancer
    authentication:
      type: tls
    overrides:
      bootstrap:
        loadBalancerIP: 172.29.3.10
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        loadBalancerIP: 172.29.3.1
      - broker: 1
        loadBalancerIP: 172.29.3.2
      - broker: 2
        loadBalancerIP: 172.29.3.3
# ...
Accessing Kafka using loadbalancers
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Deploy Kafka cluster with an external listener enabled and configured to the type loadbalancer.

    An example configuration with an external listener configured to use loadbalancers:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      external:
        type: loadbalancer
        authentication:
          type: tls
        # ...
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  3. Find the hostname of the bootstrap loadbalancer.

    This can be done using kubectl get:

    kubectl get service cluster-name-kafka-external-bootstrap -o=jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].hostname}{"\n"}'

    If no hostname was found (nothing was returned by the command), use the loadbalancer IP address.

    This can be done using kubectl get:

    kubectl get service cluster-name-kafka-external-bootstrap -o=jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}{"\n"}'

    Use the hostname or IP address together with port 9094 in your Kafka client as the bootstrap address.

  4. Unless TLS encryption was disabled, extract the public certificate of the broker certification authority.

    This can be done using kubectl get:

    kubectl get secret cluster-name-cluster-ca-cert -o jsonpath='{.data.ca\.crt}' | base64 -d > ca.crt

    Use the extracted certificate in your Kafka client to configure TLS connection. If you enabled any authentication, you will also need to configure SASL or TLS authentication.

Additional resources
Node Port external listeners

External listeners of type nodeport expose Kafka by using NodePort type Services.

Exposing Kafka using node ports

When exposing Kafka using NodePort type Services, Kafka clients connect directly to the nodes of Kubernetes. You must enable access to the ports on the Kubernetes nodes for each client (for example, in firewalls or security groups). Each Kafka broker pod is then accessible on a separate port. Additional NodePort type Service is created to serve as a Kafka bootstrap address.

When configuring the advertised addresses for the Kafka broker pods, Strimzi uses the address of the node on which the given pod is running. When selecting the node address, the different address types are used with the following priority:

  1. ExternalDNS

  2. ExternalIP

  3. Hostname

  4. InternalDNS

  5. InternalIP

By default, TLS encryption is enabled. To disable it, set the tls field to false.

Note
 TLS hostname verification is not currently supported when exposing Kafka clusters using node ports.

By default, the port numbers used for the bootstrap and broker services are automatically assigned by Kubernetes. However, you can override the assigned node ports by specifying the requested port numbers in the overrides property. Strimzi does not perform any validation on the requested ports; you must ensure that they are free and available for use.

Example of an external listener configured with overrides for node ports
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: nodeport
    tls: true
    authentication:
      type: tls
    overrides:
      bootstrap:
        nodePort: 32100
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        nodePort: 32000
      - broker: 1
        nodePort: 32001
      - broker: 2
        nodePort: 32002
# ...

For more information on using node ports to access Kafka, see Accessing Kafka using node ports.

Customizing the DNS names of external node port listeners

On nodeport listeners, you can use the dnsAnnotations property to add additional annotations to the nodeport services. You can use these annotations to instrument DNS tooling such as External DNS, which automatically assigns DNS names to the cluster nodes.

Example of an external listener of type nodeport using dnsAnnotations
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: nodeport
    tls: true
    authentication:
      type: tls
    overrides:
      bootstrap:
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-bootstrap.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-broker-0.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
      - broker: 1
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-broker-1.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
      - broker: 2
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: kafka-broker-2.mydomain.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
# ...
Accessing Kafka using node ports
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Deploy Kafka cluster with an external listener enabled and configured to the type nodeport.

    An example configuration with an external listener configured to use node ports:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      external:
        type: nodeport
        tls: true
        # ...
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  3. Find the port number of the bootstrap service.

    This can be done using kubectl get:

    kubectl get service cluster-name-kafka-external-bootstrap -o=jsonpath='{.spec.ports[0].nodePort}{"\n"}'

    The port should be used in the Kafka bootstrap address.

  4. Find the address of the Kubernetes node.

    This can be done using kubectl get:

    kubectl get node node-name -o=jsonpath='{range .status.addresses[*]}{.type}{"\t"}{.address}{"\n"}'

    If several different addresses are returned, select the address type you want based on the following order:

    1. ExternalDNS

    2. ExternalIP

    3. Hostname

    4. InternalDNS

    5. InternalIP

      Use the address with the port found in the previous step in the Kafka bootstrap address.

  5. Unless TLS encryption was disabled, extract the public certificate of the broker certification authority.

    This can be done using kubectl get:

    kubectl get secret cluster-name-cluster-ca-cert -o jsonpath='{.data.ca\.crt}' | base64 -d > ca.crt

    Use the extracted certificate in your Kafka client to configure TLS connection. If you enabled any authentication, you will also need to configure SASL or TLS authentication.

Additional resources
Kubernetes Ingress external listeners

External listeners of type ingress exposes Kafka by using Kubernetes Ingress and the NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes.

Exposing Kafka using Kubernetes Ingress

When exposing Kafka using using Kubernetes Ingress and the NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes, a dedicated Ingress resource is created for every Kafka broker pod. An additional Ingress resource is created to serve as a Kafka bootstrap address. Kafka clients can use these Ingress resources to connect to Kafka on port 443.

Note
 External listeners using Ingress have been currently tested only with the NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes.

Strimzi uses the TLS passthrough feature of the NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes. Make sure TLS passthrough is enabled in your NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes deployment. For more information about enabling TLS passthrough see TLS passthrough documentation. Because it is using the TLS passthrough functionality, TLS encryption cannot be disabled when exposing Kafka using Ingress.

The Ingress controller does not assign any hostnames automatically. You have to specify the hostnames which should be used by the bootstrap and per-broker services in the spec.kafka.listeners.external.configuration section. You also have to make sure that the hostnames resolve to the Ingress endpoints. Strimzi will not perform any validation that the requested hosts are available and properly routed to the Ingress endpoints.

Example of an external listener of type ingress
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: ingress
    authentication:
      type: tls
    configuration:
      bootstrap:
        host: bootstrap.myingress.com
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        host: broker-0.myingress.com
      - broker: 1
        host: broker-1.myingress.com
      - broker: 2
        host: broker-2.myingress.com
# ...

For more information on using Ingress to access Kafka, see Accessing Kafka using ingress.

Configuring the Ingress class

By default, the Ingress class is set to nginx. You can change the Ingress class using the class property.

Example of an external listener of type ingress using Ingress class nginx-internal
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: ingress
    class: nginx-internal
    # ...
# ...
Customizing the DNS names of external ingress listeners

On ingress listeners, you can use the dnsAnnotations property to add additional annotations to the ingress resources. You can use these annotations to instrument DNS tooling such as External DNS, which automatically assigns DNS names to the ingress resources.

Example of an external listener of type ingress using dnsAnnotations
# ...
listeners:
  external:
    type: ingress
    authentication:
      type: tls
    configuration:
      bootstrap:
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: bootstrap.myingress.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
        host: bootstrap.myingress.com
      brokers:
      - broker: 0
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: broker-0.myingress.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
        host: broker-0.myingress.com
      - broker: 1
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: broker-1.myingress.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
        host: broker-1.myingress.com
      - broker: 2
        dnsAnnotations:
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: broker-2.myingress.com.
          external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "60"
        host: broker-2.myingress.com
# ...
Accessing Kafka using ingress

This procedure shows how to access Strimzi Kafka clusters from outside of Kubernetes using Ingress.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Deploy Kafka cluster with an external listener enabled and configured to the type ingress.

    An example configuration with an external listener configured to use Ingress:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      external:
        type: ingress
        authentication:
          type: tls
        configuration:
          bootstrap:
            host: bootstrap.myingress.com
          brokers:
          - broker: 0
            host: broker-0.myingress.com
          - broker: 1
            host: broker-1.myingress.com
          - broker: 2
            host: broker-2.myingress.com
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Make sure the hosts in the configuration section properly resolve to the Ingress endpoints.

  3. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  4. Extract the public certificate of the broker certificate authority

    kubectl get secret cluster-name-cluster-ca-cert -o jsonpath='{.data.ca\.crt}' | base64 -d > ca.crt

  5. Use the extracted certificate in your Kafka client to configure the TLS connection. If you enabled any authentication, you will also need to configure SASL or TLS authentication. Connect with your client to the host you specified in the configuration on port 443.

Additional resources
Network policies

Strimzi automatically creates a NetworkPolicy resource for every listener that is enabled on a Kafka broker. By default, a NetworkPolicy grants access to a listener to all applications and namespaces.

If you want to restrict access to a listener at the network level to only selected applications or namespaces, use the networkPolicyPeers field.

Use network policies in conjunction with authentication and authorization.

Each listener can have a different networkPolicyPeers configuration.

Network policy configuration for a listener

The following example shows a networkPolicyPeers configuration for a plain and a tls listener:

# ...
listeners:
  plain:
    authentication:
      type: scram-sha-512
    networkPolicyPeers:
      - podSelector:
          matchLabels:
            app: kafka-sasl-consumer
      - podSelector:
          matchLabels:
            app: kafka-sasl-producer
  tls:
    authentication:
      type: tls
    networkPolicyPeers:
      - namespaceSelector:
          matchLabels:
            project: myproject
      - namespaceSelector:
          matchLabels:
            project: myproject2
# ...

In the example:

  • Only application pods matching the labels app: kafka-sasl-consumer and app: kafka-sasl-producer can connect to the plain listener. The application pods must be running in the same namespace as the Kafka broker.

  • Only application pods running in namespaces matching the labels project: myproject and project: myproject2 can connect to the tls listener.

The syntax of the networkPolicyPeers field is the same as the from field in NetworkPolicy resources. For more information about the schema, see NetworkPolicyPeer API reference and the KafkaListeners schema reference.

Note
 Your configuration of Kubernetes must support ingress NetworkPolicies in order to use network policies in Strimzi.
Restricting access to Kafka listeners using networkPolicyPeers

You can restrict access to a listener to only selected applications by using the networkPolicyPeers field.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster with support for Ingress NetworkPolicies.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Open the Kafka resource.

  2. In the networkPolicyPeers field, define the application pods or namespaces that will be allowed to access the Kafka cluster.

    For example, to configure a tls listener to allow connections only from application pods with the label app set to kafka-client:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      tls:
        networkPolicyPeers:
          - podSelector:
              matchLabels:
                app: kafka-client
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

3.1.7. Authentication and Authorization

Strimzi supports authentication and authorization. Authentication can be configured independently for each listener. Authorization is always configured for the whole Kafka cluster.

Authentication

Authentication is configured as part of the listener configuration in the authentication property. The authentication mechanism is defined by the type field.

When the authentication property is missing, no authentication is enabled on a given listener. The listener will accept all connections without authentication.

Supported authentication mechanisms:

TLS client authentication

TLS Client authentication is enabled by specifying the type as tls. The TLS client authentication is supported only on the tls listener.

An example of authentication with type tls
# ...
authentication:
  type: tls
# ...
Configuring authentication in Kafka brokers
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster is available.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Open the YAML configuration file that contains the Kafka resource specifying the cluster deployment.

  2. In the spec.kafka.listeners property in the Kafka resource, add the authentication field to the listeners for which you want to enable authentication. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      tls:
        authentication:
          type: tls
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Apply the new configuration to create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f kafka.yaml

    where kafka.yaml is the YAML configuration file for the resource that you want to configure; for example, kafka-persistent.yaml.

Additional resources
Authorization

You configure authorization for Kafka brokers using the authorization property in the Kafka.spec.kafka resource. If the authorization property is missing, no authorization is enabled. When enabled, authorization is applied to all enabled listeners. The authorization method is defined in the type field; only Simple authorization is currently supported.

You can optionally designate a list of super users in the superUsers field.

Simple authorization

Simple authorization in Strimzi uses the SimpleAclAuthorizer plugin, the default Access Control Lists (ACLs) authorization plugin provided with Apache Kafka. ACLs allow you to define which users have access to which resources at a granular level. To enable simple authorization, set the type field to simple.

An example of Simple authorization
# ...
authorization:
  type: simple
# ...
Super users

Super users can access all resources in your Kafka cluster regardless of any access restrictions defined in ACLs. To designate super users for a Kafka cluster, enter a list of user principles in the superUsers field. If a user uses TLS Client Authentication, the username will be the common name from their certificate subject prefixed with CN=.

An example of designating super users
# ...
authorization:
  type: simple
  superUsers:
    - CN=fred
    - sam
    - CN=edward
# ...
Note
 The super.user configuration option in the config property in Kafka.spec.kafka is ignored. Designate super users in the authorization property instead. For more information, see Kafka broker configuration.
Configuring authorization in Kafka brokers

Configure authorization and designate super users for a particular Kafka broker.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • The Cluster Operator is running

Procedure

  1. Add or edit the authorization property in the Kafka.spec.kafka resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    authorization:
      type: simple
      superUsers:
        - CN=fred
        - sam
        - CN=edward
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

3.1.8. ZooKeeper replicas

ZooKeeper clusters or ensembles usually run with an odd number of nodes, typically three, five, or seven.

The majority of nodes must be available in order to maintain an effective quorum. If the ZooKeeper cluster loses its quorum, it will stop responding to clients and the Kafka brokers will stop working. Having a stable and highly available ZooKeeper cluster is crucial for Strimzi.

Three-node cluster

A three-node ZooKeeper cluster requires at least two nodes to be up and running in order to maintain the quorum. It can tolerate only one node being unavailable.

Five-node cluster

A five-node ZooKeeper cluster requires at least three nodes to be up and running in order to maintain the quorum. It can tolerate two nodes being unavailable.

Seven-node cluster

A seven-node ZooKeeper cluster requires at least four nodes to be up and running in order to maintain the quorum. It can tolerate three nodes being unavailable.

Note
 For development purposes, it is also possible to run ZooKeeper with a single node.

Having more nodes does not necessarily mean better performance, as the costs to maintain the quorum will rise with the number of nodes in the cluster. Depending on your availability requirements, you can decide for the number of nodes to use.

Number of ZooKeeper nodes

The number of ZooKeeper nodes can be configured using the replicas property in Kafka.spec.zookeeper.

An example showing replicas configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    replicas: 3
    # ...
Changing the number of ZooKeeper replicas
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster is available.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Open the YAML configuration file that contains the Kafka resource specifying the cluster deployment.

  2. In the spec.zookeeper.replicas property in the Kafka resource, enter the number of replicated ZooKeeper servers. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    replicas: 3
    # ...

  3. Apply the new configuration to create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f kafka.yaml

    where kafka.yaml is the YAML configuration file for the resource that you want to configure; for example, kafka-persistent.yaml.

3.1.9. ZooKeeper configuration

Strimzi allows you to customize the configuration of Apache ZooKeeper nodes. You can specify and configure most of the options listed in the ZooKeeper documentation.

Options which cannot be configured are those related to the following areas:

  • Security (Encryption, Authentication, and Authorization)

  • Listener configuration

  • Configuration of data directories

  • ZooKeeper cluster composition

These options are automatically configured by Strimzi.

ZooKeeper configuration

ZooKeeper nodes are configured using the config property in Kafka.spec.zookeeper. This property contains the ZooKeeper configuration options as keys. The values can be described using one of the following JSON types:

  • String

  • Number

  • Boolean

Users can specify and configure the options listed in ZooKeeper documentation with the exception of those options which are managed directly by Strimzi. Specifically, all configuration options with keys equal to or starting with one of the following strings are forbidden:

  • server.

  • dataDir

  • dataLogDir

  • clientPort

  • authProvider

  • quorum.auth

  • requireClientAuthScheme

When one of the forbidden options is present in the config property, it is ignored and a warning message is printed to the Custer Operator log file. All other options are passed to ZooKeeper.

Important
 The Cluster Operator does not validate keys or values in the provided config object. When invalid configuration is provided, the ZooKeeper cluster might not start or might become unstable. In such cases, the configuration in the Kafka.spec.zookeeper.config object should be fixed and the Cluster Operator will roll out the new configuration to all ZooKeeper nodes.

Selected options have default values:

  • timeTick with default value 2000

  • initLimit with default value 5

  • syncLimit with default value 2

  • autopurge.purgeInterval with default value 1

These options will be automatically configured when they are not present in the Kafka.spec.zookeeper.config property.

An example showing ZooKeeper configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    config:
      autopurge.snapRetainCount: 3
      autopurge.purgeInterval: 1
    # ...
Configuring ZooKeeper
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster is available.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Open the YAML configuration file that contains the Kafka resource specifying the cluster deployment.

  2. In the spec.zookeeper.config property in the Kafka resource, enter one or more ZooKeeper configuration settings. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    config:
      autopurge.snapRetainCount: 3
      autopurge.purgeInterval: 1
    # ...

  3. Apply the new configuration to create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f kafka.yaml

    where kafka.yaml is the YAML configuration file for the resource that you want to configure; for example, kafka-persistent.yaml.

3.1.10. ZooKeeper connection

ZooKeeper services are secured with encryption and authentication and are not intended to be used by external applications that are not part of Strimzi.

However, if you want to use Kafka CLI tools that require a connection to ZooKeeper, such as the kafka-topics tool, you can use a terminal inside a Kafka container and connect to the local end of the TLS tunnel to ZooKeeper by using localhost:2181 as the ZooKeeper address.

Connecting to ZooKeeper from a terminal

Open a terminal inside a Kafka container to use Kafka CLI tools that require a ZooKeeper connection.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster is available.

  • A kafka cluster is running.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Open the terminal using the Kubernetes console or run the exec command from your CLI.

    For example:

    kubectl exec -ti my-cluster-kafka-0 -- bin/kafka-topics.sh --list --zookeeper localhost:2181

    Be sure to use localhost:2181.

    You can now run Kafka commands to ZooKeeper.

3.1.11. Entity Operator

The Entity Operator is responsible for managing Kafka-related entities in a running Kafka cluster.

The Entity Operator comprises the:

Through Kafka resource configuration, the Cluster Operator can deploy the Entity Operator, including one or both operators, when deploying a Kafka cluster.

Note
 When deployed, the Entity Operator contains the operators according to the deployment configuration.

The operators are automatically configured to manage the topics and users of the Kafka cluster.

Entity Operator configuration properties

The Entity Operator can be configured using the entityOperator property in Kafka.spec

The entityOperator property supports several sub-properties:

  • tlsSidecar

  • topicOperator

  • userOperator

  • template

The tlsSidecar property can be used to configure the TLS sidecar container which is used to communicate with ZooKeeper. For more details about configuring the TLS sidecar, see TLS sidecar.

The template property can be used to configure details of the Entity Operator pod, such as labels, annotations, affinity, tolerations and so on.

The topicOperator property contains the configuration of the Topic Operator. When this option is missing, the Entity Operator is deployed without the Topic Operator.

The userOperator property contains the configuration of the User Operator. When this option is missing, the Entity Operator is deployed without the User Operator.

Example of basic configuration enabling both operators
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
  entityOperator:
    topicOperator: {}
    userOperator: {}

When both topicOperator and userOperator properties are missing, the Entity Operator is not deployed.

Topic Operator configuration properties

Topic Operator deployment can be configured using additional options inside the topicOperator object. The following properties are supported:

watchedNamespace

The Kubernetes namespace in which the topic operator watches for KafkaTopics. Default is the namespace where the Kafka cluster is deployed.

reconciliationIntervalSeconds

The interval between periodic reconciliations in seconds. Default 90.

zookeeperSessionTimeoutSeconds

The ZooKeeper session timeout in seconds. Default 20.

topicMetadataMaxAttempts

The number of attempts at getting topic metadata from Kafka. The time between each attempt is defined as an exponential back-off. Consider increasing this value when topic creation could take more time due to the number of partitions or replicas. Default 6.

image

The image property can be used to configure the container image which will be used. For more details about configuring custom container images, see Container images.

resources

The resources property configures the amount of resources allocated to the Topic Operator. For more details about resource request and limit configuration, see CPU and memory resources.

logging

The logging property configures the logging of the Topic Operator. For more details, see Operator loggers.

Example of Topic Operator configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
  entityOperator:
    # ...
    topicOperator:
      watchedNamespace: my-topic-namespace
      reconciliationIntervalSeconds: 60
    # ...
User Operator configuration properties

User Operator deployment can be configured using additional options inside the userOperator object. The following properties are supported:

watchedNamespace

The Kubernetes namespace in which the topic operator watches for KafkaUsers. Default is the namespace where the Kafka cluster is deployed.

reconciliationIntervalSeconds

The interval between periodic reconciliations in seconds. Default 120.

zookeeperSessionTimeoutSeconds

The ZooKeeper session timeout in seconds. Default 6.

image

The image property can be used to configure the container image which will be used. For more details about configuring custom container images, see Container images.

resources

The resources property configures the amount of resources allocated to the User Operator. For more details about resource request and limit configuration, see CPU and memory resources.

logging

The logging property configures the logging of the User Operator. For more details, see Operator loggers.

Example of Topic Operator configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
  entityOperator:
    # ...
    userOperator:
      watchedNamespace: my-user-namespace
      reconciliationIntervalSeconds: 60
    # ...
Operator loggers

The Topic Operator and User Operator have a configurable logger:

  • rootLogger.level

The operators use the Apache log4j2 logger implementation.

Use the logging property in the Kafka resource to configure loggers and logger levels.

You can set the log levels by specifying the logger and level directly (inline) or use a custom (external) ConfigMap. If a ConfigMap is used, you set logging.name property to the name of the ConfigMap containing the external logging configuration. Inside the ConfigMap, the logging configuration is described using log4j2.properties.

Here we see examples of inline and external logging.

Inline logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
  entityOperator:
    # ...
    topicOperator:
      watchedNamespace: my-topic-namespace
      reconciliationIntervalSeconds: 60
      logging:
        type: inline
        loggers:
          rootLogger.level: INFO
    # ...
    userOperator:
      watchedNamespace: my-topic-namespace
      reconciliationIntervalSeconds: 60
      logging:
        type: inline
        loggers:
          rootLogger.level: INFO
# ...
External logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
  entityOperator:
    # ...
    topicOperator:
      watchedNamespace: my-topic-namespace
      reconciliationIntervalSeconds: 60
      logging:
        type: external
        name: customConfigMap
# ...
Additional resources
Configuring Entity Operator
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the entityOperator property in the Kafka resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
  entityOperator:
    topicOperator:
      watchedNamespace: my-topic-namespace
      reconciliationIntervalSeconds: 60
    userOperator:
      watchedNamespace: my-user-namespace
      reconciliationIntervalSeconds: 60

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.1.12. CPU and memory resources

For every deployed container, Strimzi allows you to request specific resources and define the maximum consumption of those resources.

Strimzi supports two types of resources:

  • CPU

  • Memory

Strimzi uses the Kubernetes syntax for specifying CPU and memory resources.

Resource limits and requests

Resource limits and requests are configured using the resources property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Additional resources
Resource requests

Requests specify the resources to reserve for a given container. Reserving the resources ensures that they are always available.

Important
 If the resource request is for more than the available free resources in the Kubernetes cluster, the pod is not scheduled.

Resources requests are specified in the requests property. Resources requests currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A request may be configured for one or more supported resources.

Example resource request configuration with all resources
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Resource limits

Limits specify the maximum resources that can be consumed by a given container. The limit is not reserved and might not always be available. A container can use the resources up to the limit only when they are available. Resource limits should be always higher than the resource requests.

Resource limits are specified in the limits property. Resource limits currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A resource may be configured for one or more supported limits.

Example resource limits configuration
# ...
resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Supported CPU formats

CPU requests and limits are supported in the following formats:

  • Number of CPU cores as integer (5 CPU core) or decimal (2.5 CPU core).

  • Number or millicpus / millicores (100m) where 1000 millicores is the same 1 CPU core.

Example CPU units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 500m
  limits:
    cpu: 2.5
# ...
Note
 The computing power of 1 CPU core may differ depending on the platform where Kubernetes is deployed.
Additional resources
Supported memory formats

Memory requests and limits are specified in megabytes, gigabytes, mebibytes, and gibibytes.

  • To specify memory in megabytes, use the M suffix. For example 1000M.

  • To specify memory in gigabytes, use the G suffix. For example 1G.

  • To specify memory in mebibytes, use the Mi suffix. For example 1000Mi.

  • To specify memory in gibibytes, use the Gi suffix. For example 1Gi.

An example of using different memory units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    memory: 512Mi
  limits:
    memory: 2Gi
# ...
Additional resources

  • For more details about memory specification and additional supported units, see Meaning of memory.

Configuring resource requests and limits
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the resources property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "8"
        memory: 64Gi
      limits:
        cpu: "12"
        memory: 128Gi
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

3.1.13. Kafka loggers

Kafka has its own configurable loggers:

  • kafka.root.logger.level

  • log4j.logger.org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkClient

  • log4j.logger.org.apache.zookeeper

  • log4j.logger.kafka

  • log4j.logger.org.apache.kafka

  • log4j.logger.kafka.request.logger

  • log4j.logger.kafka.network.Processor

  • log4j.logger.kafka.server.KafkaApis

  • log4j.logger.kafka.network.RequestChannel$

  • log4j.logger.kafka.controller

  • log4j.logger.kafka.log.LogCleaner

  • log4j.logger.state.change.logger

  • log4j.logger.kafka.authorizer.logger

ZooKeeper also has a configurable logger:

  • zookeeper.root.logger

Kafka and ZooKeeper use the Apache log4j logger implementation.

Use the logging property to configure loggers and logger levels.

You can set the log levels by specifying the logger and level directly (inline) or use a custom (external) ConfigMap. If a ConfigMap is used, you set logging.name property to the name of the ConfigMap containing the external logging configuration. Inside the ConfigMap, the logging configuration is described using log4j.properties.

Here we see examples of inline and external logging.

Inline logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: inline
    loggers:
      kafka.root.logger: "INFO"
  # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    logging:
      type: inline
      loggers:
        zookeeper.root.logger: "INFO"
  # ...
  entityOperator:
    # ...
    topicOperator:
      # ...
      logging:
        type: inline
        loggers:
          rootLogger.level: INFO
    # ...
    userOperator:
      # ...
      logging:
        type: inline
        loggers:
          rootLogger.level: INFO
    # ...
External logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: external
    name: customConfigMap
  # ...

Operators use the Apache log4j2 logger implementation, so the logging configuration is described inside the ConfigMap using log4j2.properties. For more information, see Operator loggers.

Additional resources

  • Garbage collector (GC) logging can also be enabled (or disabled). For more information on garbage collection, see JVM configuration

  • For more information about log levels, see Apache logging services.

3.1.14. Kafka rack awareness

The rack awareness feature in Strimzi helps to spread the Kafka broker pods and Kafka topic replicas across different racks. Enabling rack awareness helps to improve availability of Kafka brokers and the topics they are hosting.

Note
 "Rack" might represent an availability zone, data center, or an actual rack in your data center.
Configuring rack awareness in Kafka brokers

Kafka rack awareness can be configured in the rack property of Kafka.spec.kafka. The rack object has one mandatory field named topologyKey. This key needs to match one of the labels assigned to the Kubernetes cluster nodes. The label is used by Kubernetes when scheduling the Kafka broker pods to nodes. If the Kubernetes cluster is running on a cloud provider platform, that label should represent the availability zone where the node is running. Usually, the nodes are labeled with failure-domain.beta.kubernetes.io/zone that can be easily used as the topologyKey value. This has the effect of spreading the broker pods across zones, and also setting the brokers' broker.rack configuration parameter inside Kafka broker.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Consult your Kubernetes administrator regarding the node label that represents the zone / rack into which the node is deployed.

  2. Edit the rack property in the Kafka resource using the label as the topology key.

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    rack:
      topologyKey: failure-domain.beta.kubernetes.io/zone
    # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

  • For information about Configuring init container image for Kafka rack awareness, see Container images.

3.1.15. Healthchecks

Healthchecks are periodical tests which verify the health of an application. When a Healthcheck probe fails, Kubernetes assumes that the application is not healthy and attempts to fix it.

Kubernetes supports two types of Healthcheck probes:

  • Liveness probes

  • Readiness probes

For more details about the probes, see Configure Liveness and Readiness Probes. Both types of probes are used in Strimzi components.

Users can configure selected options for liveness and readiness probes.

Healthcheck configurations

Liveness and readiness probes can be configured using the livenessProbe and readinessProbe properties in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Both livenessProbe and readinessProbe support the following options:

  • initialDelaySeconds

  • timeoutSeconds

  • periodSeconds

  • successThreshold

  • failureThreshold

For more information about the livenessProbe and readinessProbe options, see Probe schema reference.

An example of liveness and readiness probe configuration
# ...
readinessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
livenessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
# ...
Configuring healthchecks
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the livenessProbe or readinessProbe property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    readinessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    livenessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.1.16. Prometheus metrics

Strimzi supports Prometheus metrics using Prometheus JMX exporter to convert the JMX metrics supported by Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper to Prometheus metrics. When metrics are enabled, they are exposed on port 9404.

For more information about configuring Prometheus and Grafana, see Metrics.

Metrics configuration

Prometheus metrics are enabled by configuring the metrics property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

When the metrics property is not defined in the resource, the Prometheus metrics will be disabled. To enable Prometheus metrics export without any further configuration, you can set it to an empty object ({}).

Example of enabling metrics without any further configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    metrics: {}
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

The metrics property might contain additional configuration for the Prometheus JMX exporter.

Example of enabling metrics with additional Prometheus JMX Exporter configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    metrics:
      lowercaseOutputName: true
      rules:
        - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*><>Count"
          name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
        - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*, topic=(.+)><>Count"
          name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
          labels:
            topic: "$3"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring Prometheus metrics
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the metrics property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    metrics:
      lowercaseOutputName: true
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.1.17. JMX Remote

Strimzi supports obtaining JMX metrics from the Kafka brokers by opening a JMX port on 9999. You can obtain various metrics about each Kafka broker, for example, usage data such as the BytesPerSecond value or the request rate of the network of the broker. Strimzi supports opening a password and username protected JMX port or a non-protected JMX port.

Configuring JMX options

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

You can configure JMX options by using the jmxOptions property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

You can configure username and password protection for the JMX port that is opened on the Kafka brokers.

Securing the JMX Port

You can secure the JMX port to prevent unauthorized pods from accessing the port. Currently the JMX port can only be secured using a username and password. To enable security for the JMX port, set the type parameter in the authentication field to password.:

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    jmxOptions:
      authentication:
        type: "password"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

This allows you to deploy a pod internally into a cluster and obtain JMX metrics by using the headless service and specifying which broker you want to address. To get JMX metrics from broker 0 we address the headless service appending broker 0 in front of the headless service:

"<cluster-name>-kafka-0-<cluster-name>-<headless-service-name>"

If the JMX port is secured, you can get the username and password by referencing them from the JMX secret in the deployment of your pod.

Using an open JMX port

To disable security for the JMX port, do not fill in the authentication field

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    jmxOptions: {}
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

This will just open the JMX Port on the headless service and you can follow a similar approach as described above to deploy a pod into the cluster. The only difference is that any pod will be able to read from the JMX port.

3.1.18. JVM Options

The following components of Strimzi run inside a Virtual Machine (VM):

  • Apache Kafka

  • Apache ZooKeeper

  • Apache Kafka Connect

  • Apache Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Strimzi Kafka Bridge

JVM configuration options optimize the performance for different platforms and architectures. Strimzi allows you to configure some of these options.

JVM configuration

JVM options can be configured using the jvmOptions property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Only a selected subset of available JVM options can be configured. The following options are supported:

-Xms and -Xmx

-Xms configures the minimum initial allocation heap size when the JVM starts. -Xmx configures the maximum heap size.

Note
 The units accepted by JVM settings such as -Xmx and -Xms are those accepted by the JDK java binary in the corresponding image. Accordingly, 1g or 1G means 1,073,741,824 bytes, and Gi is not a valid unit suffix. This is in contrast to the units used for memory requests and limits, which follow the Kubernetes convention where 1G means 1,000,000,000 bytes, and 1Gi means 1,073,741,824 bytes

The default values used for -Xms and -Xmx depends on whether there is a memory request limit configured for the container:

  • If there is a memory limit then the JVM’s minimum and maximum memory will be set to a value corresponding to the limit.

  • If there is no memory limit then the JVM’s minimum memory will be set to 128M and the JVM’s maximum memory will not be defined. This allows for the JVM’s memory to grow as-needed, which is ideal for single node environments in test and development.

Important

Setting -Xmx explicitly requires some care:

  • The JVM’s overall memory usage will be approximately 4 × the maximum heap, as configured by -Xmx.

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory limit, it is possible that the container will be killed should the Kubernetes node experience memory pressure (from other Pods running on it).

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory request, it is possible that the container will be scheduled to a node with insufficient memory. In this case, the container will not start but crash (immediately if -Xms is set to -Xmx, or some later time if not).

When setting -Xmx explicitly, it is recommended to:

  • set the memory request and the memory limit to the same value,

  • use a memory request that is at least 4.5 × the -Xmx,

  • consider setting -Xms to the same value as -Xmx.

Important
 Containers doing lots of disk I/O (such as Kafka broker containers) will need to leave some memory available for use as operating system page cache. On such containers, the requested memory should be significantly higher than the memory used by the JVM.
Example fragment configuring -Xmx and -Xms
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-Xmx": "2g"
  "-Xms": "2g"
# ...

In the above example, the JVM will use 2 GiB (=2,147,483,648 bytes) for its heap. Its total memory usage will be approximately 8GiB.

Setting the same value for initial (-Xms) and maximum (-Xmx) heap sizes avoids the JVM having to allocate memory after startup, at the cost of possibly allocating more heap than is really needed. For Kafka and ZooKeeper pods such allocation could cause unwanted latency. For Kafka Connect avoiding over allocation may be the most important concern, especially in distributed mode where the effects of over-allocation will be multiplied by the number of consumers.

-server

-server enables the server JVM. This option can be set to true or false.

Example fragment configuring -server
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-server": true
# ...
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
-XX

-XX object can be used for configuring advanced runtime options of a JVM. The -server and -XX options are used to configure the KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS option of Apache Kafka.

Example showing the use of the -XX object
jvmOptions:
  "-XX":
    "UseG1GC": true
    "MaxGCPauseMillis": 20
    "InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent": 35
    "ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent": true
    "UseParNewGC": false

The example configuration above will result in the following JVM options:

-XX:+UseG1GC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=20 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=35 -XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent -XX:-UseParNewGC
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
Garbage collector logging

The jvmOptions section also allows you to enable and disable garbage collector (GC) logging. GC logging is disabled by default. To enable it, set the gcLoggingEnabled property as follows:

Example of enabling GC logging
# ...
jvmOptions:
  gcLoggingEnabled: true
# ...
Configuring JVM options
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the jvmOptions property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect, KafkaConnectS2I, KafkaMirrorMaker, or KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    jvmOptions:
      "-Xmx": "8g"
      "-Xms": "8g"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.1.19. Container images

Strimzi allows you to configure container images which will be used for its components. Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such a case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from the source. If the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.

Container image configurations

You can specify which container image to use for each component using the image property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Configuring the image property for Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker

Kafka, Kafka Connect (including Kafka Connect with S2I support), and Kafka Mirror Maker support multiple versions of Kafka. Each component requires its own image. The default images for the different Kafka versions are configured in the following environment variables:

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_S2I_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_MIRROR_MAKER_IMAGES

These environment variables contain mappings between the Kafka versions and their corresponding images. The mappings are used together with the image and version properties:

  • If neither image nor version are given in the custom resource then the version will default to the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version, and the image will be the one corresponding to this version in the environment variable.

  • If image is given but version is not, then the given image is used and the version is assumed to be the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version.

  • If version is given but image is not, then the image that corresponds to the given version in the environment variable is used.

  • If both version and image are given, then the given image is used. The image is assumed to contain a Kafka image with the given version.

The image and version for the different components can be configured in the following properties:

  • For Kafka in spec.kafka.image and spec.kafka.version.

  • For Kafka Connect, Kafka Connect S2I, and Kafka Mirror Maker in spec.image and spec.version.

Warning
 It is recommended to provide only the version and leave the image property unspecified. This reduces the chance of making a mistake when configuring the custom resource. If you need to change the images used for different versions of Kafka, it is preferable to configure the Cluster Operator’s environment variables.
Configuring the image property in other resources

For the image property in the other custom resources, the given value will be used during deployment. If the image property is missing, the image specified in the Cluster Operator configuration will be used. If the image name is not defined in the Cluster Operator configuration, then the default value will be used.

  • For Kafka broker TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_KAFKA_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For ZooKeeper nodes:

  • For ZooKeeper node TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ZOOKEEPER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Topic Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TOPIC_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For User Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_USER_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For Entity Operator TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ENTITY_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Exporter:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_EXPORTER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Bridge:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_BRIDGE_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka-bridge:0.15.0 container image.

  • For Kafka broker initializer:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_INIT_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

Warning
 Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from source. In case the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.
Example of container image configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring container images
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the image property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.1.20. TLS sidecar

A sidecar is a container that runs in a pod but serves a supporting purpose. In Strimzi, the TLS sidecar uses TLS to encrypt and decrypt all communication between the various components and ZooKeeper. ZooKeeper does not have native TLS support.

