Supported Versions and Interoperability for Confluent Platform

This topic provides the supported version and interoperability information for Confluent Platform and its components for Confluent Platform 7.5 and older. Note that older versions are removed as their support windows end. If a newer Confluent Platform version exists, you can select it in the version picker in the lower left to view its interoperability and version support.

Confluent Platform and Apache Kafka compatibility

Confluent Platform Apache Kafka® Release Date Standard End of Support Platinum End of Support
7.5.x 3.5.x August 25, 2023 August 25, 2025 August 25, 2026
7.4.x 3.4.x May 3, 2023 May 3, 2025 May 3, 2026
7.3.x 3.3.x November 4, 2022 November 4, 2024 November 4, 2025
7.2.x 3.2.x July 6, 2022 July 6, 2024 July 6, 2025
7.1.x 3.1.x April 5, 2022 April 5, 2024 April 5, 2025
7.0.x 3.0.x October 27, 2021 October 27, 2023 October 27, 2024
6.2.x 2.8.x June 8, 2021 June 8, 2023 June 8, 2024
6.1.x 2.7.x February 9, 2021 February 9, 2023 February 9, 2024
6.0.x 2.6.x September 24, 2020 September 24, 2022 September 24, 2023
5.5.x 2.5.x April 24, 2020 April 24, 2022 April 24, 2023
5.4.x 2.4.x January 10, 2020 January 10, 2022 January 10, 2023

  • The end of support date only applies to minor versions, for example 7.5.x. Maintenance versions follow the same two year lifecycle of the minor version. For example, the end of support for Confluent Platform 3.3.4 ends on August 1, 2020.

  • The two year support policy is standard. End of support is extended one year for Platinum support agreements.

  • Platinum support does not extend the support timeline for Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK) / Operator.

    You can apply your Platinum support contract to the Confluent Platform components deployed by CFK / Operator when both of the following conditions are true:

    • You are on a currently supported version of CFK / Operator. See Supported versions of CFK.
    • The Confluent Platform version you want to use is compatible with a currently supported version of CFK / Operator.

  • Each version of Confluent Platform includes several component services which are only compatible in that specific Confluent Platform version. There are exceptions, including clients and Confluent Control Center, which can be used across versions. All services included in Confluent Platform are supported, including Apache Kafka® and its subcomponents: Kafka brokers, Apache ZooKeeper™, Java and Scala clients, Kafka Streams, and Kafka Connect.

Preview releases

Features designated with “preview” status in this documentation are not intended for production use. They should only be used for evaluation and non-production testing purposes or to provide feedback to Confluent.

Confluent encourages customers to submit questions and suggestions about preview features using the Confluent Support Portal.

Preview features are not “Supported Software” under Confluent’s support policies.

Additionally, Confluent may make changes to preview user experience and APIs before they are released for production use.

Operating systems

Confluent Platform and clients support these operating systems.

It is recommended that you run Confluent Platform across uniform OS, Confluent Platform, and JAVA versions.

Important

Currently, Confluent Platform supports X86 and ARM64 hardware architecture, with ARM64 not supported for production workloads.

Operating System 7.5.x 7.4.x 7.3.x 7.2.x 7.1.x 7.0.x 6.2.x 6.1.x 6.0.x
RHEL/CentOS 7.x (deprecated *) yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
RHEL/CentOS 8.x yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
RHEL 9.x yes yes no no no no no no no
Debian 9 (stretch) (deprecated *) yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Debian 10 (buster) yes yes yes yes yes yes no no no
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (xenial) (deprecated *) yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (bionic) yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) yes yes yes yes yes yes no no no

* Deprecated: Support for these OS versions is deprecated because they have reached their end of life. The OS is currently supported for Confluent Platform 7.5, but this support may be removed in a future release.

SELinux
Confluent Platform is supported on RHEL, CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu Linux Operating Systems. Confluent is not accountable for Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) policy development, support, or enforcement. If you experience issues running Confluent Platform with SELinux enabled on a supported Linux Operating System, contact your OS provider for assistance.
Windows

Windows is not currently supported for Confluent Platform.

Windows 8.1 and later, as well as Windows 2016 and later, are supported by the C/C++ and .NET clients.

macOS
macOS 10.14 and later is supported for testing and development purposes only.
File descriptors
For the file descriptor requirement for Kafka, see File Descriptors and mmap.
ulimit

Control Center requires many open RocksDB files. Set the ulimit for the number of open files to a minimum value of 16384 using the ulimit -n command.

For the other Confluent Platform components, specifically Schema Registry and Replicator, you can leave the ulimit as the OS default.

RHEL with TLS

When installing Confluent Platform on RHEL8 with TLS encryption, you must add DH Key Size JVM Parameters for each component. For more information, see Strong crypto defaults in RHEL 8 and deprecation of weak crypto algorithms.

