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Azure Event Hubs Source Connector for Confluent Cloud

Note

This is a Quick Start for the managed cloud connector. If you are installing the connector locally for Confluent Platform, see Azure Event Hubs Source Connector for Confluent Platform.

The Kafka Connect Azure Event Hubs Source connector for Confluent Cloud is used to poll data from Azure Event Hubs and persist the data to an Apache Kafka® topic. For additional information about Azure Event Hubs, see the Azure Event Hubs documentation. The connector fetches records from Azure Event Hubs through a subscription.

Features

The Azure Event Hubs Source connector provides the following features:

• Topics created automatically: The connector can automatically create Kafka topics.
• Select configuration properties:
  • azure.eventhubs.partition.starting.position
  • azure.eventhubs.consumer.group
  • azure.eventhubs.transport.type
  • azure.eventhubs.offset.type
  • max.events (defaults to 50 with a maximum of 499 events)

For more information and examples to use with the Confluent Cloud API for Connect, see the Confluent Cloud API for Connect section.

Limitations

Be sure to review the following information.

• For connector limitations, see Azure Event Hubs Source Connector limitations.
• If you plan to use one or more Single Message Transforms (SMTs), see SMT Limitations.
• If you plan to use Confluent Cloud Schema Registry, see Schema Registry Enabled Environments.

Quick Start

Use this quick start to get up and running with the Confluent Cloud Azure Event Hubs Source connector.

Prerequisites

• Authorized access to a Confluent Cloud cluster on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (Azure), or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
• At least one topic must exist before creating the connector.
• The Confluent CLI installed and configured for the cluster. See Install the Confluent CLI.
• An Azure account with an existing Event Hubs Namespace, Event Hub, and Consumer Group.
• An Azure Event Hubs Shared Access Policy with its policy name and key.

• Kafka cluster credentials. The following lists the different ways you can provide credentials.
  • Enter an existing service account resource ID.
  • Create a Confluent Cloud service account for the connector. Make sure to review the ACL entries required in the service account documentation. Some connectors have specific ACL requirements.
  • Create a Confluent Cloud API key and secret. To create a key and secret, you can use confluent api-key create or you can autogenerate the API key and secret directly in the Cloud Console when setting up the connector.

Using the Confluent Cloud Console

Step 1: Launch your Confluent Cloud cluster.

See the Quick Start for Confluent Cloud for installation instructions.

Step 2: Add a connector.

In the left navigation menu, click Data integration, and then click Connectors. If you already have connectors in your cluster, click + Add connector.

Step 3: Select your connector.

Click the Azure Event Hubs Source connector card.

Step 4: Enter the connector details.

Note

• Make sure you have all your prerequisites completed.
• An asterisk ( * ) designates a required entry.

At the Add Azure Event Hubs Source Connector screen, complete the following:

Select a topicKafka credentialsAuthenticationConfigurationSizingReview and Launch

Select the topic you want to send data to from the Topics list. To create a new topic, click +Add new topic.

Step 5: Check the Kafka topic.

After the connector is running, verify that messages are populating your Kafka topic.

For more information and examples to use with the Confluent Cloud API for Connect, see the Confluent Cloud API for Connect section.

See also

For an example that shows fully-managed Confluent Cloud connectors in action with Confluent Cloud ksqlDB, see the Cloud ETL Demo. This example also shows how to use Confluent CLI to manage your resources in Confluent Cloud.

Using the Confluent CLI

Complete the following steps to set up and run the connector using the Confluent CLI.

Important

• Make sure you have all your prerequisites completed.

• The example commands use Confluent CLI version 2. For more information see, Confluent CLI v2.

• You must create topic names before creating and launching this connector. Use the following command to create a topic using the Confluent CLI.

  confluent kafka topic create <topic-name>
  

Step 1: List the available connectors.

Enter the following command to list available connectors:

confluent connect plugin list

Step 2: Show the required connector configuration properties.

Enter the following command to show the required connector properties:

confluent connect plugin describe <connector-catalog-name>

For example:

confluent connect plugin describe AzureEventHubsSource

Example output:

Following are the required configs:
connector.class: AzureEventHubsSource
name
kafka.auth.mode
kafka.api.key
kafka.api.secret
azure.eventhubs.sas.keyname
azure.eventhubs.sas.key
azure.eventhubs.namespace
azure.eventhubs.hub.name
kafka.topic
tasks.max

Step 3: Create the connector configuration file.

Create a JSON file that contains the connector configuration properties. The following example shows required and optional connector properties.

{
    "connector.class": "AzureEventHubsSource",
    "name": "azure-eventhubs-source",
    "kafka.auth.mode": "KAFKA_API_KEY",
    "kafka.api.key": "<my-kafka-api-key>",
    "kafka.api.secret": "<my-kafka-api-secret>",
    "azure.eventhubs.sas.keyname": "<-my-shared-access-policy name->",
    "azure.eventhubs.sas.key": "<my-shared-access-key>",
    "azure.eventhubs.namespace": "<my-eventhubs-namespace>",
    "azure.eventhubs.hub.name": "<my-eventhub-name>",
    "azure.eventhubs.consumer.group": "<my-eventhub-consumer-group>",
    "kafka.topic": "<my-topic-name>",
    "azure.eventhubs.partition.starting.position": "START_OF_STREAM",
    "azure.eventhubs.transport.type": "AMQP",
    "azure.eventhubs.offset.type": "OFFSET",
    "max.events": "50",
    "tasks.max": "1"
  }

Note the following property definitions:

• "name": Sets a name for your new connector.
• "connector.class": Identifies the connector plugin name.