The TLS sidecar is used in:

  • Kafka brokers

  • ZooKeeper nodes

  • Entity Operator

TLS sidecar configuration

The TLS sidecar can be configured using the tlsSidecar property in:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator

The TLS sidecar supports the following additional options:

  • image

  • resources

  • logLevel

  • readinessProbe

  • livenessProbe

The resources property can be used to specify the memory and CPU resources allocated for the TLS sidecar.

The image property can be used to configure the container image which will be used. For more details about configuring custom container images, see Container images.

The logLevel property is used to specify the logging level. Following logging levels are supported:

  • emerg

  • alert

  • crit

  • err

  • warning

  • notice

  • info

  • debug

The default value is notice.

For more information about configuring the readinessProbe and livenessProbe properties for the healthchecks, see Healthcheck configurations.

Example of TLS sidecar configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    tlsSidecar:
      image: my-org/my-image:latest
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: 200m
          memory: 64Mi
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 128Mi
      logLevel: debug
      readinessProbe:
        initialDelaySeconds: 15
        timeoutSeconds: 5
      livenessProbe:
        initialDelaySeconds: 15
        timeoutSeconds: 5
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring TLS sidecar
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the tlsSidecar property in the Kafka resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    tlsSidecar:
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: 200m
          memory: 64Mi
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 128Mi
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.1.21. Configuring pod scheduling

Important
 When two applications are scheduled to the same Kubernetes node, both applications might use the same resources like disk I/O and impact performance. That can lead to performance degradation. Scheduling Kafka pods in a way that avoids sharing nodes with other critical workloads, using the right nodes or dedicated a set of nodes only for Kafka are the best ways how to avoid such problems.
Scheduling pods based on other applications
Avoid critical applications to share the node

Pod anti-affinity can be used to ensure that critical applications are never scheduled on the same disk. When running Kafka cluster, it is recommended to use pod anti-affinity to ensure that the Kafka brokers do not share the nodes with other workloads like databases.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring pod anti-affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. Use labels to specify the pods which should not be scheduled on the same nodes. The topologyKey should be set to kubernetes.io/hostname to specify that the selected pods should not be scheduled on nodes with the same hostname. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          podAntiAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              - labelSelector:
                  matchExpressions:
                    - key: application
                      operator: In
                      values:
                        - postgresql
                        - mongodb
                topologyKey: "kubernetes.io/hostname"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Scheduling pods to specific nodes
Node scheduling

The Kubernetes cluster usually consists of many different types of worker nodes. Some are optimized for CPU heavy workloads, some for memory, while other might be optimized for storage (fast local SSDs) or network. Using different nodes helps to optimize both costs and performance. To achieve the best possible performance, it is important to allow scheduling of Strimzi components to use the right nodes.

Kubernetes uses node affinity to schedule workloads onto specific nodes. Node affinity allows you to create a scheduling constraint for the node on which the pod will be scheduled. The constraint is specified as a label selector. You can specify the label using either the built-in node label like beta.kubernetes.io/instance-type or custom labels to select the right node.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring node affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Label the nodes where Strimzi components should be scheduled.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node node-type=fast-network

    Alternatively, some of the existing labels might be reused.

  2. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
                - matchExpressions:
                  - key: node-type
                    operator: In
                    values:
                    - fast-network
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Using dedicated nodes
Dedicated nodes

Cluster administrators can mark selected Kubernetes nodes as tainted. Nodes with taints are excluded from regular scheduling and normal pods will not be scheduled to run on them. Only services which can tolerate the taint set on the node can be scheduled on it. The only other services running on such nodes will be system services such as log collectors or software defined networks.

Taints can be used to create dedicated nodes. Running Kafka and its components on dedicated nodes can have many advantages. There will be no other applications running on the same nodes which could cause disturbance or consume the resources needed for Kafka. That can lead to improved performance and stability.

To schedule Kafka pods on the dedicated nodes, configure node affinity and tolerations.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Tolerations

Tolerations can be configured using the tolerations property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The format of the tolerations property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes taints and tolerations.

Setting up dedicated nodes and scheduling pods on them
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Select the nodes which should be used as dedicated.

  2. Make sure there are no workloads scheduled on these nodes.

  3. Set the taints on the selected nodes:

    This can be done using kubectl taint:

    kubectl taint node your-node dedicated=Kafka:NoSchedule

  4. Additionally, add a label to the selected nodes as well.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node dedicated=Kafka

  5. Edit the affinity and tolerations properties in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        tolerations:
          - key: "dedicated"
            operator: "Equal"
            value: "Kafka"
            effect: "NoSchedule"
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
              - matchExpressions:
                - key: dedicated
                  operator: In
                  values:
                  - Kafka
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  6. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.1.22. Kafka Exporter

You can configure the Kafka resource to automatically deploy Kafka Exporter in your cluster.

Kafka Exporter extracts data for analysis as Prometheus metrics, primarily data relating to offsets, consumer groups, consumer lag and topics.

For information on Kafka Exporter and why it is important to monitor consumer lag for performance, see Kafka Exporter.

Configuring Kafka Exporter

Configure Kafka Exporter in the Kafka resource through KafkaExporter properties.

Refer to the sample Kafka YAML configuration for an overview of the Kafka resource and its properties.

The properties relevant to the Kafka Exporter configuration are shown in this procedure.

You can configure these properties as part of a deployment or redeployment of the Kafka cluster.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the KafkaExporter properties for the Kafka resource.

    The properties you can configure are shown in this example configuration:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  kafkaExporter:
    image: my-org/my-image:latest (1)
    groupRegex: ".*" (2)
    topicRegex: ".*" (3)
    resources: (4)
      requests:
        cpu: 200m
        memory: 64Mi
      limits:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 128Mi
    logging: debug (5)
    enableSaramaLogging: true (6)
    template: (7)
      pod:
        metadata:
          labels:
            label1: value1
        imagePullSecrets:
          - name: my-docker-credentials
        securityContext:
          runAsUser: 1000001
          fsGroup: 0
        terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 120
    readinessProbe: (8)
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    livenessProbe: (9)
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
# ...

    1. ADVANCED OPTION: Container image configuration, which is recommended only in special situations.

    2. A regular expression to specify the consumer groups to include in the metrics.

    3. A regular expression to specify the topics to include in the metrics.

    4. CPU and memory resources to reserve.

    5. Logging configuration, to log messages with a given severity (debug, info, warn, error, fatal) or above.

    6. Boolean to enable Sarama logging, a Go client library used by Kafka Exporter.

    7. Customization of deployment templates and pods.

    8. Healthcheck readiness probes.

    9. Healthcheck liveness probes.

  2. Create or update the resource:

    kubectl apply -f kafka.yaml
What to do next

After configuring and deploying Kafka Exporter, you can enable Grafana to present the Kafka Exporter dashboards.

Additional resources

KafkaExporterTemplate schema reference.

3.1.23. Performing a rolling update of a Kafka cluster

This procedure describes how to manually trigger a rolling update of an existing Kafka cluster by using a Kubernetes annotation.

Prerequisites

  • A running Kafka cluster.

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Find the name of the StatefulSet that controls the Kafka pods you want to manually update.

    For example, if your Kafka cluster is named my-cluster, the corresponding StatefulSet is named my-cluster-kafka.

  2. Annotate the StatefulSet resource in Kubernetes. For example, using kubectl annotate:

    kubectl annotate statefulset cluster-name-kafka strimzi.io/manual-rolling-update=true

  3. Wait for the next reconciliation to occur (every two minutes by default). A rolling update of all pods within the annotated StatefulSet is triggered, as long as the annotation was detected by the reconciliation process. When the rolling update of all the pods is complete, the annotation is removed from the StatefulSet.

Additional resources

3.1.24. Performing a rolling update of a ZooKeeper cluster

This procedure describes how to manually trigger a rolling update of an existing ZooKeeper cluster by using a Kubernetes annotation.

Prerequisites

  • A running ZooKeeper cluster.

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Find the name of the StatefulSet that controls the ZooKeeper pods you want to manually update.

    For example, if your Kafka cluster is named my-cluster, the corresponding StatefulSet is named my-cluster-zookeeper.

  2. Annotate the StatefulSet resource in Kubernetes. For example, using kubectl annotate:

    kubectl annotate statefulset cluster-name-zookeeper strimzi.io/manual-rolling-update=true

  3. Wait for the next reconciliation to occur (every two minutes by default). A rolling update of all pods within the annotated StatefulSet is triggered, as long as the annotation was detected by the reconciliation process. When the rolling update of all the pods is complete, the annotation is removed from the StatefulSet.

Additional resources

3.1.25. Scaling clusters

Scaling Kafka clusters
Adding brokers to a cluster

The primary way of increasing throughput for a topic is to increase the number of partitions for that topic. That works because the extra partitions allow the load of the topic to be shared between the different brokers in the cluster. However, in situations where every broker is constrained by a particular resource (typically I/O) using more partitions will not result in increased throughput. Instead, you need to add brokers to the cluster.

When you add an extra broker to the cluster, Kafka does not assign any partitions to it automatically. You must decide which partitions to move from the existing brokers to the new broker.

Once the partitions have been redistributed between all the brokers, the resource utilization of each broker should be reduced.

Removing brokers from a cluster

Because Strimzi uses StatefulSets to manage broker pods, you cannot remove any pod from the cluster. You can only remove one or more of the highest numbered pods from the cluster. For example, in a cluster of 12 brokers the pods are named cluster-name-kafka-0 up to cluster-name-kafka-11. If you decide to scale down by one broker, the cluster-name-kafka-11 will be removed.

Before you remove a broker from a cluster, ensure that it is not assigned to any partitions. You should also decide which of the remaining brokers will be responsible for each of the partitions on the broker being decommissioned. Once the broker has no assigned partitions, you can scale the cluster down safely.

Partition reassignment

The Topic Operator does not currently support reassigning replicas to different brokers, so it is necessary to connect directly to broker pods to reassign replicas to brokers.

Within a broker pod, the kafka-reassign-partitions.sh utility allows you to reassign partitions to different brokers.

It has three different modes:

--generate

Takes a set of topics and brokers and generates a reassignment JSON file which will result in the partitions of those topics being assigned to those brokers. Because this operates on whole topics, it cannot be used when you just need to reassign some of the partitions of some topics.

--execute

Takes a reassignment JSON file and applies it to the partitions and brokers in the cluster. Brokers that gain partitions as a result become followers of the partition leader. For a given partition, once the new broker has caught up and joined the ISR (in-sync replicas) the old broker will stop being a follower and will delete its replica.

--verify

Using the same reassignment JSON file as the --execute step, --verify checks whether all of the partitions in the file have been moved to their intended brokers. If the reassignment is complete, --verify also removes any throttles that are in effect. Unless removed, throttles will continue to affect the cluster even after the reassignment has finished.

It is only possible to have one reassignment running in a cluster at any given time, and it is not possible to cancel a running reassignment. If you need to cancel a reassignment, wait for it to complete and then perform another reassignment to revert the effects of the first reassignment. The kafka-reassign-partitions.sh will print the reassignment JSON for this reversion as part of its output. Very large reassignments should be broken down into a number of smaller reassignments in case there is a need to stop in-progress reassignment.

Reassignment JSON file

The reassignment JSON file has a specific structure:

{
  "version": 1,
  "partitions": [
    <PartitionObjects>
  ]
}

Where <PartitionObjects> is a comma-separated list of objects like:

{
  "topic": <TopicName>,
  "partition": <Partition>,
  "replicas": [ <AssignedBrokerIds> ]
}
Note
 Although Kafka also supports a "log_dirs" property this should not be used in Strimzi.

The following is an example reassignment JSON file that assigns topic topic-a, partition 4 to brokers 2, 4 and 7, and topic topic-b partition 2 to brokers 1, 5 and 7:

{
  "version": 1,
  "partitions": [
    {
      "topic": "topic-a",
      "partition": 4,
      "replicas": [2,4,7]
    },
    {
      "topic": "topic-b",
      "partition": 2,
      "replicas": [1,5,7]
    }
  ]
}

Partitions not included in the JSON are not changed.

Reassigning partitions between JBOD volumes

When using JBOD storage in your Kafka cluster, you can choose to reassign the partitions between specific volumes and their log directories (each volume has a single log directory). To reassign a partition to a specific volume, add the log_dirs option to <PartitionObjects> in the reassignment JSON file.

{
  "topic": <TopicName>,
  "partition": <Partition>,
  "replicas": [ <AssignedBrokerIds> ],
  "log_dirs": [ <AssignedLogDirs> ]
}

The log_dirs object should contain the same number of log directories as the number of replicas specified in the replicas object. The value should be either an absolute path to the log directory, or the any keyword.

For example:

{
      "topic": "topic-a",
      "partition": 4,
      "replicas": [2,4,7].
      "log_dirs": [ "/var/lib/kafka/data-0/kafka-log2", "/var/lib/kafka/data-0/kafka-log4", "/var/lib/kafka/data-0/kafka-log7" ]
}
Generating reassignment JSON files

This procedure describes how to generate a reassignment JSON file that reassigns all the partitions for a given set of topics using the kafka-reassign-partitions.sh tool.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka resource

  • A set of topics to reassign the partitions of

Procedure

  1. Prepare a JSON file named topics.json that lists the topics to move. It must have the following structure:

    {
  "version": 1,
  "topics": [
    <TopicObjects>
  ]
}

    where <TopicObjects> is a comma-separated list of objects like:

    {
  "topic": <TopicName>
}

    For example if you want to reassign all the partitions of topic-a and topic-b, you would need to prepare a topics.json file like this:

    {
  "version": 1,
  "topics": [
    { "topic": "topic-a"},
    { "topic": "topic-b"}
  ]
}

  2. Copy the topics.json file to one of the broker pods:

    cat topics.json | kubectl exec -c kafka <BrokerPod> -i -- \
  /bin/bash -c \
  'cat > /tmp/topics.json'

  3. Use the kafka-reassign-partitions.sh` command to generate the reassignment JSON.

    kubectl exec <BrokerPod> -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --topics-to-move-json-file /tmp/topics.json \
  --broker-list <BrokerList> \
  --generate

    For example, to move all the partitions of topic-a and topic-b to brokers 4 and 7

    kubectl exec <BrokerPod> -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --topics-to-move-json-file /tmp/topics.json \
  --broker-list 4,7 \
  --generate
Creating reassignment JSON files manually

You can manually create the reassignment JSON file if you want to move specific partitions.

Reassignment throttles

Partition reassignment can be a slow process because it involves transferring large amounts of data between brokers. To avoid a detrimental impact on clients, you can throttle the reassignment process. This might cause the reassignment to take longer to complete.

  • If the throttle is too low then the newly assigned brokers will not be able to keep up with records being published and the reassignment will never complete.

  • If the throttle is too high then clients will be impacted.

For example, for producers, this could manifest as higher than normal latency waiting for acknowledgement. For consumers, this could manifest as a drop in throughput caused by higher latency between polls.

Scaling up a Kafka cluster

This procedure describes how to increase the number of brokers in a Kafka cluster.

Prerequisites

  • An existing Kafka cluster.

  • A reassignment JSON file named reassignment.json that describes how partitions should be reassigned to brokers in the enlarged cluster.

Procedure

  1. Add as many new brokers as you need by increasing the Kafka.spec.kafka.replicas configuration option.

  2. Verify that the new broker pods have started.

  3. Copy the reassignment.json file to the broker pod on which you will later execute the commands:

    cat reassignment.json | \
  kubectl exec broker-pod -c kafka -i -- /bin/bash -c \
  'cat > /tmp/reassignment.json'

    For example:

    cat reassignment.json | \
  kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -i -- /bin/bash -c \
  'cat > /tmp/reassignment.json'

  4. Execute the partition reassignment using the kafka-reassign-partitions.sh command line tool from the same broker pod.

    kubectl exec broker-pod -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --execute

    If you are going to throttle replication you can also pass the --throttle option with an inter-broker throttled rate in bytes per second. For example:

    kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --throttle 5000000 \
  --execute

    This command will print out two reassignment JSON objects. The first records the current assignment for the partitions being moved. You should save this to a local file (not a file in the pod) in case you need to revert the reassignment later on. The second JSON object is the target reassignment you have passed in your reassignment JSON file.

  5. If you need to change the throttle during reassignment you can use the same command line with a different throttled rate. For example:

    kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --throttle 10000000 \
  --execute

  6. Periodically verify whether the reassignment has completed using the kafka-reassign-partitions.sh command line tool from any of the broker pods. This is the same command as the previous step but with the --verify option instead of the --execute option.

    kubectl exec broker-pod -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --verify

    For example,

    kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --verify

  7. The reassignment has finished when the --verify command reports each of the partitions being moved as completed successfully. This final --verify will also have the effect of removing any reassignment throttles. You can now delete the revert file if you saved the JSON for reverting the assignment to their original brokers.

Scaling down a Kafka cluster
Additional resources

This procedure describes how to decrease the number of brokers in a Kafka cluster.

Prerequisites

  • An existing Kafka cluster.

  • A reassignment JSON file named reassignment.json describing how partitions should be reassigned to brokers in the cluster once the broker(s) in the highest numbered Pod(s) have been removed.

Procedure

  1. Copy the reassignment.json file to the broker pod on which you will later execute the commands:

    cat reassignment.json | \
  kubectl exec broker-pod -c kafka -i -- /bin/bash -c \
  'cat > /tmp/reassignment.json'

    For example:

    cat reassignment.json | \
  kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -i -- /bin/bash -c \
  'cat > /tmp/reassignment.json'

  2. Execute the partition reassignment using the kafka-reassign-partitions.sh command line tool from the same broker pod.

    kubectl exec broker-pod -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --execute

    If you are going to throttle replication you can also pass the --throttle option with an inter-broker throttled rate in bytes per second. For example:

    kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --throttle 5000000 \
  --execute

    This command will print out two reassignment JSON objects. The first records the current assignment for the partitions being moved. You should save this to a local file (not a file in the pod) in case you need to revert the reassignment later on. The second JSON object is the target reassignment you have passed in your reassignment JSON file.

  3. If you need to change the throttle during reassignment you can use the same command line with a different throttled rate. For example:

    kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --throttle 10000000 \
  --execute

  4. Periodically verify whether the reassignment has completed using the kafka-reassign-partitions.sh command line tool from any of the broker pods. This is the same command as the previous step but with the --verify option instead of the --execute option.

    kubectl exec broker-pod -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --verify

    For example,

    kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -it -- \
  bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 \
  --reassignment-json-file /tmp/reassignment.json \
  --verify

  5. The reassignment has finished when the --verify command reports each of the partitions being moved as completed successfully. This final --verify will also have the effect of removing any reassignment throttles. You can now delete the revert file if you saved the JSON for reverting the assignment to their original brokers.

  6. Once all the partition reassignments have finished, the broker(s) being removed should not have responsibility for any of the partitions in the cluster. You can verify this by checking that the broker’s data log directory does not contain any live partition logs. If the log directory on the broker contains a directory that does not match the extended regular expression [a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-z0-9]+-delete$ then the broker still has live partitions and it should not be stopped.

    You can check this by executing the command:

    kubectl exec my-cluster-kafka-0 -c kafka -it -- \
  /bin/bash -c \
  "ls -l /var/lib/kafka/kafka-log_<N>_ | grep -E '^d' | grep -vE '[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-z0-9]+-delete$'"

    where N is the number of the Pod(s) being deleted.

    If the above command prints any output then the broker still has live partitions. In this case, either the reassignment has not finished, or the reassignment JSON file was incorrect.

  7. Once you have confirmed that the broker has no live partitions you can edit the Kafka.spec.kafka.replicas of your Kafka resource, which will scale down the StatefulSet, deleting the highest numbered broker Pod(s).

3.1.26. Deleting Kafka nodes manually

Additional resources

This procedure describes how to delete an existing Kafka node by using a Kubernetes annotation. Deleting a Kafka node consists of deleting both the Pod on which the Kafka broker is running and the related PersistentVolumeClaim (if the cluster was deployed with persistent storage). After deletion, the Pod and its related PersistentVolumeClaim are recreated automatically.

Warning
 Deleting a PersistentVolumeClaim can cause permanent data loss. The following procedure should only be performed if you have encountered storage issues.
Prerequisites

  • A running Kafka cluster.

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Find the name of the Pod that you want to delete.

    For example, if the cluster is named cluster-name, the pods are named cluster-name-kafka-index, where index starts at zero and ends at the total number of replicas.

  2. Annotate the Pod resource in Kubernetes.

    Use kubectl annotate:

    kubectl annotate pod cluster-name-kafka-index strimzi.io/delete-pod-and-pvc=true

  3. Wait for the next reconciliation, when the annotated pod with the underlying persistent volume claim will be deleted and then recreated.

Additional resources

3.1.27. Deleting ZooKeeper nodes manually

This procedure describes how to delete an existing ZooKeeper node by using a Kubernetes annotation. Deleting a ZooKeeper node consists of deleting both the Pod on which ZooKeeper is running and the related PersistentVolumeClaim (if the cluster was deployed with persistent storage). After deletion, the Pod and its related PersistentVolumeClaim are recreated automatically.

Warning
 Deleting a PersistentVolumeClaim can cause permanent data loss. The following procedure should only be performed if you have encountered storage issues.
Prerequisites

  • A running ZooKeeper cluster.

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Find the name of the Pod that you want to delete.

    For example, if the cluster is named cluster-name, the pods are named cluster-name-zookeeper-index, where index starts at zero and ends at the total number of replicas.

  2. Annotate the Pod resource in Kubernetes.

    Use kubectl annotate:

    kubectl annotate pod cluster-name-zookeeper-index strimzi.io/delete-pod-and-pvc=true

  3. Wait for the next reconciliation, when the annotated pod with the underlying persistent volume claim will be deleted and then recreated.

Additional resources

3.1.28. Maintenance time windows for rolling updates

Maintenance time windows allow you to schedule certain rolling updates of your Kafka and ZooKeeper clusters to start at a convenient time.

Maintenance time windows overview

In most cases, the Cluster Operator only updates your Kafka or ZooKeeper clusters in response to changes to the corresponding Kafka resource. This enables you to plan when to apply changes to a Kafka resource to minimize the impact on Kafka client applications.

However, some updates to your Kafka and ZooKeeper clusters can happen without any corresponding change to the Kafka resource. For example, the Cluster Operator will need to perform a rolling restart if a CA (Certificate Authority) certificate that it manages is close to expiry.

While a rolling restart of the pods should not affect availability of the service (assuming correct broker and topic configurations), it could affect performance of the Kafka client applications. Maintenance time windows allow you to schedule such spontaneous rolling updates of your Kafka and ZooKeeper clusters to start at a convenient time. If maintenance time windows are not configured for a cluster then it is possible that such spontaneous rolling updates will happen at an inconvenient time, such as during a predictable period of high load.

Maintenance time window definition

You configure maintenance time windows by entering an array of strings in the Kafka.spec.maintenanceTimeWindows property. Each string is a cron expression interpreted as being in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, which for practical purposes is the same as Greenwich Mean Time).

The following example configures a single maintenance time window that starts at midnight and ends at 01:59am (UTC), on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays:

# ...
maintenanceTimeWindows:
  - "* * 0-1 ? * SUN,MON,TUE,WED,THU *"
# ...

In practice, maintenance windows should be set in conjunction with the Kafka.spec.clusterCa.renewalDays and Kafka.spec.clientsCa.renewalDays properties of the Kafka resource, to ensure that the necessary CA certificate renewal can be completed in the configured maintenance time windows.

Note
 Strimzi does not schedule maintenance operations exactly according to the given windows. Instead, for each reconciliation, it checks whether a maintenance window is currently "open". This means that the start of maintenance operations within a given time window can be delayed by up to the Cluster Operator reconciliation interval. Maintenance time windows must therefore be at least this long.
Additional resources
Configuring a maintenance time window

You can configure a maintenance time window for rolling updates triggered by supported processes.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster.

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Add or edit the maintenanceTimeWindows property in the Kafka resource. For example to allow maintenance between 0800 and 1059 and between 1400 and 1559 you would set the maintenanceTimeWindows as shown below:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
  maintenanceTimeWindows:
    - "* * 8-10 * * ?"
    - "* * 14-15 * * ?"

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

3.1.29. Renewing CA certificates manually

Unless the Kafka.spec.clusterCa.generateCertificateAuthority and Kafka.spec.clientsCa.generateCertificateAuthority objects are set to false, the cluster and clients CA certificates will auto-renew at the start of their respective certificate renewal periods. You can manually renew one or both of these certificates before the certificate renewal period starts, if required for security reasons. A renewed certificate uses the same private key as the old certificate.

Prerequisites

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

  • A Kafka cluster in which CA certificates and private keys are installed.

Procedure

  • Apply the strimzi.io/force-renew annotation to the Secret that contains the CA certificate that you want to renew.

    Certificate Secret Annotate command

    Cluster CA

    <cluster-name>-cluster-ca-cert

    kubectl annotate secret <cluster-name>-cluster-ca-cert strimzi.io/force-renew=true

    Clients CA

    <cluster-name>-clients-ca-cert

    kubectl annotate secret <cluster-name>-clients-ca-cert strimzi.io/force-renew=true

At the next reconciliation the Cluster Operator will generate a new CA certificate for the Secret that you annotated. If maintenance time windows are configured, the Cluster Operator will generate the new CA certificate at the first reconciliation within the next maintenance time window.

Client applications must reload the cluster and clients CA certificates that were renewed by the Cluster Operator.

Additional resources

3.1.30. Replacing private keys

You can replace the private keys used by the cluster CA and clients CA certificates. When a private key is replaced, the Cluster Operator generates a new CA certificate for the new private key.

Prerequisites

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

  • A Kafka cluster in which CA certificates and private keys are installed.

Procedure

  • Apply the strimzi.io/force-replace annotation to the Secret that contains the private key that you want to renew.

    Private key for Secret Annotate command

    Cluster CA

    <cluster-name>-cluster-ca

    kubectl annotate secret <cluster-name>-cluster-ca strimzi.io/force-replace=true

    Clients CA

    <cluster-name>-clients-ca

    kubectl annotate secret <cluster-name>-clients-ca strimzi.io/force-replace=true

At the next reconciliation the Cluster Operator will:

  • Generate a new private key for the Secret that you annotated

  • Generate a new CA certificate

If maintenance time windows are configured, the Cluster Operator will generate the new private key and CA certificate at the first reconciliation within the next maintenance time window.

Client applications must reload the cluster and clients CA certificates that were renewed by the Cluster Operator.

Additional resources

3.1.31. List of resources created as part of Kafka cluster

The following resources will created by the Cluster Operator in the Kubernetes cluster:

cluster-name-kafka

StatefulSet which is in charge of managing the Kafka broker pods.

cluster-name-kafka-brokers

Service needed to have DNS resolve the Kafka broker pods IP addresses directly.

cluster-name-kafka-bootstrap

Service can be used as bootstrap servers for Kafka clients.

cluster-name-kafka-external-bootstrap

Bootstrap service for clients connecting from outside of the Kubernetes cluster. This resource will be created only when external listener is enabled.

cluster-name-kafka-pod-id

Service used to route traffic from outside of the Kubernetes cluster to individual pods. This resource will be created only when external listener is enabled.

cluster-name-kafka-external-bootstrap

Bootstrap route for clients connecting from outside of the Kubernetes cluster. This resource will be created only when external listener is enabled and set to type route.

cluster-name-kafka-pod-id

Route for traffic from outside of the Kubernetes cluster to individual pods. This resource will be created only when external listener is enabled and set to type route.

cluster-name-kafka-config

ConfigMap which contains the Kafka ancillary configuration and is mounted as a volume by the Kafka broker pods.

cluster-name-kafka-brokers

Secret with Kafka broker keys.

cluster-name-kafka

Service account used by the Kafka brokers.

cluster-name-kafka

Pod Disruption Budget configured for the Kafka brokers.

strimzi-namespace-name-cluster-name-kafka-init

Cluster role binding used by the Kafka brokers.

cluster-name-zookeeper

StatefulSet which is in charge of managing the ZooKeeper node pods.

cluster-name-zookeeper-nodes

Service needed to have DNS resolve the ZooKeeper pods IP addresses directly.

cluster-name-zookeeper-client

Service used by Kafka brokers to connect to ZooKeeper nodes as clients.

cluster-name-zookeeper-config

ConfigMap which contains the ZooKeeper ancillary configuration and is mounted as a volume by the ZooKeeper node pods.

cluster-name-zookeeper-nodes

Secret with ZooKeeper node keys.

cluster-name-zookeeper

Pod Disruption Budget configured for the ZooKeeper nodes.

cluster-name-entity-operator

Deployment with Topic and User Operators. This resource will be created only if Cluster Operator deployed Entity Operator.

cluster-name-entity-topic-operator-config

Configmap with ancillary configuration for Topic Operators. This resource will be created only if Cluster Operator deployed Entity Operator.

cluster-name-entity-user-operator-config

Configmap with ancillary configuration for User Operators. This resource will be created only if Cluster Operator deployed Entity Operator.

cluster-name-entity-operator-certs

Secret with Entity operators keys for communication with Kafka and ZooKeeper. This resource will be created only if Cluster Operator deployed Entity Operator.

cluster-name-entity-operator

Service account used by the Entity Operator.

strimzi-cluster-name-topic-operator

Role binding used by the Entity Operator.

strimzi-cluster-name-user-operator

Role binding used by the Entity Operator.

cluster-name-cluster-ca

Secret with the Cluster CA used to encrypt the cluster communication.

cluster-name-cluster-ca-cert

Secret with the Cluster CA public key. This key can be used to verify the identity of the Kafka brokers.

cluster-name-clients-ca

Secret with the Clients CA used to encrypt the communication between Kafka brokers and Kafka clients.

cluster-name-clients-ca-cert

Secret with the Clients CA public key. This key can be used to verify the identity of the Kafka brokers.

cluster-name-cluster-operator-certs

Secret with Cluster operators keys for communication with Kafka and ZooKeeper.

data-cluster-name-kafka-idx

Persistent Volume Claim for the volume used for storing data for the Kafka broker pod idx. This resource will be created only if persistent storage is selected for provisioning persistent volumes to store data.

data-id-cluster-name-kafka-idx

Persistent Volume Claim for the volume id used for storing data for the Kafka broker pod idx. This resource is only created if persistent storage is selected for JBOD volumes when provisioning persistent volumes to store data.

data-cluster-name-zookeeper-idx

Persistent Volume Claim for the volume used for storing data for the ZooKeeper node pod idx. This resource will be created only if persistent storage is selected for provisioning persistent volumes to store data.

cluster-name-jmx

Secret with JMX username and password used to secure the Kafka broker port.

3.2. Kafka Connect cluster configuration

The full schema of the KafkaConnect resource is described in the KafkaConnect schema reference. All labels that are applied to the desired KafkaConnect resource will also be applied to the Kubernetes resources making up the Kafka Connect cluster. This provides a convenient mechanism for resources to be labeled as required.

3.2.1. Replicas

Kafka Connect clusters can consist of one or more nodes. The number of nodes is defined in the KafkaConnect and KafkaConnectS2I resources. Running a Kafka Connect cluster with multiple nodes can provide better availability and scalability. However, when running Kafka Connect on Kubernetes it is not necessary to run multiple nodes of Kafka Connect for high availability. If a node where Kafka Connect is deployed to crashes, Kubernetes will automatically reschedule the Kafka Connect pod to a different node. However, running Kafka Connect with multiple nodes can provide faster failover times, because the other nodes will be up and running already.

Configuring the number of nodes

The number of Kafka Connect nodes is configured using the replicas property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the replicas property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnectS2I
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  replicas: 3
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.2. Bootstrap servers

A Kafka Connect cluster always works in combination with a Kafka cluster. A Kafka cluster is specified as a list of bootstrap servers. On Kubernetes, the list must ideally contain the Kafka cluster bootstrap service named cluster-name-kafka-bootstrap, and a port of 9092 for plain traffic or 9093 for encrypted traffic.

The list of bootstrap servers is configured in the bootstrapServers property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. The servers must be defined as a comma-separated list specifying one or more Kafka brokers, or a service pointing to Kafka brokers specified as a hostname:_port_ pairs.

When using Kafka Connect with a Kafka cluster not managed by Strimzi, you can specify the bootstrap servers list according to the configuration of the cluster.

Configuring bootstrap servers
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the bootstrapServers property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  bootstrapServers: my-cluster-kafka-bootstrap:9092
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.3. Connecting to Kafka brokers using TLS

By default, Kafka Connect tries to connect to Kafka brokers using a plain text connection. If you prefer to use TLS, additional configuration is required.

TLS support in Kafka Connect

TLS support is configured in the tls property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. The tls property contains a list of secrets with key names under which the certificates are stored. The certificates must be stored in X509 format.

An example showing TLS configuration with multiple certificates
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-secret
        certificate: ca.crt
      - secretName: my-other-secret
        certificate: certificate.crt
  # ...

When multiple certificates are stored in the same secret, it can be listed multiple times.

An example showing TLS configuration with multiple certificates from the same secret
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnectS2I
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-secret
        certificate: ca.crt
      - secretName: my-secret
        certificate: ca2.crt
  # ...
Configuring TLS in Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret for the certificate used for TLS Server Authentication, and the key under which the certificate is stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare the TLS certificate used in authentication in a file and create a Secret.

    Note
    		 The secrets created by the Cluster Operator for Kafka cluster may be used directly.

    This can be done using kubectl create:

    kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=my-file.crt

  2. Edit the tls property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-cluster-cluster-cert
        certificate: ca.crt
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.4. Connecting to Kafka brokers with Authentication

By default, Kafka Connect will try to connect to Kafka brokers without authentication. Authentication is enabled through the KafkaConnect and KafkaConnectS2I resources.

Authentication support in Kafka Connect

Authentication is configured through the authentication property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. The authentication property specifies the type of the authentication mechanisms which should be used and additional configuration details depending on the mechanism. The supported authentication types are:

TLS Client Authentication

To use TLS client authentication, set the type property to the value tls. TLS client authentication uses a TLS certificate to authenticate. The certificate is specified in the certificateAndKey property and is always loaded from a Kubernetes secret. In the secret, the certificate must be stored in X509 format under two different keys: public and private.

Note
 TLS client authentication can be used only with TLS connections. For more details about TLS configuration in Kafka Connect see Connecting to Kafka brokers using TLS.
An example TLS client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: tls
    certificateAndKey:
      secretName: my-secret
      certificate: public.crt
      key: private.key
  # ...
SASL based SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication

To configure Kafka Connect to use SASL-based SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication, set the type property to scram-sha-512. This authentication mechanism requires a username and password.

  • Specify the username in the username property.

  • In the passwordSecret property, specify a link to a Secret containing the password. The secretName property contains the name of the Secret and the password property contains the name of the key under which the password is stored inside the Secret.

Important
 Do not specify the actual password in the password field.
An example SASL based SCRAM-SHA-512 client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
    username: my-connect-user
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: my-connect-user
      password: my-connect-password-key
  # ...
SASL based PLAIN authentication

To configure Kafka Connect to use SASL-based PLAIN authentication, set the type property to plain. This authentication mechanism requires a username and password.

Warning
 The SASL PLAIN mechanism will transfer the username and password across the network in cleartext. Only use SASL PLAIN authentication if TLS encryption is enabled.

  • Specify the username in the username property.

  • In the passwordSecret property, specify a link to a Secret containing the password. The secretName property contains the name of such a Secret and the password property contains the name of the key under which the password is stored inside the Secret.

Important
 Do not specify the actual password in the password field.
An example showing SASL based PLAIN client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: plain
    username: my-connect-user
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: my-connect-user
      password: my-connect-password-key
  # ...
Configuring TLS client authentication in Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret with the public and private keys used for TLS Client Authentication, and the keys under which they are stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare the keys used for authentication in a file and create the Secret.

    Note
    		 Secrets created by the User Operator may be used.

    This can be done using kubectl create:

    kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=my-public.crt --from-file=my-private.key

  2. Edit the authentication property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: tls
    certificateAndKey:
      secretName: my-secret
      certificate: my-public.crt
      key: my-private.key
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Configuring SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication in Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • Username of the user which should be used for authentication

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret with the password used for authentication and the key under which the password is stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare a file with the password used in authentication and create the Secret.

    Note
    		 Secrets created by the User Operator may be used.

    This can be done using kubectl create:

    echo -n '<password>' > <my-password.txt>
kubectl create secret generic <my-secret> --from-file=<my-password.txt>

  2. Edit the authentication property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
    username: _<my-username>_
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: _<my-secret>_
      password: _<my-password.txt>_
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    On Kubernetes this can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.5. Kafka Connect configuration

Strimzi allows you to customize the configuration of Apache Kafka Connect nodes by editing certain options listed in Apache Kafka documentation.

Configuration options that cannot be configured relate to:

  • Kafka cluster bootstrap address

  • Security (Encryption, Authentication, and Authorization)

  • Listener / REST interface configuration

  • Plugin path configuration

These options are automatically configured by Strimzi.

Kafka Connect configuration

Kafka Connect is configured using the config property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. This property contains the Kafka Connect configuration options as keys. The values can be one of the following JSON types:

  • String

  • Number

  • Boolean

You can specify and configure the options listed in the Apache Kafka documentation with the exception of those options that are managed directly by Strimzi. Specifically, configuration options with keys equal to or starting with one of the following strings are forbidden:

  • ssl.

  • sasl.