Set the following component-level environment variables to the argument:

  • Control Center: CONTROL_CENTER_OPTS=-Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048
  • Schema Registry: SCHEMA_REGISTRY_OPTS=-Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048
  • Kafka, ZooKeeper, and Connect: KAFKA_OPTS=-Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048
  • REST Proxy: KAFKAREST_OPTS=-Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048
  • ksqlDB: KSQL_OPTS=-Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048
atime

The atime mount option impacts performance, because every read operation on a file system causes a write operation.

Confluent recommends disabling the tracking of atime by setting the noatime option when you mount Kafka data disks.

Java

You need to separately install the correct version of Java before you start the Confluent Platform installation process.

The following table lists Java support in Confluent Platform by version. Note the following:

  • You should use the full JDK to help Confluent Support with troubleshooting and to provide better support if you experience issues with Confluent Platform.
  • OpenJDK, Zulu OpenJDK, Eclipse Temurin (formerly known as AdoptOpenJDK), and Oracle are supported with Confluent Platform.
  • Docker images require version 11. For more information, see Docker.
Confluent Platform Recommended Supported
7.5.x 17 17, 11, 8 *
7.4.x 17 17, 11, 8 *
7.3.x 17 17, 11, 8
7.2.x 11 11, 8
7.1 11 or 8 11, 8
7.0 11 or 8 11, 8
6.2 11 or 8 11, 8
6.1 11 or 8 11, 8
6.0 11 or 8 11, 8

* Java 8 is now deprecated in Confluent Platform, and will be removed in a future version.

From a security perspective, you should use the latest released patch version because older versions may have security vulnerabilities.

Java 9 and 10 are not supported in Confluent Platform as those versions are short-term rapid release versions.

For more information about Java versions, see Java Version History.

Scala

Confluent Platform Scala for Packages and Docker Scala for Maven JARs
7.5.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
7.4.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
7.3.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
7.2.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
7.1.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
7.0.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
6.2.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
6.1.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13
6.0.x 2.13 2.12, 2.13

Confluent Control Center

You can use the Confluent Control Center with compatible Confluent Platform versions.

Confluent Control Center Confluent Platform
7.5.x 6.0.0 through 7.5.x
7.4.x 6.0.0 through 7.4.x
7.3.x 5.4.x through 7.3.x
7.2.x 5.3.x through 7.2.x
7.1.x 5.2.x through 7.1.x
7.0.x 5.1.x through 7.0.x
6.2.x 5.0.x through 6.2.x
6.1.x 4.1.x through 6.1.x
6.0.x 4.0.x through 6.0.x

Confluent CLI

You can use the Confluent CLI with compatible Confluent Platform versions.

Confluent Platform Confluent CLI
7.5.x 3.2.1 through most recent 3.x version
7.4.x 3.2.1 through most recent 3.x version
7.3.x 2.28.1 through most recent 2.x version
7.2.x 2.19.0 through most recent 2.x version
7.1.x 2.6.1 through most recent 2.x version
7.0.x 1.40.0 through most recent 1.x version
6.2.x 1.30.0 through most recent 1.x version
6.1.x 1.22.0 through most recent 1.x version
6.0.x 1.11.0 through most recent 1.x version

To install and use a later version of the CLI than the version that shipped with Confluent Platform, you must download and install the later version using these instructions.

ksqlDB

You can use Confluent Platform ksqlDB with compatible Confluent Platform and Kafka versions.

Starting with version 5.4.x, Confluent Platform ksqlDB is compatible with:

  • Confluent Platform 3.3.0 and later;
  • Kafka 0.11.0 and later.

When you install Confluent Platform, you get a specific version of ksqlDB Standalone. The following table shows which version of ksqlDB Standalone ships with each version of Confluent Platform.

Confluent Platform ksqlDB Standalone Kafka Streams version
7.5.x 0.29.0 3.5.0
7.4.x 0.28.3-RC7 3.4.0
7.3.x 0.28.2 3.3.2
7.2.x 0.26.0 3.2.0
7.1.x 0.23.1 3.1.0
7.0.x 0.21.0 3.0.0
6.2.x 0.17.0 2.8.0
6.1.x 0.14.0 2.7.0
6.0.x 0.10.2 2.6.0

ZooKeeper

ZooKeeper was upgraded in December 2023 to version 3.8.3 in Confluent Platform versions 6.1.x through 7.5.x. For information on upgrading, see Upgrade ZooKeeper.

Note

Starting with Confluent Platform 7.4, KRaft is generally available and the default option for metadata management for new Apache Kafka® clusters. For more information, see KRaft Overview.

