fluent-plugin-kafka, a plugin for Fluentd

A fluentd plugin to both consume and produce data for Apache Kafka.

Installation

Add this line to your application’s Gemfile:

gem 'fluent-plugin-kafka'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install fluent-plugin-kafka --no-document

If you want to use zookeeper related parameters, you also need to install zookeeper gem. zookeeper gem includes native extension, so development tools are needed, e.g. ruby-devel, gcc, make and etc.

Requirements

Ruby 2.1 or later
Input plugins work with kafka v0.9 or later
Output plugins work with kafka v0.8 or later

Usage

Common parameters

SSL authentication

ssl_ca_cert
ssl_client_cert
ssl_client_cert_key
ssl_client_cert_key_password
ssl_ca_certs_from_system

Set path to SSL related files. See Encryption and Authentication using SSL for more detail.

SASL authentication

with GSSAPI

principal
keytab

Set principal and path to keytab for SASL/GSSAPI authentication. See Authentication using SASL for more details.

with Plain/SCRAM

username
password
scram_mechanism
sasl_over_ssl

Set username, password, scram_mechanism and sasl_over_ssl for SASL/Plain or Scram authentication. See Authentication using SASL for more details.

Input plugin (@type ‘kafka’)

Consume events by single consumer.

<source>
  @type kafka

  brokers <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>,..
  topics <listening topics(separate with comma',')>
  format <input text type (text|json|ltsv|msgpack)> :default => json
  message_key <key (Optional, for text format only, default is message)>
  add_prefix <tag prefix (Optional)>
  add_suffix <tag suffix (Optional)>

  # Optionally, you can manage topic offset by using zookeeper
  offset_zookeeper    <zookeer node list (<zookeeper1_host>:<zookeeper1_port>,<zookeeper2_host>:<zookeeper2_port>,..)>
  offset_zk_root_node <offset path in zookeeper> default => '/fluent-plugin-kafka'

  # ruby-kafka consumer options
  max_bytes     (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  max_wait_time (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  min_bytes     (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
</source>

Supports a start of processing from the assigned offset for specific topics.

<source>
  @type kafka

  brokers <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>,..
  format <input text type (text|json|ltsv|msgpack)>
  <topic>
    topic     <listening topic>
    partition <listening partition: default=0>
    offset    <listening start offset: default=-1>
  </topic>
  <topic>
    topic     <listening topic>
    partition <listening partition: default=0>
    offset    <listening start offset: default=-1>
  </topic>
</source>

See also ruby-kafka README for more detailed documentation about ruby-kafka.

Consuming topic name is used for event tag. So when the target topic name is app_event, the tag is app_event. If you want to modify tag, use add_prefix or add_suffix parameters. With add_prefix kafka, the tag is kafka.app_event.

Input plugin (@type ‘kafka_group’, supports kafka group)

Consume events by kafka consumer group features..

<source>
  @type kafka_group

  brokers <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>,..
  consumer_group <consumer group name, must set>
  topics <listening topics(separate with comma',')>
  format <input text type (text|json|ltsv|msgpack)> :default => json
  message_key <key (Optional, for text format only, default is message)>
  kafka_message_key <key (Optional, If specified, set kafka's message key to this key)>
  add_headers <If true, add kafka's message headers to record>
  add_prefix <tag prefix (Optional)>
  add_suffix <tag suffix (Optional)>
  retry_emit_limit <Wait retry_emit_limit x 1s when BuffereQueueLimitError happens. The default is nil and it means waiting until BufferQueueLimitError is resolved>
  use_record_time (Deprecated. Use 'time_source record' instead.) <If true, replace event time with contents of 'time' field of fetched record>
  time_source <source for message timestamp (now|kafka|record)> :default => now
  time_format <string (Optional when use_record_time is used)>

  # ruby-kafka consumer options
  max_bytes               (integer) :default => 1048576
  max_wait_time           (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  min_bytes               (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  offset_commit_interval  (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  offset_commit_threshold (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  fetcher_max_queue_size  (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  refresh_topic_interval  (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  start_from_beginning    (bool)    :default => true
</source>

See also ruby-kafka README for more detailed documentation about ruby-kafka options.

topics supports regex pattern since v0.13.1. If you want to use regex pattern, use /pattern/ like /foo.*/.

Consuming topic name is used for event tag. So when the target topic name is app_event, the tag is app_event. If you want to modify tag, use add_prefix or add_suffix parameter. With add_prefix kafka, the tag is kafka.app_event.

Input plugin (@type ‘rdkafka_group’, supports kafka consumer groups, uses rdkafka-ruby)

The in_rdkafka_group consumer was not yet tested under heavy production load. Use it at your own risk!

