Microsoft Azure Event Hubs

Migrating to Azure Event Hubs for Apache Kafka Ecosystems

An Azure Event Hubs Kafka endpoint enables users to connect to Azure Event Hubs using the Kafka protocol. By making minimal changes to a Kafka application, users will be able to connect to Azure Event Hubs and reap the benefits of the Azure ecosystem. Event Hubs for Kafka Ecosystems supports Apache Kafka version 1.0 and later.

When we built Kafka-enabled Event Hubs, we wanted to give Kafka users the stability, scalability, and support of Event Hubs without sacrificing their ability to connect to the network of Kafka supporting frameworks. With that in mind, we've started rolling out a set of tutorials to show how simple it is to connect Kafka-enabled Event Hubs with various platforms and frameworks. The tutorials in this directory all work right out of the box, but for those of you looking to connect with a framework we haven't covered, this guide will outline the generic steps needed to connect your preexisting Kafka application to an Event Hubs Kafka endpoint.

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Create an Event Hubs namespace

An Event Hubs namespace is required to send or receive from any Event Hubs service. See Create Kafka-enabled Event Hubs for instructions on getting an Event Hubs Kafka endpoint. Make sure to copy the Event Hubs connection string for later use.

FQDN

For these samples, you will need the connection string from the portal as well as the FQDN that points to your Event Hub namespace. The FQDN can be found within your connection string as follows:

Endpoint=sb://{YOUR.EVENTHUBS.FQDN}/;SharedAccessKeyName={SHARED.ACCESS.KEY.NAME};SharedAccessKey={SHARED.ACCESS.KEY}

Update your Kafka client configuration

To connect to a Kafka-enabled Event Hub, you'll need to update the Kafka client configs. If you're having trouble finding yours, try searching for where bootstrap.servers is set in your application.

Insert the following configs wherever makes sense in your application. Make sure to update the bootstrap.servers and sasl.jaas.config values to direct the client to your Event Hubs Kafka endpoint with the correct authentication.

bootstrap.servers={YOUR.EVENTHUBS.FQDN}:9093
request.timeout.ms=60000
security.protocol=SASL_SSL
sasl.mechanism=PLAIN
sasl.jaas.config=org.apache.kafka.common.security.plain.PlainLoginModule required username="$ConnectionString" password="{YOUR.EVENTHUBS.CONNECTION.STRING}";

If sasl.jaas.config is not a supported configuration in your framework, find the configurations that are used to set the SASL username and password and use those instead. Set the username to $ConnectionString and the password to your Event Hubs connection string.

Run your application

Run your application and see how it goes - in most cases this should be enough to make the switch.

Troubleshooting

Didn't work? In our experience, when changing the configurations didn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped, the issue was usually related to one of the following:

• Getting your framework to cooperate with the SASL authentication protocol required by Event Hubs. See if you can troubleshoot the configuration using your framework's resources on SASL authentication. If you figure it out, let us know and we'll share it with other developers!

• Version issues. Event Hubs for Kafka Ecosystems supports Kafka versions 1.0 and later. Some applications using Kafka version 0.10 and later could work because of the Kafka protocol's backwards compatability, but there's a chance it won't be able to connect or will require some serious tinkering. Since Kafka versions 0.9 and earlier don't support the required SASL protocols, any adapter or client using those versions won't be able to connect to Event Hubs.

If you're still stuck (or if you know the secret to making it work with your framework), let us know by opening up a GitHub issue on this repo!