Kafka

Function

The Kafka connector allows for reading data from and writing data into Kafka topics.

Apache Kafka is a fast, scalable, and fault-tolerant distributed message publishing and subscription system. It delivers high throughput and built-in partitions and provides data replicas and fault tolerance. Apache Kafka is applicable to scenarios of handling massive messages.

Table 1 Supported types

Type

Description

Supported Table Types

Source table and result table

Supported Data Formats

CSV

JSON

Apache Avro

Confluent Avro

Debezium CDC

Canal CDC

Maxwell CDC

OGG CDC

Raw

Prerequisites

Caveats

Syntax

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create table kafkaSource(
  attr_name attr_type 
  (',' attr_name attr_type)* 
  (','PRIMARY KEY (attr_name, ...) NOT ENFORCED)
  (',' WATERMARK FOR rowtime_column_name AS watermark-strategy_expression)
)
with (
  'connector' = 'kafka',
  'topic' = '',
  'properties.bootstrap.servers' = '',
  'properties.group.id' = '',
  'scan.startup.mode' = '',
  'format' = ''
);

Source Table Parameter Description

Table 2 Source table parameters

Parameter

Mandatory

Default Value

Data Type

Description

connector

Yes

None

String

Specify what connector to use, for Kafka use kafka.

topic

No

None

String

Topic name(s) to read data from when the table is used as source. It also supports topic list for source by separating topic by semicolon like topic-1;topic-2.

Note, only one of topic-pattern and topic can be specified for sources.

When the table is used as sink, the topic name is the topic to write data to. Note topic list is not supported for sinks.

topic-pattern

No

None

String

The regular expression for a pattern of topic names to read from.

All topics with names that match the specified regular expression will be subscribed by the consumer when the job starts running.

Note, only one of topic-pattern and topic can be specified for sources.

For more information, see Topic and Partition Discovery.

properties.bootstrap.servers

Yes

None

String

Comma separated list of Kafka brokers.

properties.group.id

optional for source, not applicable for sink

None

String

The ID of the consumer group for Kafka source. If group ID is not specified, an automatically generated ID KafkaSource-{tableIdentifier} will be used.

properties.*

No

None

String

This can set and pass arbitrary Kafka configurations.

  • Suffix names must match the configuration key defined in Apache Kafka.

    Flink will remove the properties. key prefix and pass the transformed key and values to the underlying KafkaClient. For example, you can disable automatic topic creation via 'properties.allow.auto.create.topics' = 'false'.

  • But there are some configurations that do not support to set, because Flink will override them, e.g. key.deserializer and value.deserializer.

format

Yes

None

String

The format used to deserialize and serialize the value part of Kafka messages.

Either this parameter or the value.format parameter is required.

  • For details about the message key and body of Kafka messages, see Key and Value Formats.
  • Refer to Format for more details and format parameters.

key.format

No

None

String

The format used to deserialize and serialize the key part of Kafka messages.

  • If a key format is defined, the key.fields parameter is required as well. Otherwise the Kafka records will have an empty key.
  • Refer to Format for more details and format parameters.

key.fields

No

[]

List<String>

Defines an explicit list of physical columns from the table schema that configure the data type for the key format.

By default, this list is empty and thus a key is undefined. The list should look like field1;field2.

key.fields-prefix

No

None

String

Defines a custom prefix for all fields of the key format to avoid name clashes with fields of the value format. By default, the prefix is empty.

If a custom prefix is defined, both the table schema and key.fields will work with prefixed names.

When constructing the data type of the key format, the prefix will be removed and the non-prefixed names will be used within the key format.

Note that this parameter requires that value.fields-include must be set to EXCEPT_KEY.

value.format

No

None

String

The format used to deserialize and serialize the value part of Kafka messages.

  • Either this parameter or the format parameter is required. If two parameters are configured, a conflict occurs.
  • Refer to Format for more details and format parameters.

value.fields-include

No

ALL

Enum

Possible values: [ALL, EXCEPT_KEY]

Defines a strategy how to deal with key columns in the data type of the value format.

By default, ALL physical columns of the table schema will be included in the value format which means that key columns appear in the data type for both the key and value format.

scan.startup.mode

No

group-offsets

String

Startup mode for Kafka consumer.