• "kafka.auth.mode": Identifies the connector authentication mode you want to use. There are two options: SERVICE_ACCOUNT or KAFKA_API_KEY (the default). To use an API key and secret, specify the configuration properties kafka.api.key and kafka.api.secret, as shown in the example configuration (above). To use a service account, specify the Resource ID in the property kafka.service.account.id=<service-account-resource-ID>. To list the available service account resource IDs, use the following command:

  confluent iam service-account list
  

  For example:

  confluent iam service-account list
  
     Id     | Resource ID |       Name        |    Description
  +---------+-------------+-------------------+-------------------
     123456 | sa-l1r23m   | sa-1              | Service account 1
     789101 | sa-l4d56p   | sa-2              | Service account 2
  

• "azure.eventhubs.partition.starting.position": (Optional) Sets the starting position in the Event Hub if no offsets are stored and a reset occurs. The value can be START_OF_STREAM or END_OF_STREAM. If no property is entered, the configuration defaults to START_OF_STREAM.

  Note

  The Azure Event Hub Source connector uses x-opt-kafka-key key-value pair as the partition key when the Azure SDK EventData.PartitionKey property is null and when the x-opt-kafka-key is present.

• "azure.eventhubs.transport.type": (Optional) Sets the transport type for communicating with Azure Event Hubs. The value can be AMQP or AMQP_WEB_SOCKETS. AMQP (over TCP) uses port 5671. AMQP over web sockets uses port 443. If no property is entered, the configuration defaults to AMQP.

• "azure.eventhubs.offset.type": (Optional) Sets the offset type used to keep track of events. The value can be OFFSET (the Azure Event Hubs offset for the event) or SEQ_NUM (the sequence number of the event). If no property is entered, the configuration defaults to OFFSET.

• "max.events": (Optional) The maximum number of events to read from an Event Hub partition when polling. If no property is entered, the configuration defaults to 50. 499 is the maximum number of events.

Single Message Transforms: See the Single Message Transforms (SMT) documentation for details about adding SMTs. See Unsupported transformations for a list of SMTs that are not supported with this connector.

See Configuration Properties for all property values and definitions.

Step 4: Load the properties file and create the connector.

Enter the following command to load the configuration and start the connector:

confluent connect create --config <file-name>.json

For example:

confluent connect create --config az-event-hubs.json

Example output:

Created connector azure-eventhubs-source lcc-ix4dl

Step 5: Check the connector status.

Enter the following command to check the connector status:

confluent connect list

Example output:

ID          |           Name           | Status  |  Type
+-----------+--------------------------+---------+--------+
lcc-ix4dl   | azure-eventhubs-source   | RUNNING | source

Step 6: Check the Kafka topic.

After the connector is running, verify that messages are populating your Kafka topic.

For more information and examples to use with the Confluent Cloud API for Connect, see the Confluent Cloud API for Connect section.

Configuration Properties

Use the following configuration properties with this connector.

Note

These are properties for the managed cloud connector. If you are installing the connector locally for Confluent Platform, see Azure Event Hubs Source Connector for Confluent Platform.

How should we connect to your data?

name

Sets a name for your connector.

• Type: string
• Valid Values: A string at most 64 characters long
• Importance: high

Kafka Cluster credentials

kafka.auth.mode

Kafka Authentication mode. It can be one of KAFKA_API_KEY or SERVICE_ACCOUNT. It defaults to KAFKA_API_KEY mode.

• Type: string
• Default: KAFKA_API_KEY
• Valid Values: KAFKA_API_KEY, SERVICE_ACCOUNT
• Importance: high

kafka.api.key

• Type: password
• Importance: high

kafka.service.account.id

The Service Account that will be used to generate the API keys to communicate with Kafka Cluster.

• Type: string
• Importance: high

kafka.api.secret

• Type: password
• Importance: high

Which topic do you want to send data to?

kafka.topic

Identifies the topic name to write the data to.

• Type: string
• Importance: high

How should we connect to your Event Hub?

azure.eventhubs.sas.keyname

Shared access policy name to use for access authentication.

• Type: string
• Importance: high

azure.eventhubs.sas.key

Shared access key to use for access authentication.

• Type: password
• Importance: high

azure.eventhubs.namespace

Event Hubs namespace to connect to.

• Type: string
• Importance: high

azure.eventhubs.hub.name

Event Hub to read from.

• Type: string
• Importance: high

azure.eventhubs.consumer.group

Specific consumer group to read from.

• Type: string
• Default: $Default
• Importance: low

Connection details

azure.eventhubs.partition.starting.position

Default reset position if no offsets are stored.

• Type: string
• Default: START_OF_STREAM
• Importance: medium

azure.eventhubs.transport.type

Event Hubs communication transport type.

• Type: string
• Default: AMQP
• Importance: low

azure.eventhubs.offset.type

Offset type to use to keep track of events

• Type: string
• Default: OFFSET
• Importance: medium

max.events

Maximum number of events to read when polling an Event Hub partition.

• Type: int
• Default: 50
• Valid Values: [1,…,500]
• Importance: low

Number of tasks for this connector

tasks.max

• Type: int
• Valid Values: [1,…]
• Importance: high

Next Steps

See also

For an example that shows fully-managed Confluent Cloud connectors in action with Confluent Cloud ksqlDB, see the Cloud ETL Demo. This example also shows how to use Confluent CLI to manage your resources in Confluent Cloud.