  • security.

  • listeners

  • plugin.path

  • rest.

  • bootstrap.servers

When a forbidden option is present in the config property, it is ignored and a warning message is printed to the Custer Operator log file. All other options are passed to Kafka Connect.

Important
 The Cluster Operator does not validate keys or values in the config object provided. When an invalid configuration is provided, the Kafka Connect cluster might not start or might become unstable. In this circumstance, fix the configuration in the KafkaConnect.spec.config or KafkaConnectS2I.spec.config object, then the Cluster Operator can roll out the new configuration to all Kafka Connect nodes.

Certain options have default values:

  • group.id with default value connect-cluster

  • offset.storage.topic with default value connect-cluster-offsets

  • config.storage.topic with default value connect-cluster-configs

  • status.storage.topic with default value connect-cluster-status

  • key.converter with default value org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter

  • value.converter with default value org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter

These options are automatically configured in case they are not present in the KafkaConnect.spec.config or KafkaConnectS2I.spec.config properties.

Example Kafka Connect configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  config:
    group.id: my-connect-cluster
    offset.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-offsets
    config.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-configs
    status.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-status
    key.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    value.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    key.converter.schemas.enable: true
    value.converter.schemas.enable: true
    config.storage.replication.factor: 3
    offset.storage.replication.factor: 3
    status.storage.replication.factor: 3
  # ...
Kafka Connect configuration for multiple instances

If you are running multiple instances of Kafka Connect, pay attention to the default configuration of the following properties:

# ...
  group.id: connect-cluster (1)
  offset.storage.topic: connect-cluster-offsets (2)
  config.storage.topic: connect-cluster-configs (3)
  status.storage.topic: connect-cluster-status  (4)
# ...

  1. Kafka Connect cluster group the instance belongs to.

  2. Kafka topic that stores connector offsets.

  3. Kafka topic that stores connector and task status configurations.

  4. Kafka topic that stores connector and task status updates.

Note
 Values for the three topics must be the same for all Kafka Connect instances with the same group.id.

Unless you change the default settings, each Kafka Connect instance connecting to the same Kafka cluster is deployed with the same values. What happens, in effect, is all instances are coupled to run in a cluster and use the same topics.

If multiple Kafka Connect clusters try to use the same topics, Kafka Connect will not work as expected and generate errors.

If you wish to run multiple Kafka Connect instances, change the values of these properties for each instance.

Configuring Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the config property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  config:
    group.id: my-connect-cluster
    offset.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-offsets
    config.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-configs
    status.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-status
    key.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    value.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    key.converter.schemas.enable: true
    value.converter.schemas.enable: true
    config.storage.replication.factor: 3
    offset.storage.replication.factor: 3
    status.storage.replication.factor: 3
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.6. CPU and memory resources

For every deployed container, Strimzi allows you to request specific resources and define the maximum consumption of those resources.

Strimzi supports two types of resources:

  • CPU

  • Memory

Strimzi uses the Kubernetes syntax for specifying CPU and memory resources.

Resource limits and requests

Resource limits and requests are configured using the resources property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Additional resources
Resource requests

Requests specify the resources to reserve for a given container. Reserving the resources ensures that they are always available.

Important
 If the resource request is for more than the available free resources in the Kubernetes cluster, the pod is not scheduled.

Resources requests are specified in the requests property. Resources requests currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A request may be configured for one or more supported resources.

Example resource request configuration with all resources
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Resource limits

Limits specify the maximum resources that can be consumed by a given container. The limit is not reserved and might not always be available. A container can use the resources up to the limit only when they are available. Resource limits should be always higher than the resource requests.

Resource limits are specified in the limits property. Resource limits currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A resource may be configured for one or more supported limits.

Example resource limits configuration
# ...
resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Supported CPU formats

CPU requests and limits are supported in the following formats:

  • Number of CPU cores as integer (5 CPU core) or decimal (2.5 CPU core).

  • Number or millicpus / millicores (100m) where 1000 millicores is the same 1 CPU core.

Example CPU units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 500m
  limits:
    cpu: 2.5
# ...
Note
 The computing power of 1 CPU core may differ depending on the platform where Kubernetes is deployed.
Additional resources
Supported memory formats

Memory requests and limits are specified in megabytes, gigabytes, mebibytes, and gibibytes.

  • To specify memory in megabytes, use the M suffix. For example 1000M.

  • To specify memory in gigabytes, use the G suffix. For example 1G.

  • To specify memory in mebibytes, use the Mi suffix. For example 1000Mi.

  • To specify memory in gibibytes, use the Gi suffix. For example 1Gi.

An example of using different memory units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    memory: 512Mi
  limits:
    memory: 2Gi
# ...
Additional resources

  • For more details about memory specification and additional supported units, see Meaning of memory.

Configuring resource requests and limits
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the resources property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "8"
        memory: 64Gi
      limits:
        cpu: "12"
        memory: 128Gi
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

3.2.7. Kafka Connect loggers

Kafka Connect has its own configurable loggers:

  • connect.root.logger.level

  • log4j.logger.org.reflections

Kafka Connect uses the Apache log4j logger implementation.

Use the logging property to configure loggers and logger levels.

You can set the log levels by specifying the logger and level directly (inline) or use a custom (external) ConfigMap. If a ConfigMap is used, you set logging.name property to the name of the ConfigMap containing the external logging configuration. Inside the ConfigMap, the logging configuration is described using log4j.properties.

Here we see examples of inline and external logging.

Inline logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: inline
    loggers:
      connect.root.logger: "INFO"
  # ...
External logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: external
    name: customConfigMap
  # ...
Additional resources

3.2.8. Healthchecks

Healthchecks are periodical tests which verify the health of an application. When a Healthcheck probe fails, Kubernetes assumes that the application is not healthy and attempts to fix it.

Kubernetes supports two types of Healthcheck probes:

  • Liveness probes

  • Readiness probes

For more details about the probes, see Configure Liveness and Readiness Probes. Both types of probes are used in Strimzi components.

Users can configure selected options for liveness and readiness probes.

Healthcheck configurations

Liveness and readiness probes can be configured using the livenessProbe and readinessProbe properties in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Both livenessProbe and readinessProbe support the following options:

  • initialDelaySeconds

  • timeoutSeconds

  • periodSeconds

  • successThreshold

  • failureThreshold

For more information about the livenessProbe and readinessProbe options, see Probe schema reference.

An example of liveness and readiness probe configuration
# ...
readinessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
livenessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
# ...
Configuring healthchecks
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the livenessProbe or readinessProbe property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    readinessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    livenessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.9. Prometheus metrics

Strimzi supports Prometheus metrics using Prometheus JMX exporter to convert the JMX metrics supported by Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper to Prometheus metrics. When metrics are enabled, they are exposed on port 9404.

For more information about configuring Prometheus and Grafana, see Metrics.

Metrics configuration

Prometheus metrics are enabled by configuring the metrics property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

When the metrics property is not defined in the resource, the Prometheus metrics will be disabled. To enable Prometheus metrics export without any further configuration, you can set it to an empty object ({}).

Example of enabling metrics without any further configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    metrics: {}
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

The metrics property might contain additional configuration for the Prometheus JMX exporter.

Example of enabling metrics with additional Prometheus JMX Exporter configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    metrics:
      lowercaseOutputName: true
      rules:
        - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*><>Count"
          name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
        - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*, topic=(.+)><>Count"
          name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
          labels:
            topic: "$3"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring Prometheus metrics
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the metrics property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    metrics:
      lowercaseOutputName: true
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.10. JVM Options

The following components of Strimzi run inside a Virtual Machine (VM):

  • Apache Kafka

  • Apache ZooKeeper

  • Apache Kafka Connect

  • Apache Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Strimzi Kafka Bridge

JVM configuration options optimize the performance for different platforms and architectures. Strimzi allows you to configure some of these options.

JVM configuration

JVM options can be configured using the jvmOptions property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Only a selected subset of available JVM options can be configured. The following options are supported:

-Xms and -Xmx

-Xms configures the minimum initial allocation heap size when the JVM starts. -Xmx configures the maximum heap size.

Note
 The units accepted by JVM settings such as -Xmx and -Xms are those accepted by the JDK java binary in the corresponding image. Accordingly, 1g or 1G means 1,073,741,824 bytes, and Gi is not a valid unit suffix. This is in contrast to the units used for memory requests and limits, which follow the Kubernetes convention where 1G means 1,000,000,000 bytes, and 1Gi means 1,073,741,824 bytes

The default values used for -Xms and -Xmx depends on whether there is a memory request limit configured for the container:

  • If there is a memory limit then the JVM’s minimum and maximum memory will be set to a value corresponding to the limit.

  • If there is no memory limit then the JVM’s minimum memory will be set to 128M and the JVM’s maximum memory will not be defined. This allows for the JVM’s memory to grow as-needed, which is ideal for single node environments in test and development.

Important

Setting -Xmx explicitly requires some care:

  • The JVM’s overall memory usage will be approximately 4 × the maximum heap, as configured by -Xmx.

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory limit, it is possible that the container will be killed should the Kubernetes node experience memory pressure (from other Pods running on it).

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory request, it is possible that the container will be scheduled to a node with insufficient memory. In this case, the container will not start but crash (immediately if -Xms is set to -Xmx, or some later time if not).

When setting -Xmx explicitly, it is recommended to:

  • set the memory request and the memory limit to the same value,

  • use a memory request that is at least 4.5 × the -Xmx,

  • consider setting -Xms to the same value as -Xmx.

Important
 Containers doing lots of disk I/O (such as Kafka broker containers) will need to leave some memory available for use as operating system page cache. On such containers, the requested memory should be significantly higher than the memory used by the JVM.
Example fragment configuring -Xmx and -Xms
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-Xmx": "2g"
  "-Xms": "2g"
# ...

In the above example, the JVM will use 2 GiB (=2,147,483,648 bytes) for its heap. Its total memory usage will be approximately 8GiB.

Setting the same value for initial (-Xms) and maximum (-Xmx) heap sizes avoids the JVM having to allocate memory after startup, at the cost of possibly allocating more heap than is really needed. For Kafka and ZooKeeper pods such allocation could cause unwanted latency. For Kafka Connect avoiding over allocation may be the most important concern, especially in distributed mode where the effects of over-allocation will be multiplied by the number of consumers.

-server

-server enables the server JVM. This option can be set to true or false.

Example fragment configuring -server
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-server": true
# ...
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
-XX

-XX object can be used for configuring advanced runtime options of a JVM. The -server and -XX options are used to configure the KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS option of Apache Kafka.

Example showing the use of the -XX object
jvmOptions:
  "-XX":
    "UseG1GC": true
    "MaxGCPauseMillis": 20
    "InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent": 35
    "ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent": true
    "UseParNewGC": false

The example configuration above will result in the following JVM options:

-XX:+UseG1GC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=20 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=35 -XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent -XX:-UseParNewGC
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
Garbage collector logging

The jvmOptions section also allows you to enable and disable garbage collector (GC) logging. GC logging is disabled by default. To enable it, set the gcLoggingEnabled property as follows:

Example of enabling GC logging
# ...
jvmOptions:
  gcLoggingEnabled: true
# ...
Configuring JVM options
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the jvmOptions property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect, KafkaConnectS2I, KafkaMirrorMaker, or KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    jvmOptions:
      "-Xmx": "8g"
      "-Xms": "8g"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.11. Container images

Strimzi allows you to configure container images which will be used for its components. Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such a case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from the source. If the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.

Container image configurations

You can specify which container image to use for each component using the image property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Configuring the image property for Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker

Kafka, Kafka Connect (including Kafka Connect with S2I support), and Kafka Mirror Maker support multiple versions of Kafka. Each component requires its own image. The default images for the different Kafka versions are configured in the following environment variables:

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_S2I_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_MIRROR_MAKER_IMAGES

These environment variables contain mappings between the Kafka versions and their corresponding images. The mappings are used together with the image and version properties:

  • If neither image nor version are given in the custom resource then the version will default to the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version, and the image will be the one corresponding to this version in the environment variable.

  • If image is given but version is not, then the given image is used and the version is assumed to be the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version.

  • If version is given but image is not, then the image that corresponds to the given version in the environment variable is used.

  • If both version and image are given, then the given image is used. The image is assumed to contain a Kafka image with the given version.

The image and version for the different components can be configured in the following properties:

  • For Kafka in spec.kafka.image and spec.kafka.version.

  • For Kafka Connect, Kafka Connect S2I, and Kafka Mirror Maker in spec.image and spec.version.

Warning
 It is recommended to provide only the version and leave the image property unspecified. This reduces the chance of making a mistake when configuring the custom resource. If you need to change the images used for different versions of Kafka, it is preferable to configure the Cluster Operator’s environment variables.
Configuring the image property in other resources

For the image property in the other custom resources, the given value will be used during deployment. If the image property is missing, the image specified in the Cluster Operator configuration will be used. If the image name is not defined in the Cluster Operator configuration, then the default value will be used.

  • For Kafka broker TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_KAFKA_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For ZooKeeper nodes:

  • For ZooKeeper node TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ZOOKEEPER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Topic Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TOPIC_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For User Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_USER_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For Entity Operator TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ENTITY_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Exporter:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_EXPORTER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Bridge:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_BRIDGE_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka-bridge:0.15.0 container image.

  • For Kafka broker initializer:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_INIT_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

Warning
 Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from source. In case the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.
Example of container image configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring container images
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the image property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.12. Configuring pod scheduling

Important
 When two applications are scheduled to the same Kubernetes node, both applications might use the same resources like disk I/O and impact performance. That can lead to performance degradation. Scheduling Kafka pods in a way that avoids sharing nodes with other critical workloads, using the right nodes or dedicated a set of nodes only for Kafka are the best ways how to avoid such problems.
Scheduling pods based on other applications
Avoid critical applications to share the node

Pod anti-affinity can be used to ensure that critical applications are never scheduled on the same disk. When running Kafka cluster, it is recommended to use pod anti-affinity to ensure that the Kafka brokers do not share the nodes with other workloads like databases.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring pod anti-affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. Use labels to specify the pods which should not be scheduled on the same nodes. The topologyKey should be set to kubernetes.io/hostname to specify that the selected pods should not be scheduled on nodes with the same hostname. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          podAntiAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              - labelSelector:
                  matchExpressions:
                    - key: application
                      operator: In
                      values:
                        - postgresql
                        - mongodb
                topologyKey: "kubernetes.io/hostname"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Scheduling pods to specific nodes
Node scheduling

The Kubernetes cluster usually consists of many different types of worker nodes. Some are optimized for CPU heavy workloads, some for memory, while other might be optimized for storage (fast local SSDs) or network. Using different nodes helps to optimize both costs and performance. To achieve the best possible performance, it is important to allow scheduling of Strimzi components to use the right nodes.

Kubernetes uses node affinity to schedule workloads onto specific nodes. Node affinity allows you to create a scheduling constraint for the node on which the pod will be scheduled. The constraint is specified as a label selector. You can specify the label using either the built-in node label like beta.kubernetes.io/instance-type or custom labels to select the right node.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring node affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Label the nodes where Strimzi components should be scheduled.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node node-type=fast-network

    Alternatively, some of the existing labels might be reused.

  2. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
                - matchExpressions:
                  - key: node-type
                    operator: In
                    values:
                    - fast-network
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Using dedicated nodes
Dedicated nodes

Cluster administrators can mark selected Kubernetes nodes as tainted. Nodes with taints are excluded from regular scheduling and normal pods will not be scheduled to run on them. Only services which can tolerate the taint set on the node can be scheduled on it. The only other services running on such nodes will be system services such as log collectors or software defined networks.

Taints can be used to create dedicated nodes. Running Kafka and its components on dedicated nodes can have many advantages. There will be no other applications running on the same nodes which could cause disturbance or consume the resources needed for Kafka. That can lead to improved performance and stability.

To schedule Kafka pods on the dedicated nodes, configure node affinity and tolerations.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Tolerations

Tolerations can be configured using the tolerations property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The format of the tolerations property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes taints and tolerations.

Setting up dedicated nodes and scheduling pods on them
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Select the nodes which should be used as dedicated.

  2. Make sure there are no workloads scheduled on these nodes.

  3. Set the taints on the selected nodes:

    This can be done using kubectl taint:

    kubectl taint node your-node dedicated=Kafka:NoSchedule

  4. Additionally, add a label to the selected nodes as well.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node dedicated=Kafka

  5. Edit the affinity and tolerations properties in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        tolerations:
          - key: "dedicated"
            operator: "Equal"
            value: "Kafka"
            effect: "NoSchedule"
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
              - matchExpressions:
                - key: dedicated
                  operator: In
                  values:
                  - Kafka
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  6. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.2.13. Using external configuration and secrets

Connectors are created, reconfigured, and deleted using the Kafka Connect HTTP REST interface, or by using KafkaConnectors. For more information on these methods, see Creating and managing connectors. The connector configuration is passed to Kafka Connect as part of an HTTP request and stored within Kafka itself.

ConfigMaps and Secrets are standard Kubernetes resources used for storing configurations and confidential data. Whichever method you use to manage connectors, you can use ConfigMaps and Secrets to configure certain elements of a connector. You can then reference the configuration values in HTTP REST commands (this keeps the configuration separate and more secure, if needed). This method applies especially to confidential data, such as usernames, passwords, or certificates.

Storing connector configurations externally

You can mount ConfigMaps or Secrets into a Kafka Connect pod as volumes or environment variables. Volumes and environment variables are configured in the externalConfiguration property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec.

External configuration as environment variables

The env property is used to specify one or more environment variables. These variables can contain a value from either a ConfigMap or a Secret.

Note
 The names of user-defined environment variables cannot start with KAFKA_ or STRIMZI_.

To mount a value from a Secret to an environment variable, use the valueFrom property and the secretKeyRef as shown in the following example.

Example of an environment variable set to a value from a Secret
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    env:
      - name: MY_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
        valueFrom:
          secretKeyRef:
            name: my-secret
            key: my-key

A common use case for mounting Secrets to environment variables is when your connector needs to communicate with Amazon AWS and needs to read the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variables with credentials.

To mount a value from a ConfigMap to an environment variable, use configMapKeyRef in the valueFrom property as shown in the following example.

Example of an environment variable set to a value from a ConfigMap
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    env:
      - name: MY_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
        valueFrom:
          configMapKeyRef:
            name: my-config-map
            key: my-key
External configuration as volumes

You can also mount ConfigMaps or Secrets to a Kafka Connect pod as volumes. Using volumes instead of environment variables is useful in the following scenarios:

  • Mounting truststores or keystores with TLS certificates

  • Mounting a properties file that is used to configure Kafka Connect connectors

In the volumes property of the externalConfiguration resource, list the ConfigMaps or Secrets that will be mounted as volumes. Each volume must specify a name in the name property and a reference to ConfigMap or Secret.

Example of volumes with external configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    volumes:
      - name: connector1
        configMap:
          name: connector1-configuration
      - name: connector1-certificates
        secret:
          secretName: connector1-certificates

The volumes will be mounted inside the Kafka Connect containers in the path /opt/kafka/external-configuration/<volume-name>. For example, the files from a volume named connector1 would appear in the directory /opt/kafka/external-configuration/connector1.

The FileConfigProvider has to be used to read the values from the mounted properties files in connector configurations.

Mounting Secrets as environment variables

You can create a Kubernetes Secret and mount it to Kafka Connect as an environment variable.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Create a secret containing the information that will be mounted as an environment variable. For example:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: aws-creds
type: Opaque
data:
  awsAccessKey: QUtJQVhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFg=
  awsSecretAccessKey: Ylhsd1lYTnpkMjl5WkE=

  2. Create or edit the Kafka Connect resource. Configure the externalConfiguration section of the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I custom resource to reference the secret. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    env:
      - name: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
        valueFrom:
          secretKeyRef:
            name: aws-creds
            key: awsAccessKey
      - name: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
        valueFrom:
          secretKeyRef:
            name: aws-creds
            key: awsSecretAccessKey

  3. Apply the changes to your Kafka Connect deployment.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

The environment variables are now available for use when developing your connectors.

Additional resources
Mounting Secrets as volumes

You can create a Kubernetes Secret, mount it as a volume to Kafka Connect, and then use it to configure a Kafka Connect connector.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Create a secret containing a properties file that defines the configuration options for your connector configuration. For example:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: mysecret
type: Opaque
stringData:
  connector.properties: |-
    dbUsername: my-user
    dbPassword: my-password

  2. Create or edit the Kafka Connect resource. Configure the FileConfigProvider in the config section and the externalConfiguration section of the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I custom resource to reference the secret. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  config:
    config.providers: file
    config.providers.file.class: org.apache.kafka.common.config.provider.FileConfigProvider
  #...
  externalConfiguration:
    volumes:
      - name: connector-config
        secret:
          secretName: mysecret

  3. Apply the changes to your Kafka Connect deployment.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  4. Use the values from the mounted properties file in your JSON payload with connector configuration. For example:

    {
   "name":"my-connector",
   "config":{
      "connector.class":"MyDbConnector",
      "tasks.max":"3",
      "database": "my-postgresql:5432"
      "username":"${file:/opt/kafka/external-configuration/connector-config/connector.properties:dbUsername}",
      "password":"${file:/opt/kafka/external-configuration/connector-config/connector.properties:dbPassword}",
      # ...
   }
}
Additional resources

3.2.14. Enabling KafkaConnector resources

To enable KafkaConnectors for a Kafka Connect cluster, add the strimzi.io/use-connector-resources annotation to the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I custom resource.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. Add the strimzi.io/use-connector-resources annotation. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect-cluster
  annotations:
    strimzi.io/use-connector-resources: "true"
spec:
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f kafka-connect.yaml
Additional resources

3.2.15. List of resources created as part of Kafka Connect cluster

The following resources will created by the Cluster Operator in the Kubernetes cluster:

connect-cluster-name-connect

Deployment which is in charge to create the Kafka Connect worker node pods.

connect-cluster-name-connect-api

Service which exposes the REST interface for managing the Kafka Connect cluster.

connect-cluster-name-config

ConfigMap which contains the Kafka Connect ancillary configuration and is mounted as a volume by the Kafka broker pods.

connect-cluster-name-connect

Pod Disruption Budget configured for the Kafka Connect worker nodes.

3.3. Kafka Connect cluster with Source2Image support

The full schema of the KafkaConnectS2I resource is described in the KafkaConnectS2I schema reference. All labels that are applied to the desired KafkaConnectS2I resource will also be applied to the Kubernetes resources making up the Kafka Connect cluster with Source2Image support. This provides a convenient mechanism for resources to be labeled as required.

3.3.1. Replicas

Kafka Connect clusters can consist of one or more nodes. The number of nodes is defined in the KafkaConnect and KafkaConnectS2I resources. Running a Kafka Connect cluster with multiple nodes can provide better availability and scalability. However, when running Kafka Connect on Kubernetes it is not necessary to run multiple nodes of Kafka Connect for high availability. If a node where Kafka Connect is deployed to crashes, Kubernetes will automatically reschedule the Kafka Connect pod to a different node. However, running Kafka Connect with multiple nodes can provide faster failover times, because the other nodes will be up and running already.

Configuring the number of nodes

The number of Kafka Connect nodes is configured using the replicas property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the replicas property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnectS2I
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  replicas: 3
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.2. Bootstrap servers

A Kafka Connect cluster always works in combination with a Kafka cluster. A Kafka cluster is specified as a list of bootstrap servers. On Kubernetes, the list must ideally contain the Kafka cluster bootstrap service named cluster-name-kafka-bootstrap, and a port of 9092 for plain traffic or 9093 for encrypted traffic.

The list of bootstrap servers is configured in the bootstrapServers property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. The servers must be defined as a comma-separated list specifying one or more Kafka brokers, or a service pointing to Kafka brokers specified as a hostname:_port_ pairs.

When using Kafka Connect with a Kafka cluster not managed by Strimzi, you can specify the bootstrap servers list according to the configuration of the cluster.

Configuring bootstrap servers
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the bootstrapServers property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  bootstrapServers: my-cluster-kafka-bootstrap:9092
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.3. Connecting to Kafka brokers using TLS

By default, Kafka Connect tries to connect to Kafka brokers using a plain text connection. If you prefer to use TLS, additional configuration is required.

TLS support in Kafka Connect

TLS support is configured in the tls property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. The tls property contains a list of secrets with key names under which the certificates are stored. The certificates must be stored in X509 format.

An example showing TLS configuration with multiple certificates
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-secret
        certificate: ca.crt
      - secretName: my-other-secret
        certificate: certificate.crt
  # ...

When multiple certificates are stored in the same secret, it can be listed multiple times.

An example showing TLS configuration with multiple certificates from the same secret
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnectS2I
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-secret
        certificate: ca.crt
      - secretName: my-secret
        certificate: ca2.crt
  # ...
Configuring TLS in Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret for the certificate used for TLS Server Authentication, and the key under which the certificate is stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare the TLS certificate used in authentication in a file and create a Secret.

    Note
    		 The secrets created by the Cluster Operator for Kafka cluster may be used directly.

    This can be done using kubectl create:

    kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=my-file.crt

  2. Edit the tls property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-cluster-cluster-cert
        certificate: ca.crt
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.4. Connecting to Kafka brokers with Authentication

By default, Kafka Connect will try to connect to Kafka brokers without authentication. Authentication is enabled through the KafkaConnect and KafkaConnectS2I resources.

Authentication support in Kafka Connect

Authentication is configured through the authentication property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. The authentication property specifies the type of the authentication mechanisms which should be used and additional configuration details depending on the mechanism. The supported authentication types are:

TLS Client Authentication

To use TLS client authentication, set the type property to the value tls. TLS client authentication uses a TLS certificate to authenticate. The certificate is specified in the certificateAndKey property and is always loaded from a Kubernetes secret. In the secret, the certificate must be stored in X509 format under two different keys: public and private.

Note
 TLS client authentication can be used only with TLS connections. For more details about TLS configuration in Kafka Connect see Connecting to Kafka brokers using TLS.
An example TLS client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: tls
    certificateAndKey:
      secretName: my-secret
      certificate: public.crt
      key: private.key
  # ...
SASL based SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication

To configure Kafka Connect to use SASL-based SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication, set the type property to scram-sha-512. This authentication mechanism requires a username and password.

  • Specify the username in the username property.

  • In the passwordSecret property, specify a link to a Secret containing the password. The secretName property contains the name of the Secret and the password property contains the name of the key under which the password is stored inside the Secret.

Important
 Do not specify the actual password in the password field.
An example SASL based SCRAM-SHA-512 client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
    username: my-connect-user
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: my-connect-user
      password: my-connect-password-key
  # ...
SASL based PLAIN authentication

To configure Kafka Connect to use SASL-based PLAIN authentication, set the type property to plain. This authentication mechanism requires a username and password.

Warning
 The SASL PLAIN mechanism will transfer the username and password across the network in cleartext. Only use SASL PLAIN authentication if TLS encryption is enabled.

  • Specify the username in the username property.

  • In the passwordSecret property, specify a link to a Secret containing the password. The secretName property contains the name of such a Secret and the password property contains the name of the key under which the password is stored inside the Secret.

Important
 Do not specify the actual password in the password field.
An example showing SASL based PLAIN client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: plain
    username: my-connect-user
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: my-connect-user
      password: my-connect-password-key
  # ...
Configuring TLS client authentication in Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret with the public and private keys used for TLS Client Authentication, and the keys under which they are stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare the keys used for authentication in a file and create the Secret.

    Note
    		 Secrets created by the User Operator may be used.

    This can be done using kubectl create:

    kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=my-public.crt --from-file=my-private.key

  2. Edit the authentication property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: tls
    certificateAndKey:
      secretName: my-secret
      certificate: my-public.crt
      key: my-private.key
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Configuring SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication in Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • Username of the user which should be used for authentication

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret with the password used for authentication and the key under which the password is stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare a file with the password used in authentication and create the Secret.

    Note
    		 Secrets created by the User Operator may be used.

    This can be done using kubectl create:

    echo -n '<password>' > <my-password.txt>
kubectl create secret generic <my-secret> --from-file=<my-password.txt>

  2. Edit the authentication property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
    username: _<my-username>_
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: _<my-secret>_
      password: _<my-password.txt>_
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    On Kubernetes this can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.5. Kafka Connect configuration

Strimzi allows you to customize the configuration of Apache Kafka Connect nodes by editing certain options listed in Apache Kafka documentation.

Configuration options that cannot be configured relate to:

  • Kafka cluster bootstrap address

  • Security (Encryption, Authentication, and Authorization)

  • Listener / REST interface configuration

  • Plugin path configuration

These options are automatically configured by Strimzi.

Kafka Connect configuration

Kafka Connect is configured using the config property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec. This property contains the Kafka Connect configuration options as keys. The values can be one of the following JSON types:

  • String

  • Number

  • Boolean

You can specify and configure the options listed in the Apache Kafka documentation with the exception of those options that are managed directly by Strimzi. Specifically, configuration options with keys equal to or starting with one of the following strings are forbidden:

  • ssl.

  • sasl.

  • security.

  • listeners

  • plugin.path

  • rest.

  • bootstrap.servers

When a forbidden option is present in the config property, it is ignored and a warning message is printed to the Custer Operator log file. All other options are passed to Kafka Connect.

Important
 The Cluster Operator does not validate keys or values in the config object provided. When an invalid configuration is provided, the Kafka Connect cluster might not start or might become unstable. In this circumstance, fix the configuration in the KafkaConnect.spec.config or KafkaConnectS2I.spec.config object, then the Cluster Operator can roll out the new configuration to all Kafka Connect nodes.

Certain options have default values:

  • group.id with default value connect-cluster

  • offset.storage.topic with default value connect-cluster-offsets

  • config.storage.topic with default value connect-cluster-configs

  • status.storage.topic with default value connect-cluster-status

  • key.converter with default value org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter

  • value.converter with default value org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter

These options are automatically configured in case they are not present in the KafkaConnect.spec.config or KafkaConnectS2I.spec.config properties.

Example Kafka Connect configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  config:
    group.id: my-connect-cluster
    offset.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-offsets
    config.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-configs
    status.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-status
    key.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    value.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    key.converter.schemas.enable: true
    value.converter.schemas.enable: true
    config.storage.replication.factor: 3
    offset.storage.replication.factor: 3
    status.storage.replication.factor: 3
  # ...
Kafka Connect configuration for multiple instances

If you are running multiple instances of Kafka Connect, pay attention to the default configuration of the following properties:

# ...
  group.id: connect-cluster (1)
  offset.storage.topic: connect-cluster-offsets (2)
  config.storage.topic: connect-cluster-configs (3)
  status.storage.topic: connect-cluster-status  (4)
# ...

  1. Kafka Connect cluster group the instance belongs to.

  2. Kafka topic that stores connector offsets.

  3. Kafka topic that stores connector and task status configurations.

  4. Kafka topic that stores connector and task status updates.

Note
 Values for the three topics must be the same for all Kafka Connect instances with the same group.id.

Unless you change the default settings, each Kafka Connect instance connecting to the same Kafka cluster is deployed with the same values. What happens, in effect, is all instances are coupled to run in a cluster and use the same topics.

If multiple Kafka Connect clusters try to use the same topics, Kafka Connect will not work as expected and generate errors.

If you wish to run multiple Kafka Connect instances, change the values of these properties for each instance.

Configuring Kafka Connect
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the config property in the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  config:
    group.id: my-connect-cluster
    offset.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-offsets
    config.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-configs
    status.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-status
    key.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    value.converter: org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
    key.converter.schemas.enable: true
    value.converter.schemas.enable: true
    config.storage.replication.factor: 3
    offset.storage.replication.factor: 3
    status.storage.replication.factor: 3
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.6. CPU and memory resources

For every deployed container, Strimzi allows you to request specific resources and define the maximum consumption of those resources.

Strimzi supports two types of resources:

  • CPU

  • Memory

Strimzi uses the Kubernetes syntax for specifying CPU and memory resources.

Resource limits and requests

Resource limits and requests are configured using the resources property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Additional resources
Resource requests

Requests specify the resources to reserve for a given container. Reserving the resources ensures that they are always available.

Important
 If the resource request is for more than the available free resources in the Kubernetes cluster, the pod is not scheduled.

Resources requests are specified in the requests property. Resources requests currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A request may be configured for one or more supported resources.

Example resource request configuration with all resources
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Resource limits

Limits specify the maximum resources that can be consumed by a given container. The limit is not reserved and might not always be available. A container can use the resources up to the limit only when they are available. Resource limits should be always higher than the resource requests.

Resource limits are specified in the limits property. Resource limits currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A resource may be configured for one or more supported limits.

Example resource limits configuration
# ...
resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Supported CPU formats

CPU requests and limits are supported in the following formats:

  • Number of CPU cores as integer (5 CPU core) or decimal (2.5 CPU core).

  • Number or millicpus / millicores (100m) where 1000 millicores is the same 1 CPU core.

Example CPU units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 500m
  limits:
    cpu: 2.5
# ...
Note
 The computing power of 1 CPU core may differ depending on the platform where Kubernetes is deployed.
Additional resources
Supported memory formats

Memory requests and limits are specified in megabytes, gigabytes, mebibytes, and gibibytes.

  • To specify memory in megabytes, use the M suffix. For example 1000M.

  • To specify memory in gigabytes, use the G suffix. For example 1G.

  • To specify memory in mebibytes, use the Mi suffix. For example 1000Mi.

  • To specify memory in gibibytes, use the Gi suffix. For example 1Gi.

An example of using different memory units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    memory: 512Mi
  limits:
    memory: 2Gi
# ...
Additional resources

  • For more details about memory specification and additional supported units, see Meaning of memory.

Configuring resource requests and limits
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the resources property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "8"
        memory: 64Gi
      limits:
        cpu: "12"
        memory: 128Gi
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

3.3.7. Kafka Connect with S2I loggers

Kafka Connect with Source2Image support has its own configurable loggers:

  • connect.root.logger.level

  • log4j.logger.org.reflections

Kafka Connect uses the Apache log4j logger implementation.

Use the logging property to configure loggers and logger levels.

You can set the log levels by specifying the logger and level directly (inline) or use a custom (external) ConfigMap. If a ConfigMap is used, you set logging.name property to the name of the ConfigMap containing the external logging configuration. Inside the ConfigMap, the logging configuration is described using log4j.properties.

Here we see examples of inline and external logging.

Inline logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnectS2I
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: inline
    loggers:
      connect.root.logger: "INFO"
  # ...
External logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnectS2I
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: external
    name: customConfigMap
  # ...
Additional resources

3.3.8. Healthchecks

Healthchecks are periodical tests which verify the health of an application. When a Healthcheck probe fails, Kubernetes assumes that the application is not healthy and attempts to fix it.

Kubernetes supports two types of Healthcheck probes:

  • Liveness probes

  • Readiness probes

For more details about the probes, see Configure Liveness and Readiness Probes. Both types of probes are used in Strimzi components.

Users can configure selected options for liveness and readiness probes.

Healthcheck configurations

Liveness and readiness probes can be configured using the livenessProbe and readinessProbe properties in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Both livenessProbe and readinessProbe support the following options:

  • initialDelaySeconds

  • timeoutSeconds

  • periodSeconds

  • successThreshold

  • failureThreshold

For more information about the livenessProbe and readinessProbe options, see Probe schema reference.

An example of liveness and readiness probe configuration
# ...
readinessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
livenessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
# ...
Configuring healthchecks
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the livenessProbe or readinessProbe property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    readinessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    livenessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.9. Prometheus metrics

Strimzi supports Prometheus metrics using Prometheus JMX exporter to convert the JMX metrics supported by Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper to Prometheus metrics. When metrics are enabled, they are exposed on port 9404.

For more information about configuring Prometheus and Grafana, see Metrics.

Metrics configuration

Prometheus metrics are enabled by configuring the metrics property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

When the metrics property is not defined in the resource, the Prometheus metrics will be disabled. To enable Prometheus metrics export without any further configuration, you can set it to an empty object ({}).

Example of enabling metrics without any further configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    metrics: {}
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

The metrics property might contain additional configuration for the Prometheus JMX exporter.

Example of enabling metrics with additional Prometheus JMX Exporter configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    metrics:
      lowercaseOutputName: true
      rules:
        - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*><>Count"
          name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
        - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*, topic=(.+)><>Count"
          name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
          labels:
            topic: "$3"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring Prometheus metrics
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the metrics property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
    metrics:
      lowercaseOutputName: true
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.10. JVM Options

The following components of Strimzi run inside a Virtual Machine (VM):

  • Apache Kafka

  • Apache ZooKeeper

  • Apache Kafka Connect

  • Apache Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Strimzi Kafka Bridge

JVM configuration options optimize the performance for different platforms and architectures. Strimzi allows you to configure some of these options.

JVM configuration

JVM options can be configured using the jvmOptions property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Only a selected subset of available JVM options can be configured. The following options are supported:

-Xms and -Xmx

-Xms configures the minimum initial allocation heap size when the JVM starts. -Xmx configures the maximum heap size.

Note
 The units accepted by JVM settings such as -Xmx and -Xms are those accepted by the JDK java binary in the corresponding image. Accordingly, 1g or 1G means 1,073,741,824 bytes, and Gi is not a valid unit suffix. This is in contrast to the units used for memory requests and limits, which follow the Kubernetes convention where 1G means 1,000,000,000 bytes, and 1Gi means 1,073,741,824 bytes

The default values used for -Xms and -Xmx depends on whether there is a memory request limit configured for the container:

  • If there is a memory limit then the JVM’s minimum and maximum memory will be set to a value corresponding to the limit.