Valid values are:

  • earliest-offset: start from the earliest offset possible.
  • latest-offset: start from the latest offset.
  • group-offsets: start from committed offsets in ZooKeeper/Kafka brokers of a specific consumer group.
  • timestamp: start from user-supplied timestamp for each partition.
  • specific-offsets: start from user-supplied specific offsets for each partition, and the position is specified by scan.startup.specific-offsets.

scan.startup.specific-offsets

No

None

String

Specify offsets for each partition in case of specific-offsets startup mode, e.g. partition:0,offset:42;partition:1,offset:300.

scan.startup.timestamp-millis

No

None

Long

Start from the specified epoch timestamp (milliseconds) used in case of timestamp startup mode.

scan.topic-partition-discovery.interval

No

None

Duration

Interval for consumer to discover dynamically created Kafka topics and partitions periodically.

Result Table Parameters

Table 3 Result table parameters

Parameter

Mandatory

Default Value

Data Type

Description

connector

Yes

None

String

Specify what connector to use, for Kafka use kafka.

topic

No

None

String

Topic name(s) to read data from when the table is used as source. It also supports topic list for source by separating topic by semicolon like topic-1;topic-2.

Note, only one of topic-pattern and topic can be specified for sources.

When the table is used as sink, the topic name is the topic to write data to. Note topic list is not supported for sinks.

properties.bootstrap.servers

Yes

None

String

Comma separated list of Kafka brokers.

properties.*

No

None

String

This can set and pass arbitrary Kafka configurations.

  • Suffix names must match the configuration key defined in Apache Kafka.

    Flink will remove the properties. key prefix and pass the transformed key and values to the underlying KafkaClient. For example, you can disable automatic topic creation via 'properties.allow.auto.create.topics' = 'false'.

  • But there are some configurations that do not support to set, because Flink will override them, e.g. key.deserializer and value.deserializer.

format

Yes

None

String

The format used to deserialize and serialize the value part of Kafka messages. Note, either this parameter or the value.format parameter is required.

  • For details about the message key and body of Kafka messages, see Key and Value Formats.
  • Refer to Format for more details and format parameters.

key.format

No

None

String

The format used to deserialize and serialize the key part of Kafka messages.

  • If a key format is defined, the key.fields parameter is required as well. Otherwise the Kafka records will have an empty key.
  • Refer to Format for more details and format parameters.

key.fields

No

[]

List<String>

Defines an explicit list of physical columns from the table schema that configure the data type for the key format.

By default, this list is empty and thus a key is undefined. The list should look like field1;field2.

key.fields-prefix

No

None

String

Defines a custom prefix for all fields of the key format to avoid name clashes with fields of the value format. By default, the prefix is empty.

If a custom prefix is defined, both the table schema and key.fields will work with prefixed names.

When constructing the data type of the key format, the prefix will be removed and the non-prefixed names will be used within the key format. Note that this parameter requires that value.fields-include must be set to EXCEPT_KEY.

value.format

No

None

String

The format used to deserialize and serialize the value part of Kafka messages.

  • Either this parameter or the format parameter is required. If two parameters are configured, a conflict occurs.
  • Refer to Format for more details and format parameters.

value.fields-include

No

ALL

Enum

Possible values: [ALL, EXCEPT_KEY]

Defines a strategy how to deal with key columns in the data type of the value format.

By default, ALL physical columns of the table schema will be included in the value format which means that key columns appear in the data type for both the key and value format.

sink.partitioner

No

'default'

String

Output partitioning from Flink's partitions into Kafka's partitions. Valid values are:

  • default: use the kafka default partitioner to partition records.
  • fixed: each Flink partition ends up in at most one Kafka partition.
  • round-robin: a Flink partition is distributed to Kafka partitions sticky round-robin. It only works when record's keys are not specified.
  • Custom FlinkKafkaPartitioner subclass: e.g. org.mycompany.MyPartitioner.

sink.semantic

No

at-least-once

String

Defines the delivery semantic for the Kafka sink. Valid enumerationns are at-least-once, exactly-once, and none.

sink.parallelism

No

None

Integer

Defines the parallelism of the Kafka sink operator. By default, the parallelism is determined by the framework: using the same parallelism as the upstream chained operator.