With the introduction of the rdkafka-ruby based input plugin we hope to support Kafka brokers above version 2.1 where we saw compatibility issues when using the ruby-kafka based @kafka_group input type. The rdkafka-ruby lib wraps the highly performant and production ready librdkafka C lib.

<source>
  @type rdkafka_group
  topics <listening topics(separate with comma',')>
  format <input text type (text|json|ltsv|msgpack)> :default => json
  message_key <key (Optional, for text format only, default is message)>
  kafka_message_key <key (Optional, If specified, set kafka's message key to this key)>
  add_headers <If true, add kafka's message headers to record>
  add_prefix <tag prefix (Optional)>
  add_suffix <tag suffix (Optional)>
  retry_emit_limit <Wait retry_emit_limit x 1s when BuffereQueueLimitError happens. The default is nil and it means waiting until BufferQueueLimitError is resolved>
  use_record_time (Deprecated. Use 'time_source record' instead.) <If true, replace event time with contents of 'time' field of fetched record>
  time_source <source for message timestamp (now|kafka|record)> :default => now
  time_format <string (Optional when use_record_time is used)>

  # kafka consumer options
  max_wait_time_ms 500
  max_batch_size 10000
  kafka_configs {
    "bootstrap.servers": "brokers <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>",
    "group.id": "<consumer group name>"
  }
</source>

See also rdkafka-ruby and librdkafka for more detailed documentation about Kafka consumer options.

Consuming topic name is used for event tag. So when the target topic name is app_event, the tag is app_event. If you want to modify tag, use add_prefix or add_suffix parameter. With add_prefix kafka, the tag is kafka.app_event.

Output plugin

This kafka2 plugin is for fluentd v1 or later. This plugin uses ruby-kafka producer for writing data. If ruby-kafka doesn’t fit your kafka environment, check rdkafka2 plugin instead. This will be out_kafka plugin in the future.

<match app.**>
  @type kafka2

  brokers               <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>,.. # Set brokers directly

  # Kafka topic, placerholders are supported. Chunk keys are required in the Buffer section inorder for placeholders
  # to work.
  topic                 (string) :default => nil
  topic_key             (string) :default => 'topic'
  partition_key         (string) :default => 'partition'
  partition_key_key     (string) :default => 'partition_key'
  message_key_key       (string) :default => 'message_key'
  default_topic         (string) :default => nil
  default_partition_key (string) :default => nil
  record_key            (string) :default => nil
  default_message_key   (string) :default => nil
  exclude_topic_key     (bool)   :default => false
  exclude_partition_key (bool)   :default => false
  exclude_partition     (bool)   :default => false
  exclude_message_key   (bool)   :default => false
  get_kafka_client_log  (bool)   :default => false
  headers               (hash)   :default => {}
  headers_from_record   (hash)   :default => {}
  use_event_time        (bool)   :default => false
  use_default_for_unknown_topic (bool) :default => false
  discard_kafka_delivery_failed (bool) :default => false (No discard)
  partitioner_hash_function (enum) (crc32|murmur2) :default => 'crc32'
  share_producer        (bool)   :default => false
  idempotent            (bool)   :default => false

  # If you intend to rely on AWS IAM auth to MSK with long lived credentials
  # https://docs.aws.amazon.com/msk/latest/developerguide/iam-access-control.html
  #
  # For AWS STS support, see status in
  # - https://github.com/zendesk/ruby-kafka/issues/944
  # - https://github.com/zendesk/ruby-kafka/pull/951
  sasl_aws_msk_iam_access_key_id (string) :default => nil
  sasl_aws_msk_iam_secret_key_id (string) :default => nil
  sasl_aws_msk_iam_aws_region    (string) :default => nil

  <format>
    @type (json|ltsv|msgpack|attr:<record name>|<formatter name>) :default => json
  </format>

  # Optional. See https://docs.fluentd.org/v/1.0/configuration/inject-section
  <inject>
    tag_key tag
    time_key time
  </inject>

  # See fluentd document for buffer related parameters: https://docs.fluentd.org/v/1.0/configuration/buffer-section
  # Buffer chunk key should be same with topic_key. If value is not found in the record, default_topic is used.
  <buffer topic>
    flush_interval 10s
  </buffer>

  # ruby-kafka producer options
  idempotent        (bool)    :default => false
  sasl_over_ssl     (bool)    :default => true
  max_send_retries  (integer) :default => 1
  required_acks     (integer) :default => -1
  ack_timeout       (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  compression_codec (string)  :default => nil (No compression. Depends on ruby-kafka: https://github.com/zendesk/ruby-kafka#compression)
</match>

The <formatter name> in <format> uses fluentd’s formatter plugins. See formatter article.

