Azure Event Hubs Source Connector for Confluent Cloud

The fully-managed 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. The connector uses a BytesArrayConverter internally to transform data elements into byte records.

Confluent Cloud is available through Azure Marketplace or directly from Confluent.

Note

This Quick Start is for the fully-managed Confluent Cloud connector. If you are installing the connector locally for Confluent Platform, see Azure Event Hubs Source connector for Confluent Platform.
If you require private networking for fully-managed connectors, make sure to set up the proper networking beforehand. For more information, see Manage Networking for Confluent Cloud Connectors.

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)
Provider integration support: The connector supports Microsoft’s native identity authorization using Confluent Provider Integration. For more information about provider integration setup, see the connector authentication.

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

To create and launch a Kafka cluster in Confluent Cloud, see Create a kafka cluster in Confluent Cloud.

Step 2: Add a connector

In the left navigation menu, 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 topic

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

Kafka credentials

Select the way you want to provide Kafka Cluster credentials. You can choose one of the following options:
- My account: This setting allows your connector to globally access everything that you have access to. With a user account, the connector uses an API key and secret to access the Kafka cluster. This option is not recommended for production.
- Service account: This setting limits the access for your connector by using a service account. This option is recommended for production.
- Use an existing API key: This setting allows you to specify an API key and a secret pair. You can use an existing pair or create a new one. This method is not recommended for production environments.
Note
Freight clusters support only service accounts for Kafka authentication.

Click Continue.

Authentication

Under Azure credentials, select how you want to authenticate with the database:
- If you select SAS Key (default), enter the following Azure Event Hubs details:
  - Shared access policy name: Shared access policy name to use for access authentication.
  - Shared access key: Shared access key to use for access authentication.
  - Event Hubs namespace: Event Hubs namespace to connect to.
  - Event Hub name: Event Hub to read from.
  - Azure Event Hubs consumer group: Specific consumer group to read from.
  - Azure Event Hubs Domain: Domain of the Event Hub to connect to. Valid options are servicebus.windows.net (default), servicebus.usgovcloudapi.net, servicebus.cloudapi.de, or servicebus.chincloudapi.cn.
- If you select Microsoft Entra ID application, enter the following Azure Event Hubs details:
  - Under the Provider integration dropdown, select an existing integration name that has access to your Azure resource required to run this connector. For more information, see Manage an Microsoft Azure Provider Integration.
  - Event Hubs namespace: Event Hubs namespace to connect to.
  - Event Hub name: Event Hub to read from.
  - Azure Event Hubs consumer group: Specific consumer group to read from.
  - Azure Event Hubs Domain: Domain of the Event Hub to connect to. Valid options are servicebus.windows.net (default), servicebus.usgovcloudapi.net, servicebus.cloudapi.de, or servicebus.chincloudapi.cn.
Click Continue.

Configuration

(Optional) Configure the following properties:
Show advanced configurations
Auto-restart policy
- Enable Connector Auto-restart: Control the auto-restart behavior of the connector and its task in the event of user-actionable errors. Defaults to true, enabling the connector to automatically restart in case of user-actionable errors. Set this property to false to disable auto-restart for failed connectors. In such cases, you would need to manually restart the connector.
- Default starting position: Default reset position if no offsets are stored.
- Azure Event Hubs transport type: Event Hubs communication transport type.
- Azure Event Hubs offset type: Offset type to use to keep track of events.
- Max events: Maximum number of events to read when polling an Event Hub partition.
Transforms
- Single Message Transforms: To add a new SMT, see Add transforms. For more information about unsupported SMTs, see Unsupported transformations.
Click Continue

Sizing

Based on the number of topic partitions you select, you will be provided with a recommended number of tasks.

To change the number of tasks, use the Range Slider to select the desired number of tasks.
Click Continue.

Review and Launch

Verify the connection details by previewing the running configuration.
Once you’ve validated that the properties are configured to your satisfaction, click Launch.
The status for the connector should go from Provisioning to Running.

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 Usage Examples section.

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.
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: List the connector configuration properties

Enter the following command to show the connector configuration properties:

confluent connect plugin describe <connector-plugin-name>

The command output shows the required and optional configuration properties.

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 cluster create --config-file <file-name>.json

For example:

confluent connect cluster create --config-file 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 cluster 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 Usage Examples section.

Configuration Properties

Use the following configuration properties with the fully-managed connector. For self-managed connector property definitions and other details, see the connector docs in Self-managed connectors for Confluent Platform.

Note

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

Azure credentials

provider.integration.id

Azure provider-integration to mint Microsoft Entra ID application tokens.

Type: string
Importance: high

authentication.method

How Confluent Cloud authenticates with Azure.