Metadata

You can define metadata in the source table to obtain the metadata of Kafka messages.

For example, if multiple topics are defined in the WITH parameter and metadata is defined in the Kafka source table, the data read by Flink is labeled with the topic from which the data is read.

Table 4 Metadata

Key

Data Type

R/W

Description

topic

STRING NOT NULL

R

Topic name of the Kafka record.

partition

INT NOT NULL

R

Partition ID of the Kafka record.

headers

MAP<STRING, BYTES> NOT NULL

R/W

Headers of the Kafka record as a map of raw bytes.

leader-epoch

INT NULL

R

Leader epoch of the Kafka record if available.

offset

BIGINT NOT NULL

R

Offset of the Kafka record in the partition.

timestamp

TIMESTAMP(3) WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE NOT NULL

R/W

Timestamp of the Kafka record.

timestamp-type

STRING NOT NULL

R

Timestamp type of the Kafka record.

  • NoTimestampType: No timestamp is defined in the message.
  • CreateTime: time when the message is generated.
  • LogAppendTime: time when the message is added to the Kafka broker.

Key and Value Formats

Both the key and value part of a Kafka record can be serialized to and deserialized from raw bytes using one of the given formats.

Topic and Partition Discovery

The config parameters topic and topic-pattern specify the topics or topic pattern to consume for source. The config parameter topic can accept topic list using semicolon separator like topic-1;topic-2. The config parameter topic-pattern will use regular expression to discover the matched topic. For example, if the topic-pattern is test-topic-[0-9], then all topics with names that match the specified regular expression (starting with test-topic- and ending with a single digit)) will be subscribed by the consumer when the job starts running.

To allow the consumer to discover dynamically created topics after the job started running, set a non-negative value for scan.topic-partition-discovery.interval. This allows the consumer to discover partitions of new topics with names that also match the specified pattern.

Note that topic list and topic pattern only work in sources. In sinks, Flink currently only supports a single topic.

Example 1: Reading DMS Kafka Metadata in CSV Format and Outputting It to a Kafka Sink (Applicable for Kafka Clusters Without SASL_SSL Enabled)

  1. Create an enhanced datasource connection in the VPC and subnet where Kafka locates, and bind the connection to the required Flink elastic resource pool.
  2. Set Kafka security groups and add inbound rules to allow access from the Flink queue. Test the connectivity using the Kafka address. If the connection passes the test, it is bound to the queue.
  3. Create a Flink OpenSource SQL job. Enter the following job script and submit the job.
    When you create a job, set Flink Version to 1.15 in the Running Parameters tab. Select Save Job Log, and specify the OBS bucket for saving job logs. Change the values of the parameters in bold as needed in the following script.
    CREATE TABLE kafkaSource(
      `topic` String metadata virtual,
      `partition` int metadata virtual,
      `headers` MAP<STRING, BYTES> metadata virtual,
      `leader-epoch` INT metadata virtual,
      `offset` bigint metadata virtual,
      `timestamp-type` string metadata virtual,
      `event_time` TIMESTAMP(3) metadata FROM 'timestamp',
      `message` string
    ) WITH (
      'connector' = 'kafka',
      'topic' = 'SourceKafkaTopic',
      'properties.bootstrap.servers' = 'KafkaAddress1:KafkaPort,KafkaAddress2:KafkaPort',
      'properties.group.id' = 'GroupId',
      'scan.startup.mode' = 'latest-offset',
      'format' = 'csv',
      'csv.field-delimiter' = '\u0001',  
      'csv.quote-character' = ''''
    );
    
    CREATE TABLE kafkaSink (
      `topic` String,
      `partition` int,
      `headers` MAP<STRING, BYTES>,
      `leader-epoch` INT,
      `offset` bigint,
      `timestampType` string,
      `event_time` TIMESTAMP(3),
      `message` string -- Indicates that data written by users is read from Kafka.
    ) WITH (
      'connector' = 'kafka',
      'topic' = 'SinkKafkaTopic',
      'properties.bootstrap.servers' = 'KafkaAddress1:KafkaPort,KafkaAddress2:KafkaPort',
      'format' = 'json'
    );
    insert into kafkaSink select * from kafkaSource;
  4. Send the following data to the topic of the source table in Kafka. The Kafka topic is kafkaSource.