Note: Java based Kafka client uses murmur2 as partitioner function by default. If you want to use same partitioning behavior with fluent-plugin-kafka, change it to murmur2 instead of crc32. Note that for using murmur2 hash partitioner function, you must install digest-murmurhash gem.

ruby-kafka sometimes returns Kafka::DeliveryFailed error without good information. In this case, get_kafka_client_log is useful for identifying the error cause. ruby-kafka’s log is routed to fluentd log so you can see ruby-kafka’s log in fluentd logs.

Supports following ruby-kafka’s producer options.

max_send_retries - default: 2 - Number of times to retry sending of messages to a leader.
required_acks - default: -1 - The number of acks required per request. If you need flush performance, set lower value, e.g. 1, 2.
ack_timeout - default: nil - How long the producer waits for acks. The unit is seconds.
compression_codec - default: nil - The codec the producer uses to compress messages.
max_send_limit_bytes - default: nil - Max byte size to send message to avoid MessageSizeTooLarge. For example, if you set 1000000(message.max.bytes in kafka), Message more than 1000000 byes will be dropped.
discard_kafka_delivery_failed - default: false - discard the record where Kafka::DeliveryFailed occurred

If you want to know about detail of monitoring, see also https://github.com/zendesk/ruby-kafka#monitoring

See also Kafka::Client for more detailed documentation about ruby-kafka.

This plugin supports compression codec “snappy” also. Install snappy module before you use snappy compression.

$ gem install snappy --no-document

snappy gem uses native extension, so you need to install several packages before. On Ubuntu, need development packages and snappy library.

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool libsnappy-dev

On CentOS 7 installation is also necessary.

$ sudo yum install gcc autoconf automake libtool snappy-devel

This plugin supports compression codec “lz4” also. Install extlz4 module before you use lz4 compression.

$ gem install extlz4 --no-document

This plugin supports compression codec “zstd” also. Install zstd-ruby module before you use zstd compression.

$ gem install zstd-ruby --no-document

Load balancing

Messages will be assigned a partition at random as default by ruby-kafka, but messages with the same partition key will always be assigned to the same partition by setting default_partition_key in config file. If key name partition_key_key exists in a message, this plugin set the value of partition_key_key as key.

default_partition_key	partition_key_key	behavior
Not set	Not exists	All messages are assigned a partition at random
Set	Not exists	All messages are assigned to the specific partition
Not set	Exists	Messages which have partition_key_key record are assigned to the specific partition, others are assigned a partition at random
Set	Exists	Messages which have partition_key_key record are assigned to the specific partition with partition_key_key, others are assigned to the specific partition with default_parition_key

If key name message_key_key exists in a message, this plugin publishes the value of message_key_key to kafka and can be read by consumers. Same message key will be assigned to all messages by setting default_message_key in config file. If message_key_key exists and if partition_key_key is not set explicitly, messsage_key_key will be used for partitioning.

Headers

It is possible to set headers on Kafka messages. This only works for kafka2 and rdkafka2 output plugin.

The format is like key1:value1,key2:value2. For example:

<match app.**>
  @type kafka2
  [...]
  headers some_header_name:some_header_value
<match>

You may set header values based on a value of a fluentd record field. For example, imagine a fluentd record like:

{"source": { "ip": "127.0.0.1" }, "payload": "hello world" }

And the following fluentd config:

<match app.**>
  @type kafka2
  [...]
  headers_from_record source_ip:$.source.ip
<match>

The Kafka message will have a header of source_ip=12.7.0.0.1.

The configuration format is jsonpath. It is descibed in https://docs.fluentd.org/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-record_accessor

Excluding fields

Fields can be excluded from output data. Only works for kafka2 and rdkafka2 output plugin.

Fields must be specified using an array of dot notation $., for example:

<match app.**>
  @type kafka2
  [...]
  exclude_fields $.source.ip,$.HTTP_FOO
<match>

This config can be used to remove fields used on another configs.

For example, $.source.ip can be extracted with config headers_from_record and excluded from message payload.

Using this config to remove unused fields is discouraged. A filter plugin can be used for this purpose.

Send only a sub field as a message payload

If record_key is provided, the plugin sends only a sub field given by that key. The configuration format is jsonpath.

e.g. When the following configuration and the incoming record are given:

configuration:

<match **>
  @type kafka2
  [...]
  record_key '$.data'
</match>

record:

{
    "specversion" : "1.0",
    "type" : "com.example.someevent",
    "id" : "C234-1234-1234",
    "time" : "2018-04-05T17:31:00Z",
    "datacontenttype" : "application/json",
    "data" : {
        "appinfoA" : "abc",
        "appinfoB" : 123,
        "appinfoC" : true
    },
    ...
}

only the data field will be serialized by the formatter and sent to Kafka. The toplevel data key will be removed.

