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ConnectCluster QuickStart

This tutorial will show you how to use KubeDB to run an Apache Kafka Connect Cluster.

  lifecycle

Before You Begin

At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using kind.

Now, install the KubeDB operator in your cluster following the steps here.

To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.

$ kubectl create namespace demo
namespace/demo created

$ kubectl get namespace
NAME                 STATUS   AGE
demo                 Active   9s

Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in guides/kafka/quickstart/overview/connectcluster/yamls folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.

We have designed this tutorial to demonstrate a production setup of KubeDB managed Apache Kafka Connect Cluster. If you just want to try out KubeDB, you can bypass some safety features following the tips here.

Find Available ConnectCluster Versions

When you install the KubeDB operator, it registers a CRD named KafkaVersion. ConnectCluster Version is using the KafkaVersion CR to define the specification of ConnectCluster. The installation process comes with a set of tested KafkaVersion objects. Let’s check available KafkaVersions by,

$ kubectl get kfversion

NAME    VERSION   DB_IMAGE                                    DEPRECATED   AGE
3.3.2   3.3.2     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-kraft:3.3.2                24m
3.4.1   3.4.1     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-kraft:3.4.1                24m
3.5.1   3.5.1     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-kraft:3.5.1                24m
3.5.2   3.5.2     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-kraft:3.5.2                24m
3.6.0   3.6.0     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-kraft:3.6.0                24m
3.6.1   3.6.1     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-kraft:3.6.1                24m

Notice the DEPRECATED column. Here, true means that this KafkaVersion is deprecated for the current KubeDB version. KubeDB will not work for deprecated KafkaVersion. You can also use the short from kfversion to check available KafkaVersions.

In this tutorial, we will use 3.6.1 KafkaVersion CR to create a Kafka Connect cluster.

Find Available KafkaConnector Versions

When you install the KubeDB operator, it registers a CRD named KafkaConnectorVersion. KafkaConnectorVersion use to load connector-plugins to run ConnectCluster worker node(ex. mongodb-source/sink). The installation process comes with a set of tested KafkaConnectorVersion objects. Let’s check available KafkaConnectorVersions by,

$ kubectl get kcversion

NAME                   VERSION   CONNECTOR_IMAGE                                                DEPRECATED   AGE
gcs-0.13.0             0.13.0    ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-connector-gcs:0.13.0                          10m
jdbc-2.6.1.final       2.6.1     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-connector-jdbc:2.6.1.final                    10m
mongodb-1.11.0         1.11.0    ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-connector-mongodb:1.11.0                      10m
mysql-2.4.2.final      2.4.2     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-connector-mysql:2.4.2.final                   10m
postgres-2.4.2.final   2.4.2     ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-connector-postgres:2.4.2.final                10m
s3-2.15.0              2.15.0    ghcr.io/appscode-images/kafka-connector-s3:2.15.0                           10m

Notice the DEPRECATED column. Here, true means that this KafkaConnectorVersion is deprecated for the current KubeDB version. KubeDB will not work for deprecated KafkaConnectorVersion. You can also use the short from kcversion to check available KafkaConnectorVersions.

Details of ConnectorPlugins

Connector PluginTypeVersionConnector Class
mongodb-1.11.0Source1.11.0com.mongodb.kafka.connect.MongoSourceConnector
mongodb-1.11.0Sink1.11.0com.mongodb.kafka.connect.MongoSinkConnector
mysql-2.4.2.finalSource2.4.2.Finalio.debezium.connector.mysql.MySqlConnector
postgres-2.4.2.finalSource2.4.2.Finalio.debezium.connector.postgresql.PostgresConnector
jdbc-2.6.1.finalSink2.6.1.Finalio.debezium.connector.jdbc.JdbcSinkConnector
s3-2.15.0Sink2.15.0io.aiven.kafka.connect.s3.AivenKafkaConnectS3SinkConnector
gcs-0.13.0Sink0.13.0io.aiven.kafka.connect.gcs.GcsSinkConnector

Create a Kafka Connect Cluster

The KubeDB operator implements a ConnectCluster CRD to define the specification of ConnectCluster.