Confluent Platform Apache ZooKeeper™
7.5.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
7.4.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
7.3.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
7.2.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
7.1.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
7.0.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
6.2.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
6.1.x 3.4.10 through 3.8.3 (3.8.3 recommended)
6.0.x 3.4.10 through 3.5.9 (3.5.9 recommended)

For Confluent Platform 6.0.x, 6.1.x, 6.2.x, 7.0.x, 7.1.x, and 7.2.x, use ZooKeeper 3.5.6 or later to configure TLS connectivity to ZooKeeper.

Component security

Kafka

Security Feature Confluent Platform
Audit log 2.0.x and later
Authentication with SASL/PLAIN 3.0.x and later
Authentication with SASL/Kerberos and SASL/PLAIN 2.0.x and later
Authentication with SASL/SCRAM 3.1.x and later
Authorization (Access control lists) 2.0.x and later
Integration with secured ZooKeeper 2.0.x and later
TLS/SSL Wire Encryption 2.0.x and later

Kafka Connect clients

Security Feature Confluent Platform
Authentication and Encryption with secured Kafka brokers 2.0.x and later

Apache Kafka Streams clients

Security Feature Confluent Platform
Authentication and Encryption with secured Kafka brokers 3.0.x and later

Apache ZooKeeper

Security Feature Confluent Platform
Authentication with SASL/Kerberos and SASL/PLAIN 2.0.x and later
Authorization (Access control lists) 2.0.x and later

Confluent Control Center

Security Feature Confluent Platform
HTTPS 3.0.x and later

Authentication and Encryption with secured Kafka brokers:

  • User login with HTTP Basic authentication
 3.0.x and later
Single Sign-On (SSO) 7.5.x and later

REST Proxy

Security Feature Confluent Platform
Authentication and Encryption with secured Kafka brokers 3.1.x and later
HTTPS (SSL) for REST clients 3.0.x and later

Schema Registry

Security Feature Confluent Platform
Access Control (RBAC) for Schema Linking Exporters 7.0.9, 7.1.7, 7.2.5, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 7.4.0, and later.
Authentication and Encryption with secured Kafka brokers 3.0.x and later
HTTPS (SSL) for REST clients 3.0.x and later

Clients

To learn more about features and details of supported clients, see Build Client Applications for Confluent Platform.

Client System Requirements
.NET
  • Targets frameworks net451 and netstandard1.3.
  • Supported on the .NET Framework 4.5.1 and and .NET Core 1.0 and later.
  • Not supported on Mono.
C/C++
  • Build toolchain must support C99 and C++98 or later.
Golang
  • Golang 1.7 or later.
  • Build toolchain must support CGo and C99 or later.
  • Not supported on Windows.
Python
  • Python 2.7 or later.
  • Windows is supported.
Java
JMS Client

Connectors

Refer to individual connector documentation for Confluent Platform interoperability information. See Supported Connectors for a list of supported connectors.

Cross-component compatibility

The following sections describe version compatibility between Kafka brokers and individual components.

Kafka Connect workers

Confluent Platform 3.2 and later
Kafka Connect Workers that are included in Confluent Platform 3.2 and later are compatible with any Kafka broker that is included in Confluent Platform 3.0 and later.

Kafka Java clients

Following is version compatibility for Java clients. Note that versions may be compatible, but support is offered for a specific time window for each version. For a table of release and end of support dates for Java clients by version number, see Java client support.

Confluent Platform 3.2 and later
Kafka Java Clients that are included in Confluent Platform 3.2 (Kafka version 0.10.2) and later are compatible with any Kafka broker that is included in Confluent Platform 3.0 and later.

Kafka Streams clients

Refer to Kafka Streams Compatibility Matrix for the version compatibility between Kafka Streams clients and Kafka brokers.

Auto data balancing

Compatible with Confluent Platform 3.1.x brokers and later. Disk free space protection requires Confluent Platform 3.2.x or later.

Confluent C, C++, Python, Go and .NET

All versions of Confluent’s non-Java clients are compatible with all versions of Confluent Platform. Note that although all versions are compatible, support is provided for a specific time window by version. For a table of release and end of support dates for librdkafka and derived clients by version number, see librdkafka and derived client support.

Schema Registry

Confluent Platform 3.2 and later
Schema Registry that is included in Confluent Platform 3.2 and later is compatible with any Kafka broker that is included in Confluent Platform 3.0 and later.

Replicator

For data transfer Replicator maintains the same compatibility matrix as Java clients, detailed in Kafka Java clients. However some Replicator features have different compatibility requirements:

  • Schema Translation requires that both source and destination clusters are running Confluent 5.2.0 or later.
  • Offset Translation requires that both source and destination clusters are running Confluent 5.1.0 or later.
  • Automatic topic creation and config sync requires that the destination cluster is at a later version than the source cluster.
  • The timestamp-interceptor for consumers supports only Java clients, as described in Configuring the consumer for failover (timestamp preservation).