Buffered output plugin

This plugin uses ruby-kafka producer for writing data. This plugin is for v0.12. If you use v1, see kafka2. Support of fluentd v0.12 has ended. kafka_buffered will be an alias of kafka2 and will be removed in the future.

<match app.**>
  @type kafka_buffered

  # Brokers: you can choose either brokers or zookeeper. If you are not familiar with zookeeper, use brokers parameters.
  brokers             <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>,.. # Set brokers directly
  zookeeper           <zookeeper_host>:<zookeeper_port> # Set brokers via Zookeeper
  zookeeper_path      <broker path in zookeeper> :default => /brokers/ids # Set path in zookeeper for kafka

  topic_key             (string) :default => 'topic'
  partition_key         (string) :default => 'partition'
  partition_key_key     (string) :default => 'partition_key'
  message_key_key       (string) :default => 'message_key'
  default_topic         (string) :default => nil
  default_partition_key (string) :default => nil
  default_message_key   (string) :default => nil
  exclude_topic_key     (bool)   :default => false
  exclude_partition_key (bool)   :default => false
  exclude_partition     (bool)   :default => false
  exclude_message_key   (bool)   :default => false
  output_data_type      (json|ltsv|msgpack|attr:<record name>|<formatter name>) :default => json
  output_include_tag    (bool) :default => false
  output_include_time   (bool) :default => false
  exclude_topic_key     (bool) :default => false
  exclude_partition_key (bool) :default => false
  get_kafka_client_log  (bool) :default => false
  use_event_time        (bool) :default => false
  partitioner_hash_function (enum) (crc32|murmur2) :default => 'crc32'

  # See fluentd document for buffer related parameters: https://docs.fluentd.org/v/0.12/buffer

  # ruby-kafka producer options
  idempotent                   (bool)    :default => false
  sasl_over_ssl                (bool)    :default => true
  max_send_retries             (integer) :default => 1
  required_acks                (integer) :default => -1
  ack_timeout                  (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  compression_codec            (string)  :default => nil (No compression. Depends on ruby-kafka: https://github.com/zendesk/ruby-kafka#compression)
  kafka_agg_max_bytes          (integer) :default => 4096
  kafka_agg_max_messages       (integer) :default => nil (No limit)
  max_send_limit_bytes         (integer) :default => nil (No drop)
  discard_kafka_delivery_failed   (bool) :default => false (No discard)
  monitoring_list              (array)   :default => []
</match>

kafka_buffered supports the following ruby-kafka parameters:

max_send_retries - default: 2 - Number of times to retry sending of messages to a leader.
required_acks - default: -1 - The number of acks required per request. If you need flush performance, set lower value, e.g. 1, 2.
ack_timeout - default: nil - How long the producer waits for acks. The unit is seconds.
compression_codec - default: nil - The codec the producer uses to compress messages.
max_send_limit_bytes - default: nil - Max byte size to send message to avoid MessageSizeTooLarge. For example, if you set 1000000(message.max.bytes in kafka), Message more than 1000000 byes will be dropped.
discard_kafka_delivery_failed - default: false - discard the record where Kafka::DeliveryFailed occurred
monitoring_list - default: [] - library to be used to monitor. statsd and datadog are supported

kafka_buffered has two additional parameters:

kafka_agg_max_bytes - default: 4096 - Maximum value of total message size to be included in one batch transmission.
kafka_agg_max_messages - default: nil - Maximum number of messages to include in one batch transmission.

Non-buffered output plugin

This plugin uses ruby-kafka producer for writing data. For performance and reliability concerns, use kafka_bufferd output instead. This is mainly for testing.