  • If there is no memory limit then the JVM’s minimum memory will be set to 128M and the JVM’s maximum memory will not be defined. This allows for the JVM’s memory to grow as-needed, which is ideal for single node environments in test and development.

Important

Setting -Xmx explicitly requires some care:

  • The JVM’s overall memory usage will be approximately 4 × the maximum heap, as configured by -Xmx.

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory limit, it is possible that the container will be killed should the Kubernetes node experience memory pressure (from other Pods running on it).

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory request, it is possible that the container will be scheduled to a node with insufficient memory. In this case, the container will not start but crash (immediately if -Xms is set to -Xmx, or some later time if not).

When setting -Xmx explicitly, it is recommended to:

  • set the memory request and the memory limit to the same value,

  • use a memory request that is at least 4.5 × the -Xmx,

  • consider setting -Xms to the same value as -Xmx.

Important
 Containers doing lots of disk I/O (such as Kafka broker containers) will need to leave some memory available for use as operating system page cache. On such containers, the requested memory should be significantly higher than the memory used by the JVM.
Example fragment configuring -Xmx and -Xms
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-Xmx": "2g"
  "-Xms": "2g"
# ...

In the above example, the JVM will use 2 GiB (=2,147,483,648 bytes) for its heap. Its total memory usage will be approximately 8GiB.

Setting the same value for initial (-Xms) and maximum (-Xmx) heap sizes avoids the JVM having to allocate memory after startup, at the cost of possibly allocating more heap than is really needed. For Kafka and ZooKeeper pods such allocation could cause unwanted latency. For Kafka Connect avoiding over allocation may be the most important concern, especially in distributed mode where the effects of over-allocation will be multiplied by the number of consumers.

-server

-server enables the server JVM. This option can be set to true or false.

Example fragment configuring -server
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-server": true
# ...
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
-XX

-XX object can be used for configuring advanced runtime options of a JVM. The -server and -XX options are used to configure the KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS option of Apache Kafka.

Example showing the use of the -XX object
jvmOptions:
  "-XX":
    "UseG1GC": true
    "MaxGCPauseMillis": 20
    "InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent": 35
    "ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent": true
    "UseParNewGC": false

The example configuration above will result in the following JVM options:

-XX:+UseG1GC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=20 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=35 -XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent -XX:-UseParNewGC
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
Garbage collector logging

The jvmOptions section also allows you to enable and disable garbage collector (GC) logging. GC logging is disabled by default. To enable it, set the gcLoggingEnabled property as follows:

Example of enabling GC logging
# ...
jvmOptions:
  gcLoggingEnabled: true
# ...
Configuring JVM options
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the jvmOptions property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect, KafkaConnectS2I, KafkaMirrorMaker, or KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    jvmOptions:
      "-Xmx": "8g"
      "-Xms": "8g"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.11. Container images

Strimzi allows you to configure container images which will be used for its components. Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such a case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from the source. If the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.

Container image configurations

You can specify which container image to use for each component using the image property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Configuring the image property for Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker

Kafka, Kafka Connect (including Kafka Connect with S2I support), and Kafka Mirror Maker support multiple versions of Kafka. Each component requires its own image. The default images for the different Kafka versions are configured in the following environment variables:

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_S2I_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_MIRROR_MAKER_IMAGES

These environment variables contain mappings between the Kafka versions and their corresponding images. The mappings are used together with the image and version properties:

  • If neither image nor version are given in the custom resource then the version will default to the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version, and the image will be the one corresponding to this version in the environment variable.

  • If image is given but version is not, then the given image is used and the version is assumed to be the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version.

  • If version is given but image is not, then the image that corresponds to the given version in the environment variable is used.

  • If both version and image are given, then the given image is used. The image is assumed to contain a Kafka image with the given version.

The image and version for the different components can be configured in the following properties:

  • For Kafka in spec.kafka.image and spec.kafka.version.

  • For Kafka Connect, Kafka Connect S2I, and Kafka Mirror Maker in spec.image and spec.version.

Warning
 It is recommended to provide only the version and leave the image property unspecified. This reduces the chance of making a mistake when configuring the custom resource. If you need to change the images used for different versions of Kafka, it is preferable to configure the Cluster Operator’s environment variables.
Configuring the image property in other resources

For the image property in the other custom resources, the given value will be used during deployment. If the image property is missing, the image specified in the Cluster Operator configuration will be used. If the image name is not defined in the Cluster Operator configuration, then the default value will be used.

  • For Kafka broker TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_KAFKA_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For ZooKeeper nodes:

  • For ZooKeeper node TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ZOOKEEPER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Topic Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TOPIC_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For User Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_USER_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For Entity Operator TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ENTITY_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Exporter:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_EXPORTER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Bridge:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_BRIDGE_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka-bridge:0.15.0 container image.

  • For Kafka broker initializer:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_INIT_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

Warning
 Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from source. In case the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.
Example of container image configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring container images
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the image property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.12. Configuring pod scheduling

Important
 When two applications are scheduled to the same Kubernetes node, both applications might use the same resources like disk I/O and impact performance. That can lead to performance degradation. Scheduling Kafka pods in a way that avoids sharing nodes with other critical workloads, using the right nodes or dedicated a set of nodes only for Kafka are the best ways how to avoid such problems.
Scheduling pods based on other applications
Avoid critical applications to share the node

Pod anti-affinity can be used to ensure that critical applications are never scheduled on the same disk. When running Kafka cluster, it is recommended to use pod anti-affinity to ensure that the Kafka brokers do not share the nodes with other workloads like databases.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring pod anti-affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. Use labels to specify the pods which should not be scheduled on the same nodes. The topologyKey should be set to kubernetes.io/hostname to specify that the selected pods should not be scheduled on nodes with the same hostname. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          podAntiAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              - labelSelector:
                  matchExpressions:
                    - key: application
                      operator: In
                      values:
                        - postgresql
                        - mongodb
                topologyKey: "kubernetes.io/hostname"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Scheduling pods to specific nodes
Node scheduling

The Kubernetes cluster usually consists of many different types of worker nodes. Some are optimized for CPU heavy workloads, some for memory, while other might be optimized for storage (fast local SSDs) or network. Using different nodes helps to optimize both costs and performance. To achieve the best possible performance, it is important to allow scheduling of Strimzi components to use the right nodes.

Kubernetes uses node affinity to schedule workloads onto specific nodes. Node affinity allows you to create a scheduling constraint for the node on which the pod will be scheduled. The constraint is specified as a label selector. You can specify the label using either the built-in node label like beta.kubernetes.io/instance-type or custom labels to select the right node.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring node affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Label the nodes where Strimzi components should be scheduled.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node node-type=fast-network

    Alternatively, some of the existing labels might be reused.

  2. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
                - matchExpressions:
                  - key: node-type
                    operator: In
                    values:
                    - fast-network
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Using dedicated nodes
Dedicated nodes

Cluster administrators can mark selected Kubernetes nodes as tainted. Nodes with taints are excluded from regular scheduling and normal pods will not be scheduled to run on them. Only services which can tolerate the taint set on the node can be scheduled on it. The only other services running on such nodes will be system services such as log collectors or software defined networks.

Taints can be used to create dedicated nodes. Running Kafka and its components on dedicated nodes can have many advantages. There will be no other applications running on the same nodes which could cause disturbance or consume the resources needed for Kafka. That can lead to improved performance and stability.

To schedule Kafka pods on the dedicated nodes, configure node affinity and tolerations.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Tolerations

Tolerations can be configured using the tolerations property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The format of the tolerations property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes taints and tolerations.

Setting up dedicated nodes and scheduling pods on them
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Select the nodes which should be used as dedicated.

  2. Make sure there are no workloads scheduled on these nodes.

  3. Set the taints on the selected nodes:

    This can be done using kubectl taint:

    kubectl taint node your-node dedicated=Kafka:NoSchedule

  4. Additionally, add a label to the selected nodes as well.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node dedicated=Kafka

  5. Edit the affinity and tolerations properties in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        tolerations:
          - key: "dedicated"
            operator: "Equal"
            value: "Kafka"
            effect: "NoSchedule"
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
              - matchExpressions:
                - key: dedicated
                  operator: In
                  values:
                  - Kafka
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  6. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.3.13. Using external configuration and secrets

Connectors are created, reconfigured, and deleted using the Kafka Connect HTTP REST interface, or by using KafkaConnectors. For more information on these methods, see Creating and managing connectors. The connector configuration is passed to Kafka Connect as part of an HTTP request and stored within Kafka itself.

ConfigMaps and Secrets are standard Kubernetes resources used for storing configurations and confidential data. Whichever method you use to manage connectors, you can use ConfigMaps and Secrets to configure certain elements of a connector. You can then reference the configuration values in HTTP REST commands (this keeps the configuration separate and more secure, if needed). This method applies especially to confidential data, such as usernames, passwords, or certificates.

Storing connector configurations externally

You can mount ConfigMaps or Secrets into a Kafka Connect pod as volumes or environment variables. Volumes and environment variables are configured in the externalConfiguration property in KafkaConnect.spec and KafkaConnectS2I.spec.

External configuration as environment variables

The env property is used to specify one or more environment variables. These variables can contain a value from either a ConfigMap or a Secret.

Note
 The names of user-defined environment variables cannot start with KAFKA_ or STRIMZI_.

To mount a value from a Secret to an environment variable, use the valueFrom property and the secretKeyRef as shown in the following example.

Example of an environment variable set to a value from a Secret
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    env:
      - name: MY_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
        valueFrom:
          secretKeyRef:
            name: my-secret
            key: my-key

A common use case for mounting Secrets to environment variables is when your connector needs to communicate with Amazon AWS and needs to read the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variables with credentials.

To mount a value from a ConfigMap to an environment variable, use configMapKeyRef in the valueFrom property as shown in the following example.

Example of an environment variable set to a value from a ConfigMap
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    env:
      - name: MY_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE
        valueFrom:
          configMapKeyRef:
            name: my-config-map
            key: my-key
External configuration as volumes

You can also mount ConfigMaps or Secrets to a Kafka Connect pod as volumes. Using volumes instead of environment variables is useful in the following scenarios:

  • Mounting truststores or keystores with TLS certificates

  • Mounting a properties file that is used to configure Kafka Connect connectors

In the volumes property of the externalConfiguration resource, list the ConfigMaps or Secrets that will be mounted as volumes. Each volume must specify a name in the name property and a reference to ConfigMap or Secret.

Example of volumes with external configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    volumes:
      - name: connector1
        configMap:
          name: connector1-configuration
      - name: connector1-certificates
        secret:
          secretName: connector1-certificates

The volumes will be mounted inside the Kafka Connect containers in the path /opt/kafka/external-configuration/<volume-name>. For example, the files from a volume named connector1 would appear in the directory /opt/kafka/external-configuration/connector1.

The FileConfigProvider has to be used to read the values from the mounted properties files in connector configurations.

Mounting Secrets as environment variables

You can create a Kubernetes Secret and mount it to Kafka Connect as an environment variable.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Create a secret containing the information that will be mounted as an environment variable. For example:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: aws-creds
type: Opaque
data:
  awsAccessKey: QUtJQVhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFg=
  awsSecretAccessKey: Ylhsd1lYTnpkMjl5WkE=

  2. Create or edit the Kafka Connect resource. Configure the externalConfiguration section of the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I custom resource to reference the secret. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  externalConfiguration:
    env:
      - name: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
        valueFrom:
          secretKeyRef:
            name: aws-creds
            key: awsAccessKey
      - name: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
        valueFrom:
          secretKeyRef:
            name: aws-creds
            key: awsSecretAccessKey

  3. Apply the changes to your Kafka Connect deployment.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

The environment variables are now available for use when developing your connectors.

Additional resources
Mounting Secrets as volumes

You can create a Kubernetes Secret, mount it as a volume to Kafka Connect, and then use it to configure a Kafka Connect connector.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Create a secret containing a properties file that defines the configuration options for your connector configuration. For example:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: mysecret
type: Opaque
stringData:
  connector.properties: |-
    dbUsername: my-user
    dbPassword: my-password

  2. Create or edit the Kafka Connect resource. Configure the FileConfigProvider in the config section and the externalConfiguration section of the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I custom resource to reference the secret. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  # ...
  config:
    config.providers: file
    config.providers.file.class: org.apache.kafka.common.config.provider.FileConfigProvider
  #...
  externalConfiguration:
    volumes:
      - name: connector-config
        secret:
          secretName: mysecret

  3. Apply the changes to your Kafka Connect deployment.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  4. Use the values from the mounted properties file in your JSON payload with connector configuration. For example:

    {
   "name":"my-connector",
   "config":{
      "connector.class":"MyDbConnector",
      "tasks.max":"3",
      "database": "my-postgresql:5432"
      "username":"${file:/opt/kafka/external-configuration/connector-config/connector.properties:dbUsername}",
      "password":"${file:/opt/kafka/external-configuration/connector-config/connector.properties:dbPassword}",
      # ...
   }
}
Additional resources

3.3.14. Enabling KafkaConnector resources

To enable KafkaConnectors for a Kafka Connect cluster, add the strimzi.io/use-connector-resources annotation to the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I custom resource.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. Add the strimzi.io/use-connector-resources annotation. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect-cluster
  annotations:
    strimzi.io/use-connector-resources: "true"
spec:
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f kafka-connect.yaml
Additional resources

3.3.15. List of resources created as part of Kafka Connect cluster with Source2Image support

The following resources will created by the Cluster Operator in the Kubernetes cluster:

connect-cluster-name-connect-source

ImageStream which is used as the base image for the newly-built Docker images.

connect-cluster-name-connect

BuildConfig which is responsible for building the new Kafka Connect Docker images.

connect-cluster-name-connect

ImageStream where the newly built Docker images will be pushed.

connect-cluster-name-connect

DeploymentConfig which is in charge of creating the Kafka Connect worker node pods.

connect-cluster-name-connect-api

Service which exposes the REST interface for managing the Kafka Connect cluster.

connect-cluster-name-config

ConfigMap which contains the Kafka Connect ancillary configuration and is mounted as a volume by the Kafka broker pods.

connect-cluster-name-connect

Pod Disruption Budget configured for the Kafka Connect worker nodes.

3.3.16. Creating a container image using OpenShift builds and Source-to-Image

You can use OpenShift builds and the Source-to-Image (S2I) framework to create new container images. An OpenShift build takes a builder image with S2I support, together with source code and binaries provided by the user, and uses them to build a new container image. Once built, container images are stored in OpenShift’s local container image repository and are available for use in deployments.

A Kafka Connect builder image with S2I support is provided on the Docker Hub as part of the strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 image. This S2I image takes your binaries (with plug-ins and connectors) and stores them in the /tmp/kafka-plugins/s2i directory. It creates a new Kafka Connect image from this directory, which can then be used with the Kafka Connect deployment. When started using the enhanced image, Kafka Connect loads any third-party plug-ins from the /tmp/kafka-plugins/s2i directory.

Procedure

  1. On the command line, use the oc apply command to create and deploy a Kafka Connect S2I cluster:

    oc apply -f examples/kafka-connect/kafka-connect-s2i.yaml

  2. Create a directory with Kafka Connect plug-ins:

    $ tree ./my-plugins/
./my-plugins/
├── debezium-connector-mongodb
│   ├── bson-3.4.2.jar
│   ├── CHANGELOG.md
│   ├── CONTRIBUTE.md
│   ├── COPYRIGHT.txt
│   ├── debezium-connector-mongodb-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── debezium-core-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── LICENSE.txt
│   ├── mongodb-driver-3.4.2.jar
│   ├── mongodb-driver-core-3.4.2.jar
│   └── README.md
├── debezium-connector-mysql
│   ├── CHANGELOG.md
│   ├── CONTRIBUTE.md
│   ├── COPYRIGHT.txt
│   ├── debezium-connector-mysql-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── debezium-core-0.7.1.jar
│   ├── LICENSE.txt
│   ├── mysql-binlog-connector-java-0.13.0.jar
│   ├── mysql-connector-java-5.1.40.jar
│   ├── README.md
│   └── wkb-1.0.2.jar
└── debezium-connector-postgres
    ├── CHANGELOG.md
    ├── CONTRIBUTE.md
    ├── COPYRIGHT.txt
    ├── debezium-connector-postgres-0.7.1.jar
    ├── debezium-core-0.7.1.jar
    ├── LICENSE.txt
    ├── postgresql-42.0.0.jar
    ├── protobuf-java-2.6.1.jar
    └── README.md

  3. Use the oc start-build command to start a new build of the image using the prepared directory:

    oc start-build my-connect-cluster-connect --from-dir ./my-plugins/
    Note
    		 The name of the build is the same as the name of the deployed Kafka Connect cluster.

  4. Once the build has finished, the new image is used automatically by the Kafka Connect deployment.

3.4. Kafka Mirror Maker configuration

This chapter describes how to configure the KafkaMirrorMaker resource to support a Kafka Mirror Maker deployment in your cluster.

The following procedures show how the resource is configured:

Supported properties are also described in more detail for your reference:

The full schema of the KafkaMirrorMaker resource is described in the KafkaMirrorMaker schema reference.

Note
 Labels applied to a KafkaMirrorMaker resource are also applied to the Kubernetes resources comprising Kafka Mirror Maker. This provides a convenient mechanism for resources to be labeled as required.

3.4.1. Configuring Kafka Mirror Maker

Use the properties of the KafkaMirrorMaker resource to configure your Kafka Mirror Maker deployment.

You can configure access control for producers and consumers using TLS or SASL authentication. This procedure shows a configuration that uses TLS encryption and authentication on the consumer and producer side.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Edit the spec properties for the KafkaMirrorMaker resource.

    The properties you can configure are shown in this example configuration:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaMirrorMaker
metadata:
  name: my-mirror-maker
spec:
  replicas: 3 (1)
  consumer:
    bootstrapServers: my-source-cluster-kafka-bootstrap:9092 (2)
    groupId: "my-group" (3)
    numStreams: 2 (4)
    offsetCommitInterval: 120000 (5)
    tls: (6)
      trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-source-cluster-ca-cert
        certificate: ca.crt
    authentication: (7)
      type: tls
      certificateAndKey:
        secretName: my-source-secret
        certificate: public.crt
        key: private.key
    config: (8)
      max.poll.records: 100
      receive.buffer.bytes: 32768
  producer:
    bootstrapServers: my-target-cluster-kafka-bootstrap:9092
    abortOnSendFailure: false (9)
    tls:
      trustedCertificates:
      - secretName: my-target-cluster-ca-cert
        certificate: ca.crt
    authentication:
      type: tls
      certificateAndKey:
        secretName: my-target-secret
        certificate: public.crt
        key: private.key
    config:
      compression.type: gzip
      batch.size: 8192
  whitelist: "my-topic|other-topic" (10)
  resources: (11)
    requests:
      cpu: "1"
      memory: 2Gi
    limits:
      cpu: "2"
      memory: 2Gi
  logging: (12)
    type: inline
    loggers:
      mirrormaker.root.logger: "INFO"
  readinessProbe: (13)
    initialDelaySeconds: 15
    timeoutSeconds: 5
  livenessProbe:
    initialDelaySeconds: 15
    timeoutSeconds: 5
  metrics: (14)
    lowercaseOutputName: true
    rules:
      - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*><>Count"
        name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
      - pattern: "kafka.server<type=(.+), name=(.+)PerSec\\w*,
        topic=(.+)><>Count"
        name: "kafka_server_$1_$2_total"
        labels:
          topic: "$3"
  jvmOptions: (15)
    "-Xmx": "1g"
    "-Xms": "1g"
  image: my-org/my-image:latest (16)
  template: (17)
      pod:
        affinity:
          podAntiAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              - labelSelector:
                  matchExpressions:
                    - key: application
                      operator: In
                      values:
                        - postgresql
                        - mongodb
                topologyKey: "kubernetes.io/hostname"

    1. The number of replica nodes.

    2. Bootstrap servers for consumer and producer.

    3. Group ID for the consumer.

    4. The number of consumer streams.

    5. The offset auto-commit interval in milliseconds.

    6. TLS encryption with key names under which TLS certificates are stored in X.509 format for consumer or producer. For more details see KafkaMirrorMakerTls schema reference.

    7. Authentication for consumer or producer, using the TLS mechanism, as shown here, using OAuth bearer tokens, or a SASL-based SCRAM-SHA-512 or PLAIN mechanism.

    8. Kafka configuration options for consumer and producer.

    9. If set to true, Kafka Mirror Maker will exit and the container will restart following a send failure for a message.

    10. Topics mirrored from source to target Kafka cluster.

    11. Requests for reservation of supported resources, currently cpu and memory, and limits to specify the maximum resources that can be consumed.

    12. Specified loggers and log levels added directly (inline) or indirectly (external) through a ConfigMap. A custom ConfigMap must be placed under the log4j.properties or log4j2.properties key. Mirror Maker has a single logger called mirrormaker.root.logger. You can set the log level to INFO, ERROR, WARN, TRACE, DEBUG, FATAL or OFF.

    13. Healthchecks to know when to restart a container (liveness) and when a container can accept traffic (readiness).

    14. Prometheus metrics, which are enabled with configuration for the Prometheus JMX exporter in this example. You can enable metrics without further configuration using metrics: {}.

    15. JVM configuration options to optimize performance for the Virtual Machine (VM) running Kafka Mirror Maker.

    16. ADVANCED OPTION: Container image configuration, which is recommended only in special situations.

    17. Template customization. Here a pod is scheduled based with anti-affinity, so the pod is not scheduled on nodes with the same hostname.

    Warning
    		 With the abortOnSendFailure property set to false, the producer attempts to send the next message in a topic. The original message might be lost, as there is no attempt to resend a failed message.

  2. Create or update the resource:

    kubectl apply -f <your-file>

3.4.2. Kafka Mirror Maker configuration properties

Use the spec configuration properties of the KafkaMirrorMaker resource to set up your Mirror Maker deployment.

Supported properties are described here for your reference.

Replicas

Use the replicas property to configure replicas.

You can run multiple Mirror Maker replicas to provide better availability and scalability. When running Kafka Mirror Maker on Kubernetes it is not absolutely necessary to run multiple replicas of the Kafka Mirror Maker for high availability. When the node where the Kafka Mirror Maker has deployed crashes, Kubernetes will automatically reschedule the Kafka Mirror Maker pod to a different node. However, running Kafka Mirror Maker with multiple replicas can provide faster failover times as the other nodes will be up and running.

Bootstrap servers

Use the consumer.bootstrapServers and producer.bootstrapServers properties to configure lists of bootstrap servers for the consumer and producer.

Kafka Mirror Maker always works together with two Kafka clusters (source and target). The source and the target Kafka clusters are specified in the form of two lists of comma-separated list of <hostname>:‍<port> pairs. Each comma-separated list contains one or more Kafka brokers or a Service pointing to Kafka brokers specified as a <hostname>:<port> pairs.

The bootstrap server lists can refer to Kafka clusters that do not need to be deployed in the same Kubernetes cluster. They can even refer to a Kafka cluster not deployed by Strimzi, or deployed by Strimzi but on a different Kubernetes cluster accessible outside.

If on the same Kubernetes cluster, each list must ideally contain the Kafka cluster bootstrap service which is named <cluster-name>-kafka-bootstrap and a port of 9092 for plain traffic or 9093 for encrypted traffic. If deployed by Strimzi but on different Kubernetes clusters, the list content depends on the approach used for exposing the clusters (routes, nodeports or loadbalancers).

When using Kafka Mirror Maker with a Kafka cluster not managed by Strimzi, you can specify the bootstrap servers list according to the configuration of the given cluster.

Whitelist

Use the whitelist property to configure a list of topics that Kafka Mirror Maker mirrors from the source to the target Kafka cluster.

The property allows any regular expression from the simplest case with a single topic name to complex patterns. For example, you can mirror topics A and B using "A|B" or all topics using "*". You can also pass multiple regular expressions separated by commas to the Kafka Mirror Maker.

Consumer group identifier

Use the consumer.groupId property to configure a consumer group identifier for the consumer.

Kafka Mirror Maker uses a Kafka consumer to consume messages, behaving like any other Kafka consumer client. Messages consumed from the source Kafka cluster are mirrored to a target Kafka cluster. A group identifier is required, as the consumer needs to be part of a consumer group for the assignment of partitions.

Consumer streams

Use the consumer.numStreams property to configure the number of streams for the consumer.

You can increase the throughput in mirroring topics by increasing the number of consumer threads. Consumer threads belong to the consumer group specified for Kafka Mirror Maker. Topic partitions are assigned across the consumer threads, which consume messages in parallel.

Offset auto-commit interval

Use the consumer.offsetCommitInterval property to configure an offset auto-commit interval for the consumer.

You can specify the regular time interval at which an offset is committed after Kafka Mirror Maker has consumed data from the source Kafka cluster. The time interval is set in milliseconds, with a default value of 60,000.

Abort on message send failure

Use the producer.abortOnSendFailure property to configure how to handle message send failure from the producer.

By default, if an error occurs when sending a message from Kafka Mirror Maker to a Kafka cluster:

  • The Kafka Mirror Maker container is terminated in Kubernetes.

  • The container is then recreated.

If the abortOnSendFailure option is set to false, message sending errors are ignored.

Kafka producer and consumer

Use the consumer.config and producer.config properties to configure Kafka options for the consumer and producer.

The config property contains the Kafka Mirror Maker consumer and producer configuration options as keys, with values set in one of the following JSON types:

  • String

  • Number

  • Boolean

Exceptions

You can specify and configure standard Kafka consumer and producer options:

However, there are exceptions for options automatically configured and managed directly by Strimzi related to:

  • Kafka cluster bootstrap address

  • Security (encryption, authentication, and authorization)

  • Consumer group identifier

Specifically, all configuration options with keys equal to or starting with one of the following strings are forbidden:

  • ssl.

  • sasl.

  • security.

  • bootstrap.servers

  • group.id

When a forbidden option is present in the config property, it is ignored and a warning message is printed to the Custer Operator log file. All other options are passed to Kafka Mirror Maker.

Important
 The Cluster Operator does not validate keys or values in the provided config object. When an invalid configuration is provided, the Kafka Mirror Maker might not start or might become unstable. In such cases, the configuration in the KafkaMirrorMaker.spec.consumer.config or KafkaMirrorMaker.spec.producer.config object should be fixed and the Cluster Operator will roll out the new configuration for Kafka Mirror Maker.
CPU and memory resources

Use the reources.requests and resources.limits properties to configure resource requests and limits.

For every deployed container, Strimzi allows you to request specific resources and define the maximum consumption of those resources.

Strimzi supports requests and limits for the following types of resources:

  • cpu

  • memory

Strimzi uses the Kubernetes syntax for specifying these resources.

For more information about managing computing resources on Kubernetes, see Managing Compute Resources for Containers.

Resource requests

Requests specify the resources to reserve for a given container. Reserving the resources ensures that they are always available.

Important
 If the resource request is for more than the available free resources in the Kubernetes cluster, the pod is not scheduled.

A request may be configured for one or more supported resources.

Resource limits

Limits specify the maximum resources that can be consumed by a given container. The limit is not reserved and might not always be available. A container can use the resources up to the limit only when they are available. Resource limits should be always higher than the resource requests.

A resource may be configured for one or more supported limits.

Supported CPU formats

CPU requests and limits are supported in the following formats:

  • Number of CPU cores as integer (5 CPU core) or decimal (2.5 CPU core).

  • Number or millicpus / millicores (100m) where 1000 millicores is the same 1 CPU core.

Note
 The computing power of 1 CPU core may differ depending on the platform where Kubernetes is deployed.

For more information on CPU specification, see the Meaning of CPU.

Supported memory formats

Memory requests and limits are specified in megabytes, gigabytes, mebibytes, and gibibytes.

  • To specify memory in megabytes, use the M suffix. For example 1000M.

  • To specify memory in gigabytes, use the G suffix. For example 1G.

  • To specify memory in mebibytes, use the Mi suffix. For example 1000Mi.

  • To specify memory in gibibytes, use the Gi suffix. For example 1Gi.

For more details about memory specification and additional supported units, see Meaning of memory.

Kafka Mirror Maker loggers

Kafka Mirror Maker has its own configurable logger:

  • mirrormaker.root.logger

MirrorMaker uses the Apache log4j logger implementation.

Use the logging property to configure loggers and logger levels.

You can set the log levels by specifying the logger and level directly (inline) or use a custom (external) ConfigMap. If a ConfigMap is used, you set logging.name property to the name of the ConfigMap containing the external logging configuration. Inside the ConfigMap, the logging configuration is described using log4j.properties.

Here we see examples of inline and external logging:

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaMirrorMaker
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: inline
    loggers:
      mirrormaker.root.logger: "INFO"
  # ...
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaMirrorMaker
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: external
    name: customConfigMap
  # ...
Additional resources
Healthchecks

Use the livenessProbe and readinessProbe properties to configure healthcheck probes supported in Strimzi.

Healthchecks are periodical tests which verify the health of an application. When a Healthcheck probe fails, Kubernetes assumes that the application is not healthy and attempts to fix it.

For more details about the probes, see Configure Liveness and Readiness Probes.

Both livenessProbe and readinessProbe support the following options:

  • initialDelaySeconds

  • timeoutSeconds

  • periodSeconds

  • successThreshold

  • failureThreshold

An example of liveness and readiness probe configuration
# ...
readinessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
livenessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
# ...

For more information about the livenessProbe and readinessProbe options, see Probe schema reference.

Prometheus metrics

Use the metrics property to enable and configure Prometheus metrics.

The metrics property can also contain additional configuration for the Prometheus JMX exporter. Strimzi supports Prometheus metrics using Prometheus JMX exporter to convert the JMX metrics supported by Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper to Prometheus metrics.

To enable Prometheus metrics export without any further configuration, you can set it to an empty object ({}).

When metrics are enabled, they are exposed on port 9404.

When the metrics property is not defined in the resource, the Prometheus metrics are disabled.

For more information about configuring Prometheus and Grafana, see Metrics.

JVM Options

Use the jvmOptions property to configure supported options for the JVM on which the component is running.

Supported JVM options help to optimize performance for different platforms and architectures.

For more information on the supported options, see JVM configuration.

Container images

Use the image property to configure the container image used by the component.

Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations where you need to use a different container registry or a customized image.

For example, if your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi, you can copy the Strimzi images or build them from the source. However, if the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.

A copy of the container image might also be customized and used for debugging.

For more information see Container image configurations.

3.4.3. List of resources created as part of Kafka Mirror Maker

The following resources are created by the Cluster Operator in the Kubernetes cluster:

<mirror-maker-name>-mirror-maker

Deployment which is responsible for creating the Kafka Mirror Maker pods.

<mirror-maker-name>-config

ConfigMap which contains ancillary configuration for the the Kafka Mirror Maker, and is mounted as a volume by the Kafka broker pods.

<mirror-maker-name>-mirror-maker

Pod Disruption Budget configured for the Kafka Mirror Maker worker nodes.

3.5. Kafka Bridge configuration

The full schema of the KafkaBridge resource is described in the KafkaBridge schema reference. All labels that are applied to the desired KafkaBridge resource will also be applied to the Kubernetes resources making up the Kafka Bridge cluster. This provides a convenient mechanism for resources to be labeled as required.

3.5.1. Replicas

Kafka Bridge can run multiple nodes. The number of nodes is defined in the KafkaBridge resource. Running a Kafka Bridge with multiple nodes can provide better availability and scalability. However, when running Kafka Bridge on Kubernetes it is not absolutely necessary to run multiple nodes of Kafka Bridge for high availability.

Important
 If a node where Kafka Bridge is deployed to crashes, Kubernetes will automatically reschedule the Kafka Bridge pod to a different node. In order to prevent issues arising when client consumer requests are processed by different Kafka Bridge instances, addressed-based routing must be employed to ensure that requests are routed to the right Kafka Bridge instance. Additionally, each independent Kafka Bridge instance must have a replica. A Kafka Bridge instance has its own state which is not shared with another instances.
Configuring the number of nodes

The number of Kafka Bridge nodes is configured using the replicas property in KafkaBridge.spec.

Prerequisites

  • An Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the replicas property in the KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  replicas: 3
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.2. Bootstrap servers

A Kafka Bridge always works in combination with a Kafka cluster. A Kafka cluster is specified as a list of bootstrap servers. On Kubernetes, the list must ideally contain the Kafka cluster bootstrap service named cluster-name-kafka-bootstrap, and a port of 9092 for plain traffic or 9093 for encrypted traffic.

The list of bootstrap servers is configured in the bootstrapServers property in KafkaBridge.kafka.spec. The servers must be defined as a comma-separated list specifying one or more Kafka brokers, or a service pointing to Kafka brokers specified as a hostname:_port_ pairs.

When using Kafka Bridge with a Kafka cluster not managed by Strimzi, you can specify the bootstrap servers list according to the configuration of the cluster.

Configuring bootstrap servers
Prerequisites

  • An Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the bootstrapServers property in the KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  bootstrapServers: my-cluster-kafka-bootstrap:9092
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.3. Connecting to Kafka brokers using TLS

By default, Kafka Bridge tries to connect to Kafka brokers using a plain text connection. If you prefer to use TLS, additional configuration is required.

TLS support for Kafka connection to the Kafka Bridge

TLS support for Kafka connection is configured in the tls property in KafkaBridge.spec. The tls property contains a list of secrets with key names under which the certificates are stored. The certificates must be stored in X509 format.

An example showing TLS configuration with multiple certificates
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
    - secretName: my-secret
      certificate: ca.crt
    - secretName: my-other-secret
      certificate: certificate.crt
  # ...

When multiple certificates are stored in the same secret, it can be listed multiple times.

An example showing TLS configuration with multiple certificates from the same secret
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
    trustedCertificates:
    - secretName: my-secret
      certificate: ca.crt
    - secretName: my-secret
      certificate: ca2.crt
  # ...
Configuring TLS in Kafka Bridge
Prerequisites

  • An Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret for the certificate used for TLS Server Authentication, and the key under which the certificate is stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare the TLS certificate used in authentication in a file and create a Secret.

    Note
    		 The secrets created by the Cluster Operator for Kafka cluster may be used directly. 
    kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=my-file.crt

  2. Edit the tls property in the KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  tls:
	  trustedCertificates:
	  - secretName: my-cluster-cluster-cert
	    certificate: ca.crt
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.4. Connecting to Kafka brokers with Authentication

By default, Kafka Bridge will try to connect to Kafka brokers without authentication. Authentication is enabled through the KafkaBridge resources.

Authentication support in Kafka Bridge

Authentication is configured through the authentication property in KafkaBridge.spec. The authentication property specifies the type of the authentication mechanisms which should be used and additional configuration details depending on the mechanism. The currently supported authentication types are:

TLS Client Authentication

To use TLS client authentication, set the type property to the value tls. TLS client authentication uses a TLS certificate to authenticate. The certificate is specified in the certificateAndKey property and is always loaded from an Kubernetes secret. In the secret, the certificate must be stored in X509 format under two different keys: public and private.

Note
 TLS client authentication can be used only with TLS connections. For more details about TLS configuration in Kafka Bridge see Connecting to Kafka brokers using TLS.
An example TLS client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: tls
    certificateAndKey:
      secretName: my-secret
      certificate: public.crt
      key: private.key
  # ...
SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication

To configure Kafka Bridge to use SASL-based SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication, set the type property to scram-sha-512. This authentication mechanism requires a username and password.

  • Specify the username in the username property.

  • In the passwordSecret property, specify a link to a Secret containing the password. The secretName property contains the name of the Secret and the password property contains the name of the key under which the password is stored inside the Secret.

Important
 Do not specify the actual password in the password field.
An example SASL based SCRAM-SHA-512 client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
    username: my-bridge-user
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: my-bridge-user
      password: my-bridge-password-key
  # ...
SASL-based PLAIN authentication

To configure Kafka Bridge to use SASL-based PLAIN authentication, set the type property to plain. This authentication mechanism requires a username and password.

Warning
 The SASL PLAIN mechanism will transfer the username and password across the network in cleartext. Only use SASL PLAIN authentication if TLS encryption is enabled.

  • Specify the username in the username property.

  • In the passwordSecret property, specify a link to a Secret containing the password. The secretName property contains the name the Secret and the password property contains the name of the key under which the password is stored inside the Secret.

Important
 Do not specify the actual password in the password field.
An example showing SASL based PLAIN client authentication configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: plain
    username: my-bridge-user
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: my-bridge-user
      password: my-bridge-password-key
  # ...
Configuring TLS client authentication in Kafka Bridge
Prerequisites

  • An Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret with the public and private keys used for TLS Client Authentication, and the keys under which they are stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare the keys used for authentication in a file and create the Secret.

    Note
    		 Secrets created by the User Operator may be used. 
    kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=my-public.crt --from-file=my-private.key

  2. Edit the authentication property in the KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
  type: tls
  certificateAndKey:
    secretName: my-secret
    certificate: my-public.crt
    key: my-private.key
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Configuring SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication in Kafka Bridge
Prerequisites

  • An Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • Username of the user which should be used for authentication

  • If they exist, the name of the Secret with the password used for authentication and the key under which the password is stored in the Secret

Procedure

  1. (Optional) If they do not already exist, prepare a file with the password used in authentication and create the Secret.

