OpenMetadata/openmetadata-docs-v1/content/v1.0.0/connectors/messaging/kafka/index.md

---
title: Kafka
slug: /connectors/messaging/kafka
---

# Kafka

In this section, we provide guides and references to use the Kafka connector.

Configure and schedule Kafka metadata and profiler workflows from the OpenMetadata UI:

- [Requirements](#requirements)
- [Metadata Ingestion](#metadata-ingestion)

If you don't want to use the OpenMetadata Ingestion container to configure the workflows via the UI, then you can check
the following docs to connect using Airflow SDK or with the CLI.

{% tilesContainer %}

{% tile
    title="Ingest with Airflow"
    description="Configure the ingestion using Airflow SDK"
    link="/connectors/dashboard/kafka/airflow"
  / %}
{% tile
    title="Ingest with the CLI"
    description="Run a one-time ingestion using the metadata CLI"
    link="/connectors/dashboard/kafka/cli"
  / %}

{% /tilesContainer %}

## Requirements

{%inlineCallout icon="description" bold="OpenMetadata 0.12 or later" href="/deployment"%}
To deploy OpenMetadata, check the Deployment guides.
{%/inlineCallout%}

Connecting to Kafka does not require any previous configuration.

The ingestion of the Kafka topics' schema is done separately by configuring the **Schema Registry URL**. However, only the **Bootstrap Servers** information is mandatory.

To run the Ingestion via the UI you'll need to use the OpenMetadata Ingestion Container, which comes shipped with
custom Airflow plugins to handle the workflow deployment.

## Metadata Ingestion

{% stepsContainer %}

{% step srNumber=1 %}

{% stepDescription title="1. Visit the Services Page" %}

The first step is ingesting the metadata from your sources. Under
Settings, you will find a Services link an external source system to
OpenMetadata. Once a service is created, it can be used to configure
metadata, usage, and profiler workflows.

To visit the Services page, select Services from the Settings menu.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/visit-services.png"
alt="Visit Services Page"
caption="Find Dashboard option on left panel of the settings page" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% step srNumber=2 %}

{% stepDescription title="2. Create a New Service" %}

Click on the 'Add New Service' button to start the Service creation.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/create-service.png"
alt="Create a new service"
caption="Add a new Service from the Dashboard Services page" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% step srNumber=3 %}

{% stepDescription title="3. Select the Service Type" %}

Select Kafka as the service type and click Next.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
  src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/kafka/select-service.png"
  alt="Select Service"
  caption="Select your service from the list" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% step srNumber=4 %}

{% stepDescription title="4. Name and Describe your Service" %}

Provide a name and description for your service as illustrated below.

#### Service Name

OpenMetadata uniquely identifies services by their Service Name. Provide
a name that distinguishes your deployment from other services, including
the other {connector} services that you might be ingesting metadata
from.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
  src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/kafka/add-new-service.png"
  alt="Add New Service"
  caption="Provide a Name and description for your Service" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% step srNumber=5 %}

{% stepDescription title="5. Configure the Service Connection" %}

In this step, we will configure the connection settings required for
this connector. Please follow the instructions below to ensure that
you've configured the connector to read from your kafka service as
desired.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
  src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/kafka/service-connection.png"
  alt="Configure service connection"
  caption="Configure the service connection by filling the form" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% extraContent parentTagName="stepsContainer" %}

#### Connection Options

- **Bootstrap Servers**: List of brokers as comma separated values of broker `host` or `host:port`. Example: `host1:9092,host2:9092`
- **Schema Registry URL**: URL of the Schema Registry used to ingest the schemas of the topics.
- **SASL Username**: SASL username for use with the PLAIN and SASL-SCRAM mechanisms.
- **SASL Password**: SASL password for use with the PLAIN and SASL-SCRAM mechanisms.
- **SASL Mechanism**: SASL mechanism to use for authentication.
- **Basic Auth User Info**: Schema Registry Client HTTP credentials in the form of `username:password`. By default, user info is extracted from the URL if present.
- **Consumer Config**: The accepted additional values for the consumer configuration can be found in the following [link](https://github.com/edenhill/librdkafka/blob/master/CONFIGURATION.md).
- **Schema Registry Config**: The accepted additional values for the Schema Registry configuration can be found in the following [link](https://docs.confluent.io/5.5.1/clients/confluent-kafka-python/index.html#confluent_kafka.schema_registry.SchemaRegistryClient).