<match app.**>
  @type kafka

  # Brokers: you can choose either brokers or zookeeper.
  brokers        <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>,.. # Set brokers directly
  zookeeper      <zookeeper_host>:<zookeeper_port> # Set brokers via Zookeeper
  zookeeper_path <broker path in zookeeper> :default => /brokers/ids # Set path in zookeeper for kafka

  default_topic         (string) :default => nil
  default_partition_key (string) :default => nil
  default_message_key   (string) :default => nil
  output_data_type      (json|ltsv|msgpack|attr:<record name>|<formatter name>) :default => json
  output_include_tag    (bool) :default => false
  output_include_time   (bool) :default => false
  exclude_topic_key     (bool) :default => false
  exclude_partition_key (bool) :default => false
  partitioner_hash_function (enum) (crc32|murmur2) :default => 'crc32'

  # ruby-kafka producer options
  max_send_retries    (integer) :default => 1
  required_acks       (integer) :default => -1
  ack_timeout         (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  compression_codec   (string)  :default => nil (No compression. Depends on ruby-kafka: https://github.com/zendesk/ruby-kafka#compression)
  max_buffer_size     (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
  max_buffer_bytesize (integer) :default => nil (Use default of ruby-kafka)
</match>

This plugin also supports ruby-kafka related parameters. See Buffered output plugin section.

rdkafka based output plugin

This plugin uses rdkafka instead of ruby-kafka for kafka client. You need to install rdkafka gem.

# rdkafka is C extension library. Need to install development tools like ruby-devel, gcc and etc
# for v0.12 or later
$ gem install rdkafka --no-document
# for v0.11 or earlier
$ gem install rdkafka -v 0.6.0 --no-document

rdkafka2 is for fluentd v1.0 or later.

<match app.**>
  @type rdkafka2

  brokers <broker1_host>:<broker1_port>,<broker2_host>:<broker2_port>,.. # Set brokers directly

  topic_key             (string) :default => 'topic'
  default_topic         (string) :default => nil
  partition_key         (string) :default => 'partition'
  partition_key_key     (string) :default => 'partition_key'
  message_key_key       (string) :default => 'message_key'
  use_default_for_unknown_topic           (bool) :default => false
  use_default_for_unknown_partition_error (bool) :default => false
  default_partition_key (string) :default => nil
  default_message_key   (string) :default => nil
  exclude_topic_key     (bool) :default => false
  exclude_partition_key (bool) :default => false
  discard_kafka_delivery_failed (bool) :default => false (No discard)
  discard_kafka_delivery_failed_regex (regexp) :default => nil (No discard)
  use_event_time        (bool) :default => false

  # same with kafka2
  headers               (hash) :default => {}
  headers_from_record   (hash) :default => {}
  record_key            (string) :default => nil

  <format>
    @type (json|ltsv|msgpack|attr:<record name>|<formatter name>) :default => json
  </format>

  # Optional. See https://docs.fluentd.org/v/1.0/configuration/inject-section
  <inject>
    tag_key tag
    time_key time
  </inject>

  # See fluentd document for buffer section parameters: https://docs.fluentd.org/v/1.0/configuration/buffer-section
  # Buffer chunk key should be same with topic_key. If value is not found in the record, default_topic is used.
  <buffer topic>
    flush_interval 10s
  </buffer>

  # You can set any rdkafka configuration via this parameter: https://github.com/edenhill/librdkafka/blob/master/CONFIGURATION.md
  rdkafka_options {
    "log_level" : 7
  }

  # rdkafka2 specific parameters

  # share kafka producer between flush threads. This is mainly for reducing kafka operations like kerberos
  share_producer (bool) :default => false
  # Timeout for polling message wait. If 0, no wait.
  rdkafka_delivery_handle_poll_timeout (integer) :default => 30
  # If the record size is larger than this value, such records are ignored. Default is no limit
  max_send_limit_bytes (integer) :default => nil
  # The maximum number of enqueueing bytes per second. It can reduce the
  # load of both Fluentd and Kafka when excessive messages are attempted
  # to send. Default is no limit.
  max_enqueue_bytes_per_second (integer) :default => nil
  unrecoverable_error_codes (array) :default => ["topic_authorization_failed", "msg_size_too_large"]

</match>

rdkafka2 supports discard_kafka_delivery_failed_regex parameter:

discard_kafka_delivery_failed_regex - default: nil - discard the record where the Kafka::DeliveryFailed occurred and the emitted message matches the given regex pattern, such as /unknown_topic/.

If you use v0.12, use rdkafka instead.

<match kafka.**>
  @type rdkafka

  default_topic kafka
  flush_interval 1s
  output_data_type json

  rdkafka_options {
    "log_level" : 7
  }
</match>

FAQ

Why fluent-plugin-kafka can’t send data to our kafka cluster?

We got lots of similar questions. Almost cases, this problem happens by version mismatch between ruby-kafka and kafka cluster. See ruby-kafka README for more details: https://github.com/zendesk/ruby-kafka#compatibility

To avoid the problem, there are 2 approaches:

Upgrade your kafka cluster to latest version. This is better because recent version is faster and robust.
Downgrade ruby-kafka/fluent-plugin-kafka to work with your older kafka.

Contributing

Fork it
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Added some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create new Pull Request