Type: string
Default: SAS Key
Valid Values: Microsoft Entra ID application, SAS Key
Importance: high

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

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

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

azure.eventhubs.domain

Specifies the domain of the Event Hub to connect to. Available options include: servicebus.windows.net, servicebus.usgovcloudapi.net, servicebus.cloudapi.de, servicebus.chinacloudapi.cn. Default is servicebus.windows.net.

Type: string
Default: servicebus.windows.net
Importance: low

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

Kafka API Key. Required when kafka.auth.mode==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

Secret associated with Kafka API key. Required when kafka.auth.mode==KAFKA_API_KEY.

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

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

Maximum number of tasks for the connector.

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

Additional Configs

header.converter

The converter class for the headers. This is used to serialize and deserialize the headers of the messages.

Type: string
Importance: low

producer.override.compression.type

The compression type for all data generated by the producer. Valid values are none, gzip, snappy, lz4, and zstd.

Type: string
Importance: low

producer.override.linger.ms

The producer groups together any records that arrive in between request transmissions into a single batched request. More details can be found in the documentation: https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/installation/configuration/producer-configs.html#linger-ms.

Type: long
Valid Values: [100,…,1000]
Importance: low

value.converter.allow.optional.map.keys

Allow optional string map key when converting from Connect Schema to Avro Schema. Applicable for Avro Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.auto.register.schemas

Specify if the Serializer should attempt to register the Schema.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.connect.meta.data

Allow the Connect converter to add its metadata to the output schema. Applicable for Avro Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.enhanced.avro.schema.support

Enable enhanced schema support to preserve package information and Enums. Applicable for Avro Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.enhanced.protobuf.schema.support

Enable enhanced schema support to preserve package information. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.flatten.unions

Whether to flatten unions (oneofs). Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.generate.index.for.unions

Whether to generate an index suffix for unions. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.generate.struct.for.nulls

Whether to generate a struct variable for null values. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.int.for.enums

Whether to represent enums as integers. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.latest.compatibility.strict

Verify latest subject version is backward compatible when use.latest.version is true.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.object.additional.properties

Whether to allow additional properties for object schemas. Applicable for JSON_SR Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.optional.for.nullables

Whether nullable fields should be specified with an optional label. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.optional.for.proto2

Whether proto2 optionals are supported. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.use.latest.version

Use latest version of schema in subject for serialization when auto.register.schemas is false.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.use.optional.for.nonrequired

Whether to set non-required properties to be optional. Applicable for JSON_SR Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.wrapper.for.nullables

Whether nullable fields should use primitive wrapper messages. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

value.converter.wrapper.for.raw.primitives

Whether a wrapper message should be interpreted as a raw primitive at root level. Applicable for Protobuf Converters.

Type: boolean
Importance: low

errors.tolerance

Use this property if you would like to configure the connector’s error handling behavior. WARNING: This property should be used with CAUTION for SOURCE CONNECTORS as it may lead to dataloss. If you set this property to ‘all’, the connector will not fail on errant records, but will instead log them (and send to DLQ for Sink Connectors) and continue processing. If you set this property to ‘none’, the connector task will fail on errant records.

Type: string
Default: none
Importance: low

key.converter.key.subject.name.strategy

How to construct the subject name for key schema registration.

Type: string
Default: TopicNameStrategy
Importance: low

value.converter.decimal.format

Specify the JSON/JSON_SR serialization format for Connect DECIMAL logical type values with two allowed literals:

BASE64 to serialize DECIMAL logical types as base64 encoded binary data and

NUMERIC to serialize Connect DECIMAL logical type values in JSON/JSON_SR as a number representing the decimal value.

Type: string
Default: BASE64
Importance: low

value.converter.flatten.singleton.unions

Whether to flatten singleton unions. Applicable for Avro and JSON_SR Converters.

Type: boolean
Default: false
Importance: low

value.converter.reference.subject.name.strategy

Set the subject reference name strategy for value. Valid entries are DefaultReferenceSubjectNameStrategy or QualifiedReferenceSubjectNameStrategy. Note that the subject reference name strategy can be selected only for PROTOBUF format with the default strategy being DefaultReferenceSubjectNameStrategy.

Type: string
Default: DefaultReferenceSubjectNameStrategy
Importance: low

value.converter.value.subject.name.strategy

Determines how to construct the subject name under which the value schema is registered with Schema Registry.

Type: string
Default: TopicNameStrategy
Importance: low

Auto-restart policy

auto.restart.on.user.error

Enable connector to automatically restart on user-actionable errors.

Type: boolean
Default: true
Importance: medium

Egress allowlist

connector.egress.whitelist

Type: string
Default: “”
Importance: high

Next Steps

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