The ConnectCluster instance used for this tutorial:

apiVersion: kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: ConnectCluster
metadata:
  name: connectcluster-quickstart
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: 3.6.1
  replicas: 3
  connectorPlugins:
    - mongodb-1.11.0
    - mysql-2.4.2.final
    - postgres-2.4.2.final
    - jdbc-2.6.1.final
  kafkaRef:
    name: kafka-quickstart
    namespace: demo
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Here,

  • spec.version - is the name of the KafkaVersion CR. Here, a ConnectCluster of version 3.6.1 will be created.
  • spec.replicas - specifies the number of ConnectCluster workers.
  • spec.connectorPlugins - is the name of the KafkaConnectorVersion CR. Here, mongodb, mysql, postgres, and jdbc connector-plugins will be loaded to the ConnectCluster worker nodes.
  • spec.kafkaRef specifies the Kafka instance that the ConnectCluster will connect to. Here, the ConnectCluster will connect to the Kafka instance named kafka-quickstart in the demo namespace.
  • spec.deletionPolicy specifies what KubeDB should do when a user try to delete ConnectCluster CR. Deletion policy WipeOut will delete the worker pods, secret when the ConnectCluster CR is deleted.

N.B:

  1. If replicas are set to 1, the ConnectCluster will run in standalone mode, you can’t scale replica after provision the cluster.
  2. If replicas are set to more than 1, the ConnectCluster will run in distributed mode.
  3. If you want to run the ConnectCluster in distributed mode with 1 replica, you must set the CONNECT_CLUSTER_MODE environment variable to distributed in the pod template.
spec:
  podTemplate:
    spec:
    containers:
    - name: connect-cluster
      env:
      - name: CONNECT_CLUSTER_MODE
        value: distributed

Before create ConnectCluster, you have to deploy a Kafka cluster first. To deploy kafka cluster, follow the Kafka Quickstart guide. Let’s assume kafka-quickstart is already deployed using KubeDB. Let’s create the ConnectCluster CR that is shown above:

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.7.3-rc.0/docs/guides/kafka/quickstart/overview/connectcluster/yamls/connectcluster.yaml
connectcluster.kafka.kubedb.com/connectcluster-quickstart created

The ConnectCluster’s STATUS will go from Provisioning to Ready state within few minutes. Once the STATUS is Ready, you are ready to use the ConnectCluster.

$ kubectl get connectcluster -n demo -w
NAME                        TYPE                        VERSION   STATUS         AGE
connectcluster-quickstart   kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1   3.6.1     Provisioning   2s
connectcluster-quickstart   kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1   3.6.1     Provisioning   4s
.
.
connectcluster-quickstart   kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1   3.6.1     Ready          112s

Describe the ConnectCluster object to observe the progress if something goes wrong or the status is not changing for a long period of time:

