Kafka integration for Grafana Cloud
Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed event streaming platform used by thousands of companies for high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission-critical applications.
This integration includes 8 useful alerts and 7 pre-built dashboards to help monitor and visualize Kafka metrics.
Before you begin
In order for the integration to work, you must configure a JMX exporter on each instance composing your Kafka Cluster, including all brokers, zookeepers, ksqldb, schema registries and kafka connect nodes.
Each of these instances has its own JMX Exporter config file. The following files should be used for each respective kafka component. For more details on how to configure your Kafka JVM with the JMX exporter, please refer to the JMX Exporter documentation.
We strongly recommend that you configure a separate user for the Agent, and give it only the strictly mandatory security privileges necessary for monitoring your node, as per the documentation.
Install Kafka integration for Grafana Cloud
- In your Grafana Cloud stack, click Connections in the left-hand menu.
- Find Kafka and click its tile to open the integration.
- Review the prerequisites in the Configuration Details tab and set up Grafana Agent to send Kafka metrics to your Grafana Cloud instance.
- Click Install to add this integration’s pre-built dashboards and alerts to your Grafana Cloud instance, and you can start monitoring your Kafka setup.
Post-install configuration for the Kafka integration
After enabling the metrics generation, instruct Grafana Agent to scrape your Kafka nodes.
The JMX exporter exposes a /metrics
endpoint. To scrape it, add the snippets above to your agent configuration file.
Make sure to change targets
in the snippets according to your environment.
If you want to monitor consumption lag as well, you will need to enable the kafka_exporter
, which is embbeded in the Grafana Agent.
Enable the integration by adding the provided snippet to your agent configuration file.
For a full description of configuration options see Grafana Agent configuration reference in the agent documentation.
Configuration snippets for Grafana Agent
Below integrations
, insert the following lines and change the URLs according to your environment:
kafka_exporter: # one job per node
enabled: true
kafka_uris: ['kafka-node1:9091']
kafka_cluster_name: '<your-cluster-name>'
instance: '<your-instance-name>'
Below metrics.configs.scrape_configs
, insert the following lines and change the URLs according to your environment:
- job_name: integrations/kafka # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-zookeeper # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['zookeeper-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-connect # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-connect-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-schemaregistry # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-schemaregistry-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-ksqldb # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-ksqldb-node:7001']
Full example configuration for Grafana Agent
Refer to the following Grafana Agent configuration for a complete example that contains all the snippets used for the Kafka integration. This example also includes metrics that are sent to monitor your Grafana Agent instance.
integrations:
prometheus_remote_write:
- basic_auth:
password: <your_prom_pass>
username: <your_prom_user>
url: <your_prom_url>
agent:
enabled: true
relabel_configs:
- action: replace
source_labels:
- agent_hostname
target_label: instance
- action: replace
target_label: job
replacement: "integrations/agent-check"
metric_relabel_configs:
- action: keep
regex: (prometheus_target_.*|prometheus_sd_discovered_targets|agent_build.*|agent_wal_samples_appended_total|process_start_time_seconds)
source_labels:
- __name__
# Add here any snippet that belongs to the `integrations` section.
# For a correct indentation, paste snippets copied from Grafana Cloud at the beginning of the line.
kafka_exporter: # one job per node
enabled: true
kafka_uris: ['kafka-node1:9091']
kafka_cluster_name: '<your-cluster-name>'
instance: '<your-instance-name>'
logs:
configs:
- clients:
- basic_auth:
password: <your_loki_pass>
username: <your_loki_user>
url: <your_loki_url>
name: integrations
positions:
filename: /tmp/positions.yaml
scrape_configs:
# Add here any snippet that belongs to the `logs.configs.scrape_configs` section.
# For a correct indentation, paste snippets copied from Grafana Cloud at the beginning of the line.
metrics:
configs:
- name: integrations
remote_write:
- basic_auth:
password: <your_prom_pass>
username: <your_prom_user>
url: <your_prom_url>
scrape_configs:
# Add here any snippet that belongs to the `metrics.configs.scrape_configs` section.
# For a correct indentation, paste snippets copied from Grafana Cloud at the beginning of the line.
- job_name: integrations/kafka # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-zookeeper # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['zookeeper-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-connect # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-connect-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-schemaregistry # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-schemaregistry-node:7001']
- job_name: integrations/kafka-ksqldb # one job per node
relabel_configs:
- replacement: '<your-instance-name>'
target_label: instance
static_configs:
- targets: ['kafka-ksqldb-node:7001']
global:
scrape_interval: 60s
wal_directory: /tmp/grafana-agent-wal
Dashboards
The Kafka integration installs the following dashboards in your Grafana Cloud instance to help monitor your system.
- Kafka Connect Overview
- Kafka Overview
- Kafka Topics
- Kafka lag overview
- Schema Registry Overview
- Zookeeper overview
- ksqldb Overview
Kafka Overview dashboard
Kafka Connect Overview dashboard
Kafka KSQL Overview dashboard
Alerts
The Kafka integration includes the following useful alerts:
Alert | Description |
---|---|
KafkaOfflinePartitonCount | Critical: After successful leader election, if the leader for partition dies, then the partition moves to the OfflinePartition state. Offline partitions are not available for reading and writing. Restart the brokers, if needed, and check the logs for errors. |
KafkaUnderReplicatedPartitionCount | Critical: Under-replicated partitions means that one or more replicas are not available. This is usually because a broker is down. Restart the broker, and check for errors in the logs. |
KafkaActiveController | Critical: No broker in the cluster is reporting as the active controller in the last 1 minute interval. During steady state there should be only one active controller per cluster. |
KafkaUncleanLeaderElection | Critical: There is unclean partition leader elections in the cluster reported in the last 1 minute interval. When unclean leader election is held among out-of-sync replicas, there is a possibility of data loss if any messages were not synced prior to the loss of the former leader. So if the number of unclean elections is greater than 0, investigate broker logs to determine why leaders were re-elected, and look for WARN or ERROR messages. Consider setting the broker configuration parameter unclean.leader.election.enable to false so that a replica outside of the set of in-sync replicas is never elected leader. |
KafkaISRExpandRate | Warning: If a broker goes down, ISR for some of the partitions shrink. When that broker is up again, ISRs are expanded once the replicas are fully caught up. Other than that, the expected value for ISR expansion rate is 0. If ISR is expanding and shrinking frequently, adjust Allowed replica lag. |
KafkaISRShrinkRate | Warning: If a broker goes down, ISR for some of the partitions shrink. When that broker is up again, ISRs are expanded once the replicas are fully caught up. Other than that, the expected value for ISR shrink rate is 0. If ISR is expanding and shrinking frequently, adjust Allowed replica lag. |
KafkaBrokerCount | Critical: Broker count is 0. |
KafkaZookeeperSyncConnect | Warning: Zookeeper Sync Disconected. |
Metrics
The most important metrics provided by the Kafka integration, which are used on the pre-built dashboards and Prometheus alerts, are as follows:
- jvm_gc_collection_seconds_sum
- jvm_memory_bytes_max
- jvm_memory_bytes_used
- kafka_cluster_partition_underminisr
- kafka_cluster_partition_underreplicated
- kafka_connect_app_info
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_connection_count
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_failed_authentication_total
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_incoming_byte_rate
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_io_ratio
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_network_io_rate
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_outgoing_byte_rate
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_request_rate
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_response_rate
- kafka_connect_connect_metrics_successful_authentication_rate
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_metrics_connector_destroyed_task_count