    Note
    		 Secrets created by the User Operator may be used. 
    echo -n '<password>' > <my-password.txt>
kubectl create secret generic <my-secret> --from-file=<my-password.txt>

  2. Edit the authentication property in the KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
    username: _<my-username>_
    passwordSecret:
      secretName: _<my-secret>_
      password: _<my-password.txt>_
  # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.5. Kafka Bridge configuration

Strimzi allows you to customize the configuration of Apache Kafka Bridge nodes by editing certain options listed in Apache Kafka configuration documentation for consumers and Apache Kafka configuration documentation for producers.

Configuration options that can be configured relate to:

  • Kafka cluster bootstrap address

  • Security (Encryption, Authentication, and Authorization)

  • Consumer configuration

  • Producer configuration

  • HTTP configuration

Kafka Bridge Consumer configuration

Kafka Bridge consumer is configured using the properties in KafkaBridge.spec.consumer. This property contains the Kafka Bridge consumer configuration options as keys. The values can be one of the following JSON types:

  • String

  • Number

  • Boolean

Users can specify and configure the options listed in the Apache Kafka configuration documentation for consumers with the exception of those options which are managed directly by Strimzi. Specifically, all configuration options with keys equal to or starting with one of the following strings are forbidden:

  • ssl.

  • sasl.

  • security.

  • bootstrap.servers

  • group.id

When one of the forbidden options is present in the config property, it will be ignored and a warning message will be printed to the Custer Operator log file. All other options will be passed to Kafka

Important
 The Cluster Operator does not validate keys or values in the config object provided. When an invalid configuration is provided, the Kafka Bridge cluster might not start or might become unstable. In this circumstance, fix the configuration in the KafkaBridge.spec.consumer.config object, then the Cluster Operator can roll out the new configuration to all Kafka Bridge nodes.
Example Kafka Bridge consumer configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  consumer:
    config:
      auto.offset.reset: earliest
      enable.auto.commit: true
  # ...
Kafka Bridge Producer configuration

Kafka Bridge producer is configured using the properties in KafkaBridge.spec.producer. This property contains the Kafka Bridge producer configuration options as keys. The values can be one of the following JSON types:

  • String

  • Number

  • Boolean

Users can specify and configure the options listed in the Apache Kafka configuration documentation for producers with the exception of those options which are managed directly by Strimzi. Specifically, all configuration options with keys equal to or starting with one of the following strings are forbidden:

  • ssl.

  • sasl.

  • security.

  • bootstrap.servers

Important
 The Cluster Operator does not validate keys or values in the config object provided. When an invalid configuration is provided, the Kafka Bridge cluster might not start or might become unstable. In this circumstance, fix the configuration in the KafkaBridge.spec.producer.config object, then the Cluster Operator can roll out the new configuration to all Kafka Bridge nodes.
Example Kafka Bridge producer configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  producer:
    config:
      acks: 1
      delivery.timeout.ms: 300000
  # ...
Kafka Bridge HTTP configuration

Kafka Bridge HTTP configuration is set using the properties in KafkaBridge.spec.http. This property contains the Kafka Bridge HTTP configuration options.

  • port

Example Kafka Bridge HTTP configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  http:
    port: 8080
  # ...
Configuring Kafka Bridge
Prerequisites

  • An Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the kafka, http, consumer or producer property in the KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  bootstrapServers: my-cluster-kafka:9092
  http:
    port: 8080
  consumer:
    config:
      auto.offset.reset: earliest
  producer:
    config:
      delivery.timeout.ms: 300000
  # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.6. CPU and memory resources

For every deployed container, Strimzi allows you to request specific resources and define the maximum consumption of those resources.

Strimzi supports two types of resources:

  • CPU

  • Memory

Strimzi uses the Kubernetes syntax for specifying CPU and memory resources.

Resource limits and requests

Resource limits and requests are configured using the resources property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Additional resources
Resource requests

Requests specify the resources to reserve for a given container. Reserving the resources ensures that they are always available.

Important
 If the resource request is for more than the available free resources in the Kubernetes cluster, the pod is not scheduled.

Resources requests are specified in the requests property. Resources requests currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A request may be configured for one or more supported resources.

Example resource request configuration with all resources
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Resource limits

Limits specify the maximum resources that can be consumed by a given container. The limit is not reserved and might not always be available. A container can use the resources up to the limit only when they are available. Resource limits should be always higher than the resource requests.

Resource limits are specified in the limits property. Resource limits currently supported by Strimzi:

  • cpu

  • memory

A resource may be configured for one or more supported limits.

Example resource limits configuration
# ...
resources:
  limits:
    cpu: 12
    memory: 64Gi
# ...
Supported CPU formats

CPU requests and limits are supported in the following formats:

  • Number of CPU cores as integer (5 CPU core) or decimal (2.5 CPU core).

  • Number or millicpus / millicores (100m) where 1000 millicores is the same 1 CPU core.

Example CPU units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 500m
  limits:
    cpu: 2.5
# ...
Note
 The computing power of 1 CPU core may differ depending on the platform where Kubernetes is deployed.
Additional resources
Supported memory formats

Memory requests and limits are specified in megabytes, gigabytes, mebibytes, and gibibytes.

  • To specify memory in megabytes, use the M suffix. For example 1000M.

  • To specify memory in gigabytes, use the G suffix. For example 1G.

  • To specify memory in mebibytes, use the Mi suffix. For example 1000Mi.

  • To specify memory in gibibytes, use the Gi suffix. For example 1Gi.

An example of using different memory units
# ...
resources:
  requests:
    memory: 512Mi
  limits:
    memory: 2Gi
# ...
Additional resources

  • For more details about memory specification and additional supported units, see Meaning of memory.

Configuring resource requests and limits
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the resources property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "8"
        memory: 64Gi
      limits:
        cpu: "12"
        memory: 128Gi
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

3.5.7. Kafka Bridge loggers

Kafka Bridge has its own configurable loggers:

  • log4j.logger.io.strimzi.kafka.bridge

  • log4j.logger.http.openapi.operation.<operation-id>

You can replace <operation-id> in the log4j.logger.http.openapi.operation.<operation-id> logger to set log levels for specific operations:

  • createConsumer

  • deleteConsumer

  • subscribe

  • unsubscribe

  • poll

  • assign

  • commit

  • send

  • sendToPartition

  • seekToBeginning

  • seekToEnd

  • seek

  • healthy

  • ready

  • openapi

Each operation is defined according OpenAPI specification, and has a corresponding API endpoint through which the bridge receives requests from HTTP clients. You can change the log level on each endpoint to create fine-grained logging information about the incoming and outgoing HTTP requests.

Kafka Bridge uses the Apache log4j logger implementation. Loggers are defined in the log4j.properties file, which has the following default configuration for healthy and ready endpoints:

log4j.logger.http.openapi.operation.healthy=WARN, out
log4j.additivity.http.openapi.operation.healthy=false
log4j.logger.http.openapi.operation.ready=WARN, out
log4j.additivity.http.openapi.operation.ready=false

The log level of all other operations is set to INFO by default.

Use the logging property to configure loggers and logger levels.

You can set the log levels by specifying the logger and level directly (inline) or use a custom (external) ConfigMap. If a ConfigMap is used, you set logging.name property to the name of the ConfigMap containing the external logging configuration. Inside the ConfigMap, the logging configuration is described using log4j.properties.

Here we see examples of inline and external logging.

Inline logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaBridge
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: inline
    loggers:
      log4j.logger.io.strimzi.kafka.bridge: "INFO"
  # ...
External logging
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaBridge
spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: external
    name: customConfigMap
  # ...
Additional resources

3.5.8. JVM Options

The following components of Strimzi run inside a Virtual Machine (VM):

  • Apache Kafka

  • Apache ZooKeeper

  • Apache Kafka Connect

  • Apache Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Strimzi Kafka Bridge

JVM configuration options optimize the performance for different platforms and architectures. Strimzi allows you to configure some of these options.

JVM configuration

JVM options can be configured using the jvmOptions property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Only a selected subset of available JVM options can be configured. The following options are supported:

-Xms and -Xmx

-Xms configures the minimum initial allocation heap size when the JVM starts. -Xmx configures the maximum heap size.

Note
 The units accepted by JVM settings such as -Xmx and -Xms are those accepted by the JDK java binary in the corresponding image. Accordingly, 1g or 1G means 1,073,741,824 bytes, and Gi is not a valid unit suffix. This is in contrast to the units used for memory requests and limits, which follow the Kubernetes convention where 1G means 1,000,000,000 bytes, and 1Gi means 1,073,741,824 bytes

The default values used for -Xms and -Xmx depends on whether there is a memory request limit configured for the container:

  • If there is a memory limit then the JVM’s minimum and maximum memory will be set to a value corresponding to the limit.

  • If there is no memory limit then the JVM’s minimum memory will be set to 128M and the JVM’s maximum memory will not be defined. This allows for the JVM’s memory to grow as-needed, which is ideal for single node environments in test and development.

Important

Setting -Xmx explicitly requires some care:

  • The JVM’s overall memory usage will be approximately 4 × the maximum heap, as configured by -Xmx.

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory limit, it is possible that the container will be killed should the Kubernetes node experience memory pressure (from other Pods running on it).

  • If -Xmx is set without also setting an appropriate Kubernetes memory request, it is possible that the container will be scheduled to a node with insufficient memory. In this case, the container will not start but crash (immediately if -Xms is set to -Xmx, or some later time if not).

When setting -Xmx explicitly, it is recommended to:

  • set the memory request and the memory limit to the same value,

  • use a memory request that is at least 4.5 × the -Xmx,

  • consider setting -Xms to the same value as -Xmx.

Important
 Containers doing lots of disk I/O (such as Kafka broker containers) will need to leave some memory available for use as operating system page cache. On such containers, the requested memory should be significantly higher than the memory used by the JVM.
Example fragment configuring -Xmx and -Xms
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-Xmx": "2g"
  "-Xms": "2g"
# ...

In the above example, the JVM will use 2 GiB (=2,147,483,648 bytes) for its heap. Its total memory usage will be approximately 8GiB.

Setting the same value for initial (-Xms) and maximum (-Xmx) heap sizes avoids the JVM having to allocate memory after startup, at the cost of possibly allocating more heap than is really needed. For Kafka and ZooKeeper pods such allocation could cause unwanted latency. For Kafka Connect avoiding over allocation may be the most important concern, especially in distributed mode where the effects of over-allocation will be multiplied by the number of consumers.

-server

-server enables the server JVM. This option can be set to true or false.

Example fragment configuring -server
# ...
jvmOptions:
  "-server": true
# ...
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
-XX

-XX object can be used for configuring advanced runtime options of a JVM. The -server and -XX options are used to configure the KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS option of Apache Kafka.

Example showing the use of the -XX object
jvmOptions:
  "-XX":
    "UseG1GC": true
    "MaxGCPauseMillis": 20
    "InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent": 35
    "ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent": true
    "UseParNewGC": false

The example configuration above will result in the following JVM options:

-XX:+UseG1GC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=20 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=35 -XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent -XX:-UseParNewGC
Note
 When neither of the two options (-server and -XX) is specified, the default Apache Kafka configuration of KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS will be used.
Garbage collector logging

The jvmOptions section also allows you to enable and disable garbage collector (GC) logging. GC logging is disabled by default. To enable it, set the gcLoggingEnabled property as follows:

Example of enabling GC logging
# ...
jvmOptions:
  gcLoggingEnabled: true
# ...
Configuring JVM options
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the jvmOptions property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect, KafkaConnectS2I, KafkaMirrorMaker, or KafkaBridge resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    jvmOptions:
      "-Xmx": "8g"
      "-Xms": "8g"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.9. Healthchecks

Healthchecks are periodical tests which verify the health of an application. When a Healthcheck probe fails, Kubernetes assumes that the application is not healthy and attempts to fix it.

Kubernetes supports two types of Healthcheck probes:

  • Liveness probes

  • Readiness probes

For more details about the probes, see Configure Liveness and Readiness Probes. Both types of probes are used in Strimzi components.

Users can configure selected options for liveness and readiness probes.

Healthcheck configurations

Liveness and readiness probes can be configured using the livenessProbe and readinessProbe properties in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.KafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMaker.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Both livenessProbe and readinessProbe support the following options:

  • initialDelaySeconds

  • timeoutSeconds

  • periodSeconds

  • successThreshold

  • failureThreshold

For more information about the livenessProbe and readinessProbe options, see Probe schema reference.

An example of liveness and readiness probe configuration
# ...
readinessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
livenessProbe:
  initialDelaySeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 5
# ...
Configuring healthchecks
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the livenessProbe or readinessProbe property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    readinessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    livenessProbe:
      initialDelaySeconds: 15
      timeoutSeconds: 5
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.10. Container images

Strimzi allows you to configure container images which will be used for its components. Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such a case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from the source. If the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.

Container image configurations

You can specify which container image to use for each component using the image property in the following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

Configuring the image property for Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker

Kafka, Kafka Connect (including Kafka Connect with S2I support), and Kafka Mirror Maker support multiple versions of Kafka. Each component requires its own image. The default images for the different Kafka versions are configured in the following environment variables:

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_S2I_IMAGES

  • STRIMZI_KAFKA_MIRROR_MAKER_IMAGES

These environment variables contain mappings between the Kafka versions and their corresponding images. The mappings are used together with the image and version properties:

  • If neither image nor version are given in the custom resource then the version will default to the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version, and the image will be the one corresponding to this version in the environment variable.

  • If image is given but version is not, then the given image is used and the version is assumed to be the Cluster Operator’s default Kafka version.

  • If version is given but image is not, then the image that corresponds to the given version in the environment variable is used.

  • If both version and image are given, then the given image is used. The image is assumed to contain a Kafka image with the given version.

The image and version for the different components can be configured in the following properties:

  • For Kafka in spec.kafka.image and spec.kafka.version.

  • For Kafka Connect, Kafka Connect S2I, and Kafka Mirror Maker in spec.image and spec.version.

Warning
 It is recommended to provide only the version and leave the image property unspecified. This reduces the chance of making a mistake when configuring the custom resource. If you need to change the images used for different versions of Kafka, it is preferable to configure the Cluster Operator’s environment variables.
Configuring the image property in other resources

For the image property in the other custom resources, the given value will be used during deployment. If the image property is missing, the image specified in the Cluster Operator configuration will be used. If the image name is not defined in the Cluster Operator configuration, then the default value will be used.

  • For Kafka broker TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_KAFKA_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For ZooKeeper nodes:

  • For ZooKeeper node TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ZOOKEEPER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Topic Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TOPIC_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For User Operator:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_USER_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

  • For Entity Operator TLS sidecar:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ENTITY_OPERATOR_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Exporter:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_EXPORTER_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0 container image.

  • For Kafka Bridge:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_BRIDGE_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/kafka-bridge:0.15.0 container image.

  • For Kafka broker initializer:

    1. Container image specified in the STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_INIT_IMAGE environment variable from the Cluster Operator configuration.

    2. strimzi/operator:0.16.2 container image.

Warning
 Overriding container images is recommended only in special situations, where you need to use a different container registry. For example, because your network does not allow access to the container repository used by Strimzi. In such case, you should either copy the Strimzi images or build them from source. In case the configured image is not compatible with Strimzi images, it might not work properly.
Example of container image configuration
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...
Configuring container images
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the image property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect or KafkaConnectS2I resource. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    image: my-org/my-image:latest
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.11. Configuring pod scheduling

Important
 When two applications are scheduled to the same Kubernetes node, both applications might use the same resources like disk I/O and impact performance. That can lead to performance degradation. Scheduling Kafka pods in a way that avoids sharing nodes with other critical workloads, using the right nodes or dedicated a set of nodes only for Kafka are the best ways how to avoid such problems.
Scheduling pods based on other applications
Avoid critical applications to share the node

Pod anti-affinity can be used to ensure that critical applications are never scheduled on the same disk. When running Kafka cluster, it is recommended to use pod anti-affinity to ensure that the Kafka brokers do not share the nodes with other workloads like databases.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring pod anti-affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. Use labels to specify the pods which should not be scheduled on the same nodes. The topologyKey should be set to kubernetes.io/hostname to specify that the selected pods should not be scheduled on nodes with the same hostname. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          podAntiAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              - labelSelector:
                  matchExpressions:
                    - key: application
                      operator: In
                      values:
                        - postgresql
                        - mongodb
                topologyKey: "kubernetes.io/hostname"
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Scheduling pods to specific nodes
Node scheduling

The Kubernetes cluster usually consists of many different types of worker nodes. Some are optimized for CPU heavy workloads, some for memory, while other might be optimized for storage (fast local SSDs) or network. Using different nodes helps to optimize both costs and performance. To achieve the best possible performance, it is important to allow scheduling of Strimzi components to use the right nodes.

Kubernetes uses node affinity to schedule workloads onto specific nodes. Node affinity allows you to create a scheduling constraint for the node on which the pod will be scheduled. The constraint is specified as a label selector. You can specify the label using either the built-in node label like beta.kubernetes.io/instance-type or custom labels to select the right node.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Configuring node affinity in Kafka components
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Label the nodes where Strimzi components should be scheduled.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node node-type=fast-network

    Alternatively, some of the existing labels might be reused.

  2. Edit the affinity property in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
                - matchExpressions:
                  - key: node-type
                    operator: In
                    values:
                    - fast-network
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  3. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Using dedicated nodes
Dedicated nodes

Cluster administrators can mark selected Kubernetes nodes as tainted. Nodes with taints are excluded from regular scheduling and normal pods will not be scheduled to run on them. Only services which can tolerate the taint set on the node can be scheduled on it. The only other services running on such nodes will be system services such as log collectors or software defined networks.

Taints can be used to create dedicated nodes. Running Kafka and its components on dedicated nodes can have many advantages. There will be no other applications running on the same nodes which could cause disturbance or consume the resources needed for Kafka. That can lead to improved performance and stability.

To schedule Kafka pods on the dedicated nodes, configure node affinity and tolerations.

Affinity

Affinity can be configured using the affinity property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The affinity configuration can include different types of affinity:

  • Pod affinity and anti-affinity

  • Node affinity

The format of the affinity property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes node and pod affinity documentation.

Tolerations

Tolerations can be configured using the tolerations property in following resources:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper.template.pod

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator.template.pod

  • KafkaConnect.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec.template.pod

  • KafkaBridge.spec.template.pod

The format of the tolerations property follows the Kubernetes specification. For more details, see the Kubernetes taints and tolerations.

Setting up dedicated nodes and scheduling pods on them
Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster

  • A running Cluster Operator

Procedure

  1. Select the nodes which should be used as dedicated.

  2. Make sure there are no workloads scheduled on these nodes.

  3. Set the taints on the selected nodes:

    This can be done using kubectl taint:

    kubectl taint node your-node dedicated=Kafka:NoSchedule

  4. Additionally, add a label to the selected nodes as well.

    This can be done using kubectl label:

    kubectl label node your-node dedicated=Kafka

  5. Edit the affinity and tolerations properties in the resource specifying the cluster deployment. For example:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      pod:
        tolerations:
          - key: "dedicated"
            operator: "Equal"
            value: "Kafka"
            effect: "NoSchedule"
        affinity:
          nodeAffinity:
            requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
              - matchExpressions:
                - key: dedicated
                  operator: In
                  values:
                  - Kafka
    # ...
  zookeeper:
    # ...

  6. Create or update the resource.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

3.5.12. List of resources created as part of Kafka Bridge cluster

The following resources are created by the Cluster Operator in the Kubernetes cluster:

bridge-cluster-name-bridge

Deployment which is in charge to create the Kafka Bridge worker node pods.

bridge-cluster-name-bridge-service

Service which exposes the REST interface of the Kafka Bridge cluster.

bridge-cluster-name-bridge-config

ConfigMap which contains the Kafka Bridge ancillary configuration and is mounted as a volume by the Kafka broker pods.

bridge-cluster-name-bridge

Pod Disruption Budget configured for the Kafka Bridge worker nodes.

3.6. Using OAuth 2.0 token based authentication

Strimzi supports the use of OAuth 2.0 authentication using the SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism.

OAuth 2.0 enables standardized token based authentication and authorization between applications, using a central authorization server to issue tokens that grant limited access to resources.

OAuth 2.0 is currently only supported for authentication, with no authorization support. However, OAuth 2.0 authentication can be used in conjunction with ACL-based Kafka authorization.

Using OAuth 2.0 token based authentication, application clients can access resources on application servers (called ‘resource servers’) without exposing account credentials. The client passes an access token as a means of authenticating, which application servers can also use to find more information about the level of access granted. The authorization server handles the granting of access and inquiries about access.

In the context of Strimzi:

  • Kafka brokers act as resource servers

  • Kafka clients act as resource clients

The brokers and clients communicate with the OAuth 2.0 authorization server, as necessary, to obtain or validate access tokens.

For a deployment of Strimzi, OAuth 2.0 integration provides:

  • Server-side OAuth 2.0 support for Kafka brokers

  • Client-side OAuth 2.0 support for Kafka Mirror Maker, Kafka Connect and the Kafka Bridge

Additional resources

3.6.1. OAuth 2.0 authentication mechanism

Support for OAuth 2.0 is based on the Kafka SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism, which is used to establish authenticated sessions with a Kafka broker.

A Kafka client initiates a session with the Kafka broker using the SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism for credentials exchange, where credentials take the form of an access token.

Kafka brokers and clients need to be configured to use OAuth 2.0.

Kafka broker configuration

The Kafka broker must be configured to validate the token received during session initiation. The recommended approach is to create a client definition in an authorization server with:

  • Client ID of kafka-broker

  • Client ID and secret as the authentication mechanism

Kafka client configuration

A Kafka client is configured with either:

  • Credentials required to obtain a valid access token from an authorization server

  • A valid long-lived access token, obtained using tools provided by an authorization server

Credentials are never sent to the Kafka broker. The only information ever sent to the Kafka broker is an access token. When a client obtains an access token, no further communication with the authorization server is needed.

The simplest mechanism, which requires no additional usage of authorization server tools, is authentication with a client ID and secret. Using a long-lived access token, or a long-lived refresh token, is more complex.

Note
 If you are using long-lived access tokens, you can set policy in the authorization server to increase the maximum lifetime of the token.

If the Kafka client is not configured with an access token directly, the client exchanges credentials for an access token during Kafka session initiation by contacting the authorization server. The Kafka client uses one of two mechanisms:

  • Client id and secret

  • Client id, refresh token, and (optionally) a secret

3.6.2. OAuth 2.0 client authentication flow

In this section, we explain and visualize the communication flow between Kafka client, Kafka broker, and authorization server during Kafka session initiation. The flow depends on the client and server configuration.

When a Kafka client sends an access token as credentials to a Kafka broker, the token needs to be validated.

Depending on the authorization server used, and the configuration options available, you may prefer to use:

  • Fast local token validation based on JWT signature checking and local token introspection, without contacting the authorization server

  • An OAuth 2.0 introspection endpoint provided by the authorization server

Using fast local token validation requires the authorization server to provide a JWKS endpoint with public certificates that are used to validate signatures on the tokens.

Note
 An authorization server might only allow the use of opaque access tokens, which means that local token validation is not possible.

Another option is to use an OAuth 2.0 introspection endpoint on the authorization server. Each time a Kafka broker connection is established, the broker sends the access token it receives to the authorization server, and a response confirming whether or not the token is valid is returned.

Kafka client credentials can also be configured for:

  • Direct local access using a previously generated long-lived access token

  • Contact with the authorization server for a new access token to be issued and sent to the Kafka broker

Example client authentication flows

Here you can see the communication flows, for different configurations of Kafka clients and brokers, during Kafka session authentication.

Client using client ID and secret, with broker delegating validation to authorization server

Client using client ID and secret with broker delegating validation to authorization server

  1. Kafka client requests access token from authorization server, using client ID and secret, and optionally a refresh token.

  2. Authorization server generates a new access token.

  3. Kafka client authenticates with the Kafka broker using the SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism to pass the access token.

  4. Kafka broker validates the access token by calling a token introspection endpoint on authorization server, using its own client ID and secret.

  5. Kafka client session is established if the token is valid.

Client using client ID and secret, with broker performing fast local token validation

Client using client ID and secret with broker performing fast local token validation

  1. Kafka client authenticates with authorization server from the token endpoint, using a client ID and secret, and optionally a refresh token.

  2. Authorization server generates a new access token.

  3. Kafka client authenticates with the Kafka broker using the SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism to pass the access token.

  4. Kafka broker validates the access token locally using a JWT token signature check, and local token introspection.

Client using long-lived access token, with broker delegating validation to authorization server

Client using long-lived access token with broker delegating validation to authorization server

  1. Kafka client authenticates with the Kafka broker using the SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism to pass the long-lived access token.

  2. Kafka broker validates the access token by calling a token introspection endpoint on authorization server, using its own client ID and secret.

  3. Kafka client session is established if the token is valid.

Client using long-lived access token, with broker performing fast local validation

Client using long-lived access token with broker performing fast local validation

  1. Kafka client authenticates with the Kafka broker using the SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism to pass the long-lived access token.

  2. Kafka broker validates the access token locally using JWT token signature check, and local token introspection.

Warning
 Fast local JWT token signature validation is suitable only for short-lived tokens as there is no check with the authorization server if a token has been revoked. Token expiration is written into the token, but revocation can happen at any time, so cannot be accounted for without contacting the authorization server. Any issued token would be considered valid until it expires.

3.6.3. Configuring OAuth 2.0 authentication

OAuth 2.0 is used for interaction between Kafka clients and Strimzi components.

In order to use OAuth 2.0 for Strimzi, you must:

  1. Deploy an authorization server and configure the deployment to integrate with Strimzi

  2. Deploy or update the Kafka cluster with Kafka broker listeners configured to use OAuth 2.0

  3. Update your Java-based Kafka clients to use OAuth 2.0

  4. Update Kafka component clients to use OAuth 2.0

Configuring an OAuth 2.0 authorization server

This procedure describes in general what you need to do to configure an authorization server for integration with Strimzi.

These instructions are not product specific.

The steps are dependent on the chosen authorization server. Consult the product documentation for the authorization server for information on how to set up OAuth 2.0 access.

Note
 If you already have an authorization server deployed, you can skip the deployment step and use your current deployment.
Procedure

  1. Deploy the authorization server to your cluster.

  2. Access the CLI or admin console for the authorization server to configure OAuth 2.0 for Strimzi.

    Now prepare the authorization server to work with Strimzi.

  3. Configure a kafka-broker client.

  4. Configure clients for each Kafka client component of your application.

What to do next

After deploying and configuring the authorization server, configure the Kafka brokers to use OAuth 2.0.

Configuring OAuth 2.0 support for Kafka brokers

This procedure describes how to configure Kafka brokers so that the broker listeners are enabled to use OAuth 2.0 authentication using an authorization server.

If the authorization server is using certificates signed by the trusted CA and matching the OAuth 2.0 server hostname, TLS connection works using the default settings. Otherwise, you have two connection options for your external listener configuration when delegating token validation to the authorization server:

  1. TLS connection to the authorization server with trusted certificates

  2. Direct connection using an introspection endpoint configuration

Both options are described in this procedure.

Before you start

For more information on the configuration and authentication of Kafka broker listeners, see:

Prerequisites

  • Strimzi and Kafka are running

  • An OAuth 2.0 authorization server is deployed

Procedure

  1. Update the Kafka broker configuration (Kafka.spec.kafka) of your Kafka resource in an editor.

    kubectl edit kafka my-cluster

  2. Configure the Kafka broker listeners configuration.

    The configuration for each type of listener does not have to be the same, as they are independent.

    For example:

    #...
   authentication:
     type: oauth (1)
     validIssuerUri: <https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/master> (2)
     jwksEndpointUri: <https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/certs> (3)
     userNameClaim: preferred_username (4)

#external configuration
 external:
   type: loadbalancer

   //Option 1
   authentication: (5)
     type: oauth
     validIssuerUri: <https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/external>
     jwksEndpointUri: <https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/external/protocol/openid-connect/certs>
     userNameClaim: preferred_username
     tlsTrustedCertificates: (6)
     - secretName: oauth-server-cert
       certificate: ca.crt
     disableTlsHostnameVerification: true (7)

   //Option 2
   authentication: (8)
     type: oauth
     validIssuerUri: <https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/external>
     introspectionEndpointUri: <https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/external/protocol/openid-connect/token/introspect>
     clientId: kafka-broker
     clientSecret:
       secretName: my-cluster-oauth
       key: clientSecret

    1. Listener type set to oauth.

    2. URI of the token issuer used for authentication.

    3. URI of the JWKS certificate endpoint used for local JWT validation.

    4. The user name profile claim (or key) that contains the actual user name in the token. The user name is the principal used to identify the user. The userNameClaim value will depend on the authentication flow and the authorization server used.

    5. OPTION 1: TLS connection to the authorization server.

    6. (Optional) Trusted certificates for TLS connection to the authorization server.

    7. (Optional) Disable TLS hostname verification. Default is false.

    8. OPTION 2: Introspection endpoint to connect directly to the authorization server.

  3. Save and exit the editor, then wait for rolling updates to complete.

  4. Check the update in the logs or by watching the pod state transitions:

    kubectl logs -f ${POD_NAME} -c ${CONTAINER_NAME}
kubectl get po -w

    The rolling update configures the brokers to use OAuth 2.0 authentication.

What to do next
Configuring Kafka Java clients to use OAuth 2.0

This procedure describes how to configure Kafka producer and consumer APIs to use OAuth 2.0 for interaction with Kafka brokers.

Add a client callback plugin to your pom.xml file, and configure the system properties.

Prerequisites

  • Strimzi and Kafka are running

  • An OAuth 2.0 authorization server is deployed and configured for OAuth access to Kafka brokers

  • Kafka brokers are configured for OAuth 2.0

Procedure

  1. Add the client library with OAuth 2.0 support to the pom.xml file for the Kafka client:

    <dependency>
 <groupId>io.strimzi</groupId>
 <artifactId>kafka-oauth-client</artifactId>
 <version>0.2.0</version>
</dependency>

  2. Configure the system properties for the callback:

    For example:

    System.setProperty(ClientConfig.OAUTH_TOKEN_ENDPOINT_URI, “https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/token”); (1)
System.setProperty(ClientConfig.OAUTH_CLIENT_ID, "<client-name>"); (2)
System.setProperty(ClientConfig.OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET, "<client-secret>"); (3)

    1. URI of the authorization server token endpoint.

    2. Client ID, which is the name used when creating the client in the authorization server.

    3. Client secret created when creating the client in the authorization server.

  3. Enable the SASL OAUTHBEARER mechanism on a TLS encrypted connection in the Kafka client configuration:

    For example:

    props.put("sasl.jaas.config", "org.apache.kafka.common.security.oauthbearer.OAuthBearerLoginModule required;");
props.put("security.protocol", "SASL_SSL"); (1)
props.put("sasl.mechanism", "OAUTHBEARER");
props.put("sasl.login.callback.handler.class", "io.strimzi.kafka.oauth.client.JaasClientOauthLoginCallbackHandler");

    1. Here we use SASL_SSL for use over TLS connections. Use SASL_PLAINTEXT over unencrypted connections.

  4. Verify that the Kafka client can access the Kafka brokers.

What to do next
Configuring OAuth for Kafka components

This procedure describes how to configure Kafka components to use OAuth 2.0 authentication using an authorization server.

You can configure authentication for:

  • Kafka Connect

  • Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Kafka Bridge

In this scenario, the Kafka component and the authorization server are running in the same cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Strimzi and Kafka are running

  • An OAuth 2.0 authorization server is deployed and configured for OAuth access to Kafka brokers

  • Kafka brokers are configured for OAuth 2.0

Procedure

  1. Create a client secret and mount it to the component as an environment variable.

    For example, here we are creating a client Secret for the Kafka Bridge:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Secret
metadata:
 name: my-bridge-oauth
type: Opaque
data:
 clientSecret: MGQ1OTRmMzYtZTllZS00MDY2LWI5OGEtMTM5MzM2NjdlZjQw (1)

    1. The clientSecret key must be in base64 format.

  2. Create or edit the resource for the Kafka component so that OAuth 2.0 authentication is configured for the authentication property.

    For example, here OAuth 2.0 is assigned to the Kafka Bridge client:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  # ...
  authentication:
   type: oauth (1)
   tokenEndpointUri: https://<authorization-server-address>/auth/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/token (2)
   clientId: kafka-bridge
   clientSecret:
     secretName: my-bridge-oauth
     key: clientSecret
   tlsTrustedCertificates: (3)
     - secretName: oauth-server-cert
     certificate: tls.crt

    1. Authentication type set to oauth.

    2. URI of the token endpoint for authentication.

    3. Trusted certificates for TLS connection to the authorization server.

  3. Apply the changes to the deployment of your Kafka resource.

    oc apply -f your-file

  4. Check the update in the logs or by watching the pod state transitions:

    kubectl logs -f ${POD_NAME} -c ${CONTAINER_NAME}
kubectl get pod -w

    The rolling updates configure the component for interaction with Kafka brokers using OAuth 2.0 authentication.

3.7. Customizing deployments

Strimzi creates several Kubernetes resources, such as Deployments, StatefulSets, Pods, and Services, which are managed by Kubernetes operators. Only the operator that is responsible for managing a particular Kubernetes resource can change that resource. If you try to manually change an operator-managed Kubernetes resource, the operator will revert your changes back.

However, changing an operator-managed Kubernetes resource can be useful if you want to perform certain tasks, such as:

  • Adding custom labels or annotations that control how Pods are treated by Istio or other services;

  • Managing how Loadbalancer-type Services are created by the cluster.

You can make these types of changes using the template property in the Strimzi custom resources.

3.7.1. Template properties

You can use the template property to configure aspects of the resource creation process. You can include it in the following resources and properties:

  • Kafka.spec.kafka

  • Kafka.spec.zookeeper

  • Kafka.spec.entityOperator

  • Kafka.spec.kafkaExporter

  • KafkaConnect.spec

  • KafkaConnectS2I.spec

  • KafkaMirrorMakerSpec

  • KafkaBridge.spec

In the following example, the template property is used to modify the labels in a Kafka broker’s StatefulSet:

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
  labels:
    app: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      statefulset:
        metadata:
          labels:
            mylabel: myvalue
    # ...
Supported template properties for a Kafka cluster
statefulset

Configures the StatefulSet used by the Kafka broker.

pod

Configures the Kafka broker Pods created by the StatefulSet.

bootstrapService

Configures the bootstrap service used by clients running within Kubernetes to connect to the Kafka broker.

brokersService

Configures the headless service.

externalBootstrapService

Configures the bootstrap service used by clients connecting to Kafka brokers from outside of Kubernetes.

perPodService

Configures the per-Pod services used by clients connecting to the Kafka broker from outside Kubernetes to access individual brokers.

externalBootstrapRoute

Configures the bootstrap route used by clients connecting to the Kafka brokers from outside of OpenShift using OpenShift Routes.

perPodRoute

Configures the per-Pod routes used by clients connecting to the Kafka broker from outside OpenShift to access individual brokers using OpenShift Routes.

podDisruptionBudget

Configures the Pod Disruption Budget for Kafka broker StatefulSet.

kafkaContainer

Configures the container used to run the Kafka broker, including custom environment variables.

tlsSidecarContainer

Configures the TLS sidecar container, including custom environment variables.

initContainer

Configures the container used to initialize the brokers.

persistentVolumeClaim

Configures the metadata of the Kafka PersistentVolumeClaims.

Additional resources

KafkaClusterTemplate schema reference.

Supported template properties for a ZooKeeper cluster
statefulset

Configures the ZooKeeper StatefulSet.

pod

Configures the ZooKeeper Pods created by the StatefulSet.

clientsService

Configures the service used by clients to access ZooKeeper.

nodesService

Configures the headless service.

podDisruptionBudget

Configures the Pod Disruption Budget for ZooKeeper StatefulSet.

zookeeperContainer

Configures the container used to run the ZooKeeper Node, including custom environment variables.

tlsSidecarContainer

Configures the TLS sidecar container, including custom environment variables.

persistentVolumeClaim

Configures the metadata of the ZooKeeper PersistentVolumeClaims.

Additional resources

ZookeeperClusterTemplate schema reference.

Supported template properties for Entity Operator
deployment

Configures the Deployment used by the Entity Operator.

pod

Configures the Entity Operator Pod created by the Deployment.

topicOperatorContainer

Configures the container used to run the Topic Operator, including custom environment variables.

userOperatorContainer

Configures the container used to run the User Operator, including custom environment variables.

tlsSidecarContainer

Configures the TLS sidecar container, including custom environment variables.

Additional resources

EntityOperatorTemplate schema reference.

Supported template properties for Kafka Exporter
deployment

Configures the Deployment used by Kafka Exporter.

pod

Configures the Kafka Exporter Pod created by the Deployment.

services

Configures the Kafka Exporter services.

container

Configures the container used to run Kafka Exporter, including custom environment variables.

Additional resources

KafkaExporterTemplate schema reference.

