org.apache.beam.sdk.io.kafka

Class KafkaIO

java.lang.Object

org.apache.beam.sdk.io.kafka.KafkaIO

@Experimental(value=SOURCE_SINK)
public class KafkaIO
extends java.lang.Object

An unbounded source and a sink for Kafka topics.

Reading from Kafka topics

KafkaIO source returns unbounded collection of Kafka records as PCollection<KafkaRecord<K, V>>. A KafkaRecord includes basic metadata like topic-partition and offset, along with key and value associated with a Kafka record.

Although most applications consume a single topic, the source can be configured to consume multiple topics or even a specific set of TopicPartitions.

To configure a Kafka source, you must specify at the minimum Kafka bootstrapServers, one or more topics to consume, and key and value deserializers. For example:

  pipeline
    .apply(KafkaIO.<Long, String>read()
       .withBootstrapServers("broker_1:9092,broker_2:9092")
       .withTopic("my_topic")  // use withTopics(List<String>) to read from multiple topics.
       .withKeyDeserializer(LongDeserializer.class)
       .withValueDeserializer(StringDeserializer.class)

       // Above four are required configuration. returns PCollection<KafkaRecord<Long, String>>

       // Rest of the settings are optional :

       // you can further customize KafkaConsumer used to read the records by adding more
       // settings for ConsumerConfig. e.g :
       .updateConsumerProperties(ImmutableMap.of("group.id", "my_beam_app_1"))

       // set event times and watermark based on 'LogAppendTime'. To provide a custom
       // policy see withTimestampPolicyFactory(). withProcessingTime() is the default.
       // Use withCreateTime() with topics that have 'CreateTime' timestamps.
       .withLogAppendTime()

       // restrict reader to committed messages on Kafka (see method documentation).
       .withReadCommitted()

       // offset consumed by the pipeline can be committed back.
       .commitOffsetsInFinalize()

       // finally, if you don't need Kafka metadata, you can drop it.g
       .withoutMetadata() // PCollection<KV<Long, String>>
    )
    .apply(Values.<String>create()) // PCollection<String>
     ...
 

Kafka provides deserializers for common types in org.apache.kafka.common.serialization. In addition to deserializers, Beam runners need Coder to materialize key and value objects if necessary. In most cases, you don't need to specify Coder for key and value in the resulting collection because the coders are inferred from deserializer types. However, in cases when coder inference fails, they can be specified explicitly along with deserializers using KafkaIO.Read.withKeyDeserializerAndCoder(Class, Coder) and KafkaIO.Read.withValueDeserializerAndCoder(Class, Coder). Note that Kafka messages are interpreted using key and value deserializers.

Partition Assignment and Checkpointing

The Kafka partitions are evenly distributed among splits (workers).

Checkpointing is fully supported and each split can resume from previous checkpoint (to the extent supported by runner). See KafkaUnboundedSource.split(int, PipelineOptions) for more details on splits and checkpoint support.

When the pipeline starts for the first time, or without any checkpoint, the source starts consuming from the latest offsets. You can override this behavior to consume from the beginning by setting appropriate appropriate properties in ConsumerConfig, through KafkaIO.Read.updateConsumerProperties(Map). You can also enable offset auto_commit in Kafka to resume from last committed.

In summary, KafkaIO.read follows below sequence to set initial offset:
1. KafkaCheckpointMark provided by runner;
2. Consumer offset stored in Kafka when ConsumerConfig.ENABLE_AUTO_COMMIT_CONFIG = true;
3. Start from latest offset by default;

Writing to Kafka

KafkaIO sink supports writing key-value pairs to a Kafka topic. Users can also write just the values. To configure a Kafka sink, you must specify at the minimum Kafka bootstrapServers, the topic to write to, and key and value serializers. For example:

  PCollection<KV<Long, String>> kvColl = ...;
  kvColl.apply(KafkaIO.<Long, String>write()
       .withBootstrapServers("broker_1:9092,broker_2:9092")
       .withTopic("results")

       .withKeySerializer(LongSerializer.class)
       .withValueSerializer(StringSerializer.class)

       // You can further customize KafkaProducer used to write the records by adding more
       // settings for ProducerConfig. e.g, to enable compression :
       .updateProducerProperties(ImmutableMap.of("compression.type", "gzip"))

       // You set publish timestamp for the Kafka records.
       .withInputTimestamp() // element timestamp is used while publishing to Kafka
       // or you can also set a custom timestamp with a function.
       .withPublishTimestampFunction((elem, elemTs) -> ...)

       // Optionally enable exactly-once sink (on supported runners). See JavaDoc for withEOS().
       .withEOS(20, "eos-sink-group-id");
    );
 

Often you might want to write just values without any keys to Kafka. Use values() to write records with default empty(null) key:

  PCollection<String> strings = ...;
  strings.apply(KafkaIO.<Void, String>write()
      .withBootstrapServers("broker_1:9092,broker_2:9092")
      .withTopic("results")
      .withValueSerializer(StringSerializer.class) // just need serializer for value
      .values()
    );
 

Advanced Kafka Configuration

KafkaIO allows setting most of the properties in ConsumerConfig for source or in ProducerConfig for sink. E.g. if you would like to enable offset auto commit (for external monitoring or other purposes), you can set "group.id", "enable.auto.commit", etc.

Event Timestamps and Watermark

By default, record timestamp (event time) is set to processing time in KafkaIO reader and source watermark is current wall time. If a topic has Kafka server-side ingestion timestamp enabled ('LogAppendTime'), it can enabled with KafkaIO.Read.withLogAppendTime(). A custom timestamp policy can be provided by implementing TimestampPolicyFactory. See KafkaIO.Read.withTimestampPolicyFactory(TimestampPolicyFactory) for more information.

Supported Kafka Client Versions

KafkaIO relies on kafka-clients for all its interactions with the Kafka cluster. kafka-clients versions 0.10.1 and newer are supported at runtime. The older versions 0.9.x - 0.10.0.0 are also supported, but are deprecated and likely be removed in near future. Please ensure that the version included with the application is compatible with the version of your Kafka cluster. Kafka client usually fails to initialize with a clear error message in case of incompatibility.

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes

Modifier and Type	Class and Description
static class	KafkaIO.Read<K,V> A PTransform to read from Kafka topics.
static class	KafkaIO.TypedWithoutMetadata<K,V> A PTransform to read from Kafka topics.
static class	KafkaIO.Write<K,V> A PTransform to write to a Kafka topic.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
static <K,V> KafkaIO.Read<K,V>	read() Creates an uninitialized KafkaIO.Read PTransform.
static KafkaIO.Read<byte[],byte[]>	readBytes() A specific instance of uninitialized read() where key and values are bytes.
static <K,V> KafkaIO.Write<K,V>	write() Creates an uninitialized KafkaIO.Write PTransform.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Method Detail

readBytes

public static KafkaIO.Read<byte[],byte[]> readBytes()

A specific instance of uninitialized read() where key and values are bytes. See #read().

read

public static <K,V> KafkaIO.Read<K,V> read()

Creates an uninitialized KafkaIO.Read PTransform. Before use, basic Kafka configuration should set with KafkaIO.Read.withBootstrapServers(String) and KafkaIO.Read.withTopics(List). Other optional settings include key and value Deserializers, custom timestamp and watermark functions.

write

public static <K,V> KafkaIO.Write<K,V> write()

Creates an uninitialized KafkaIO.Write PTransform. Before use, Kafka configuration should be set with KafkaIO.Write.withBootstrapServers(String) and KafkaIO.Write.withTopic(java.lang.String) along with Deserializers for (optional) key and values.