    {"order_id":"202103241000000001", "order_channel":"webShop", "order_time":"2021-03-24 10:00:00", "pay_amount":"100.00", "real_pay":"100.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-24 10:02:03", "user_id":"0001", "user_name":"Alice", "area_id":"330106"}
    
    {"order_id":"202103241606060001", "order_channel":"appShop", "order_time":"2021-03-24 16:06:06", "pay_amount":"200.00", "real_pay":"180.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-24 16:10:06", "user_id":"0001", "user_name":"Alice", "area_id":"330106"}
    
    {"order_id":"202103251202020001", "order_channel":"miniAppShop", "order_time":"2021-03-25 12:02:02", "pay_amount":"60.00", "real_pay":"60.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-25 12:03:00", "user_id":"0002", "user_name":"Bob", "area_id":"330110"}
  5. Read the topic of the Kafka result table. The Kafka topic is kafkaSink.
    {"topic":"kafkaSource","partition":1,"headers":{},"leader-epoch":0,"offset":4,"timestampType":"LogAppendTime","event_time":"2023-11-16 11:16:30.369","message":"{\"order_id\":\"202103251202020001\", \"order_channel\":\"miniAppShop\", \"order_time\":\"2021-03-25 12:02:02\", \"pay_amount\":\"60.00\", \"real_pay\":\"60.00\", \"pay_time\":\"2021-03-25 12:03:00\", \"user_id\":\"0002\", \"user_name\":\"Bob\", \"area_id\":\"330110\"}"}
    
    {"topic":"kafkaSource","partition":0,"headers":{},"leader-epoch":0,"offset":6,"timestampType":"LogAppendTime","event_time":"2023-11-16 11:16:30.367","message":"{\"order_id\":\"202103241000000001\",\"order_channel\":\"webShop\",\"order_time\":\"2021-03-24 10:00:00\",\"pay_amount\":100.0,\"real_pay\":100.0,\"pay_time\":\"2021-03-24 10:02:03\",\"user_id\":\"0001\",\"user_name\":\"Alice\",\"area_id\":\"330106\"}"}
    
    {"topic":"kafkaSource","partition":2,"headers":{},"leader-epoch":0,"offset":5,"timestampType":"LogAppendTime","event_time":"2023-11-16 11:16:30.368","message":"{\"order_id\":\"202103241606060001\",\"order_channel\":\"appShop\",\"order_time\":\"2021-03-24 16:06:06\",\"pay_amount\":200.0,\"real_pay\":180.0,\"pay_time\":\"2021-03-24 16:10:06\",\"user_id\":\"0001\",\"user_name\":\"Alice\",\"area_id\":\"330106\"}"}

Example 2: Using DMS Kafka in JSON Format as the Source Table and Outputting It to a Kafka Sink (Applicable for Kafka Clusters Without SASL_SSL Enabled)

Use the Kafka source table and Kafka result table to read JSON data from Kafka and output it to the log file.
  1. Create an enhanced datasource connection in the VPC and subnet where Kafka locates, and bind the connection to the required Flink elastic resource pool.
  2. Set Kafka security groups and add inbound rules to allow access from the Flink queue. Test the connectivity using the Kafka address. If the connection passes the test, it is bound to the queue.
  3. Create a Flink OpenSource SQL job. Enter the following job script and submit the job.
    When you create a job, set Flink Version to 1.15 in the Running Parameters tab. Select Save Job Log, and specify the OBS bucket for saving job logs. Change the values of the parameters in bold as needed in the following script.
    CREATE TABLE kafkaSource(
      order_id string,
      order_channel string,
      order_time timestamp(3),
      pay_amount double,
      real_pay double,
      pay_time string,
      user_id string,
      user_name string,  
      area_id string
    ) WITH (
      'connector' = 'kafka',
      'topic' = 'KafkaSourceTopic',
      'properties.bootstrap.servers' = 'KafkaAddress1:KafkaPort,KafkaAddress2:KafkaPort',
      'properties.group.id' = 'GroupId',
      'scan.startup.mode' = 'latest-offset',
      'format' = 'json'
    );
    