Supported template properties for Kafka Connect and Kafka Connect with Source2Image support
deployment

Configures the Kafka Connect Deployment.

pod

Configures the Kafka Connect Pods created by the Deployment.

apiService

Configures the service used by the Kafka Connect REST API.

podDisruptionBudget

Configures the Pod Disruption Budget for Kafka Connect Deployment.

connectContainer

Configures the container used to run Kafka Connect, including custom environment variables.

Additional resources

KafkaConnectTemplate schema reference.

Supported template properties for Kafka Mirror Maker
deployment

Configures the Kafka Mirror Maker Deployment.

pod

Configures the Kafka Mirror Maker Pods created by the Deployment.

podDisruptionBudget

Configures the Pod Disruption Budget for Kafka Mirror Maker Deployment.

mirrorMakerContainer

Configures the container used to run Kafka Mirror Maker, including custom environment variables.

Additional resources

KafkaMirrorMakerTemplate schema reference.

3.7.2. Labels and Annotations

For every resource, you can configure additional Labels and Annotations. Labels and Annotations are used to identify and organize resources, and are configured in the metadata property.

For example:

# ...
template:
    statefulset:
        metadata:
            labels:
                label1: value1
                label2: value2
            annotations:
                annotation1: value1
                annotation2: value2
# ...

The labels and annotations fields can contain any labels or annotations that do not contain the reserved string strimzi.io. Labels and annotations containing strimzi.io are used internally by Strimzi and cannot be configured.

For Kafka Connect, annotations on the KafkaConnect resource are used to enable the creation and management of connectors using KafkaConnector resources. For more information, see Enabling KafkaConnector resources.

Note
 The metadata property is not applicable to container templates, such as the kafkaContainer.

3.7.3. Customizing Pods

In addition to Labels and Annotations, you can customize some other fields on Pods. These fields are described in the following table and affect how the Pod is created.

Field Description

terminationGracePeriodSeconds

Defines the period of time, in seconds, by which the Pod must have terminated gracefully. After the grace period, the Pod and its containers are forcefully terminated (killed). The default value is 30 seconds.

NOTE: You might need to increase the grace period for very large Kafka clusters, so that the Kafka brokers have enough time to transfer their work to another broker before they are terminated.

imagePullSecrets

Defines a list of references to Kubernetes Secrets that can be used for pulling container images from private repositories. For more information about how to create a Secret with the credentials, see Pull an Image from a Private Registry.

NOTE: When the STRIMZI_IMAGE_PULL_SECRETS environment variable in Cluster Operator and the imagePullSecrets option are specified, only the imagePullSecrets variable is used. The STRIMZI_IMAGE_PULL_SECRETS variable is ignored.

securityContext

Configures pod-level security attributes for containers running as part of a given Pod. For more information about configuring SecurityContext, see Configure a Security Context for a Pod or Container.

priorityClassName

Configures the name of the Priority Class which will be used for given a Pod. For more information about Priority Classes, see Pod Priority and Preemption.

schedulerName

The name of the scheduler used to dispatch this Pod. If not specified, the default scheduler will be used.

These fields are effective on each type of cluster (Kafka and ZooKeeper; Kafka Connect and Kafka Connect with S2I support; and Kafka Mirror Maker).

The following example shows these customized fields on a template property:

# ...
template:
  pod:
    metadata:
      labels:
        label1: value1
    imagePullSecrets:
      - name: my-docker-credentials
    securityContext:
      runAsUser: 1000001
      fsGroup: 0
    terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 120
# ...
Additional resources

3.7.4. Customizing containers with environment variables

You can set custom environment variables for a container by using the relevant template container property. The following table lists the Strimzi containers and the relevant template configuration property (defined under spec) for each custom resource.

Table 1. Table Container environment variable properties
Strimzi Element Container Configuration property

Kafka

Kafka Broker

kafka.template.kafkaContainer.env

Kafka

Kafka Broker TLS Sidecar

kafka.template.tlsSidecarContainer.env

Kafka

Kafka Initialization

kafka.template.initContainer.env

Kafka

ZooKeeper Node

zookeeper.template.zookeeperContainer.env

Kafka

ZooKeeper TLS Sidecar

zookeeper.template.tlsSidecarContainer.env

Kafka

Topic Operator

entityOperator.template.topicOperatorContainer.env

Kafka

User Operator

entityOperator.template.userOperatorContainer.env

Kafka

Entity Operator TLS Sidecar

entityOperator.template.tlsSidecarContainer.env

KafkaConnect

Connect and ConnectS2I

template.connectContainer.env

KafkaMirrorMaker

Mirror Maker

template.mirrorMakerContainer.env

KafkaBridge

Bridge

template.bridgeContainer.env

The environment variables are defined under the env property as a list of objects with name and value fields. The following example shows two custom environment variables set for the Kafka broker containers:

# ...
kind: Kafka
spec:
    kafka:
        template:
            kafkaContainer:
                env:
                    - name: TEST_ENV_1
                      value: test.env.one
                    - name: TEST_ENV_2
                      value: test.env.two
# ...

Environment variables prefixed with KAFKA_ are internal to Strimzi and should be avoided. If you set a custom environment variable that is already in use by Strimzi, it is ignored and a warning is recorded in the log.

Additional resources

3.7.5. Customizing external Services

When exposing Kafka outside of Kubernetes using loadbalancers or node ports, you can use additional customization properties in addition to labels and annotations. The properties for external services are described in the following table and affect how a Service is created.

Field Description

externalTrafficPolicy

Specifies whether the service routes external traffic to node-local or cluster-wide endpoints. Cluster may cause a second hop to another node and obscures the client source IP. Local avoids a second hop for LoadBalancer and Nodeport type services and preserves the client source IP (when supported by the infrastructure). If unspecified, Kubernetes will use Cluster as the default.

loadBalancerSourceRanges

A list of CIDR ranges (for example 10.0.0.0/8 or 130.211.204.1/32) from which clients can connect to load balancer type listeners. If supported by the platform, traffic through the loadbalancer is restricted to the specified CIDR ranges. This field is applicable only for loadbalancer type services, and is ignored if the cloud provider does not support the feature.

For more information, see https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/configure-cloud-provider-firewall/.

These properties are available for externalBootstrapService and perPodService. The following example shows these customized properties for a template:

# ...
template:
  externalBootstrapService:
    externalTrafficPolicy: Local
    loadBalancerSourceRanges:
      - 10.0.0.0/8
      - 88.208.76.87/32
  perPodService:
    externalTrafficPolicy: Local
    loadBalancerSourceRanges:
      - 10.0.0.0/8
      - 88.208.76.87/32
# ...
Additional resources

3.7.6. Customizing the image pull policy

Strimzi allows you to customize the image pull policy for containers in all pods deployed by the Cluster Operator. The image pull policy is configured using the environment variable STRIMZI_IMAGE_PULL_POLICY in the Cluster Operator deployment. The STRIMZI_IMAGE_PULL_POLICY environment variable can be set to three different values:

Always

Container images are pulled from the registry every time the pod is started or restarted.

IfNotPresent

Container images are pulled from the registry only when they were not pulled before.

Never

Container images are never pulled from the registry.

The image pull policy can be currently customized only for all Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker clusters at once. Changing the policy will result in a rolling update of all your Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker clusters.

Additional resources

  • For more information about Cluster Operator configuration, see Cluster Operator.

  • For more information about Image Pull Policies, see Disruptions.

3.7.7. Customizing Pod Disruption Budgets

Strimzi creates a pod disruption budget for every new StatefulSet or Deployment. By default, these pod disruption budgets only allow a single pod to be unavailable at a given time by setting the maxUnavailable value in the`PodDisruptionBudget.spec` resource to 1. You can change the amount of unavailable pods allowed by changing the default value of maxUnavailable in the pod disruption budget template. This template applies to each type of cluster (Kafka and ZooKeeper; Kafka Connect and Kafka Connect with S2I support; and Kafka Mirror Maker).

The following example shows customized podDisruptionBudget fields on a template property:

# ...
template:
    podDisruptionBudget:
        metadata:
            labels:
                key1: label1
                key2: label2
            annotations:
                key1: label1
                key2: label2
        maxUnavailable: 1
# ...
Additional resources

3.7.8. Customizing deployments

This procedure describes how to customize Labels of a Kafka cluster.

Prerequisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster.

  • A running Cluster Operator.

Procedure

  1. Edit the template property in the Kafka, KafkaConnect, KafkaConnectS2I, or KafkaMirrorMaker resource. For example, to modify the labels for the Kafka broker StatefulSet, use:

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
  labels:
    app: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    template:
      statefulset:
        metadata:
          labels:
            mylabel: myvalue
    # ...

  2. Create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

    Alternatively, use kubectl edit:

    kubectl edit Resource ClusterName

3.8. External logging

When setting the logging levels for a resource, you can specify them inline directly in the spec.logging property of the resource YAML:

spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: inline
    loggers:
      kafka.root.logger: "INFO"

Or you can specify external logging:

spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: external
    name: customConfigMap

With external logging, logging properties are defined in a ConfigMap. The name of the ConfigMap is referenced in the spec.logging.name property.

The advantages of using a ConfigMap are that the logging properties are maintained in one place and are accessible to more than one resource.

3.8.1. Creating a ConfigMap for logging

To use a ConfigMap to define logging properties, you create the ConfigMap and then reference it as part of the logging definition in the spec of a resource.

The ConfigMap must contain the appropriate logging configuration.

  • log4j.properties for Kafka components, ZooKeeper, and the Kafka Bridge

  • log4j2.properties for the Topic Operator and User Operator

The configuration must be placed under these properties.

Here we demonstrate how a ConfigMap defines a root logger for a Kafka resource.

Procedure

  1. Create the ConfigMap.

    You can create the ConfigMap as a YAML file or from a properties file using kubectl at the command line.

    ConfigMap example with a root logger definition for Kafka:

    kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: logging-configmap
data:
  log4j.properties:
    kafka.root.logger="INFO"

    From the command line, using a properties file:

    kubectl create configmap logging-configmap --from-file=log4j.properties

    The properties file defines the logging configuration:

    # Define the root logger
kafka.root.logger="INFO"
# ...

  2. Define external logging in the spec of the resource, setting the logging.name to the name of the ConfigMap.

    spec:
  # ...
  logging:
    type: external
    name: logging-configmap

  3. Create or update the resource.

    kubectl apply -f kafka.yaml

4. Operators

4.1. Cluster Operator

Use the Cluster Operator to deploy a Kafka cluster and other Kafka components.

For information on the deployment options available for Kafka, see Kafka cluster configuration.

Note
 On OpenShift, a Kafka Connect deployment can incorporate a Source2Image feature to provide a convenient way to add additional connectors.

4.1.1. Cluster Operator

Strimzi uses the Cluster Operator to deploy and manage clusters for:

  • Kafka (including ZooKeeper, Entity Operator and Kafka Exporter)

  • Kafka Connect

  • Kafka Mirror Maker

  • Kafka Bridge

Custom resources are used to deploy the clusters.

For example, to deploy a Kafka cluster:

  • A Kafka resource with the cluster configuration is created within the Kubernetes cluster.

  • The Cluster Operator deploys a corresponding Kafka cluster, based on what is declared in the Kafka resource.

The Cluster Operator can also deploy (through configuration of the Kafka resource):

  • A Topic Operator to provide operator-style topic management through KafkaTopic custom resources

  • A User Operator to provide operator-style user management through KafkaUser custom resources

The Topic Operator and User Operator function within the Entity Operator on deployment.

Example architecture for the Cluster Operator

Cluster Operator

4.1.2. Watch options for a Cluster Operator deployment

When the Cluster Operator is running, it starts to watch for updates of Kafka resources.

Depending on the deployment, the Cluster Operator can watch Kafka resources from:

Note
 Strimzi provides example YAML files to make the deployment process easier.

The Cluster Operator watches for changes to the following resources:

  • Kafka for the Kafka cluster.

  • KafkaConnect for the Kafka Connect cluster.

  • KafkaConnectS2I for the Kafka Connect cluster with Source2Image support.

  • KafkaConnector for creating and managing connectors in a Kafka Connect cluster.

  • KafkaMirrorMaker for the Kafka Mirror Maker instance.

  • KafkaBridge for the Kafka Bridge instance

When one of these resources is created in the Kubernetes cluster, the operator gets the cluster description from the resource and starts creating a new cluster for the resource by creating the necessary Kubernetes resources, such as StatefulSets, Services and ConfigMaps.

Each time a Kafka resource is updated, the operator performs corresponding updates on the Kubernetes resources that make up the cluster for the resource.

Resources are either patched or deleted, and then recreated in order to make the cluster for the resource reflect the desired state of the cluster. This operation might cause a rolling update that might lead to service disruption.

When a resource is deleted, the operator undeploys the cluster and deletes all related Kubernetes resources.

4.1.3. Deploying the Cluster Operator to watch a single namespace

Prerequisites

  • This procedure requires use of a Kubernetes user account which is able to create CustomResourceDefinitions, ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings. Use of Role Base Access Control (RBAC) in the Kubernetes cluster usually means that permission to create, edit, and delete these resources is limited to Kubernetes cluster administrators, such as system:admin.

  • Modify the installation files according to the namespace the Cluster Operator is going to be installed in.

    On Linux, use:

    sed -i 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml

    On MacOS, use:

    sed -i '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml
Procedure

  • Deploy the Cluster Operator:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator -n my-namespace

4.1.4. Deploying the Cluster Operator to watch multiple namespaces

Prerequisites

  • This procedure requires use of a Kubernetes user account which is able to create CustomResourceDefinitions, ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings. Use of Role Base Access Control (RBAC) in the Kubernetes cluster usually means that permission to create, edit, and delete these resources is limited to Kubernetes cluster administrators, such as system:admin.

  • Edit the installation files according to the namespace the Cluster Operator is going to be installed in.

    On Linux, use:

    sed -i 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml

    On MacOS, use:

    sed -i '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' install/cluster-operator/*RoleBinding*.yaml
Procedure

  1. Edit the file install/cluster-operator/050-Deployment-strimzi-cluster-operator.yaml and in the environment variable STRIMZI_NAMESPACE list all the namespaces where Cluster Operator should watch for resources. For example:

    apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
spec:
  # ...
  template:
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: strimzi-cluster-operator
      containers:
      - name: strimzi-cluster-operator
        image: strimzi/operator:0.16.2
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        env:
        - name: STRIMZI_NAMESPACE
          value: watched-namespace-1,watched-namespace-2,watched-namespace-3

  2. For all namespaces which should be watched by the Cluster Operator (watched-namespace-1, watched-namespace-2, watched-namespace-3 in the above example), install the RoleBindings. Replace the watched-namespace with the namespace used in the previous step.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator/020-RoleBinding-strimzi-cluster-operator.yaml -n watched-namespace
kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator/031-RoleBinding-strimzi-cluster-operator-entity-operator-delegation.yaml -n watched-namespace
kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator/032-RoleBinding-strimzi-cluster-operator-topic-operator-delegation.yaml -n watched-namespace

  3. Deploy the Cluster Operator

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator -n my-namespace

4.1.5. Deploying the Cluster Operator to watch all namespaces

You can configure the Cluster Operator to watch Strimzi resources across all namespaces in your Kubernetes cluster. When running in this mode, the Cluster Operator automatically manages clusters in any new namespaces that are created.

Prerequisites

  • This procedure requires use of a Kubernetes user account which is able to create CustomResourceDefinitions, ClusterRoles and ClusterRoleBindings. Use of Role Base Access Control (RBAC) in the Kubernetes cluster usually means that permission to create, edit, and delete these resources is limited to Kubernetes cluster administrators, such as system:admin.

  • Your Kubernetes cluster is running.

Procedure

  1. Configure the Cluster Operator to watch all namespaces:

    1. Edit the 050-Deployment-strimzi-cluster-operator.yaml file.

    2. Set the value of the STRIMZI_NAMESPACE environment variable to *.

      apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
spec:
  # ...
  template:
    spec:
      # ...
      serviceAccountName: strimzi-cluster-operator
      containers:
      - name: strimzi-cluster-operator
        image: strimzi/operator:0.16.2
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        env:
        - name: STRIMZI_NAMESPACE
          value: "*"
        # ...

  2. Create ClusterRoleBindings that grant cluster-wide access to all namespaces to the Cluster Operator.

    Use the kubectl create clusterrolebinding command:

    kubectl create clusterrolebinding strimzi-cluster-operator-namespaced --clusterrole=strimzi-cluster-operator-namespaced --serviceaccount my-namespace:strimzi-cluster-operator
kubectl create clusterrolebinding strimzi-cluster-operator-entity-operator-delegation --clusterrole=strimzi-entity-operator --serviceaccount my-namespace:strimzi-cluster-operator
kubectl create clusterrolebinding strimzi-cluster-operator-topic-operator-delegation --clusterrole=strimzi-topic-operator --serviceaccount my-namespace:strimzi-cluster-operator

    Replace my-namespace with the namespace in which you want to install the Cluster Operator.

  3. Deploy the Cluster Operator to your Kubernetes cluster.

    Use the kubectl apply command:

    kubectl apply -f install/cluster-operator -n my-namespace

4.1.6. Deploying the Cluster Operator using Helm Chart

Prerequisites

  • Helm client has to be installed on the local machine.

  • Helm has to be installed in the Kubernetes cluster.

Procedure

  1. Add the Strimzi Helm Chart repository:

    helm repo add strimzi https://strimzi.io/charts/

  2. Deploy the Cluster Operator using the Helm command line tool:

    helm install strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator

  3. Verify whether the Cluster Operator has been deployed successfully using the Helm command line tool:

    helm ls
Additional resources

4.1.7. Deploying the Cluster Operator from OperatorHub.io

OperatorHub.io is a catalog of Kubernetes Operators sourced from multiple providers. It offers you an alternative way to install stable versions of Strimzi using the Strimzi Kafka Operator.

The Operator Lifecycle Manager is used for the installation and management of all Operators published on OperatorHub.io.

To install Strimzi from OperatorHub.io, locate the Strimzi Kafka Operator and follow the instructions provided.

4.1.8. Reconciliation

Although the operator reacts to all notifications about the desired cluster resources received from the Kubernetes cluster, if the operator is not running, or if a notification is not received for any reason, the desired resources will get out of sync with the state of the running Kubernetes cluster.

In order to handle failovers properly, a periodic reconciliation process is executed by the Cluster Operator so that it can compare the state of the desired resources with the current cluster deployments in order to have a consistent state across all of them. You can set the time interval for the periodic reconciliations using the STRIMZI_FULL_RECONCILIATION_INTERVAL_MS variable.

4.1.9. Cluster Operator Configuration

The Cluster Operator can be configured through the following supported environment variables:

STRIMZI_NAMESPACE

A comma-separated list of namespaces that the operator should operate in. When not set, set to empty string, or to * the Cluster Operator will operate in all namespaces. The Cluster Operator deployment might use the Kubernetes Downward API to set this automatically to the namespace the Cluster Operator is deployed in. See the example below:

env:
  - name: STRIMZI_NAMESPACE
    valueFrom:
      fieldRef:
        fieldPath: metadata.namespace
STRIMZI_FULL_RECONCILIATION_INTERVAL_MS

Optional, default is 120000 ms. The interval between periodic reconciliations, in milliseconds.

STRIMZI_LOG_LEVEL

Optional, default INFO. The level for printing logging messages. The value can be set to: ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG, and TRACE.

STRIMZI_OPERATION_TIMEOUT_MS

Optional, default 300000 ms. The timeout for internal operations, in milliseconds. This value should be increased when using Strimzi on clusters where regular Kubernetes operations take longer than usual (because of slow downloading of Docker images, for example).

STRIMZI_KAFKA_IMAGES

Required. This provides a mapping from Kafka version to the corresponding Docker image containing a Kafka broker of that version. The required syntax is whitespace or comma separated <version>=<image> pairs. For example 2.3.1=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.3.1, 2.4.0=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0. This is used when a Kafka.spec.kafka.version property is specified but not the Kafka.spec.kafka.image, as described in Container images.

STRIMZI_DEFAULT_KAFKA_INIT_IMAGE

Optional, default strimzi/operator:0.16.2. The image name to use as default for the init container started before the broker for initial configuration work (that is, rack support), if no image is specified as the kafka-init-image in the Container images.

STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_KAFKA_IMAGE

Optional, default strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0. The image name to use as the default when deploying the sidecar container which provides TLS support for Kafka, if no image is specified as the Kafka.spec.kafka.tlsSidecar.image in the Container images.

STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ZOOKEEPER_IMAGE

Optional, default strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0. The image name to use as the default when deploying the sidecar container which provides TLS support for ZooKeeper, if no image is specified as the Kafka.spec.zookeeper.tlsSidecar.image in the Container images.

STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_IMAGES

Required. This provides a mapping from the Kafka version to the corresponding Docker image containing a Kafka connect of that version. The required syntax is whitespace or comma separated <version>=<image> pairs. For example 2.3.1=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.3.1, 2.4.0=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0. This is used when a KafkaConnect.spec.version property is specified but not the KafkaConnect.spec.image, as described in Container images.

STRIMZI_KAFKA_CONNECT_S2I_IMAGES

Required. This provides a mapping from the Kafka version to the corresponding Docker image containing a Kafka connect of that version. The required syntax is whitespace or comma separated <version>=<image> pairs. For example 2.3.1=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.3.1, 2.4.0=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0. This is used when a KafkaConnectS2I.spec.version property is specified but not the KafkaConnectS2I.spec.image, as described in Container images.

STRIMZI_KAFKA_MIRROR_MAKER_IMAGES

Required. This provides a mapping from the Kafka version to the corresponding Docker image containing a Kafka mirror maker of that version. The required syntax is whitespace or comma separated <version>=<image> pairs. For example 2.3.1=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.3.1, 2.4.0=strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0. This is used when a KafkaMirrorMaker.spec.version property is specified but not the KafkaMirrorMaker.spec.image, as described in Container images.

STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TOPIC_OPERATOR_IMAGE

Optional, default strimzi/operator:0.16.2. The image name to use as the default when deploying the topic operator, if no image is specified as the Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator.image in the Container images of the Kafka resource.

STRIMZI_DEFAULT_USER_OPERATOR_IMAGE

Optional, default strimzi/operator:0.16.2. The image name to use as the default when deploying the user operator, if no image is specified as the Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator.image in the Container images of the Kafka resource.

STRIMZI_DEFAULT_TLS_SIDECAR_ENTITY_OPERATOR_IMAGE

Optional, default strimzi/kafka:0.16.2-kafka-2.4.0. The image name to use as the default when deploying the sidecar container which provides TLS support for the Entity Operator, if no image is specified as the Kafka.spec.entityOperator.tlsSidecar.image in the Container images.

STRIMZI_IMAGE_PULL_POLICY

Optional. The ImagePullPolicy which will be applied to containers in all pods managed by Strimzi Cluster Operator. The valid values are Always, IfNotPresent, and Never. If not specified, the Kubernetes defaults will be used. Changing the policy will result in a rolling update of all your Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker clusters.

STRIMZI_IMAGE_PULL_SECRETS

Optional. A comma-separated list of Secret names. The secrets referenced here contain the credentials to the container registries where the container images are pulled from. The secrets are used in the imagePullSecrets field for all Pods created by the Cluster Operator. Changing this list results in a rolling update of all your Kafka, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Mirror Maker clusters.

STRIMZI_KUBERNETES_VERSION

Optional. Overrides the Kubernetes version information detected from the API server. See the example below:

env:
  - name: STRIMZI_KUBERNETES_VERSION
    value: |
           major=1
           minor=16
           gitVersion=v1.16.2
           gitCommit=c97fe5036ef3df2967d086711e6c0c405941e14b
           gitTreeState=clean
           buildDate=2019-10-15T19:09:08Z
           goVersion=go1.12.10
           compiler=gc
           platform=linux/amd64

4.1.10. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Provisioning Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for the Cluster Operator

For the Cluster Operator to function it needs permission within the Kubernetes cluster to interact with resources such as Kafka, KafkaConnect, and so on, as well as the managed resources, such as ConfigMaps, Pods, Deployments, StatefulSets, Services, and so on. Such permission is described in terms of Kubernetes role-based access control (RBAC) resources:

  • ServiceAccount,

  • Role and ClusterRole,

  • RoleBinding and ClusterRoleBinding.

In addition to running under its own ServiceAccount with a ClusterRoleBinding, the Cluster Operator manages some RBAC resources for the components that need access to Kubernetes resources.

Kubernetes also includes privilege escalation protections that prevent components operating under one ServiceAccount from granting other ServiceAccounts privileges that the granting ServiceAccount does not have. Because the Cluster Operator must be able to create the ClusterRoleBindings, and RoleBindings needed by resources it manages, the Cluster Operator must also have those same privileges.

Delegated privileges

When the Cluster Operator deploys resources for a desired Kafka resource it also creates ServiceAccounts, RoleBindings, and ClusterRoleBindings, as follows:

  • The Kafka broker pods use a ServiceAccount called cluster-name-kafka

    • When the rack feature is used, the strimzi-cluster-name-kafka-init ClusterRoleBinding is used to grant this ServiceAccount access to the nodes within the cluster via a ClusterRole called strimzi-kafka-broker

    • When the rack feature is not used no binding is created

  • The ZooKeeper pods use a ServiceAccount called cluster-name-zookeeper

  • The Entity Operator pod uses a ServiceAccount called cluster-name-entity-operator

    • The Topic Operator produces Kubernetes events with status information, so the ServiceAccount is bound to a ClusterRole called strimzi-entity-operator which grants this access via the strimzi-entity-operator RoleBinding

  • The pods for KafkaConnect and KafkaConnectS2I resources use a ServiceAccount called cluster-name-cluster-connect

  • The pods for KafkaMirrorMaker use a ServiceAccount called cluster-name-mirror-maker

  • The pods for KafkaBridge use a ServiceAccount called cluster-name-bridge

ServiceAccount

The Cluster Operator is best run using a ServiceAccount:

Example ServiceAccount for the Cluster Operator
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  labels:
    app: strimzi

The Deployment of the operator then needs to specify this in its spec.template.spec.serviceAccountName:

Partial example of Deployment for the Cluster Operator
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  labels:
    app: strimzi
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      name: strimzi-cluster-operator
      strimzi.io/kind: cluster-operator
  template:
      # ...

Note line 12, where the the strimzi-cluster-operator ServiceAccount is specified as the serviceAccountName.

ClusterRoles

The Cluster Operator needs to operate using ClusterRoles that gives access to the necessary resources. Depending on the Kubernetes cluster setup, a cluster administrator might be needed to create the ClusterRoles.

Note
 Cluster administrator rights are only needed for the creation of the ClusterRoles. The Cluster Operator will not run under the cluster admin account.

The ClusterRoles follow the principle of least privilege and contain only those privileges needed by the Cluster Operator to operate Kafka, Kafka Connect, and ZooKeeper clusters. The first set of assigned privileges allow the Cluster Operator to manage Kubernetes resources such as StatefulSets, Deployments, Pods, and ConfigMaps.

Cluster Operator uses ClusterRoles to grant permission at the namespace-scoped resources level and cluster-scoped resources level:

ClusterRole with namespaced resources for the Cluster Operator
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator-namespaced
  labels:
    app: strimzi
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - serviceaccounts
  verbs:
  - get
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  resources:
  - rolebindings
  verbs:
  - get
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - configmaps
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - kafka.strimzi.io
  resources:
  - kafkas
  - kafkas/status
  - kafkaconnects
  - kafkaconnects/status
  - kafkaconnects2is
  - kafkaconnects2is/status
  - kafkaconnectors
  - kafkaconnectors/status
  - kafkamirrormakers
  - kafkamirrormakers/status
  - kafkabridges
  - kafkabridges/status
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - pods
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - delete
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - services
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - endpoints
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  resources:
  - deployments
  - deployments/scale
  - replicasets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - apps
  resources:
  - deployments
  - deployments/scale
  - deployments/status
  - statefulsets
  - replicasets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - events
  verbs:
  - create
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  resources:
  - replicationcontrollers
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - apps.openshift.io
  resources:
  - deploymentconfigs
  - deploymentconfigs/scale
  - deploymentconfigs/status
  - deploymentconfigs/finalizers
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - build.openshift.io
  resources:
  - buildconfigs
  - builds
  verbs:
  - create
  - delete
  - get
  - list
  - patch
  - watch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - image.openshift.io
  resources:
  - imagestreams
  - imagestreams/status
  verbs:
  - create
  - delete
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - replicationcontrollers
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - secrets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  resources:
  - networkpolicies
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - networking.k8s.io
  resources:
  - networkpolicies
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - route.openshift.io
  resources:
  - routes
  - routes/custom-host
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - persistentvolumeclaims
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - policy
  resources:
  - poddisruptionbudgets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  resources:
  - ingresses
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update

The second includes the permissions needed for cluster-scoped resources.

ClusterRole with cluster-scoped resources for the Cluster Operator
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator-global
  labels:
    app: strimzi
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  resources:
  - clusterrolebindings
  verbs:
  - get
  - create
  - delete
  - patch
  - update
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - storage.k8s.io
  resources:
  - storageclasses
  verbs:
  - get
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - nodes
  verbs:
  - list

The strimzi-kafka-broker ClusterRole represents the access needed by the init container in Kafka pods that is used for the rack feature. As described in the Delegated privileges section, this role is also needed by the Cluster Operator in order to be able to delegate this access.

ClusterRole for the Cluster Operator allowing it to delegate access to Kubernetes nodes to the Kafka broker pods
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: strimzi-kafka-broker
  labels:
    app: strimzi
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - nodes
  verbs:
  - get

The strimzi-topic-operator ClusterRole represents the access needed by the Topic Operator. As described in the Delegated privileges section, this role is also needed by the Cluster Operator in order to be able to delegate this access.

ClusterRole for the Cluster Operator allowing it to delegate access to events to the Topic Operator
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: strimzi-entity-operator
  labels:
    app: strimzi
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - kafka.strimzi.io
  resources:
  - kafkatopics
  - kafkatopics/status
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - patch
  - update
  - delete
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - events
  verbs:
  - create
- apiGroups:
  - kafka.strimzi.io
  resources:
  - kafkausers
  - kafkausers/status
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
  - create
  - patch
  - update
  - delete
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - secrets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - patch
  - update
  - delete
ClusterRoleBindings

The operator needs ClusterRoleBindings and RoleBindings which associates its ClusterRole with its ServiceAccount: ClusterRoleBindings are needed for ClusterRoles containing cluster-scoped resources.

Example ClusterRoleBinding for the Cluster Operator
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  labels:
    app: strimzi
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  namespace: myproject
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator-global
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

ClusterRoleBindings are also needed for the ClusterRoles needed for delegation:

Examples RoleBinding for the Cluster Operator
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator-kafka-broker-delegation
  labels:
    app: strimzi
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  namespace: myproject
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: strimzi-kafka-broker
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

ClusterRoles containing only namespaced resources are bound using RoleBindings only.

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  labels:
    app: strimzi
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  namespace: myproject
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator-namespaced
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator-entity-operator-delegation
  labels:
    app: strimzi
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: strimzi-cluster-operator
  namespace: myproject
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: strimzi-entity-operator
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

4.2. Topic Operator

4.2.1. Topic Operator

The Topic Operator provides a way of managing topics in a Kafka cluster through Kubernetes resources.

Example architecture for the Topic Operator

Topic Operator

The role of the Topic Operator is to keep a set of KafkaTopic Kubernetes resources describing Kafka topics in-sync with corresponding Kafka topics.

Specifically, if a KafkaTopic is:

  • Created, the Operator creates the topic

  • Deleted, the Operator deletes the topic

  • Changed, the Operator updates the topic

Working in the other direction, if a topic is:

  • Created within the Kafka cluster, the Operator creates a KafkaTopic

  • Deleted from the Kafka cluster, the Operator deletes the KafkaTopic

  • Changed in the Kafka cluster, the Operator updates the KafkaTopic

This allows you to declare a KafkaTopic as part of your application’s deployment and the Topic Operator will take care of creating the topic for you. Your application just needs to deal with producing or consuming from the necessary topics.

If the topic is reconfigured or reassigned to different Kafka nodes, the KafkaTopic will always be up to date.

4.2.2. Identifying a Kafka cluster for topic handling

A KafkaTopic resource includes a label that defines the appropriate name of the Kafka cluster (derived from the name of the Kafka resource) to which it belongs.

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaTopic
metadata:
  name: my-topic
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster

The label is used by the Topic Operator to identify the KafkaTopic resource and create a new topic, and also in subsequent handling of the topic.

If the label does not match the Kafka cluster, the Topic Operator cannot identify the KafkaTopic and the topic is not created.

4.2.3. Understanding the Topic Operator

A fundamental problem that the operator has to solve is that there is no single source of truth: Both the KafkaTopic resource and the topic within Kafka can be modified independently of the operator. Complicating this, the Topic Operator might not always be able to observe changes at each end in real time (for example, the operator might be down).

To resolve this, the operator maintains its own private copy of the information about each topic. When a change happens either in the Kafka cluster, or in Kubernetes, it looks at both the state of the other system and at its private copy in order to determine what needs to change to keep everything in sync. The same thing happens whenever the operator starts, and periodically while it is running.

For example, suppose the Topic Operator is not running, and a KafkaTopic my-topic gets created. When the operator starts it will lack a private copy of "my-topic", so it can infer that the KafkaTopic has been created since it was last running. The operator will create the topic corresponding to "my-topic" and also store a private copy of the metadata for "my-topic".

The private copy allows the operator to cope with scenarios where the topic configuration gets changed both in Kafka and in Kubernetes, so long as the changes are not incompatible (for example, both changing the same topic config key, but to different values). In the case of incompatible changes, the Kafka configuration wins, and the KafkaTopic will be updated to reflect that.

The private copy is held in the same ZooKeeper ensemble used by Kafka itself. This mitigates availability concerns, because if ZooKeeper is not running then Kafka itself cannot run, so the operator will be no less available than it would even if it was stateless.

4.2.4. Deploying the Topic Operator using the Cluster Operator

This procedure describes how to deploy the Topic Operator using the Cluster Operator. If you want to use the Topic Operator with a Kafka cluster that is not managed by Strimzi, you must deploy the Topic Operator as a standalone component. For more information, see Deploying the standalone Topic Operator.

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka resource to be created or updated

Procedure

  1. Ensure that the Kafka.spec.entityOperator object exists in the Kafka resource. This configures the Entity Operator.

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  #...
  entityOperator:
    topicOperator: {}
    userOperator: {}

  2. Configure the Topic Operator using the fields described in EntityTopicOperatorSpec schema reference.

  3. Create or update the Kafka resource in Kubernetes.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

  • For more information about deploying the Cluster Operator, see Cluster Operator.

  • For more information about deploying the Entity Operator, see Entity Operator.

  • For more information about the Kafka.spec.entityOperator object used to configure the Topic Operator when deployed by the Cluster Operator, see EntityOperatorSpec schema reference.

4.2.5. Configuring the Topic Operator with resource requests and limits

You can allocate resources, such as CPU and memory, to the Topic Operator and set a limit on the amount of resources it can consume.

Prerequisites

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Update the Kafka cluster configuration in an editor, as required:

    Use kubectl edit:

    kubectl edit kafka my-cluster

  2. In the spec.entityOperator.topicOperator.resources property in the Kafka resource, set the resource requests and limits for the Topic Operator.

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  # kafka and zookeeper sections...
  entityOperator:
    topicOperator:
      resources:
        request:
          cpu: "1"
          memory: 500Mi
        limit:
          cpu: "1"
          memory: 500Mi

  3. Apply the new configuration to create or update the resource.

    Use kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f kafka.yaml
Additional resources

4.2.6. Deploying the standalone Topic Operator

Deploying the Topic Operator as a standalone component is more complicated than installing it using the Cluster Operator, but it is more flexible. For instance, it can operate with any Kafka cluster, not necessarily one deployed by the Cluster Operator.

Prerequisites

  • An existing Kafka cluster for the Topic Operator to connect to.

Procedure

  1. Edit the install/topic-operator/05-Deployment-strimzi-topic-operator.yaml resource. You will need to change the following

    1. The STRIMZI_KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS environment variable in Deployment.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env should be set to a list of bootstrap brokers in your Kafka cluster, given as a comma-separated list of hostname:‍port pairs.

    2. The STRIMZI_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT environment variable in Deployment.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env should be set to a list of the ZooKeeper nodes, given as a comma-separated list of hostname:‍port pairs. This should be the same ZooKeeper cluster that your Kafka cluster is using.

    3. The STRIMZI_NAMESPACE environment variable in Deployment.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env should be set to the Kubernetes namespace in which you want the operator to watch for KafkaTopic resources.

  2. Deploy the Topic Operator.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f install/topic-operator

  3. Verify that the Topic Operator has been deployed successfully. This can be done using kubectl describe:

    kubectl describe deployment strimzi-topic-operator

    The Topic Operator is deployed once the Replicas: entry shows 1 available.

    Note
    		 This could take some time if you have a slow connection to the Kubernetes and the images have not been downloaded before.
Additional resources

4.2.7. Topic Operator environment

When deployed standalone the Topic Operator can be configured using environment variables.

Note
 The Topic Operator should be configured using the Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator property when deployed by the Cluster Operator.
STRIMZI_RESOURCE_LABELS

The label selector used to identify KafkaTopics to be managed by the operator.