**Note:** To ingest the topic schema `Schema Registry URL` must be passed

{% /extraContent %}

{% step srNumber=6 %}

{% stepDescription title="6. Test the Connection" %}

Once the credentials have been added, click on `Test Connection` and Save
the changes.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
  src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/test-connection.png"
  alt="Test Connection"
  caption="Test the connection and save the Service" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% step srNumber=7 %}

{% stepDescription title="7. Configure Metadata Ingestion" %}

In this step we will configure the metadata ingestion pipeline,
Please follow the instructions below

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/configure-metadata-ingestion-messaging.png"
alt="Configure Metadata Ingestion"
caption="Configure Metadata Ingestion Page" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% extraContent parentTagName="stepsContainer" %}

#### Metadata Ingestion Options

- **Name**: This field refers to the name of ingestion pipeline, you can customize the name or use the generated name.
- **Topic Filter Pattern (Optional)**: Use it to control whether to include topics as part of metadata ingestion.
    - **Include**: Explicitly include topics by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Include' field. OpenMetadata will include all topics with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other topics will be excluded.
    - **Exclude**: Explicitly exclude topics by adding a list of comma-separated regular expressions to the 'Exclude' field. OpenMetadata will exclude all topics with names matching one or more of the supplied regular expressions. All other topics will be included.
- **Ingest Sample Data (toggle)**: Set the 'Ingest Sample Data' toggle to ingest sample data from the topics.
- **Enable Debug Log (toggle)**: Set the 'Enable Debug Log' toggle to set the default log level to debug, these logs can be viewed later in Airflow.
- **Mark Deleted Topics (toggle):** Set the 'Mark Deleted Topics' toggle to flag topics as soft-deleted if they are not present anymore in the source system.

{% /extraContent %}

{% step srNumber=8 %}

{% stepDescription title="8. Schedule the Ingestion and Deploy" %}

Scheduling can be set up at an hourly, daily, or weekly cadence. The
timezone is in UTC. Select a Start Date to schedule for ingestion. It is
optional to add an End Date.

Review your configuration settings. If they match what you intended,
click Deploy to create the service and schedule metadata ingestion.

If something doesn't look right, click the Back button to return to the
appropriate step and change the settings as needed.

After configuring the workflow, you can click on Deploy to create the
pipeline.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/schedule.png"
alt="Schedule the Workflow"
caption="Schedule the Ingestion Pipeline and Deploy" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% step srNumber=9 %}

{% stepDescription title="9. View the Ingestion Pipeline" %}

Once the workflow has been successfully deployed, you can view the
Ingestion Pipeline running from the Service Page.

{% /stepDescription %}

{% stepVisualInfo %}

{% image
src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/view-ingestion-pipeline.png"
alt="View Ingestion Pipeline"
caption="View the Ingestion Pipeline from the Service Page" /%}

{% /stepVisualInfo %}

{% /step %}

{% /stepsContainer %}

## Troubleshooting

 ### Workflow Deployment Error

If there were any errors during the workflow deployment process, the
Ingestion Pipeline Entity will still be created, but no workflow will be
present in the Ingestion container.

- You can then edit the Ingestion Pipeline and Deploy it again.

- From the Connection tab, you can also Edit the Service if needed.

{% image
src="/images/v1.0.0/openmetadata/connectors/workflow-deployment-error.png"
alt="Workflow Deployment Error"
caption="Edit and Deploy the Ingestion Pipeline" /%}