kafka_connect

Welcome to the kafka_connect Puppet module!

Table of Contents

1. Description
2. Setup - The basics of getting started with kafka_connect
   • What kafka_connect affects
   • Getting started with_kafka_connect
3. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
   • Typical deployment
   • Managing connectors through the helper class
   • • Add a connector
   • • Update an existing connector
   • • Remove a connector
   • • Pause a connector
   • • Managing secrets config data
   • Managing connectors directly through the resource type
   • • WARNING: Breaking change in v2.0.0
   • • Examples
4. Reference - An under-the-hood peek at what the module is doing and how
5. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.
   • Known Issues
6. Development - Guide for contributing to the module

Description

Manages the setup of Kafka Connect.

Supports running through either Confluent package or Apache .tgz archive.

Includes a Type, Provider, and helper class for management of individual KC connectors.

Setup

What kafka_connect affects

• Manages the KC installation, configuration, and system service.
• Manages the individual state of running connectors, + their config & secret files.

Getting started with kafka_connect

For a basic Kafka Connect system setup with the default settings, declare the kafka_connect class.

class { 'kafka_connect': }

Usage

See the manifest documentation for various examples.

Typical deployment

For a typical distributed mode deployment, most of the default settings should be fine. However, a normal setup will involve connecting to a cluster of Kafka brokers and the replication factor config values for storage topics should be increased. Here is a real-world example that also specifies version and includes the Confluent JDBC plugin:

  class { 'kafka_connect':
    config_storage_replication_factor => 3,
    offset_storage_replication_factor => 3,
    status_storage_replication_factor => 3,
    bootstrap_servers                 => [
      "kafka-01.${facts['networking']['domain']}:9092",
      "kafka-02.${facts['networking']['domain']}:9092",
      "kafka-03.${facts['networking']['domain']}:9092",
      "kafka-04.${facts['networking']['domain']}:9092",
      "kafka-05.${facts['networking']['domain']}:9092"
    ],
    confluent_hub_plugins             => [ 'confluentinc/kafka-connect-jdbc:10.7.4' ],
    package_ensure                    => '7.5.2-1',
    repo_version                      => '7.5',
  }

Managing connectors through the helper class

The helper class is designed to work with connector data defined in hiera.

The main class needs to be included/declared. If only the connector management functionality is desired, there's a flag to exclude the standard setup stuff:

  class { 'kafka_connect':
    manage_connectors_only => true,
  }

The following sections provide examples of specific functionality through hiera data.

Add a Connector

The connector config data should be added to hiera with the following layout.

kafka_connect::connectors:
  my-connector.json:
    name: 'my-kc-connector'
    config:
      my.config.key: "value"
      my.other.config: "other_value"

Update an existing Connector

Simply make changes to the connector config hash, as needed.

kafka_connect::connectors:
  my-connector.json:
    name: 'my-kc-connector'
    config:
      my.config.key: "new_value"
      my.other.config: "other_new_value"

Remove a Connector

There's a parameter, enable_delete, that by default is set to false and must first be overwritten to support this. Then use the optional ensure key in the connector data hash and set it to 'absent'.

kafka_connect::enable_delete: true
kafka_connect::connectors:
  my-connector.json:
    name: 'my-jdbc-connector'
    ensure: 'absent'

NOTE: be sure to remove it from the secrets array list as well, if present.

Pause a Connector

The provider supports ensuring the connector state is either running (default) or paused. Similar to removing, use the ensure key in the connector data hash and set it to 'paused'.

kafka_connect::connectors:
  my-connector.json:
    name: 'my-jdbc-connector'
    ensure: 'paused'
    config:
      my.config.key: "value"
      my.other.config: "other_value"

Remove the ensure line or set it to 'running' to unpause/resume.

Managing Secrets Config Data

Support for Externalized Secrets is provided through kafka_connect::secrets. This enables things like database passwords, etc., to be separated from the normal config and just loaded into memory when the connector starts.

The following is a basic DB connection example defined in YAML.

kafka_connect::connectors:
  my-connector.json:
    name: 'my-jdbc-connector'
    config:
      connection.url: "jdbc:postgresql://some-host.example.com:5432/db"
      connection.user: "my-user"
      connection.password: "${file:/etc/kafka-connect/my-jdbc-secret-file.properties:jdbc-sink-connection-password}"

The password is then added, preferably via EYAML, with the file and var names used in the config.

kafka_connect::secrets:
  my-jdbc-secret-file.properties:
    connectors:
      - 'my-jdbc-connector'
    key: 'jdbc-sink-connection-password'
    value: 'ENC[PKCS7,encrypted-passwd-value]'

To add multiple secrets to a single file, use the kv_data hash. Continuing with the example above, to instead have individual secret vars for each of the connection configs:

kafka_connect::secrets:
  my-jdbc-secret-file.properties:
    connectors:
      - 'my-jdbc-connector'
    kv_data:
      jdbc-sink-connection-url: 'ENC[PKCS7,encrypted-url-value]'
      jdbc-sink-connection-user: 'ENC[PKCS7,encrypted-user-value]'
      jdbc-sink-connection-password: 'ENC[PKCS7,encrypted-passwd-value]'

The connectors array should contain a list of connector names that reference it in the config. This allows for automatic update/refresh (via REST API restart POST) if the password value is changed.

To later remove unused files, use the optional ensure hash key and set it to 'absent'.

kafka_connect::secrets:
  my-old-jdbc-secret-file.properties:
    ensure: 'absent'

Managing connectors directly through the resource type

WARNING: Breaking change in v2.0.0

In release v2.0.0 the type and provider were renamed from manage_connector to kc_connector. Usage and functionality remain the same.

Examples

Ensure a connector exists and the running config matches the file config:

  kc_connector { 'some-kc-connector-name' :
    ensure      => 'present',
    config_file => '/etc/kafka-connect/some-kc-connector.properties.json',
    port        => 8084,
  }

To pause:

  kc_connector { 'some-kc-connector-name' :
    connector_state_ensure => 'PAUSED',
  }

To remove:

  kc_connector { 'some-kc-connector-name' :
    ensure        => 'absent',
    enable_delete => true,
  }

Command to remove through the Puppet RAL:

$ puppet resource kc_connector some-kc-connector-name ensure=absent enable_delete=true

Limitations

Tested with Confluent Platform 7.x and Apache Kafka 3.8.0 on the Operating Systems noted in metadata.json.

Known Issues

In certain situations, for example when a connector is set to absent and the enable_delete parameter is false (the default), Puppet will report a system state change when actually none has occured (i.e., it lies). There are warnings output along with the change notices in these scenarios.

Development

The project is held at GitHub:

• https://github.com/rjd1/puppet-kafka_connect

Issue reports and pull requests are welcome.