STRIMZI_ZOOKEEPER_SESSION_TIMEOUT_MS

The ZooKeeper session timeout, in milliseconds. For example, 10000. Default 20000 (20 seconds).

STRIMZI_KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS

The list of Kafka bootstrap servers. This variable is mandatory.

STRIMZI_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT

The ZooKeeper connection information. This variable is mandatory.

STRIMZI_FULL_RECONCILIATION_INTERVAL_MS

The interval between periodic reconciliations, in milliseconds.

STRIMZI_TOPIC_METADATA_MAX_ATTEMPTS

The number of attempts at getting topic metadata from Kafka. The time between each attempt is defined as an exponential back-off. Consider increasing this value when topic creation could take more time due to the number of partitions or replicas. Default 6.

STRIMZI_LOG_LEVEL

The level for printing logging messages. The value can be set to: ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG, and TRACE. Default INFO.

STRIMZI_TLS_ENABLED

For enabling the TLS support so encrypting the communication with Kafka brokers. Default true.

STRIMZI_TRUSTSTORE_LOCATION

The path to the truststore containing certificates for enabling TLS based communication. This variable is mandatory only if TLS is enabled through STRIMZI_TLS_ENABLED.

STRIMZI_TRUSTSTORE_PASSWORD

The password for accessing the truststore defined by STRIMZI_TRUSTSTORE_LOCATION. This variable is mandatory only if TLS is enabled through STRIMZI_TLS_ENABLED.

STRIMZI_KEYSTORE_LOCATION

The path to the keystore containing private keys for enabling TLS based communication. This variable is mandatory only if TLS is enabled through STRIMZI_TLS_ENABLED.

STRIMZI_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD

The password for accessing the keystore defined by STRIMZI_KEYSTORE_LOCATION. This variable is mandatory only if TLS is enabled through STRIMZI_TLS_ENABLED.

4.3. User Operator

The User Operator manages Kafka users through custom resources.

4.3.1. User Operator

The User Operator manages Kafka users for a Kafka cluster by watching for KafkaUser resources that describe Kafka users and ensuring that they are configured properly in the Kafka cluster. For example:

  • if a KafkaUser is created, the User Operator will create the user it describes

  • if a KafkaUser is deleted, the User Operator will delete the user it describes

  • if a KafkaUser is changed, the User Operator will update the user it describes

Unlike the Topic Operator, the User Operator does not sync any changes from the Kafka cluster with the Kubernetes resources. Unlike the Kafka topics which might be created by applications directly in Kafka, it is not expected that the users will be managed directly in the Kafka cluster in parallel with the User Operator.

The User Operator allows you to declare a KafkaUser as part of your application’s deployment. When the user is created, the user credentials are created in a Secret. Your application needs to use the user and its credentials for authentication and to produce or consume messages.

In addition to managing credentials for authentication, the User Operator also manages authorization rules by including a description of the user’s rights in the KafkaUser declaration.

4.3.2. Identifying a Kafka cluster for user handling

A KafkaUser resource includes a label that defines the appropriate name of the Kafka cluster (derived from the name of the Kafka resource) to which it belongs.

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaUser
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster

The label is used by the User Operator to identify the KafkaUser resource and create a new user, and also in subsequent handling of the user.

If the label does not match the Kafka cluster, the User Operator cannot identify the kafkaUser and the user is not created.

4.3.3. Deploying the User Operator using the Cluster Operator

Prerequisites

  • A running Cluster Operator

  • A Kafka resource to be created or updated.

Procedure

  1. Edit the Kafka resource ensuring it has a Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator object that configures the User Operator how you want.

  2. Create or update the Kafka resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

  • For more information about deploying the Cluster Operator, see Cluster Operator.

  • For more information about the Kafka.spec.entityOperator object used to configure the User Operator when deployed by the Cluster Operator, see EntityOperatorSpec schema reference.

4.3.4. Configuring the User Operator with resource requests and limits

You can allocate resources, such as CPU and memory, to the User Operator and set a limit on the amount of resources it can consume.

Prerequisites

  • The Cluster Operator is running.

Procedure

  1. Update the Kafka cluster configuration in an editor, as required:

    kubectl edit kafka my-cluster

  2. In the spec.entityOperator.userOperator.resources property in the Kafka resource, set the resource requests and limits for the User Operator.

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: Kafka
spec:
  # kafka and zookeeper sections...
  entityOperator:
    userOperator:
      resources:
        request:
          cpu: "1"
          memory: 500Mi
        limit:
          cpu: "1"
          memory: 500Mi

    Save the file and exit the editor. The Cluster Operator will apply the changes automatically.

Additional resources

4.3.5. Deploying the standalone User Operator

Deploying the User Operator as a standalone component is more complicated than installing it using the Cluster Operator, but it is more flexible. For instance, it can operate with any Kafka cluster, not only the one deployed by the Cluster Operator.

Prerequisites

  • An existing Kafka cluster for the User Operator to connect to.

Procedure

  1. Edit the install/user-operator/05-Deployment-strimzi-user-operator.yaml resource. You will need to change the following

    1. The STRIMZI_CA_CERT_NAME environment variable in Deployment.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env should be set to point to a Kubernetes Secret which should contain the public key of the Certificate Authority for signing new user certificates for TLS Client Authentication. The Secret should contain the public key of the Certificate Authority under the key ca.crt.

    2. The STRIMZI_CA_KEY_NAME environment variable in Deployment.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env should be set to point to a Kubernetes Secret which should contain the private key of the Certificate Authority for signing new user certificates for TLS Client Authentication. The Secret should contain the private key of the Certificate Authority under the key ca.key.

    3. The STRIMZI_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT environment variable in Deployment.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env should be set to a list of the ZooKeeper nodes, given as a comma-separated list of hostname:‍port pairs. This should be the same ZooKeeper cluster that your Kafka cluster is using.

    4. The STRIMZI_NAMESPACE environment variable in Deployment.spec.template.spec.containers[0].env should be set to the Kubernetes namespace in which you want the operator to watch for KafkaUser resources.

  2. Deploy the User Operator.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f install/user-operator

  3. Verify that the User Operator has been deployed successfully. This can be done using kubectl describe:

    kubectl describe deployment strimzi-user-operator

    The User Operator is deployed once the Replicas: entry shows 1 available.

    Note
    		 This could take some time if you have a slow connection to the Kubernetes and the images have not been downloaded before.
Additional resources

5. Using the Topic Operator

5.1. Topic Operator usage recommendations

When working with topics, be consistent and always operate on either KafkaTopic resources or topics directly. Avoid routinely switching between both methods for a given topic.

Use topic names that reflect the nature of the topic, and remember that names cannot be changed later.

If creating a topic in Kafka, use a name that is a valid Kubernetes resource name, otherwise the Topic Operator will need to create the corresponding KafkaTopic with a name that conforms to the Kubernetes rules.

Note
 Recommendations for identifiers and names in Kubernetes are outlined in Identifiers and Names in Kubernetes community article.
Kafka topic naming conventions

Kafka and Kubernetes impose their own validation rules for the naming of topics in Kafka and KafkaTopic.metadata.name respectively. There are valid names for each which are invalid in the other.

Using the spec.topicName property, it is possible to create a valid topic in Kafka with a name that would be invalid for the KafkaTopic in Kubernetes.

The spec.topicName property inherits Kafka naming validation rules:

  • The name must not be longer than 249 characters.

  • Valid characters for Kafka topics are ASCII alphanumerics, ., _, and -.

  • The name cannot be . or .., though . can be used in a name, such as exampleTopic. or .exampleTopic.

spec.topicName must not be changed.

For example:

kind: KafkaTopic
metadata:
  name: topic-name-1
spec:
  topicName: topicName-1 # Upper case is invalid in Kubernetes
  # ...

cannot be changed to

kind: KafkaTopic
metadata:
  name: topic-name-1
spec:
  topicName: name-2
  # ...
Note
 Some Kafka client applications, such as Kafka Streams, can create topics in Kafka programmatically. If those topics have names that are invalid Kubernetes resource names, the Topic Operator gives them valid names based on the Kafka names. Invalid characters are replaced and a hash is appended to the name.

5.2. Creating a topic

This procedure describes how to create a Kafka topic using a KafkaTopic Kubernetes resource.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Prepare a file containing the KafkaTopic to be created

    An example KafkaTopic
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaTopic
metadata:
  name: orders
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  partitions: 10
  replicas: 2
    Note
    		 It is recommended that the topic name given is a valid Kubernetes resource name, as it is then not necessary to set the KafkaTopic.spec.topicName property. The KafkaTopic.spec.topicName cannot be changed after creation.
    Note
    		 The KafkaTopic.spec.partitions cannot be decreased.

  2. Create the KafkaTopic resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

5.3. Changing a topic

This procedure describes how to change the configuration of an existing Kafka topic by using a KafkaTopic Kubernetes resource.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Prepare a file containing the desired KafkaTopic

    An example KafkaTopic
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaTopic
metadata:
  name: orders
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  partitions: 16
  replicas: 2
    Tip
    		 You can get the current version of the resource using kubectl get kafkatopic orders -o yaml.
    Note
    		 Changing topic names using the KafkaTopic.spec.topicName variable and decreasing partition size using the KafkaTopic.spec.partitions variable is not supported by Kafka.
    Caution
    		 Increasing spec.partitions for topics with keys will change how records are partitioned, which can be particularly problematic when the topic uses semantic partitioning.

  2. Update the KafkaTopic resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

5.4. Deleting a topic

This procedure describes how to delete a Kafka topic using a KafkaTopic Kubernetes resource.

Prerequisites

  • A running Kafka cluster.

  • A running Topic Operator (typically deployed with the Entity Operator).

  • An existing KafkaTopic to be deleted.

  • delete.topic.enable=true (default)

Note
 The delete.topic.enable property must be set to true in Kafka.spec.kafka.config. Otherwise, the steps outlined here will delete the KafkaTopic resource, but the Kafka topic and its data will remain. After reconciliation by the Topic Operator, the custom resource is then recreated.
Procedure

  • Delete the KafkaTopic resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl delete:

    kubectl delete kafkatopic your-topic-name
Additional resources

6. Using the User Operator

The User Operator provides a way of managing Kafka users via Kubernetes resources.

6.1. User Operator

The User Operator manages Kafka users for a Kafka cluster by watching for KafkaUser resources that describe Kafka users and ensuring that they are configured properly in the Kafka cluster. For example:

  • if a KafkaUser is created, the User Operator will create the user it describes

  • if a KafkaUser is deleted, the User Operator will delete the user it describes

  • if a KafkaUser is changed, the User Operator will update the user it describes

Unlike the Topic Operator, the User Operator does not sync any changes from the Kafka cluster with the Kubernetes resources. Unlike the Kafka topics which might be created by applications directly in Kafka, it is not expected that the users will be managed directly in the Kafka cluster in parallel with the User Operator.

The User Operator allows you to declare a KafkaUser as part of your application’s deployment. When the user is created, the user credentials are created in a Secret. Your application needs to use the user and its credentials for authentication and to produce or consume messages.

In addition to managing credentials for authentication, the User Operator also manages authorization rules by including a description of the user’s rights in the KafkaUser declaration.

6.2. Mutual TLS authentication

Mutual TLS authentication is always used for the communication between Kafka brokers and ZooKeeper pods.

Mutual authentication or two-way authentication is when both the server and the client present certificates. Strimzi can configure Kafka to use TLS (Transport Layer Security) to provide encrypted communication between Kafka brokers and clients either with or without mutual authentication. When you configure mutual authentication, the broker authenticates the client and the client authenticates the broker.

Note
 TLS authentication is more commonly one-way, with one party authenticating the identity of another. For example, when HTTPS is used between a web browser and a web server, the server obtains proof of the identity of the browser.

6.2.1. When to use mutual TLS authentication for clients

Mutual TLS authentication is recommended for authenticating Kafka clients when:

  • The client supports authentication using mutual TLS authentication

  • It is necessary to use the TLS certificates rather than passwords

  • You can reconfigure and restart client applications periodically so that they do not use expired certificates.

6.3. Creating a Kafka user with mutual TLS authentication

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Prepare a YAML file containing the KafkaUser to be created.

    An example KafkaUser
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaUser
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  authentication:
    type: tls
  authorization:
    type: simple
    acls:
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Read
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Describe
      - resource:
          type: group
          name: my-group
          patternType: literal
        operation: Read

  2. Create the KafkaUser resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  3. Use the credentials from the secret my-user in your application

Additional resources

6.4. SCRAM-SHA authentication

SCRAM (Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism) is an authentication protocol that can establish mutual authentication using passwords. Strimzi can configure Kafka to use SASL (Simple Authentication and Security Layer) SCRAM-SHA-512 to provide authentication on both unencrypted and TLS-encrypted client connections. TLS authentication is always used internally between Kafka brokers and ZooKeeper nodes. When used with a TLS client connection, the TLS protocol provides encryption, but is not used for authentication.

The following properties of SCRAM make it safe to use SCRAM-SHA even on unencrypted connections:

  • The passwords are not sent in the clear over the communication channel. Instead the client and the server are each challenged by the other to offer proof that they know the password of the authenticating user.

  • The server and client each generate a new challenge for each authentication exchange. This means that the exchange is resilient against replay attacks.

6.4.1. Supported SCRAM credentials

Strimzi supports SCRAM-SHA-512 only. When a KafkaUser.spec.authentication.type is configured with scram-sha-512 the User Operator will generate a random 12 character password consisting of upper and lowercase ASCII letters and numbers.

6.4.2. When to use SCRAM-SHA authentication for clients

SCRAM-SHA is recommended for authenticating Kafka clients when:

  • The client supports authentication using SCRAM-SHA-512

  • It is necessary to use passwords rather than the TLS certificates

  • Authentication for unencrypted communication is required

6.5. Creating a Kafka user with SCRAM SHA authentication

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Prepare a YAML file containing the KafkaUser to be created.

    An example KafkaUser
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaUser
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
  authorization:
    type: simple
    acls:
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Read
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Describe
      - resource:
          type: group
          name: my-group
          patternType: literal
        operation: Read

  2. Create the KafkaUser resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  3. Use the credentials from the secret my-user in your application

Additional resources

6.6. Editing a Kafka user

This procedure describes how to change the configuration of an existing Kafka user by using a KafkaUser Kubernetes resource.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Prepare a YAML file containing the desired KafkaUser.

    An example KafkaUser
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaUser
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  authentication:
    type: tls
  authorization:
    type: simple
    acls:
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Read
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Describe
      - resource:
          type: group
          name: my-group
          patternType: literal
        operation: Read

  2. Update the KafkaUser resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl apply:

    kubectl apply -f your-file

  3. Use the updated credentials from the my-user secret in your application.

Additional resources

6.7. Deleting a Kafka user

This procedure describes how to delete a Kafka user created with KafkaUser Kubernetes resource.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • Delete the KafkaUser resource in Kubernetes.

    This can be done using kubectl delete:

    kubectl delete kafkauser your-user-name
Additional resources

6.8. Kafka User resource

The KafkaUser resource is used to declare a user with its authentication mechanism, authorization mechanism, and access rights.

6.8.1. Authentication

Authentication is configured using the authentication property in KafkaUser.spec. The authentication mechanism enabled for this user will be specified using the type field. Currently, the only supported authentication mechanisms are the TLS Client Authentication mechanism and the SCRAM-SHA-512 mechanism.

When no authentication mechanism is specified, User Operator will not create the user or its credentials.

TLS Client Authentication

To use TLS client authentication, set the type field to tls.

An example of KafkaUser with enabled TLS Client Authentication
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaUser
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  authentication:
    type: tls
  # ...

When the user is created by the User Operator, it will create a new secret with the same name as the KafkaUser resource. The secret will contain a public and private key which should be used for the TLS Client Authentication. Bundled with them will be the public key of the client certification authority which was used to sign the user certificate. All keys will be in X509 format.

An example of the Secret with user credentials
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/kind: KafkaUser
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
type: Opaque
data:
  ca.crt: # Public key of the Clients CA
  user.crt: # Public key of the user
  user.key: # Private key of the user
SCRAM-SHA-512 Authentication

To use SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication mechanism, set the type field to scram-sha-512.

An example of KafkaUser with enabled SCRAM-SHA-512 authentication
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaUser
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  authentication:
    type: scram-sha-512
  # ...

When the user is created by the User Operator, the User Operator will create a new secret with the same name as the KafkaUser resource. The secret contains the generated password in the password key, which is encoded with base64. In order to use the password it must be decoded.

An example of the Secret with user credentials
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/kind: KafkaUser
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
type: Opaque
data:
  password: Z2VuZXJhdGVkcGFzc3dvcmQ= # Generated password

For decode the generated password:

echo "Z2VuZXJhdGVkcGFzc3dvcmQ=" | base64 --decode

6.8.2. Authorization

Authorization is configured using the authorization property in KafkaUser.spec. The authorization type enabled for a user is specified using the type field. Currently, the only supported authorization type is simple authorization.

If no authorization is specified, the User Operator does not provision any access rights for the user.

Simple authorization

Simple authorization uses the default Kafka authorization plugin, SimpleAclAuthorizer.

To use simple authorization, set the type property to simple in KafkaUser.spec.

ACL rules

SimpleAclAuthorizer uses ACL rules to manage access to Kafka brokers.

ACL rules grant access rights to the user, which you specify in the acls property.

An AclRule is specified as a set of properties:

resource

The resource property specifies the resource that the rule applies to.

Simple authorization supports four resource types, which are specified in the type property:

  • Topics (topic)

  • Consumer Groups (group)

  • Clusters (cluster)

  • Transactional IDs (transactionalId)

For Topic, Group, and Transactional ID resources you can specify the name of the resource the rule applies to in the name property.

Cluster type resources have no name.

A name is specified as a literal or a prefix using the patternType property.

  • Literal names are taken exactly as they are specified in the name field.

  • Prefix names use the value from the name as a prefix, and will apply the rule to all resources with names starting with the value.

type

The type property specifies the type of ACL rule, allow or deny.

The type field is optional. If type is unspecified, the ACL rule is treated as an allow rule.

operation

The operation specifies the operation to allow or deny.

The following operations are supported:

  • Read

  • Write

  • Delete

  • Alter

  • Describe

  • All

  • IdempotentWrite

  • ClusterAction

  • Create

  • AlterConfigs

  • DescribeConfigs

Only certain operations work with each resource.

For more details about SimpleAclAuthorizer, ACLs and supported combinations of resources and operations, see Authorization and ACLs.

host

The host property specifies a remote host from which the rule is allowed or denied.

Use an asterisk (*) to allow or deny the operation from all hosts. The host field is optional. If host is unspecified, the * value is used by default.

For more information about the AclRule object, see AclRule schema reference.

An example KafkaUser
apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaUser
metadata:
  name: my-user
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: my-cluster
spec:
  # ...
  authorization:
    type: simple
    acls:
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Read
      - resource:
          type: topic
          name: my-topic
          patternType: literal
        operation: Describe
      - resource:
          type: group
          name: my-group
          patternType: prefix
        operation: Read
Super user access to Kafka brokers

If a user is added to a list of super users in a Kafka broker configuration, the user is allowed unlimited access to the cluster regardless of any authorization constraints defined in ACLs.

For more information on configuring super users, see authentication and authorization of Kafka brokers.

6.8.3. Additional resources

7. Kafka Bridge

This chapter provides an overview of the Strimzi Kafka Bridge and helps you get started using its REST API to interact with Strimzi. To try out the Kafka Bridge in your local environment, see the Kafka Bridge quickstart later in this chapter.

7.1. Kafka Bridge overview

You can use the Kafka Bridge as an interface to make specific types of request to the Kafka cluster.

7.1.1. Kafka Bridge interface

Strimzi Kafka Bridge provides a RESTful interface that allows HTTP-based clients to interact with a Kafka cluster.  Kafka Bridge offers the advantages of a web API connection to Strimzi, without the need for client applications to interpret the Kafka protocol.

The API has two main resources — consumers and topics — that are exposed and made accessible through endpoints to interact with consumers and producers in your Kafka cluster. The resources relate only to the Kafka Bridge, not the consumers and producers connected directly to Kafka.

HTTP requests

The Kafka Bridge supports HTTP requests to a Kafka cluster, with methods to:

  • Send messages to a topic.

  • Retrieve messages from topics.

  • Create and delete consumers.

  • Subscribe consumers to topics, so that they start receiving messages from those topics.

  • Retrieve a list of topics that a consumer is subscribed to.

  • Unsubscribe consumers from topics.

  • Assign partitions to consumers.

  • Commit a list of consumer offsets.

  • Seek on a partition, so that a consumer starts receiving messages from the first or last offset position, or a given offset position.

The methods provide JSON responses and HTTP response code error handling. Messages can be sent in JSON or binary formats.

Clients can produce and consume messages without the requirement to use the native Kafka protocol.

Additional resources

  • To view the API documentation, including example requests and responses, see the Kafka Bridge API reference on the Strimzi website.

7.1.2. Supported clients for the Kafka Bridge

You can use the Kafka Bridge to integrate both internal and external HTTP client applications with your Kafka cluster.

Internal clients

Internal clients are container-based HTTP clients running in the same Kubernetes cluster as the Kafka Bridge itself. Internal clients can access the Kafka Bridge on the host and port defined in the KafkaBridge custom resource.

External clients

External clients are HTTP clients running outside the Kubernetes cluster in which the Kafka Bridge is deployed and running. External clients can access the Kafka Bridge through an OpenShift Route, a loadbalancer service, or using an Ingress.

HTTP internal and external client integration

Kafka Bridge

7.1.3. Securing the Kafka Bridge

Strimzi does not currently provide any encryption, authentication, or authorization for the Kafka Bridge. This means that requests sent from external clients to the Kafka Bridge are:

  • Not encrypted, and must use HTTP rather than HTTPS

  • Sent without authentication

However, you can secure the Kafka Bridge using other methods, such as:

  • Kubernetes Network Policies that define which pods can access the Kafka Bridge.

  • Reverse proxies with authentication or authorization, for example, OAuth2 proxies.

  • API Gateways.

  • Ingress or OpenShift Routes with TLS termination.

The Kafka Bridge supports TLS encryption and TLS and SASL authentication when connecting to the Kafka Brokers. Within your Kubernetes cluster, you can configure:

  • TLS or SASL-based authentication between the Kafka Bridge and your Kafka cluster

  • A TLS-encrypted connection between the Kafka Bridge and your Kafka cluster.

For more information, see Authentication support in Kafka Bridge.

You can use ACLs in Kafka brokers to restrict the topics that can be consumed and produced using the Kafka Bridge.

7.1.4. Accessing the Kafka Bridge outside of Kubernetes

After deployment, the Strimzi Kafka Bridge can only be accessed by applications running in the same Kubernetes cluster. These applications use the kafka-bridge-name-bridge-service Service to access the API.

If you want to make the Kafka Bridge accessible to applications running outside of the Kubernetes cluster, you can expose it manually by using one of the following features:

  • Services of types LoadBalancer or NodePort

  • Ingress resources

  • OpenShift Routes

If you decide to create Services, use the following labels in the selector to configure the pods to which the service will route the traffic:

  # ...
  selector:
    strimzi.io/cluster: kafka-bridge-name (1)
    strimzi.io/kind: KafkaBridge
  #...

  1. Name of the Kafka Bridge custom resource in your Kubernetes cluster.

7.1.5. Requests to the Kafka Bridge

Specify data formats and HTTP headers to ensure valid requests are submitted to the Kafka Bridge.

Content Type headers

API request and response bodies are always encoded as JSON.

  • When performing consumer operations, POST requests must provide the following Content-Type header if there is a non-empty body:

    Content-Type: application/vnd.kafka.v2+json

  • When performing producer operations, POST requests must provide Content-Type headers specifying the desired embedded data format, either json or binary, as shown in the following table.

    Embedded data format Content-Type header

    JSON

    Content-Type: application/vnd.kafka.json.v2+json

    Binary

    Content-Type: application/vnd.kafka.binary.v2+json

You set the embedded data format when creating a consumer using the consumers/groupid endpoint—​for more information, see the next section.

The Content-Type must not be set if the POST request has an empty body. An empty body can be used to create a consumer with the default values.

Embedded data format

The embedded data format is the format of the Kafka messages that are transmitted, over HTTP, from a producer to a consumer using the Kafka Bridge. Two embedded data formats are supported: JSON and binary.

When creating a consumer using the /consumers/groupid endpoint, the POST request body must specify an embedded data format of either JSON or binary. This is specified in the format field, for example:

{
  "name": "my-consumer",
  "format": "binary", (1)
...
}

  1. A binary embedded data format.

The embedded data format specified when creating a consumer must match the data format of the Kafka messages it will consume.

If you choose to specify a binary embedded data format, subsequent producer requests must provide the binary data in the request body as Base64-encoded strings. For example, when sending messages using the /topics/topicname endpoint, records.value must be encoded in Base64:

{
  "records": [
    {
      "key": "my-key",
      "value": "ZWR3YXJkdGhldGhyZWVsZWdnZWRjYXQ="
    },
  ]
}

Producer requests must also provide a Content-Type header that corresponds to the embedded data format, for example, Content-Type: application/vnd.kafka.binary.v2+json.

Accept headers

After creating a consumer, all subsequent GET requests must provide an Accept header in the following format:

Accept: application/vnd.kafka.embedded-data-format.v2+json

The embedded-data-format is either json or binary.

For example, when retrieving records for a subscribed consumer using an embedded data format of JSON, include this Accept header:

Accept: application/vnd.kafka.json.v2+json

7.1.6. Kafka Bridge API resources

For the full list of REST API endpoints and descriptions, including example requests and responses, see the Kafka Bridge API reference on the Strimzi website.

7.1.7. Kafka Bridge deployment

You deploy the Kafka Bridge into your Kubernetes cluster by using the Cluster Operator.

After the Kafka Bridge is deployed, the Cluster Operator creates Kafka Bridge objects in your Kubernetes cluster. Objects include the deployment, service, and pod, each named after the name given in the custom resource for the Kafka Bridge.

Additional resources

7.2. Kafka Bridge quickstart

Use this quickstart to try out the Strimzi Kafka Bridge in your local development environment. You will learn how to:

  • Deploy the Kafka Bridge to your Kubernetes cluster

  • Expose the Kafka Bridge service to your local machine by using port-forwarding

  • Produce messages to topics and partitions in your Kafka cluster

  • Create a Kafka Bridge consumer

  • Perform basic consumer operations, such as subscribing the consumer to topics and retrieving the messages that you produced

In this quickstart, HTTP requests are formatted as curl commands that you can copy and paste to your terminal. Access to a Kubernetes cluster is required; to run and manage a local Kubernetes cluster, use a tool such as Minikube, CodeReady Containers, or MiniShift.

Ensure you have the prerequisites and then follow the tasks in the order provided in this chapter.

About data formats

In this quickstart, you will produce and consume messages in JSON format, not binary. For more information on the data formats and HTTP headers used in the example requests, see Requests to the Kafka Bridge.

Prerequisites for the quickstart

  • Cluster administrator access to a local or remote Kubernetes cluster.

  • Strimzi is installed.

  • A running Kafka cluster, deployed by the Cluster Operator, in a Kubernetes namespace.

  • The Entity Operator is deployed and running as part of the Kafka cluster.

7.2.1. Deploying the Kafka Bridge to your Kubernetes cluster

Strimzi includes a YAML example that specifies the configuration of the Strimzi Kafka Bridge. Make some minimal changes to this file and then deploy an instance of the Kafka Bridge to your Kubernetes cluster.

Procedure

  1. Edit the examples/kafka-bridge/kafka-bridge.yaml file.

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1alpha1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: quickstart (1)
spec:
  replicas: 1
  bootstrapServers: <cluster-name>-kafka-bootstrap:9092 (2)
  http:
    port: 8080

    1. When the Kafka Bridge is deployed, -bridge is appended to the name of the deployment and other related resources. In this example, the Kafka Bridge deployment is named quickstart-bridge and the accompanying Kafka Bridge service is named quickstart-bridge-service.

    2. In the bootstrapServers property, enter the name of the Kafka cluster as the <cluster-name>.

  2. Deploy the Kafka Bridge to your Kubernetes cluster:

    kubectl apply -f examples/kafka-bridge/kafka-bridge.yaml

    A quickstart-bridge deployment, service, and other related resources are created in your Kubernetes cluster.

  3. Verify that the Kafka Bridge was successfully deployed:

    kubectl get deployments
    NAME                             READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
quickstart-bridge                  1/1     1            1          34m
my-cluster-connect                 1/1     1            1          24h
my-cluster-entity-operator         1/1     1            1          24h
#...
What to do next

After deploying the Kafka Bridge to your Kubernetes cluster, expose the Kafka Bridge service to your local machine.

Additional resources

7.2.2. Exposing the Kafka Bridge service to your local machine

Next, use port forwarding to expose the Strimzi Kafka Bridge service to your local machine on http://localhost:8080.

Note
 Port forwarding is only suitable for development and testing purposes.
Procedure

  1. List the names of the pods in your Kubernetes cluster:

    kubectl get pods -o name

pod/kafka-consumer
# ...
pod/quickstart-bridge-589d78784d-9jcnr
pod/strimzi-cluster-operator-76bcf9bc76-8dnfm

  2. Connect to the quickstart-bridge pod on port 8080:

    kubectl port-forward pod/quickstart-bridge-589d78784d-9jcnr 8080:8080 &
    Note
    		 If port 8080 on your local machine is already in use, use an alternative HTTP port, such as 8008.

API requests are now forwarded from port 8080 on your local machine to port 8080 in the Kafka Bridge pod.

7.2.3. Producing messages to topics and partitions

Next, produce messages to topics in JSON format by using the topics endpoint. You can specify destination partitions for messages in the request body, as shown here. The partitions endpoint provides an alternative method for specifying a single destination partition for all messages as a path parameter.

Procedure

  1. In a text editor, create a YAML definition for a Kafka topic with three partitions.

    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaTopic
metadata:
  name: bridge-quickstart-topic
  labels:
    strimzi.io/cluster: <kafka-cluster-name> (1)
spec:
  partitions: 3 (2)
  replicas: 1
  config:
    retention.ms: 7200000
    segment.bytes: 1073741824

    1. The name of the Kafka cluster in which the Kafka Bridge is deployed.

    2. The number of partitions for the topic.

  2. Save the file to the examples/topic directory as bridge-quickstart-topic.yaml.

  3. Create the topic in your Kubernetes cluster:

    kubectl apply -f examples/topic/bridge-quickstart-topic.yaml

  4. Using the Kafka Bridge, produce three messages to the topic you created:

    curl -X POST \
  http://localhost:8080/topics/bridge-quickstart-topic \
  -H 'content-type: application/vnd.kafka.json.v2+json' \
  -d '{
    "records": [
        {
            "key": "my-key",
            "value": "sales-lead-0001"
        },
        {
            "value": "sales-lead-0002",
            "partition": 2
        },
        {
            "value": "sales-lead-0003"
        }
    ]
}'

    • sales-lead-0001 is sent to a partition based on the hash of the key.

    • sales-lead-0002 is sent directly to partition 2.

    • sales-lead-0003 is sent to a partition in the bridge-quickstart-topic topic using a round-robin method.

  5. If the request is successful, the Kafka Bridge returns an offsets array, along with a 200 code and a content-type header of application/vnd.kafka.v2+json. For each message, the offsets array describes:

    • The partition that the message was sent to

    • The current message offset of the partition

      Example response
      #...
{
  "offsets":[
    {
      "partition":0,
      "offset":0
    },
    {
      "partition":2,
      "offset":0
    },
    {
      "partition":0,
      "offset":1
    }
  ]
}
What to do next

After producing messages to topics and partitions, create a Kafka Bridge consumer.

Additional resources

7.2.4. Creating a Kafka Bridge consumer

Before you can perform any consumer operations in the Kafka cluster, you must first create a consumer by using the consumers endpoint. The consumer is referred to as a Kafka Bridge consumer.

Procedure

  1. Create a Kafka Bridge consumer in a new consumer group named bridge-quickstart-consumer-group:

    curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group \
  -H 'content-type: application/vnd.kafka.v2+json' \
  -d '{
    "name": "bridge-quickstart-consumer",
    "auto.offset.reset": "earliest",
    "format": "json",
    "enable.auto.commit": false,
    "fetch.min.bytes": 512,
    "consumer.request.timeout.ms": 30000
  }'

    • The consumer is named bridge-quickstart-consumer and the embedded data format is set as json.

    • Some basic configuration settings are defined.

    • The consumer will not commit offsets to the log automatically because the enable.auto.commit setting is false. You will commit the offsets manually later in this quickstart.

      If the request is successful, the Kafka Bridge returns the consumer ID (instance_id) and base URL (base_uri) in the response body, along with a 200 code.

      Example response
      #...
{
  "instance_id": "bridge-quickstart-consumer",
  "base_uri":"http://<bridge-name>-bridge-service:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer"
}

  2. Copy the base URL (base_uri) to use in the other consumer operations in this quickstart.

What to do next

Now that you have created a Kafka Bridge consumer, you can subscribe it to topics.

Additional resources

7.2.5. Subscribing a Kafka Bridge consumer to topics

After you have created a Kafka Bridge consumer, subscribe it to one or more topics by using the subscription endpoint. Once subscribed, the consumer starts receiving all messages that are produced to the topic.

Procedure

  • Subscribe the consumer to the bridge-quickstart-topic topic that you created earlier, in Producing messages to topics and partitions:

    curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer/subscription \
  -H 'content-type: application/vnd.kafka.v2+json' \
  -d '{
    "topics": [
        "bridge-quickstart-topic"
    ]
}'

    The topics array can contain a single topic (as shown here) or multiple topics. If you want to subscribe the consumer to multiple topics that match a regular expression, you can use the topic_pattern string instead of the topics array.

    If the request is successful, the Kafka Bridge returns a 204 (No Content) code only.

What to do next

After subscribing a Kafka Bridge consumer to topics, you can retrieve messages from the consumer.

Additional resources

7.2.6. Retrieving the latest messages from a Kafka Bridge consumer

Next, retrieve the latest messages from the Kafka Bridge consumer by requesting data from the records endpoint. In production, HTTP clients can call this endpoint repeatedly (in a loop).

Procedure

  1. Produce additional messages to the Kafka Bridge consumer, as described in Producing messages to topics and partitions.

  2. Submit a GET request to the records endpoint:

    curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer/records \
  -H 'accept: application/vnd.kafka.json.v2+json'

    After creating and subscribing to a Kafka Bridge consumer, a first GET request will return an empty response because the poll operation starts a rebalancing process to assign partitions.

  3. Repeat step two to retrieve messages from the Kafka Bridge consumer.

    The Kafka Bridge returns an array of messages — describing the topic name, key, value, partition, and offset — in the response body, along with a 200 code. Messages are retrieved from the latest offset by default.

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/vnd.kafka.json.v2+json
#...
[
  {
    "topic":"bridge-quickstart-topic",
    "key":"my-key",
    "value":"sales-lead-0001",
    "partition":0,
    "offset":0
  },
  {
    "topic":"bridge-quickstart-topic",
    "key":null,
    "value":"sales-lead-0003",
    "partition":0,
    "offset":1
  },
#...
    Note
    		 If an empty response is returned, produce more records to the consumer as described in Producing messages to topics and partitions, and then try retrieving messages again.
What to do next

After retrieving messages from a Kafka Bridge consumer, try committing offsets to the log.

Additional resources

7.2.7. Commiting offsets to the log

Next, use the offsets endpoint to manually commit offsets to the log for all messages received by the Kafka Bridge consumer. This is required because the Kafka Bridge consumer that you created earlier, in Creating a Kafka Bridge consumer, was configured with the enable.auto.commit setting as false.

Procedure

  • Commit offsets to the log for the bridge-quickstart-consumer:

    curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer/offsets

    Because no request body is submitted, offsets are committed for all the records that have been received by the consumer. Alternatively, the request body can contain an array (OffsetCommitSeekList) that specifies the topics and partitions that you want to commit offsets for.

    If the request is successful, the Kafka Bridge returns a 204 code only.

What to do next

After committing offsets to the log, try out the endpoints for seeking to offsets.

Additional resources

7.2.8. Seeking to offsets for a partition

Next, use the positions endpoints to configure the Kafka Bridge consumer to retrieve messages for a partition from a specific offset, and then from the latest offset. This is referred to in Apache Kafka as a seek operation.

Procedure

  1. Seek to a specific offset for partition 0 of the quickstart-bridge-topic topic:

    curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer/positions \
  -H 'content-type: application/vnd.kafka.v2+json' \
  -d '{
    "offsets": [
        {
            "topic": "bridge-quickstart-topic",
            "partition": 0,
            "offset": 2
        }
    ]
}'

    If the request is successful, the Kafka Bridge returns a 204 code only.

  2. Submit a GET request to the records endpoint:

    curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer/records \
  -H 'accept: application/vnd.kafka.json.v2+json'

    The Kafka Bridge returns messages from the offset that you seeked to.

  3. Restore the default message retrieval behavior by seeking to the last offset for the same partition. This time, use the positions/end endpoint.

    curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer/positions/end \
  -H 'content-type: application/vnd.kafka.v2+json' \
  -d '{
    "partitions": [
        {
            "topic": "bridge-quickstart-topic",
            "partition": 0
        }
    ]
}'

    If the request is successful, the Kafka Bridge returns another 204 code.

