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Quick Start for Apache Kafka using Confluent Cloud

This quick start gets you up and running with Confluent Cloud using a basic cluster. It shows how to use Confluent Cloud to create topics, produce and consume to an Apache Kafka® cluster. The quick start introduces both the Confluent Cloud Console and the Confluent CLI to manage clusters and topics in Confluent Cloud, as these can be used interchangeably for most tasks.

Follow these steps to set up a Kafka cluster on Confluent Cloud and produce data to Kafka topics on the cluster.

Confluent Cloud is a resilient, scalable streaming data service based on Apache Kafka®, delivered as a fully managed service. Confluent Cloud has a web interface and local command line interface. You can manage cluster resources, settings, and billing with the web interface. You can use Confluent CLI to create and manage Kafka topics. Sign up for Confluent Cloud to get started.

For more information about Confluent Cloud, see the Confluent Cloud documentation.

Note

Confluent Cloud includes an in-product tutorial that guides you through the basic steps for setting up your environment. This tutorial enables you to practice configuring Confluent Cloud components from directly within the UI.

To start the tutorial, log in to Confluent Cloud and click LEARN in the upper-right corner. Click Start tutorial at the bottom of the displayed pane and the tutorial should start.

Prerequisites

• Access to Confluent Cloud
• Confluent Cloud Features and Limits by Cluster Type
• Internet connectivity

Step 1: Create a Kafka cluster in Confluent Cloud

This step applies to Confluent Cloud. If you are using Confluent Cloud Enterprise, skip to Install and Configure the Confluent CLI.

1. Sign in to Confluent Cloud at https://confluent.cloud.

2. Click Add cluster, and on the Create cluster page, click Basic.

   

   Important

   This example creates a Basic cluster which only supports single zone availability. For information about other cluster types, including standard and dedicated types, see Confluent Cloud Features and Limits by Cluster Type.

3. Click Begin configuration. The Region/zones page opens. Choose a cloud provider, region, and availability zone. Click Continue.

   

4. Specify a cluster name, review your settings, cost, usage, and click Launch cluster.

   

5. Once the cluster has provisioned, the Cluster Overview page displays. Next, you can get started configuring apps and data on your new cluster.

   

Note

Depending on the chosen cloud provider and other settings, it may take a few minutes to provision your cluster.

Step 2: Create a Kafka topic

In this step, you create the users topic by using the Cloud Console.

Tip

You can also create topics by using the Confluent CLI.

1. In the navigation bar, open Cluster, click Topics, and in the Topics page, click Create topic.

   

2. In the Topic name field, type “users”. Click Create with defaults.

   

The users topic is created on the Kafka cluster and is available for use by producers and consumers.

Step 3: Create a sample producer

You can produce example data to your Kafka cluster by using the hosted Datagen Source Connector for Confluent Cloud.

1. On the Cluster overview page, select Add a fully managed connector, and then choose the Datagen Source connector.

   

2. The Add Datagen Source Connector form opens.

   

3. The connector requires an API key and secret to access your cluster. In the Kafka Cluster Credentials section, click Generate Kafka API key & secret.

   

   Copy the key and secret to a local file and check I have saved my API key and secret and am ready to continue. The key and secret are also required for the Confluent CLI and ksqlDB CLI to access your cluster.

   Note

   An API key and associated secret apply to the active Kafka cluster. If you add a new cluster, you must create a new API key for producers and consumers on the new Kafka cluster. For more information, see Use API Keys.

4. Fill in the following fields to configure your connector.

   Field	Value
   Name	enter “DatagenSourceConnector_users”
   Which topic do you want to send data to?	select users
   Output Messages	select JSON
   Quickstart	select USERS
   Max interval between messages	enter “1000” for one second interval
   Number of tasks for this connector	enter “1”

   When the form is filled in, it should resemble the following image.

   

5. At the bottom of the form, click Next to review the details for your connector, and click Launch to start it. On the Connectors page, the status of your new connector reads Provisioning, which lasts for a few seconds. When the status changes to Running, your connector is producing data to the users topic.

   

Step 4: Consume messages

1. In the Cluster menu, click Topics, and click the users topic name.

   

2. Click the Messages tab in the topics page in the Cloud Console to view the messages being produced. The message viewer shows messages produced since the page was loaded, but it doesn’t show a historical view.

   

Step 5: Inspect data flow

Track the movement of data through your cluster by using the Data Flow page, where you can see sources, sinks, and topics and monitor messages as they move for one to another.

1. In the navigation bar, select Data integration and then choose Data flow. The topology of topics on your cluster is displayed.

   

2. Click the node labeled ..ctor-producer-lcc-, which is the Datagen connector that you created in Step 3. Click Inspect to open the details view, which shows graphs for total production and other data.

   

   Tip

   The lcc substring is an acronym for “logical Connect cluster”.

3. Click the node labeled users and click Inspect. The details view opens, showing graphs for total throughput and other data.

   

4. Click Show partitions to view details about consumption on each partition for the users topic.

   

Next Steps

• To learn how serverless infrastructure is built and apply these learnings to your own projects, see Cloud-Native Apache Kafka: Designing Cloud Systems for Speed and Scale
• Confluent Cloud ksqlDB Quick Start
• Connect External Systems to Confluent Cloud
• Quick Start for Schema Management on Confluent Cloud
• Connect Clients to Confluent Cloud
• Configure Multi-Node Environment
• Try out the Confluent Cloud Demos and Examples