    CREATE TABLE kafkaSink (
      order_id string,
      order_channel string,
      order_time timestamp(3),
      pay_amount double,
      real_pay double,
      pay_time string,
      user_id string,
      user_name string,  
      area_id string
    ) WITH (
      'connector' = 'kafka',
      'topic' = 'KafkaSinkTopic',
      'properties.bootstrap.servers' = 'KafkaAddress1:KafkaPort,KafkaAddress2:KafkaPort',
      'format' = 'json'
    );
    insert into kafkaSink select * from kafkaSource;
  4. Send the following data to the topic of the source table in Kafka:
    {"order_id":"202103241000000001", "order_channel":"webShop", "order_time":"2021-03-24 10:00:00", "pay_amount":"100.00", "real_pay":"100.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-24 10:02:03", "user_id":"0001", "user_name":"Alice", "area_id":"330106"} 
    
    {"order_id":"202103241606060001", "order_channel":"appShop", "order_time":"2021-03-24 16:06:06", "pay_amount":"200.00", "real_pay":"180.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-24 16:10:06", "user_id":"0001", "user_name":"Alice", "area_id":"330106"}
    
    {"order_id":"202103251202020001", "order_channel":"miniAppShop", "order_time":"2021-03-25 12:02:02", "pay_amount":"60.00", "real_pay":"60.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-25 12:03:00", "user_id":"0002", "user_name":"Bob", "area_id":"330110"}
  5. Read the topic of the Kafka result table. The data results are as follows:
    {"order_id":"202103241000000001", "order_channel":"webShop", "order_time":"2021-03-24 10:00:00", "pay_amount":"100.00", "real_pay":"100.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-24 10:02:03", "user_id":"0001", "user_name":"Alice", "area_id":"330106"} 
    
    {"order_id":"202103241606060001", "order_channel":"appShop", "order_time":"2021-03-24 16:06:06", "pay_amount":"200.00", "real_pay":"180.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-24 16:10:06", "user_id":"0001", "user_name":"Alice", "area_id":"330106"}
    
    {"order_id":"202103251202020001", "order_channel":"miniAppShop", "order_time":"2021-03-25 12:02:02", "pay_amount":"60.00", "real_pay":"60.00", "pay_time":"2021-03-25 12:03:00", "user_id":"0002", "user_name":"Bob", "area_id":"330110"}

Example 3: Using DMS Kafka as the Source Table and Print as the Result Table (Applicable for Kafka Clusters with SASL_SSL Enabled)

Create a Kafka cluster for DMS, enable SASL_SSL, download the SSL certificate, and upload the downloaded certificate client.jks to an OBS bucket.

The properties.sasl.jaas.config field contains account passwords encrypted using DEW.

CREATE TABLE ordersSource (
  order_id string,
  order_channel string,
  order_time timestamp(3),
  pay_amount double,
  real_pay double,
  pay_time string,
  user_id string,
  user_name string,
  area_id string
) WITH (
  'connector' = 'kafka',
  'topic' = 'KafkaTopic',
  'properties.bootstrap.servers' = 'KafkaAddress1:9093,KafkaAddress2:9093',
  'properties.group.id' = 'GroupId',
  'scan.startup.mode' = 'latest-offset',
  'properties.connector.auth.open' = 'true',
  'properties.ssl.truststore.location' = 'obs://xx/client.jks',  -- Location where the user uploads the certificate to
  'properties.sasl.mechanism' = 'PLAIN', 
  'properties.security.protocol' = 'SASL_SSL',
  'properties.sasl.jaas.config' = 'xx',  -- Key in DEW secret management, whose value is like org.apache.kafka.common.security.plain.PlainLoginModule required username=xx password=xx;
  'format' = 'json',
  'dew.endpoint' = 'kms.xx.com', --Endpoint information for the DEW service being used
  'dew.csms.secretName' = 'xx', --Name of the DEW shared secret
  'dew.csms.decrypt.fields' = 'properties.sasl.jaas.config', --The properties.sasl.jaas.config field value must be decrypted and replaced using DEW secret management.
  'dew.csms.version' = 'v1'
);