Note
 You can also use the positions/beginning endpoint to seek to the first offset for one or more partitions.
What to do next

In this quickstart, you have used the Strimzi Kafka Bridge to perform several common operations on a Kafka cluster. You can now delete the Kafka Bridge consumer that you created earlier.

Additional resources

7.2.9. Deleting a Kafka Bridge consumer

Finally, delete the Kafa Bridge consumer that you used throughout this quickstart.

Procedure

  • Delete the Kafka Bridge consumer by sending a DELETE request to the instances endpoint.

    curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/consumers/bridge-quickstart-consumer-group/instances/bridge-quickstart-consumer

    If the request is successful, the Kafka Bridge returns a 204 code only.

Additional resources

8. Introducing Metrics

This section describes how to monitor Strimzi Kafka, ZooKeeper and Kafka Connect clusters using Prometheus to provide monitoring data for example Grafana dashboards.

In order to run the example Grafana dashboards, you must:

  1. Add metrics configuration to your Kafka cluster resource

  2. Deploy Prometheus and Prometheus Alertmanager

  3. Deploy Grafana

Note
 The resources referenced in this section are intended as a starting point for setting up monitoring, but they are provided as examples only. If you require further support on configuring and running Prometheus or Grafana in production, try reaching out to their respective communities.
Kafka Exporter

When you have Prometheus and Grafana enabled, you can also use Kafka Exporter to provide additional monitoring related to consumer lag. For more information, see Kafka Exporter.

Additional resources

8.1. Example Metrics files

You can find the example metrics configuration files in the examples/metrics directory.

metrics
├── grafana-install
│   ├── grafana.yaml (1)
├── grafana-dashboards (2)
│   ├── strimzi-kafka-connect.json
│   ├── strimzi-kafka.json
│   └── strimzi-zookeeper.json
│   └── strimzi-kafka-exporter.json (3)
├── kafka-connect-metrics.yaml (4)
├── kafka-metrics.yaml (5)
├── prometheus-additional-properties
│   └── prometheus-additional.yaml (6)
├── prometheus-alertmanager-config
│   └── alert-manager-config.yaml (7)
└── prometheus-install
    ├── alert-manager.yaml (8)
    ├── prometheus-rules.yaml (9)
    ├── prometheus.yaml (10)
    └── strimzi-service-monitor.yaml (11)

  1. Installation file for the Grafana image

  2. Grafana dashboard configuration

  3. Grafana dashboard configuration specific to Kafka Exporter

  4. Metrics configuration that defines Prometheus JMX Exporter relabeling rules for Kafka Connect

  5. Metrics configuration that defines Prometheus JMX Exporter relabeling rules for Kafka and ZooKeeper

  6. Configuration to add roles for service monitoring

  7. Hook definitions for sending notifications through Alertmanager

  8. Resources for deploying and configuring Alertmanager

  9. Alerting rules examples for use with Prometheus Alertmanager (deployed with Prometheus)

  10. Installation file for the Prometheus image

  11. Prometheus job definitions to scrape metrics data

8.2. Prometheus metrics

Strimzi uses the Prometheus JMX Exporter to expose JMX metrics from Kafka and ZooKeeper using an HTTP endpoint, which is then scraped by the Prometheus server.

8.2.1. Prometheus metrics configuration

Strimzi provides example configuration files for Grafana.

Grafana dashboards are dependent on Prometheus JMX Exporter relabeling rules, which are defined for:

  • Kafka and ZooKeeper as a Kafka resource configuration in the example kafka-metrics.yaml file

  • Kafka Connect as KafkaConnect and KafkaConnectS2I resources in the example kafka-connect-metrics.yaml file

A label is a name-value pair. Relabeling is the process of writing a label dynamically. For example, the value of a label may be derived from the name of a Kafka server and client ID.

Note
 We show metrics configuration using kafka-metrics.yaml in this section, but the process is the same when configuring Kafka Connect using the kafka-connect-metrics.yaml file.
Additional resources

For more information on the use of relabeling, see Configuration in the Prometheus documentation.

8.2.2. Prometheus metrics deployment options

To apply the example metrics configuration of relabeling rules to your Kafka cluster, do one of the following:

8.2.3. Copying Prometheus metrics configuration to a Kafka resource

To use Grafana dashboards for monitoring, you can copy the example metrics configuration to a Kafka resource.

Procedure

Execute the following steps for each Kafka resource in your deployment.

  1. Update the Kafka resource in an editor.

    kubectl edit kafka my-cluster

  2. Copy the example configuration in kafka-metrics.yaml to your own Kafka resource definition.

  3. Save the file, exit the editor and wait for the updated resource to be reconciled.

8.2.4. Deploying a Kafka cluster with Prometheus metrics configuration

To use Grafana dashboards for monitoring, you can deploy an example Kafka cluster with metrics configuration.

Procedure

  • Deploy the Kafka cluster with the metrics configuration:

    kubectl apply -f kafka-metrics.yaml

8.3. Prometheus

Prometheus provides an open source set of components for systems monitoring and alert notification.

We describe here how you can use the CoreOS Prometheus Operator to run and manage a Prometheus server that is suitable for use in production environments, but with the correct configuration you can run any Prometheus server.

Note

The Prometheus server configuration uses service discovery to discover the pods in the cluster from which it gets metrics. For this feature to work correctly, the service account used for running the Prometheus service pod must have access to the API server so it can retrieve the pod list.

For more information, see Discovering services.

8.3.1. Prometheus configuration

Strimzi provides example configuration files for the Prometheus server.

A Prometheus image is provided for deployment:

  • prometheus.yaml

Additional Prometheus-related configuration is also provided in the following files:

  • prometheus-additional.yaml

  • prometheus-rules.yaml

  • strimzi-service-monitor.yaml

For Prometheus to obtain monitoring data:

Then use the configuration files to:

Alerting rules

The prometheus-rules.yaml file provides example alerting rule examples for use with Alertmanager.

8.3.2. Prometheus resources

When you apply the Prometheus configuration, the following resources are created in your Kubernetes cluster and managed by the Prometheus Operator:

  • A ClusterRole that grants permissions to Prometheus to read the health endpoints exposed by the Kafka and ZooKeeper pods, cAdvisor and the kubelet for container metrics.

  • A ServiceAccount for the Prometheus pods to run under.

  • A ClusterRoleBinding which binds the ClusterRole to the ServiceAccount.

  • A Deployment to manage the Prometheus Operator pod.

  • A ServiceMonitor to manage the configuration of the Prometheus pod.

  • A Prometheus to manage the configuration of the Prometheus pod.

  • A PrometheusRule to manage alerting rules for the Prometheus pod.

  • A Secret to manage additional Prometheus settings.

  • A Service to allow applications running in the cluster to connect to Prometheus (for example, Grafana using Prometheus as datasource).

8.3.3. Deploying the Prometheus Operator

To deploy the Prometheus Operator to your Kafka cluster, apply the YAML resource files from the Prometheus CoreOS repository.

Procedure

  1. Download the resource files from the repository and replace the example namespace with your own:

    On Linux, use:

    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-deployment.yaml | sed -e 's/namespace: .\*/namespace: my-namespace/' > prometheus-operator-deployment.yaml
    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-cluster-role.yaml > prometheus-operator-cluster-role.yaml
    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-cluster-role-binding.yaml | sed -e 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' > prometheus-operator-cluster-role-binding.yaml
    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-service-account.yaml | sed -e 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' > prometheus-operator-service-account.yaml

    On MacOS, use:

    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-deployment.yaml | sed -e '' 's/namespace: .\*/namespace: my-namespace/' > prometheus-operator-deployment.yaml
    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-cluster-role.yaml > prometheus-operator-cluster-role.yaml
    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-cluster-role-binding.yaml | sed -e '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' > prometheus-operator-cluster-role-binding.yaml
    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coreos/prometheus-operator/master/example/rbac/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator-service-account.yaml | sed -e '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' > prometheus-operator-service-account.yaml
    Note
    		 If it is not required, you can manually remove the spec.template.spec.securityContext property from the prometheus-operator-deployment.yaml file.

  2. Deploy the Prometheus Operator:

    kubectl apply -f prometheus-operator-deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f prometheus-operator-cluster-role.yaml
kubectl apply -f prometheus-operator-cluster-role-binding.yaml
kubectl apply -f prometheus-operator-service-account.yaml

8.3.4. Deploying Prometheus

To deploy Prometheus to your Kafka cluster to obtain monitoring data, apply the example resource file for the Prometheus docker image and the YAML files for Prometheus-related resources.

The deployment process creates a ClusterRoleBinding and discovers an Alertmanager instance in the namespace specified for the deployment.

Note
 By default, the Prometheus Operator only supports jobs that include an endpoints role for service discovery. Targets are discovered and scraped for each endpoint port address. For endpoint discovery, the port address may be derived from service (role: service) or pod (role: pod) discovery.
Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Modify the Prometheus installation file (prometheus.yaml) according to the namespace Prometheus is going to be installed in:

    On Linux, use:

    sed -i 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' prometheus.yaml

    On MacOS, use:

    sed -i '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' prometheus.yaml

  2. Edit the ServiceMonitor resource in strimzi-service-monitor.yaml to define Prometheus jobs that will scrape the metrics data.

  3. To use another role:

    1. Create a Secret resource:

      oc create secret generic additional-scrape-configs --from-file=prometheus-additional.yaml

    2. Edit the additionalScrapeConfigs property in the prometheus.yaml file to include the name of the Secret and the YAML file (prometheus-additional.yaml) that contains the additional configuration.

  4. Edit the prometheus-rules.yaml file that creates sample alert notification rules:

    On Linux, use:

    sed -i 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' prometheus-rules.yaml

    On MacOS, use:

    sed -i '' 's/namespace: .*/namespace: my-namespace/' prometheus-rules.yaml

  5. Deploy the Prometheus resources:

    kubectl apply -f strimzi-service-monitor.yaml
kubectl apply -f prometheus-rules.yaml
kubectl apply -f prometheus.yaml

8.4. Prometheus Alertmanager

Prometheus Alertmanager is a plugin for handling alerts and routing them to a notification service. Alertmanager supports an essential aspect of monitoring, which is to be notified of conditions that indicate potential issues based on alerting rules.

8.4.1. Alertmanager configuration

Strimzi provides example configuration files for Prometheus Alertmanager.

A configuration file defines the resources for deploying Alertmanager:

  • alert-manager.yaml

An additional configuration file provides the hook definitions for sending notifications from your Kafka cluster.

  • alert-manager-config.yaml

For Alertmanger to handle Prometheus alerts, use the configuration files to:

8.4.2. Alerting rules

Alerting rules provide notifications about specific conditions observed in the metrics. Rules are declared on the Prometheus server, but Prometheus Alertmanager is responsible for alert notifications.

Prometheus alerting rules describe conditions using PromQL expressions that are continuously evaluated.

When an alert expression becomes true, the condition is met and the Prometheus server sends alert data to the Alertmanager. Alertmanager then sends out a notification using the communication method configured for its deployment.

Alertmanager can be configured to use email, chat messages or other notification methods.

Additional resources

For more information about setting up alerting rules, see Configuration in the Prometheus documentation.

8.4.3. Alerting rule examples

Example alerting rules for Kafka and ZooKeeper metrics are provided with Strimzi for use in a Prometheus deployment.

General points about the alerting rule definitions:

  • A for property is used with the rules to determine the period of time a condition must persist before an alert is triggered.

  • A tick is a basic ZooKeeper time unit, which is measured in milliseconds and configured using the tickTime parameter of Kafka.spec.zookeeper.config. For example, if ZooKeeper tickTime=3000, 3 ticks (3 x 3000) equals 9000 milliseconds.

  • The availability of the ZookeeperRunningOutOfSpace metric and alert is dependent on the Kubernetes configuration and storage implementation used. Storage implementations for certain platforms may not be able to supply the information on available space required for the metric to provide an alert.

Kafka alerting rules
UnderReplicatedPartitions

Gives the number of partitions for which the current broker is the lead replica but which have fewer replicas than the min.insync.replicas configured for their topic. This metric provides insights about brokers that host the follower replicas. Those followers are not keeping up with the leader. Reasons for this could include being (or having been) offline, and over-throttled interbroker replication. An alert is raised when this value is greater than zero, providing information on the under-replicated partitions for each broker.

AbnormalControllerState

Indicates whether the current broker is the controller for the cluster. The metric can be 0 or 1. During the life of a cluster, only one broker should be the controller and the cluster always needs to have an active controller. Having two or more brokers saying that they are controllers indicates a problem. If the condition persists, an alert is raised when the sum of all the values for this metric on all brokers is not equal to 1, meaning that there is no active controller (the sum is 0) or more than one controller (the sum is greater than 1).

UnderMinIsrPartitionCount

Indicates that the minimum number of in-sync replicas (ISRs) for a lead Kafka broker, specified using min.insync.replicas, that must acknowledge a write operation has not been reached. The metric defines the number of partitions that the broker leads for which the in-sync replicas count is less than the minimum in-sync. An alert is raised when this value is greater than zero, providing information on the partition count for each broker that did not achieve the minimum number of acknowledgments.

OfflineLogDirectoryCount

Indicates the number of log directories which are offline (for example, due to a hardware failure) so that the broker cannot store incoming messages anymore. An alert is raised when this value is greater than zero, providing information on the number of offline log directories for each broker.

KafkaRunningOutOfSpace

Indicates the remaining amount of disk space that can be used for writing data. An alert is raised when this value is lower than 5GiB, providing information on the disk that is running out of space for each persistent volume claim. The threshold value may be changed in prometheus-rules.yaml.

ZooKeeper alerting rules
AvgRequestLatency

Indicates the amount of time it takes for the server to respond to a client request. An alert is raised when this value is greater than 10 (ticks), providing the actual value of the average request latency for each server.

OutstandingRequests

Indicates the number of queued requests in the server. This value goes up when the server receives more requests than it can process. An alert is raised when this value is greater than 10, providing the actual number of outstanding requests for each server.

ZookeeperRunningOutOfSpace

Indicates the remaining amount of disk space that can be used for writing data to ZooKeeper. An alert is raised when this value is lower than 5GiB., providing information on the disk that is running out of space for each persistent volume claim.

8.4.4. Deploying Alertmanager

To deploy Alertmanager, apply the example configuration files.

The sample configuration provided with Strimzi configures the Alertmanager to send notifications to a Slack channel.

The following resources are defined on deployment:

  • An Alertmanager to manage the Alertmanager pod.

  • A Secret to manage the configuration of the Alertmanager.

  • A Service to provide an easy to reference hostname for other services to connect to Alertmanager (such as Prometheus).

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Create a Secret resource from the Alertmanager configuration file (alert-manager-config.yaml):

    kubectl create secret generic alertmanager-alertmanager --from-file=alert-manager-config.yaml

  2. Update the alert-manager-config.yaml file to replace the:

    • slack_api_url property with the actual value of the Slack API URL related to the application for the Slack workspace

    • channel property with the actual Slack channel on which to send notifications

  3. Deploy Alertmanager:

    kubectl apply -f alert-manager.yaml

8.5. Grafana

Grafana provides visualizations of Prometheus metrics.

You can deploy and enable the example Grafana dashboards provided with Strimzi.

8.5.1. Grafana configuration

Strimzi provides example dashboard configuration files for Grafana.

A Grafana docker image is provided for deployment:

  • grafana.yaml

Example dashboards are also provided as JSON files:

  • strimzi-kafka.json

  • strimzi-kafka-connect.json

  • strimzi-zookeeper.json

The example dashboards are a good starting point for monitoring key metrics, but they do not represent all available metrics. You may need to modify the example dashboards or add other metrics, depending on your infrastructure.

For Grafana to present the dashboards, use the configuration files to:

8.5.2. Deploying Grafana

To deploy Grafana to provide visualizations of Prometheus metrics, apply the example configuration file.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Deploy Grafana:

    kubectl apply -f grafana.yaml

  2. Enable the Grafana dashboards.

8.5.3. Enabling the example Grafana dashboards

Set up a Prometheus data source and example dashboards to enable Grafana for monitoring.

Note
 No alert notification rules are defined.

When accessing a dashboard, you can use the port-forward command to forward traffic from the Grafana pod to the host.

For example, you can access the Grafana user interface by:

  1. Running kubectl port-forward grafana-1-fbl7s 3000:3000

  2. Pointing a browser to http://localhost:3000

Note
 The name of the Grafana pod is different for each user.
Procedure

  1. Access the Grafana user interface using admin/admin credentials.

    On the initial view choose to reset the password.

    Grafana login

  2. Click the Add data source button.

    Grafana home

  3. Add Prometheus as a data source.

  4. Click Add to test the connection to the data source.

    Add Prometheus data source

  5. Click Dashboards, then Import to open the Import Dashboard window and import the example dashboards (or paste the JSON).

    Add Grafana dashboard

After importing the dashboards, the Grafana dashboard homepage presents Kafka and ZooKeeper dashboards.

When the Prometheus server has been collecting metrics for a Strimzi cluster for some time, the dashboards are populated.

Kafka dashboard
Kafka dashboardKafka dashboard
ZooKeeper dashboard
ZooKeeper dashboardZooKeeper dashboard

8.6. Using metrics with minikube or minishift

When adding Prometheus and Grafana servers to an Apache Kafka deployment using minikube or minishift, the memory available to the virtual machine should be increased (to 4 GB of RAM, for example, instead of the default 2 GB).

For information on how to increase the default amount of memory, see:

Additional resources

9. Distributed tracing

This chapter outlines the support for distributed tracing in Strimzi, using Jaeger.

How you configure distributed tracing varies by Strimzi client and component.

  • You instrument Kafka Producer, Consumer, and Streams API applications for distributed tracing using an OpenTracing client library. This involves adding instrumentation code to these clients, which monitors the execution of individual transactions in order to generate trace data.

  • Distributed tracing support is built in to the Kafka Connect, Mirror Maker, and Kafka Bridge components of Strimzi. To configure these components for distributed tracing, you configure and update the relevant custom resources.

Before configuring distributed tracing in Strimzi clients and components, you must first initialize and configure a Jaeger tracer in the Kafka cluster, as described in Initializing a Jaeger tracer for Kafka clients.

Note
 Distributed tracing is not supported for Kafka brokers.

9.1. Overview of distributed tracing in Strimzi

Distributed tracing allows developers and system administrators to track the progress of transactions between applications (and services in a microservice architecture) in a distributed system. This information is useful for monitoring application performance and investigating issues with target systems and end-user applications.

In Strimzi and data streaming platforms in general, distributed tracing facilitates the end-to-end tracking of messages: from source systems to the Kafka cluster and then to target systems and applications.

As an aspect of system observability, distributed tracing complements the metrics that are available to view in Grafana dashboards and the available loggers for each component.

OpenTracing overview

Distributed tracing in Strimzi is implemented using the open source OpenTracing and Jaeger projects.

The OpenTracing specification defines APIs that developers can use to instrument applications for distributed tracing. It is independent from the tracing system.

When instrumented, applications generate traces for individual transactions. Traces are composed of spans, which define specific units of work.

To simplify the instrumentation of the Kafka Bridge and Kafka Producer, Consumer, and Streams API applications, Strimzi includes the OpenTracing Apache Kafka Client Instrumentation library.

Note
 The OpenTracing project is merging with the OpenCensus project. The new, combined project is named OpenTelemetry. OpenTelemetry will provide compatibility for applications that are instrumented using the OpenTracing APIs.
Jaeger overview

Jaeger, a tracing system, is an implementation of the OpenTracing APIs used for monitoring and troubleshooting microservices-based distributed systems. It consists of four main components and provides client libraries for instrumenting applications. You can use the Jaeger user interface to visualize, query, filter, and analyze trace data.

An example of a query in the Jaeger user interface

Simple Jaeger query

9.1.1. Distributed tracing support in Strimzi

In Strimzi, distributed tracing is supported in:

  • Kafka Connect (including Kafka Connect with Source2Image support)

  • Mirror Maker

  • The Strimzi Kafka Bridge

You enable and configure distributed tracing for these components by setting template configuration properties in the relevant custom resource (for example, KafkaConnect and KafkaBridge).

To enable distributed tracing in Kafka Producer, Consumer, and Streams API applications, you can instrument application code using the OpenTracing Apache Kafka Client Instrumentation library. When instrumented, these clients generate traces for messages (for example, when producing messages or writing offsets to the log).

Traces are sampled according to a sampling strategy and then visualized in the Jaeger user interface. This trace data is useful for monitoring the performance of your Kafka cluster and debugging issues with target systems and applications.

Outline of procedures

To set up distributed tracing for Strimzi, follow these procedures:

This chapter covers setting up distributed tracing for Strimzi clients and components only. Setting up distributed tracing for applications and systems beyond Strimzi is outside the scope of this chapter. To learn more about this subject, see the OpenTracing documentation and search for "inject and extract".

Before you start

Before you set up distributed tracing for Strimzi, it is helpful to understand:

Prerequisites

9.2. Setting up tracing for Kafka clients

This section describes how to initialize a Jaeger tracer to allow you to instrument your client applications for distributed tracing.

9.2.1. Initializing a Jaeger tracer for Kafka clients

Configure and initialize a Jaeger tracer using a set of tracing environment variables.

Procedure

Perform the following steps for each client application.

  1. Add Maven dependencies for Jaeger to the pom.xml file for the client application:

    <dependency>
    <groupId>io.jaegertracing</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaeger-client</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
</dependency>

  2. Define the configuration of the Jaeger tracer using the tracing environment variables.

  3. Create the Jaeger tracer from the environment variables that you defined in step two:

    Tracer tracer = Configuration.fromEnv().getTracer();
    Note
    		 For alternative ways to initialize a Jaeger tracer, see the Java OpenTracing library documentation.

  4. Register the Jaeger tracer as a global tracer:

    GlobalTracer.register(tracer);

A Jaeger tracer is now initialized for the client application to use.

9.2.2. Tracing environment variables

Use these environment variables when configuring a Jaeger tracer for Kafka clients.

Note
 The tracing environment variables are part of the Jaeger project and are subject to change. For the latest environment variables, see the Jaeger documentation.
Property Required Description

JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME

Yes

The name of the Jaeger tracer service.

JAEGER_AGENT_HOST

No

The hostname for communicating with the jaeger-agent through the User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

JAEGER_AGENT_PORT

No

The port used for communicating with the jaeger-agent through UDP.

JAEGER_ENDPOINT

No

The traces endpoint. Only define this variable if the client application will bypass the jaeger-agent and connect directly to the jaeger-collector.

JAEGER_AUTH_TOKEN

No

The authentication token to send to the endpoint as a bearer token.

JAEGER_USER

No

The username to send to the endpoint if using basic authentication.

JAEGER_PASSWORD

No

The password to send to the endpoint if using basic authentication.

JAEGER_PROPAGATION

No

A comma-separated list of formats to use for propagating the trace context. Defaults to the standard Jaeger format. Valid values are jaeger and b3.

JAEGER_REPORTER_LOG_SPANS

No

Indicates whether the reporter should also log the spans.

JAEGER_REPORTER_MAX_QUEUE_SIZE

No

The reporter’s maximum queue size.

JAEGER_REPORTER_FLUSH_INTERVAL

No

The reporter’s flush interval, in ms. Defines how frequently the Jaeger reporter flushes span batches.

JAEGER_SAMPLER_TYPE

No

The sampling strategy to use for client traces: Constant, Probabilistic, Rate Limiting, or Remote (the default type).

To sample all traces, use the Constant sampling strategy with a parameter of 1.

For more information, see the Jaeger documentation.

JAEGER_SAMPLER_PARAM

No

The sampler parameter (number).

JAEGER_SAMPLER_MANAGER_HOST_PORT

No

The hostname and port to use if a Remote sampling strategy is selected.

JAEGER_TAGS

No

A comma-separated list of tracer-level tags that are added to all reported spans.

The value can also refer to an environment variable using the format ${envVarName:default}. :default is optional and identifies a value to use if the environment variable cannot be found.
Additional resources

9.3. Instrumenting Kafka clients with tracers

This section describes how to instrument Kafka Producer, Consumer, and Streams API applications for distributed tracing.

9.3.1. Instrumenting Kafka Producers and Consumers for tracing

Use a Decorator pattern or Interceptors to instrument your Java Producer and Consumer application code for distributed tracing.

Procedure

Perform these steps in the application code of each Kafka Producer and Consumer application.

  1. Add the Maven dependency for OpenTracing to the Producer or Consumer’s pom.xml file.

    <dependency>
    <groupId>io.opentracing.contrib</groupId>
    <artifactId>opentracing-kafka-client</artifactId>
    <version>0.1.4</version>
</dependency>

  2. Instrument your client application code using either a Decorator pattern or Interceptors.

    • If you prefer to use a Decorator pattern, use following example:

      // Create an instance of the KafkaProducer:
KafkaProducer<Integer, String> producer = new KafkaProducer<>(senderProps);

// Create an instance of the TracingKafkaProducer:
TracingKafkaProducer<Integer, String> tracingProducer = new TracingKafkaProducer<>(producer,
        tracer);

// Send:
tracingProducer.send(...);

// Create an instance of the KafkaConsumer:
KafkaConsumer<Integer, String> consumer = new KafkaConsumer<>(consumerProps);

// Create an instance of the TracingKafkaConsumer:
TracingKafkaConsumer<Integer, String> tracingConsumer = new TracingKafkaConsumer<>(consumer,
        tracer);

// Subscribe:
tracingConsumer.subscribe(Collections.singletonList("messages"));

// Get messages:
ConsumerRecords<Integer, String> records = tracingConsumer.poll(1000);

// Retrieve SpanContext from polled record (consumer side):
ConsumerRecord<Integer, String> record = ...
SpanContext spanContext = TracingKafkaUtils.extractSpanContext(record.headers(), tracer);

    • If you prefer to use Interceptors, use the following example:

      // Register the tracer with GlobalTracer:
GlobalTracer.register(tracer);

// Add the TracingProducerInterceptor to the sender properties:
senderProps.put(ProducerConfig.INTERCEPTOR_CLASSES_CONFIG,
          TracingProducerInterceptor.class.getName());

// Create an instance of the KafkaProducer:
KafkaProducer<Integer, String> producer = new KafkaProducer<>(senderProps);

// Send:
producer.send(...);

// Add the TracingConsumerInterceptor to the consumer properties:
consumerProps.put(ConsumerConfig.INTERCEPTOR_CLASSES_CONFIG,
          TracingConsumerInterceptor.class.getName());

// Create an instance of the KafkaConsumer:
KafkaConsumer<Integer, String> consumer = new KafkaConsumer<>(consumerProps);

// Subscribe:
consumer.subscribe(Collections.singletonList("messages"));

// Get messages:
ConsumerRecords<Integer, String> records = consumer.poll(1000);

// Retrieve the SpanContext from a polled message (consumer side):
ConsumerRecord<Integer, String> record = ...
SpanContext spanContext = TracingKafkaUtils.extractSpanContext(record.headers(), tracer);
Custom span names in a Decorator pattern

A span is a logical unit of work in Jaeger, with an operation name, start time, and duration.

If you use a Decorator pattern to instrument your Kafka Producer and Consumer applications, you can define custom span names by passing a BiFunction object as an additional argument when creating the TracingKafkaProducer and TracingKafkaConsumer objects. The OpenTracing Apache Kafka Client Instrumentation library includes several built-in span names, which are described below.

Example: Using custom span names to instrument client application code in a Decorator pattern
// Create a BiFunction for the KafkaProducer that operates on (String operationName, ProducerRecord consumerRecord) and returns a String to be used as the name:

BiFunction<String, ProducerRecord, String> producerSpanNameProvider =
    (operationName, producerRecord) -> "CUSTOM_PRODUCER_NAME";

// Create an instance of the KafkaProducer:
KafkaProducer<Integer, String> producer = new KafkaProducer<>(senderProps);

// Create an instance of the TracingKafkaProducer
TracingKafkaProducer<Integer, String> tracingProducer = new TracingKafkaProducer<>(producer,
        tracer,
        producerSpanNameProvider);

// Spans created by the tracingProducer will now have "CUSTOM_PRODUCER_NAME" as the span name.

// Create a BiFunction for the KafkaConsumer that operates on (String operationName, ConsumerRecord consumerRecord) and returns a String to be used as the name:

BiFunction<String, ConsumerRecord, String> consumerSpanNameProvider =
    (operationName, consumerRecord) -> operationName.toUpperCase();

// Create an instance of the KafkaConsumer:
KafkaConsumer<Integer, String> consumer = new KafkaConsumer<>(consumerProps);

// Create an instance of the TracingKafkaConsumer, passing in the consumerSpanNameProvider BiFunction:

TracingKafkaConsumer<Integer, String> tracingConsumer = new TracingKafkaConsumer<>(consumer,
        tracer,
        consumerSpanNameProvider);

// Spans created by the tracingConsumer will have the operation name as the span name, in upper-case.
// "receive" -> "RECEIVE"
Built-in span names

When defining custom span names, you can use the following BiFunctions in the ClientSpanNameProvider class. If no spanNameProvider is specified, CONSUMER_OPERATION_NAME and PRODUCER_OPERATION_NAME are used.

BiFunction Description

CONSUMER_OPERATION_NAME, PRODUCER_OPERATION_NAME

Returns the operationName as the span name: "receive" for Consumers and "send" for Producers.

CONSUMER_PREFIXED_OPERATION_NAME(String prefix), PRODUCER_PREFIXED_OPERATION_NAME(String prefix)

Returns a String concatenation of prefix and operationName.

CONSUMER_TOPIC, PRODUCER_TOPIC

Returns the name of the topic that the message was sent to or retrieved from in the format (record.topic()).

PREFIXED_CONSUMER_TOPIC(String prefix), PREFIXED_PRODUCER_TOPIC(String prefix)

Returns a String concatenation of prefix and the topic name in the format (record.topic()).

CONSUMER_OPERATION_NAME_TOPIC, PRODUCER_OPERATION_NAME_TOPIC

Returns the operation name and the topic name: "operationName - record.topic()".

CONSUMER_PREFIXED_OPERATION_NAME_TOPIC(String prefix), PRODUCER_PREFIXED_OPERATION_NAME_TOPIC(String prefix)

Returns a String concatenation of prefix and "operationName - record.topic()".

9.3.2. Instrumenting Kafka Streams applications for tracing

This section describes how to instrument Kafka Streams API applications for distributed tracing.

Procedure

Perform the following steps for each Kafka Streams API application.

  1. Add the opentracing-kafka-streams dependency to the pom.xml file for your Kafka Streams API application:

    <dependency>
    <groupId>io.opentracing.contrib</groupId>
    <artifactId>opentracing-kafka-streams</artifactId>
    <version>0.1.4</version>
</dependency>

  2. Create an instance of the TracingKafkaClientSupplier supplier interface:

    KafkaClientSupplier supplier = new TracingKafkaClientSupplier(tracer);

  3. Provide the supplier interface to KafkaStreams:

    KafkaStreams streams = new KafkaStreams(builder.build(), new StreamsConfig(config), supplier);
streams.start();

9.4. Setting up tracing for Mirror Maker, Kafka Connect, and the Kafka Bridge

Distributed tracing is supported for Mirror Maker, Kafka Connect (including Kafka Connect with Source2Image support), and the Strimzi Kafka Bridge.

Tracing in Mirror Maker

For Mirror Maker, messages are traced from the source cluster to the target cluster; the trace data records messages entering and leaving the Mirror Maker component.

Tracing in Kafka Connect

Only messages produced and consumed by Kafka Connect itself are traced. To trace messages sent between Kafka Connect and external systems, you must configure tracing in the connectors for those systems. For more information, see Kafka Connect cluster configuration.

Tracing in the Kafka Bridge

Messages produced and consumed by the Kafka Bridge are traced. Incoming HTTP requests from client applications to send and receive messages through the Kafka Bridge are also traced. In order to have end-to-end tracing, you must configure tracing in your HTTP clients.

9.4.1. Enabling tracing in Mirror Maker, Kafka Connect, and Kafka Bridge resources

Update the configuration of KafkaMirrorMaker, KafkaConnect, KafkaConnectS2I, and KafkaBridge custom resources to specify and configure a Jaeger tracer service for each resource. Updating a tracing-enabled resource in your Kubernetes cluster triggers two events:

  • Interceptor classes are updated in the integrated consumers and producers in Mirror Maker, Kafka Connect, or the Strimzi Kafka Bridge.

  • For Mirror Maker and Kafka Connect, the tracing agent initializes a Jaeger tracer based on the tracing configuration defined in the resource.

  • For the Kafka Bridge, a Jaeger tracer based on the tracing configuration defined in the resource is initialized by the Kafka Bridge itself.

Procedure

Perform these steps for each KafkaMirrorMaker, KafkaConnect, KafkaConnectS2I, and KafkaBridge resource.

  1. In the spec.template property, configure the Jaeger tracer service. For example:

    Jaeger tracer configuration for Kafka Connect
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect-cluster
spec:
  #...
  template:
    connectContainer: (1)
      env:
        - name: JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME
          value: my-jaeger-service
        - name: JAEGER_AGENT_HOST
          value: jaeger-agent-name
        - name: JAEGER_AGENT_PORT
          value: "6831"
  tracing: (2)
    type: jaeger
  #...
    Jaeger tracer configuration for Mirror Maker
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaMirrorMaker
metadata:
  name: my-mirror-maker
spec:
  #...
  template:
    mirrorMakerContainer:
      env:
        - name: JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME
          value: my-jaeger-service
        - name: JAEGER_AGENT_HOST
          value: jaeger-agent-name
        - name: JAEGER_AGENT_PORT
          value: "6831"
  tracing:
    type: jaeger
#...
    Jaeger tracer configuration for the Kafka Bridge
    apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta1
kind: KafkaBridge
metadata:
  name: my-bridge
spec:
  #...
  template:
    bridgeContainer:
      env:
        - name: JAEGER_SERVICE_NAME
          value: my-jaeger-service
        - name: JAEGER_AGENT_HOST
          value: jaeger-agent-name
        - name: JAEGER_AGENT_PORT
          value: "6831"
  tracing:
    type: jaeger
#...

    1. Use the tracing environment variables as template configuration properties.

    2. Set the spec.tracing.type property to jaeger.

  2. Create or update the resource:

    kubectl apply -f your-file
Additional resources

10. Kafka Exporter

Kafka Exporter is an open source project to enhance monitoring of Apache Kafka brokers and clients. Kafka Exporter is provided with Strimzi for deployment with a Kafka cluster to extract additional metrics data from Kafka brokers related to offsets, consumer groups, consumer lag, and topics.

The metrics data is used, for example, to help identify slow consumers.

Lag data is exposed as Prometheus metrics, which can then be presented in Grafana for analysis.

If you are already using Prometheus and Grafana for monitoring of built-in Kafka metrics, you can configure Prometheus to also scrape the Kafka Exporter Prometheus endpoint.

Additional resources

10.1. Consumer lag

Consumer lag indicates the difference in the rate of production and consumption of messages. Specifically, consumer lag for a given consumer group indicates the delay between the last message in the partition and the message being currently picked up by that consumer. The lag reflects the position of the consumer offset in relation to the end of the partition log.

This difference is sometimes referred to as the delta between the producer offset and consumer offset, the read and write positions in the Kafka broker topic partitions.

Suppose a topic streams 100 messages a second. A lag of 1000 messages between the producer offset (the topic partition head) and the last offset the consumer has read means a 10-second delay.

The importance of monitoring consumer lag

For applications that rely on the processing of (near) real-time data, it is critical to monitor consumer lag to check that it does not become too big. The greater the lag becomes, the further the process moves from the real-time processing objective.

Consumer lag, for example, might be a result of consuming too much old data that has not been purged, or through unplanned shutdowns.

Reducing consumer lag

Typical actions to reduce lag include:

  • Scaling-up consumer groups by adding new consumers

  • Increasing the retention time for a message to remain in a topic

  • Adding more disk capacity to increase the message buffer

Actions to reduce consumer lag depend on the underlying infrastructure and the use cases Strimzi is supporting. For instance, a lagging consumer is less likely to benefit from the broker being able to service a fetch request from its disk cache. And in certain cases, it might be acceptable to automatically drop messages until a consumer has caught up.

10.2. Kafka Exporter alerting rule examples

If you performed the steps to introduce metrics to your deployment, you will already have your Kafka cluster configured to use the alert notification rules that support Kafka Exporter.

The rules for Kafka Exporter are defined in prometheus-rules.yaml, and are deployed with Prometheus. For more information, see Prometheus.

The sample alert notification rules specific to Kafka Exporter are as follows:

UnderReplicatedPartition

An alert to warn that a topic is under-replicated and the broker is not replicating to enough partitions. The default configuration is for an alert if there are one or more under-replicated partitions for a topic. The alert might signify that a Kafka instance is down or the Kafka cluster is overloaded. A planned restart of the Kafka broker may be required to restart the replication process.

TooLargeConsumerGroupLag

An alert to warn that the lag on a consumer group is too large for a specific topic partition. The default configuration is 1000 records. A large lag might indicate that consumers are too slow and are falling behind the producers.

NoMessageForTooLong

An alert to warn that a topic has not received messages for a period of time. The default configuration for the time period is 10 minutes. The delay might be a result of a configuration issue preventing a producer from publishing messages to the topic.

Adapt the default configuration of these rules according to your specific needs.

Addit