$ kubectl describe connectcluster -n demo connectcluster-quickstart
Name:         connectcluster-quickstart
Namespace:    demo
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
Kind:         ConnectCluster
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2024-05-02T07:06:07Z
  Finalizers:
    kafka.kubedb.com/finalizer
  Generation:        2
  Resource Version:  8824
  UID:               bbf4669c-db7a-46c0-a1f4-c93a5e24592e
Spec:
  Auth Secret:
    Name:  connectcluster-quickstart-connect-cred
  Connector Plugins:
    mongodb-1.11.0
    mysql-2.4.2.final
    postgres-2.4.2.final
    jdbc-2.6.1.final
  Health Checker:
    Failure Threshold:  3
    Period Seconds:     20
    Timeout Seconds:    10
  Kafka Ref:
    Name:       kafka-quickstart
    Namespace:  demo
  Pod Template:
    Controller:
    Metadata:
    Spec:
      Containers:
        Env:
          Name:   CONNECT_CLUSTER_MODE
          Value:  distributed
        Name:     connect-cluster
        Resources:
          Limits:
            Memory:  1Gi
          Requests:
            Cpu:     500m
            Memory:  1Gi
        Security Context:
          Allow Privilege Escalation:  false
          Capabilities:
            Drop:
              ALL
          Run As Group:     1001
          Run As Non Root:  true
          Run As User:      1001
          Seccomp Profile:
            Type:  RuntimeDefault
      Init Containers:
        Name:  mongodb
        Resources:
          Limits:
            Memory:  512Mi
          Requests:
            Cpu:     200m
            Memory:  512Mi
        Security Context:
          Allow Privilege Escalation:  false
          Capabilities:
            Drop:
              ALL
          Run As Group:     1001
          Run As Non Root:  true
          Run As User:      1001
          Seccomp Profile:
            Type:  RuntimeDefault
        Name:      mysql
        Resources:
          Limits:
            Memory:  512Mi
          Requests:
            Cpu:     200m
            Memory:  512Mi
        Security Context:
          Allow Privilege Escalation:  false
          Capabilities:
            Drop:
              ALL
          Run As Group:     1001
          Run As Non Root:  true
          Run As User:      1001
          Seccomp Profile:
            Type:  RuntimeDefault
        Name:      postgres
        Resources:
          Limits:
            Memory:  512Mi
          Requests:
            Cpu:     200m
            Memory:  512Mi
        Security Context:
          Allow Privilege Escalation:  false
          Capabilities:
            Drop:
              ALL
          Run As Group:     1001
          Run As Non Root:  true
          Run As User:      1001
          Seccomp Profile:
            Type:  RuntimeDefault
        Name:      jdbc
        Resources:
          Limits:
            Memory:  512Mi
          Requests:
            Cpu:     200m
            Memory:  512Mi
        Security Context:
          Allow Privilege Escalation:  false
          Capabilities:
            Drop:
              ALL
          Run As Group:     1001
          Run As Non Root:  true
          Run As User:      1001
          Seccomp Profile:
            Type:  RuntimeDefault
      Security Context:
        Fs Group:      1001
  Replicas:            3
  Deletion Policy:     WipeOut
  Version:             3.6.1
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2024-05-02T08:04:29Z
    Message:               The KubeDB operator has started the provisioning of ConnectCluster: demo/connectcluster-quickstart
    Observed Generation:   1
    Reason:                DatabaseProvisioningStartedSuccessfully
    Status:                True
    Type:                  ProvisioningStarted
    Last Transition Time:  2024-05-02T08:06:20Z
    Message:               All desired replicas are ready.
    Observed Generation:   2
    Reason:                AllReplicasReady
    Status:                True
    Type:                  ReplicaReady
    Last Transition Time:  2024-05-02T08:06:45Z
    Message:               The ConnectCluster: demo/connectcluster-quickstart is accepting client requests
    Observed Generation:   2
    Reason:                DatabaseAcceptingConnectionRequest
    Status:                True
    Type:                  AcceptingConnection
    Last Transition Time:  2024-05-02T08:06:45Z
    Message:               The ConnectCluster: demo/connectcluster-quickstart is ready.
    Observed Generation:   2
    Reason:                ReadinessCheckSucceeded
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Ready
    Last Transition Time:  2024-05-02T08:06:46Z
    Message:               The ConnectCluster: demo/connectcluster-quickstart is successfully provisioned.
    Observed Generation:   2
    Reason:                DatabaseSuccessfullyProvisioned
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Provisioned
  Phase:                   Ready
Events:                    <none>

KubeDB Operator Generated Resources

On deployment of a ConnectCluster CR, the operator creates the following resources:

$ kubectl get all,secret -n demo -l 'app.kubernetes.io/instance=connectcluster-quickstart'
NAME                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/connectcluster-quickstart-0   1/1     Running   0          3m50s
pod/connectcluster-quickstart-1   1/1     Running   0          3m7s
pod/connectcluster-quickstart-2   1/1     Running   0          2m36s