REST Proxy

Confluent Platform 3.2 and later
REST Proxy that is included in Confluent Platform 3.2 and later is compatible with any Kafka broker that is included in Confluent Platform 3.0 and later.

Orchestration tools

Confluent for Kubernetes

For details about the supported Kubernetes environments, refer to Confluent for Kubernetes Supported Environments.

The following table summarizes the Confluent Platform features supported with Confluent for Kubernetes.

Confluent Platform 7.5 Feature Availability in CFK 2.7
Kafka Broker Available, only via Confluent Server
ZooKeeper Available
Schema Registry Available
REST Proxy Available
ksqlDB Available
Connect Available
Control Center Available
Replicator Available
Security: Role-based Access Control Available [1]
Security: Authentication Available [2]
Security: Network Encryption Available
Structured Audit Logs Available [3]
MDS-based Access Control Lists (ACLs) Available
ZooKeeper-based ACLs Available
Secrets Protection Available [4]
Schema Validation Available
FIPS Available
Multi-region Clusters Available
Tiered Storage Available
Self-Balancing Clusters Available
Auto Data Balancer Use Self-Balancing Clusters
ZooKeeper TLS/SSL Available
Confluent REST API Available
Cluster Registry Not Available
Cluster Linking Available
Health+ Available
  • [1] Only available for new installations.
  • [2] Supports SASL/Plain and mTLS for Kafka authentication. Does not support Kerberos or SASL/Scram.
  • [3] Supported through Kafka and ZooKeeper configuration overrides. See Configure Audit Logs using the Properties File for the properties you need to set in config overrides. Does not support centrally managed Audit Logs.
  • [4] Kubernetes Secrets are integrated. CFK does not enable you to use Confluent Secret Protection.

Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform

Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform (Confluent Ansible) provides you a simple way to configure and deploy Confluent Platform on a traditional VM or bare metal infrastructure. For more information, see Ansible documentation .

For version compatibility among Confluent Ansible, Confluent Platform, Ansible, and Python, see Ansible Requirements.

The following table summarizes the Confluent Platform features supported with Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform.

Confluent Platform 7.5 Feature Availability in Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform 7.5
Kafka Broker Available
ZooKeeper Available
Schema Registry Available
REST Proxy Available
ksqlDB Available
Connect Available
Control Center Available [1]
Replicator Available [2]
Security: Authentication Available [3]
Security: Role-based Access Control (RBAC) Available
Security: Network Encryption Available
Structured Audit Logs Available
MDS-based Access Control Lists (ACLs) Available [4]
ZooKeeper-based ACLs Not available
Secrets Protection Available [5]
Schema Validation Available
FIPS Available
Multi-region Clusters Available
Tiered Storage Available
Self-Balancing Clusters Available
Auto Data Balancer Not available
ZooKeeper TLS/SSL Available
Confluent REST API Available
Health+ Available
Cluster Registry Available
Cluster Linking Available
  • [1] Cannot configure Control Center to monitor multiple Kafka clusters.
  • [2] Cannot have RBAC enabled on the source or target cluster.
  • [3] Cannot enable both SASL and mTLS for ZooKeeper out of the box. See Ansible Troubleshooting for enabling both authentication modes using config overrides.
  • [4] Only available for new installations. Does not support centrally managing ACLs across multiple Kafka clusters.
  • [5] Does not support ZooKeeper configuration Secrets.

You can manually configure the features marked as Not available outside of the scope of Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform. If you take the hybrid installation approach, refer to the appropriate installation document in Confluent documentation to ensure your install path of mixing Ansible installation and manual installation is supported.

Docker

If you are not using a higher-level container orchestration system like Kubernetes, Confluent Platform Docker images are available for use directly with Docker. Docker version 1.11 or later running on a supported operating system is required to use the Docker images.

Release Docker Image Reference Operating System Zulu OpenJDK Version Python Version Scala Version
7.5.x Docker Image Reference for Confluent Platform RHEL UBI 8 11.0.20 3.9.7 2.13
7.4.x Docker Image Reference (7.4) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.18 3.9.7 2.13
7.3.x Docker Image Reference (7.3) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.15-1 3.9.7 2.13
7.2.x Docker Image Reference (7.2) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.15-1 3.6.8 2.13
7.1.x Docker Image Reference (7.1) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.15-1 3.6.8 2.13
7.0.x Docker Image Reference (7.0) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.15-1 3.6.8 2.13
6.2.x Docker Image Reference (6.2) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.15-1 3.6.8 2.13
6.1.x Docker Image Reference (6.1) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.15-1 3.6.8 2.13
6.0.x Docker Image Reference (6.0) RHEL UBI 8 11.0.15-1 3.6.8 2.13

Web browsers

The following web browsers are supported by Confluent Control Center and Confluent Cloud.

Browser Supported Version
Apple Safari Latest Stable
Google Chrome Latest Stable
Mozilla Firefox Latest Stable