Chapter 2. Getting started
2.1. AMQ Streams distribution
AMQ Streams is distributed as single ZIP file. This ZIP file contains AMQ Streams components:
- Apache ZooKeeper
- Apache Kafka
- Apache Kafka Connect
- Apache Kafka MirrorMaker
- Kafka Bridge
- Kafka Exporter
2.2. Downloading an AMQ Streams Archive
An archived distribution of AMQ Streams is available for download from the Red Hat website. You can download a copy of the distribution by following the steps below.
Procedure
- Download the latest version of the Red Hat AMQ Streams archive from the Customer Portal.
2.3. Installing AMQ Streams
Follow this procedure to install the latest version of AMQ Streams on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
For instructions on upgrading an existing cluster to AMQ Streams 1.5, see AMQ Streams and Kafka upgrades.
Prerequisites
- Download the installation archive.
- Review the Section 1.3, “Supported Configurations”
Procedure
Add new
kafka
user and group.sudo groupadd kafka sudo useradd -g kafka kafka sudo passwd kafka
Create directory
/opt/kafka
.sudo mkdir /opt/kafka
Create a temporary directory and extract the contents of the AMQ Streams ZIP file.
mkdir /tmp/kafka unzip amq-streams_y.y-x.x.x.zip -d /tmp/kafka
Move the extracted contents into
/opt/kafka
directory and delete the temporary directory.sudo mv /tmp/kafka/kafka_y.y-x.x.x/* /opt/kafka/ rm -r /tmp/kafka
Change the ownership of the
/opt/kafka
directory to thekafka
user.sudo chown -R kafka:kafka /opt/kafka
Create directory
/var/lib/zookeeper
for storing ZooKeeper data and set its ownership to thekafka
user.sudo mkdir /var/lib/zookeeper sudo chown -R kafka:kafka /var/lib/zookeeper
Create directory
/var/lib/kafka
for storing Kafka data and set its ownership to thekafka
user.sudo mkdir /var/lib/kafka sudo chown -R kafka:kafka /var/lib/kafka
2.4. Data storage considerations
An efficient data storage infrastructure is essential to the optimal performance of AMQ Streams.
AMQ Streams requires block storage and works well with cloud-based block storage solutions, such as Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). The use of file storage is not recommended.
Choose local storage when possible. If local storage is not available, you can use a Storage Area Network (SAN) accessed by a protocol such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI.
2.4.1. Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper storage support
Use separate disks for Apache Kafka and ZooKeeper.
Kafka supports JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) storage, a data storage configuration of multiple disks or volumes. JBOD provides increased data storage for Kafka brokers. It can also improve performance.
Solid-state drives (SSDs), though not essential, can improve the performance of Kafka in large clusters where data is sent to and received from multiple topics asynchronously. SSDs are particularly effective with ZooKeeper, which requires fast, low latency data access.
You do not need to provision replicated storage because Kafka and ZooKeeper both have built-in data replication.
2.4.2. File systems
It is recommended that you configure your storage system to use the XFS file system. AMQ Streams is also compatible with the ext4 file system, but this might require additional configuration for best results.
Additional resources
- For more information about XFS, see The XFS File System.
2.5. Running a single node AMQ Streams cluster
This procedure shows how to run a basic AMQ Streams cluster consisting of single ZooKeeper and single Apache Kafka node both running on the same host. The default configuration files are used for ZooKeeper and Kafka.
A single node AMQ Streams cluster does not provide reliability and high availability and is suitable only for development purposes.
Prerequisites
- AMQ Streams is installed on the host
Running the cluster
Edit the ZooKeeper configuration file
/opt/kafka/config/zookeeper.properties
. Set thedataDir
option to/var/lib/zookeeper/
.dataDir=/var/lib/zookeeper/
Start ZooKeeper.
su - kafka /opt/kafka/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh -daemon /opt/kafka/config/zookeeper.properties
Make sure that Apache ZooKeeper is running.
jcmd | grep zookeeper
Returns:
number org.apache.zookeeper.server.quorum.QuorumPeerMain config/zookeeper.properties
Edit the Kafka configuration file
/opt/kafka/config/server.properties
. Set thelog.dirs
option to/var/lib/kafka/
.log.dirs=/var/lib/kafka/
Start Kafka.
su - kafka /opt/kafka/bin/kafka-server-start.sh -daemon /opt/kafka/config/server.properties
Make sure that Kafka is running.
jcmd | grep kafka
Returns:
number kafka.Kafka config/server.properties
Additional resources
- For more information about installing AMQ Streams, see Section 2.3, “Installing AMQ Streams”.
- For more information about configuring AMQ Streams, see Section 2.8, “Configuring AMQ Streams”.
2.6. Using the cluster
This procedure shows how to start the Kafka producer and consumer to send and receive messages.
Prerequisites
- AMQ Streams is installed on the host
- ZooKeeper and Kafka are up and running
A topic is created automatically in this procedure. Alternatively, you can configure and create topics before using the cluster. For more information on creating and managing topics, see Topics.
Procedure
Start the Kafka console producer.
/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh --broker-list <bootstrap-address> --topic <topic-name>
For example:
/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh --broker-list localhost:9092 --topic my-topic
- Type your message into the console where the producer is running.
Press Enter to send.
When Kafka creates a new topic automatically, you might receive warning messages to say the topic does not exist:
WARN Error while fetching metadata with correlation id 39 : {4-3-16-topic1=LEADER_NOT_AVAILABLE} (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient) WARN [Producer clientId=console-producer] Error while fetching metadata with correlation id 4 : {my-topic=LEADER_NOT_AVAILABLE} (org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient)
The warning messages should not reappear after you start sending messages to the new topic.
The
auto.create.topics.enable
configuration property enables the automatic creation of topics.Start the message receiver.
/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server <bootstrap-address> --topic <topic-name> --from-beginning
For example:
/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --topic my-topic --from-beginning
- Confirm that you see the incoming messages in the consumer console.
- Press Crtl+C to exit the Kafka console producer and consumer.
2.7. Stopping the AMQ Streams services
You can stop the Kafka and ZooKeeper services by running a script. All connections to the Kafka and ZooKeeper services will be terminated.
Prerequisites
- AMQ Streams is installed on the host
- ZooKeeper and Kafka are up and running
Procedure
Stop the Kafka broker.
su - kafka /opt/kafka/bin/kafka-server-stop.sh
Confirm that the Kafka broker is stopped.
jcmd | grep kafka
Stop ZooKeeper.
su - kafka /opt/kafka/bin/zookeeper-server-stop.sh
2.8. Configuring AMQ Streams
Prerequisites
- AMQ Streams is downloaded and installed on the host
Procedure
Open ZooKeeper and Kafka broker configuration files in a text editor. The configuration files are located at :
- ZooKeeper
-
/opt/kafka/config/zookeeper.properties
- Kafka
-
/opt/kafka/config/server.properties
Edit the configuration options. The configuration files are in the Java properties format. Every configuration option should be on separate line in the following format:
<option> = <value>
Lines starting with
#
or!
will be treated as comments and will be ignored by AMQ Streams components.# This is a comment
Values can be split into multiple lines by using
\
directly before the newline / carriage return.sasl.jaas.config=org.apache.kafka.common.security.plain.PlainLoginModule required \ username="bob" \ password="bobs-password";
- Save the changes
- Restart the ZooKeeper or Kafka broker
- Repeat this procedure on all the nodes of the cluster.