NAME                                     TYPE        CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE
service/connectcluster-quickstart        ClusterIP   10.128.221.44   <none>        8083/TCP   3m55s
service/connectcluster-quickstart-pods   ClusterIP   None            <none>        8083/TCP   3m55s

NAME                                         READY   AGE
statefulset.apps/connectcluster-quickstart   3/3     3m50s

NAME                                                           TYPE                              VERSION   AGE
appbinding.appcatalog.appscode.com/connectcluster-quickstart   kafka.kubedb.com/connectcluster   3.6.1     3m50s

NAME                                            TYPE                       DATA   AGE
secret/connectcluster-quickstart-config         Opaque                     1      3m55s
secret/connectcluster-quickstart-connect-cred   kubernetes.io/basic-auth   2      3m56s
  • StatefulSet - a StatefulSet named after the ConnectCluster instance.
  • Services - For a ConnectCluster instance headless service is created with name {ConnectCluster-name}-{pods} and a primary service created with name {ConnectCluster-name}.
  • AppBinding - an AppBinding which hold to connect information for the ConnectCluster worker nodes. It is also named after the ConnectCluster instance.
  • Secrets - 3 types of secrets are generated for each Connect cluster.
    • {ConnectCluster-Name}-connect-cred - the auth secrets which hold the username and password for the Kafka users. Operator generates credentials for admin user if not provided and creates a secret for authentication.
    • {ConnectCluster-Name}-{alias}-cert - the certificate secrets which hold tls.crt, tls.key, and ca.crt for configuring the ConnectCluster instance if tls enabled.
    • {ConnectCluster-Name}-config - the default configuration secret created by the operator.

Create Connectors

To create a connector, you can use the Kafka Connect REST API. But, KubeDB operator implements a Connector CRD to define the specification of a connector. Create a Connector CR to create a connector. Details of the Connector CR.

At first, we will create config.properties file containing required configuration settings. I am using the mongodb-source connector here. You can use any other connector as per your requirement.

$ cat config.properties

  connector.class=com.mongodb.kafka.connect.MongoSourceConnector
  tasks.max=1
  connection.uri=mongodb://root:[email protected]:27017/
  topic.prefix=mongo
  database=mongodb
  collection=source
  poll.max.batch.size=1000
  poll.await.time.ms=5000
  heartbeat.interval.ms=3000
  offset.partition.name=mongo-source
  startup.mode=copy_existing
  publish.full.document.only=true
  key.ignore=true
  value.converter=org.apache.kafka.connect.json.JsonConverter
  value.converter.schemas.enable=false

Here,

  1. A MongoDB instance is already running. You can use your own MongoDB instance. To run mongodb instance, follow the MongoDB Quickstart guide.
  2. Update connection.uri with your MongoDB URI. Example: mongodb://<username>:<password@<host>:<port>/.
  3. Update database and collection as per your MongoDB database and collection name. We are using mongodb and source as database and collection name respectively.
  4. Update topic.prefix with your topic prefix. We are using mongo as topic prefix. So, the topic name will be mongo.mongodb.source.

Now, we will create secret containing config.properties file.

$ kubectl create secret generic mongodb-source-config --from-file=./config.properties -n demo

Now, we will use this secret to create a Connector CR.

apiVersion: kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Connector
metadata:
  name: mongodb-source-connector
  namespace: demo
spec:
  configSecret:
    name: mongodb-source-config
  connectClusterRef:
    name: connectcluster-quickstart
    namespace: demo
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Here,

  • spec.configSecret - is the name of the secret containing the connector configuration.
  • spec.connectClusterRef - is the name of the ConnectCluster instance that the connector will run on. This is an appbinding reference of the ConnectCluster instance.
  • spec.deletionPolicy - specifies what KubeDB should do when a user try to delete Connector CR. Deletion policy WipeOut will delete the connector from the ConnectCluster when the Connector CR is deleted. If you want to keep the connector after deleting the Connector CR, you can set the deletion policy to Delete.

