14.2. Configuring listeners to connect to Kafka brokers

Use listeners for client connection to Kafka brokers. Streams for Apache Kafka provides a generic GenericKafkaListener schema with properties to configure listeners through the Kafka resource. The GenericKafkaListener provides a flexible approach to listener configuration. You can specify properties to configure internal listeners for connecting within the OpenShift cluster or external listeners for connecting outside the OpenShift cluster.

Specify a connection type to expose Kafka in the listener configuration. The type chosen depends on your requirements, and your environment and infrastructure. The following listener types are supported:

An internal type listener configuration uses a headless service and the DNS names given to the broker pods. You might want to join your OpenShift network to an outside network. In which case, you can configure an internal type listener (using the useServiceDnsDomain property) so that the OpenShift service DNS domain (typically .cluster.local) is not used. You can also configure a cluster-ip type of listener that exposes a Kafka cluster based on per-broker ClusterIP services. This is a useful option when you can’t route through the headless service or you wish to incorporate a custom access mechanism. For example, you might use this listener when building your own type of external listener for a specific Ingress controller or the OpenShift Gateway API.

External listeners handle access to a Kafka cluster from networks that require different authentication mechanisms. You can configure external listeners for client access outside an OpenShift environment using a specified connection mechanism, such as a loadbalancer or route. For example, loadbalancers might not be suitable for certain infrastructure, such as bare metal, where node ports provide a better option.

Each listener is defined as an array in the Kafka resource.

apiVersion: kafka.strimzi.io/v1beta2
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    # ...
    listeners:
      - name: plain
        port: 9092
        type: internal
        tls: false
        configuration:
          useServiceDnsDomain: true
      - name: tls
        port: 9093
        type: internal
        tls: true
        authentication:
          type: tls
      - name: external1
        port: 9094
        type: route
        tls: true
        configuration:
          brokerCertChainAndKey:
            secretName: my-secret
            certificate: my-certificate.crt
            key: my-key.key
    # ...

You can configure as many listeners as required, as long as their names and ports are unique. You can also configure listeners for secure connection using authentication.

If you want to know more about the pros and cons of each connection type, refer to Accessing Apache Kafka in Strimzi.