CREATE TABLE ordersSink (
  order_id string,
  order_channel string,
  order_time timestamp(3),
  pay_amount double,
  real_pay double,
  pay_time string,
  user_id string,
  user_name string,
  area_id string
) WITH (
  'connector' = 'print'
);
 insert into ordersSink select * from ordersSource;

Example 4: Using Kafka (MRS Cluster) as the Source Table and Print as the Result Table (Applicable for Kafka with SASL_SSL Enabled and MRS Using Kerberos Authentication)

CREATE TABLE ordersSource (
  order_id string,
  order_channel string,
  order_time timestamp(3),
  pay_amount double,
  real_pay double,
  pay_time string,
  user_id string,
  user_name string,
  area_id string
) WITH (
  'connector' = 'kafka',
  'topic' = 'kafkaTopic',
  'properties.bootstrap.servers' = 'KafkaAddress1:KafkaPort,KafkaAddress2:KafkaPort',
  'properties.group.id' = 'GroupId',
  'scan.startup.mode' = 'latest-offset',
  'properties.sasl.kerberos.service.name' = 'kafka', -- Value configured in the MRS cluster
  'properties.connector.auth.open' = 'true',
  'properties.connector.kerberos.principal' = 'xx', --Username
  'properties.connector.kerberos.krb5' = 'obs://xx/krb5.conf',
  'properties.connector.kerberos.keytab' = 'obs://xx/user.keytab',
  'properties.security.protocol' = 'SASL_SSL',
  'properties.ssl.truststore.location' = 'obs://xx/truststore.jks',
  'properties.ssl.truststore.password' = 'xx',  -- Key in the DEW secret
  'properties.sasl.mechanism' = 'GSSAPI',
  'format' = 'json',
  'dew.endpoint'='kms.xx.xx.com', --Endpoint information for the DEW service being used
  'dew.csms.secretName'='xx', --Name of the DEW shared secret
  'dew.csms.decrypt.fields'='properties.ssl.truststore.password', --The properties.ssl.truststore.password field value must be decrypted and replaced using DEW secret management.
  'dew.csms.version'='v1'
);

CREATE TABLE ordersSink (
  order_id string,
  order_channel string,
  order_time timestamp(3),
  pay_amount double,
  real_pay double,
  pay_time string,
  user_id string,
  user_name string,
  area_id string
) WITH (
  'connector' = 'print'
);
 insert into ordersSink select * from ordersSource;

Example 5: Using Kafka (MRS Cluster) as the Source Table and Print as the Result Table (Applicable for Kafka with SASL_SSL Enabled and MRS Using SASL_PLAINTEXT with Kerberos Authentication)

CREATE TABLE ordersSource (
  order_id string,
  order_channel string,
  order_time timestamp(3),
  pay_amount double,
  real_pay double,
  pay_time string,
  user_id string,
  user_name string,
  area_id string
) WITH (
  'connector' = 'kafka',
  'topic' = 'KafkaTopic',
  'properties.bootstrap.servers' = 'KafkaAddress1:KafkaPort,KafkaAddress2:KafkaPort',
  'properties.group.id' = 'GroupId',
  'scan.startup.mode' = 'latest-offset',
  'properties.sasl.kerberos.service.name' = 'kafka', -- Configured in the MRS cluster
  'properties.connector.auth.open' = 'true',
  'properties.connector.kerberos.principal' = 'xx',
  'properties.connector.kerberos.krb5' = 'obs://xx/krb5.conf',
  'properties.connector.kerberos.keytab' = 'obs://xx/user.keytab',
  'properties.security.protocol' = 'SASL_PLAINTEXT',
  'properties.sasl.mechanism' = 'GSSAPI',
  'format' = 'json'
);

CREATE TABLE ordersSink (
  order_id string,
  order_channel string,
  order_time timestamp(3),
  pay_amount double,
  real_pay double,
  pay_time string,
  user_id string,
  user_name string,
  area_id string
) WITH (
  'connector' = 'print'
);
 insert into ordersSink select * from ordersSource;

Example 6: Using Kafka (MRS Cluster) as the Source Table and Print as the Result Table (Applicable for Kafka with SSL Enabled and MRS Without Kerberos Authentication Enabled)

FAQ