Some of my previous blog posts (such as Kafka Connect on Kubernetes, the easy way!), demonstrate how to use Kafka Connect in a Kubernetes-native way. This is the first in a series of blog posts which will cover Apache Kafka on Kubernetes using the Strimzi Operator. In this post, we will start off with the simplest possible setup i.e. a single node Kafka (and Zookeeper) cluster and learn:

• Strimzi overview and setup
• Kafka cluster installation
• Kubernetes resources used/created behind the scenes
• Test the Kafka setup using clients within the Kubernetes cluster

The code is available on GitHub - https://github.com/abhirockzz/kafka-kubernetes-strimzi

What Do I Need to Try This Out?

kubectl - https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/

I will be using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to demonstrate the concepts, but by and large it is independent of the Kubernetes provider (e.g. feel free to use a local setup such as minikube). If you want to use AKS, all you need is a Microsoft Azure account which you can get for FREE if you don’t have one already.

Install Helm

I will be using Helm to install Strimzi. Here is the documentation to install Helm itself - https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/

You can also use the YAML files directly to install Strimzi. Check out the quick start guide here - https://strimzi.io/docs/quickstart/latest/#proc-install-product-str

(optional) Setup Azure Kubernetes Service

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) makes it simple to deploy a managed Kubernetes cluster in Azure. It reduces the complexity and operational overhead of managing Kubernetes by offloading much of that responsibility to Azure. Here are examples of how you can setup an AKS cluster using

• Azure CLI, - Azure portal or
• ARM template

#tutorial #big data #docker #kubernetes #kafka #cncf #strimzi