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Create a Kafka cluster

This document shows how to create a Kafka cluster.

Before you start

  • Install KubeBlocks.

  • View all the database types and versions available for creating a cluster.

    Make sure the kafka cluster definition is installed. If the cluster definition is not available, refer to this doc to enable it first.

    kubectl get clusterdefinition kafka
    >
    NAME TOPOLOGIES SERVICEREFS STATUS AGE
    kafka Available 27m

    View all available versions for creating a cluster.

    kubectl get clusterversions -l clusterdefinition.kubeblocks.io/name=kafka
  • To keep things isolated, create a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.

    kubectl create namespace demo
note
  • KubeBlocks integrates Kafka v3.3.2, running it in KRaft mode.
  • You are not recommended to use kraft cluster in combined mode in production environment.
  • The controller number suggested ranges from 3 to 5, out of complexity and availability.

Create a Kafka cluster

  • Create a Kafka cluster in combined mode.

    # create kafka in combined mode 
    kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: apps.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
    kind: Cluster
    metadata:
    name: mycluster
    namespace: demo
    annotations:
    "kubeblocks.io/extra-env": '{"KB_KAFKA_ENABLE_SASL":"false","KB_KAFKA_BROKER_HEAP":"-XshowSettings:vm -XX:MaxRAMPercentage=100 -Ddepth=64","KB_KAFKA_CONTROLLER_HEAP":"-XshowSettings:vm -XX:MaxRAMPercentage=100 -Ddepth=64","KB_KAFKA_PUBLIC_ACCESS":"false", "KB_KAFKA_BROKER_NODEPORT": "false"}'
    kubeblocks.io/enabled-pod-ordinal-svc: broker
    spec:
    clusterDefinitionRef: kafka
    clusterVersionRef: kafka-3.3.2
    terminationPolicy: Delete
    affinity:
    podAntiAffinity: Preferred
    topologyKeys:
    - kubernetes.io/hostname
    tolerations:
    - key: kb-data
    operator: Equal
    value: "true"
    effect: NoSchedule
    services:
    - name: bootstrap
    serviceName: bootstrap
    componentSelector: broker
    spec:
    type: ClusterIP
    ports:
    - name: kafka-client
    targetPort: 9092
    port: 9092
    componentSpecs:
    - name: broker
    componentDef: kafka-combine
    tls: false
    replicas: 1
    serviceAccountName: kb-kafka-cluster
    resources:
    limits:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    requests:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    volumeClaimTemplates:
    - name: data
    spec:
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
    requests:
    storage: 20Gi
    - name: metadata
    spec:
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
    requests:
    storage: 20Gi
    - name: metrics-exp
    componentDefRef: kafka-exporter
    componentDef: kafka-exporter
    replicas: 1
    resources:
    limits:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    requests:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    EOF
  • Create a Kafka cluster in separated mode.

    # Create kafka cluster in separated mode
    kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: apps.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
    kind: Cluster
    metadata:
    name: kafka-cluster
    namespace: demo
    annotations:
    "kubeblocks.io/extra-env": '{"KB_KAFKA_ENABLE_SASL":"false","KB_KAFKA_BROKER_HEAP":"-XshowSettings:vm -XX:MaxRAMPercentage=100 -Ddepth=64","KB_KAFKA_CONTROLLER_HEAP":"-XshowSettings:vm -XX:MaxRAMPercentage=100 -Ddepth=64","KB_KAFKA_PUBLIC_ACCESS":"false", "KB_KAFKA_BROKER_NODEPORT": "false"}'
    kubeblocks.io/enabled-pod-ordinal-svc: broker
    spec:
    clusterDefinitionRef: kafka
    clusterVersionRef: kafka-3.3.2
    terminationPolicy: Delete
    affinity:
    podAntiAffinity: Preferred
    topologyKeys:
    - kubernetes.io/hostname
    tolerations:
    - key: kb-data
    operator: Equal
    value: "true"
    effect: NoSchedule
    services:
    - name: bootstrap
    serviceName: bootstrap
    componentSelector: broker
    spec:
    type: ClusterIP
    ports:
    - name: kafka-client
    targetPort: 9092
    port: 9092
    componentSpecs:
    - name: broker
    componentDef: kafka-broker
    tls: false
    replicas: 1
    serviceAccountName: kb-kafka-cluster
    resources:
    limits:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    requests:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    volumeClaimTemplates:
    - name: data
    spec:
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
    requests:
    storage: 20Gi
    - name: metadata
    spec:
    storageClassName: null
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
    requests:
    storage: 5Gi
    - name: controller
    componentDefRef: controller
    componentDef: kafka-controller
    tls: false
    replicas: 1
    serviceAccountName: kb-kafka-cluster
    resources:
    limits:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    requests:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    volumeClaimTemplates:
    - name: metadata
    spec:
    storageClassName: null
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
    requests:
    storage: 20Gi
    - name: metrics-exp
    componentDefRef: kafka-exporter
    componentDef: kafka-exporter
    replicas: 1
    resources:
    limits:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    requests:
    cpu: '0.5'
    memory: 0.5Gi
    EOF
note

If you only have one node for deploying a cluster with multiple replicas, set spec.affinity.topologyKeys as null.

FieldDefinition
metadata.annotations."kubeblocks.io/extra-env"It defines Kafka broker's jvm heap setting.
metadata.annotations.kubeblocks.io/enabled-pod-ordinal-svcIt defines kafka cluster annotation keys for nodeport feature gate. You can also setkubeblocks.io/enabled-node-port-svc: broker and kubeblocks.io/disabled-cluster-ip-svc: broker.
spec.clusterDefinitionRefIt specifies the name of the ClusterDefinition for creating a specific type of cluster.
spec.clusterVersionRefIt is the name of the cluster version CRD that defines the cluster version.
spec.terminationPolicyIt is the policy of cluster termination. The default value is Delete. Valid values are DoNotTerminate, Halt, Delete, WipeOut.

- DoNotTerminate blocks deletion operation.

- Halt deletes workload resources such as statefulset and deployment workloads but keep PVCs.

- Delete is based on Halt and deletes PVCs.

- WipeOut is based on Delete and wipe out all volume snapshots and snapshot data from a backup storage location.

spec.affinityIt defines a set of node affinity scheduling rules for the cluster's Pods. This field helps control the placement of Pods on nodes within the cluster.
spec.affinity.podAntiAffinityIt specifies the anti-affinity level of Pods within a component. It determines how pods should spread across nodes to improve availability and performance.
spec.affinity.topologyKeysIt represents the key of node labels used to define the topology domain for Pod anti-affinity and Pod spread constraints.
spec.tolerationsIt is an array that specifies tolerations attached to the cluster's Pods, allowing them to be scheduled onto nodes with matching taints.
spec.servicesIt defines the services to access a cluster.
spec.componentSpecsIt is the list of components that define the cluster components. This field allows customized configuration of each component within a cluster.
spec.componentSpecs.componentDefRefIt is the name of the component definition that is defined in the cluster definition and you can get the component definition names with kubectl get clusterdefinition kafka -o json \| jq '.spec.componentDefs[].name'.
spec.componentSpecs.nameIt specifies the name of the component.
spec.componentSpecs.replicasIt specifies the number of replicas of the component.
spec.componentSpecs.resourcesIt specifies the resource requirements of the component.