Now, create the Connector CR that is shown above:

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.7.3-rc.0/docs/guides/kafka/quickstart/overview/connectcluster/yamls/mongodb-source-connector.yaml
connector.kafka.kubedb.com/mongodb-source-connector created
$ kubectl get connector -n demo -w

NAME                       TYPE                        CONNECTCLUSTER              STATUS   AGE
mongodb-source-connector   kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1   connectcluster-quickstart   Pending   0s
mongodb-source-connector   kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1   connectcluster-quickstart   Pending   0s
.
.
mongodb-source-connector   kafka.kubedb.com/v1alpha1   connectcluster-quickstart   Running   1s

MongoDB source connector is created successfully and the status is Running. Now, the connector is ready to fetch data from the MongoDB instance to the Kafka topic.

Insert Data to MongoDB

Now, we will insert some data to the source collection of the mongodb database. The data will be fetched by the MongoDB source connector and will be published to the Kafka topic. To insert data to the MongoDB collection, exec into the primary pod of the MongoDB instance and insert data.

mongodb@mg-rep-0:/$ mongo --username root --password XbCj85wKfCPKapJ8 --host mg-rep.demo.svc --port 27017 
MongoDB shell version v4.4.26
connecting to: mongodb://mg-rep.demo.svc:27017/?compressors=disabled&gssapiServiceName=mongodb
Implicit session: session { "id" : UUID("b1df7173-d32b-490a-b4c0-4e7d63539dc0") }
MongoDB server version: 4.4.26
rs1:PRIMARY> use mongodb
switched to db mongodb
rs1:PRIMARY> db.source.insertOne({"hi":"kubedb"})
{
	"acknowledged" : true,
	"insertedId" : ObjectId("66389ca8c43abff3a434b916")
}
rs1:PRIMARY> db.source.insertOne({"kafka":"connectcluster"})
{
	"acknowledged" : true,
	"insertedId" : ObjectId("66389cb4c43abff3a434b917")
}
rs1:PRIMARY> db.source.insertOne({"mongodb":"source"})
{
	"acknowledged" : true,
	"insertedId" : ObjectId("66389cc0c43abff3a434b918")
}

Check Data in Kafka Topic

Exec into one of the kafka brokers in interactive mode. Run consumer command to check the data in the topic.

$ kubectl exec -it kafka-quickstart-1 -n demo -- bash
kafka@kafka-quickstart-1:~$ kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --consumer.config config/clientauth.properties --topic mongo.mongodb.source --from-beginning
"{\"_id\": {\"$oid\": \"66389ca8c43abff3a434b916\"}, \"hi\": \"kubedb\"}"
"{\"_id\": {\"$oid\": \"66389cb4c43abff3a434b917\"}, \"kafka\": \"connectcluster\"}"
"{\"_id\": {\"$oid\": \"66389cc0c43abff3a434b918\"}, \"mongodb\": \"source\"}"

You can see the data inserted in the MongoDB collection is fetched by the MongoDB source connector and published to the Kafka topic.

Cleaning up

To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:

$ kubectl patch -n demo connectcluster connectcluster-quickstart -p '{"spec":{"deletionPolicy":"WipeOut"}}' --type="merge"
connectcluster.kafka.kubedb.com/connectcluster-quickstart patched

$ kubectl delete kf connectcluster-quickstart  -n demo
connectcluster.kafka.kubedb.com "connectcluster-quickstart" deleted

$  kubectl delete namespace demo
namespace "demo" deleted

Tips for Testing

If you are just testing some basic functionalities, you might want to avoid additional hassles due to some safety features that are great for the production environment. You can follow these tips to avoid them.

1 Use deletionPolicy: Delete. It is nice to be able to resume the cluster from the previous one. So, we preserve auth Secrets. If you don’t want to resume the cluster, you can just use spec.deletionPolicy: WipeOut. It will clean up every resource that was created with the ConnectCluster CR. For more details, please visit here.

Next Steps