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_metrics_connector_failed_task_count
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_metrics_connector_paused_task_count
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_metrics_connector_running_task_count
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_metrics_connector_total_task_count
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_metrics_connector_unassigned_task_count
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_rebalance_metrics_rebalance_avg_time_ms
- kafka_connect_connect_worker_rebalance_metrics_time_since_last_rebalance_ms
- kafka_connect_connector_metrics
- kafka_connect_connector_task_metrics_batch_size_avg
- kafka_connect_connector_task_metrics_batch_size_max
- kafka_connect_connector_task_metrics_offset_commit_avg_time_ms
- kafka_connect_connector_task_metrics_offset_commit_success_percentage
- kafka_connect_connector_task_metrics_pause_ratio
- kafka_connect_connector_task_metrics_running_ratio
- kafka_connect_sink_task_metrics_partition_count
- kafka_connect_sink_task_metrics_put_batch_avg_time_ms
- kafka_connect_sink_task_metrics_put_batch_max_time_ms
- kafka_connect_source_task_metrics_poll_batch_avg_time_ms
- kafka_connect_source_task_metrics_poll_batch_max_time_ms
- kafka_connect_source_task_metrics_source_record_active_count_avg
- kafka_connect_source_task_metrics_source_record_active_count_max
- kafka_connect_source_task_metrics_source_record_poll_rate
- kafka_connect_source_task_metrics_source_record_write_rate
- kafka_connect_task_error_metrics_deadletterqueue_produce_requests
- kafka_connect_task_error_metrics_total_errors_logged
- kafka_connect_task_error_metrics_total_record_errors
- kafka_connect_task_error_metrics_total_record_failures
- kafka_connect_task_error_metrics_total_records_skipped
- kafka_connect_task_error_metrics_total_retries
- kafka_consumer_lag_millis
- kafka_consumergroup_current_offset
- kafka_consumergroup_uncommitted_offsets
- kafka_controller_ControllerStats_UncleanLeaderElectionsPerSec
- kafka_controller_KafkaController_ActiveControllerCount
- kafka_controller_KafkaController_OfflinePartitionsCount
- kafka_controller_controllerstats_uncleanleaderelectionspersec
- kafka_controller_kafkacontroller_activecontrollercount
- kafka_controller_kafkacontroller_offlinepartitionscount
- kafka_controller_kafkacontroller_preferredreplicaimbalancecount
- kafka_coordinator_group_groupmetadatamanager_numgroups
- kafka_coordinator_group_groupmetadatamanager_numgroupscompletingrebalance
- kafka_coordinator_group_groupmetadatamanager_numgroupsdead
- kafka_coordinator_group_groupmetadatamanager_numgroupsempty
- kafka_coordinator_group_groupmetadatamanager_numgroupspreparingrebalance
- kafka_coordinator_group_groupmetadatamanager_numgroupsstable
- kafka_log_log_logendoffset
- kafka_log_log_logstartoffset
- kafka_log_log_size
- kafka_network_acceptor_acceptorblockedpercent
- kafka_network_requestchannel_requestqueuesize
- kafka_network_requestchannel_responsequeuesize
- kafka_network_requestmetrics_localtimems
- kafka_network_requestmetrics_remotetimems
- kafka_network_requestmetrics_requestqueuetimems
- kafka_network_requestmetrics_requestspersec
- kafka_network_requestmetrics_responsequeuetimems
- kafka_network_requestmetrics_responsesendtimems
- kafka_network_socketserver_networkprocessoravgidlepercent
- kafka_schema_registry_jersey_metrics_request_latency_99
- kafka_schema_registry_jersey_metrics_request_rate
- kafka_schema_registry_jetty_metrics_connections_active
- kafka_schema_registry_registered_count
- kafka_schema_registry_schemas_created
- kafka_server_KafkaServer_BrokerState
- kafka_server_ReplicaManager_IsrExpandsPerSec
- kafka_server_ReplicaManager_IsrShrinksPerSec
- kafka_server_ReplicaManager_UnderReplicatedPartitions
- kafka_server_SessionExpireListener_ZooKeeperSyncConnectsPerSec
- kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_bytesinpersec
- kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_bytesoutpersec
- kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_fetchmessageconversionspersec
- kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_messagesinpersec
- kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_producemessageconversionspersec
- kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_totalfetchrequestspersec
- kafka_server_brokertopicmetrics_totalproducerequestspersec
- kafka_server_kafkarequesthandlerpool_requesthandleravgidlepercent_total
- kafka_server_kafkaserver_brokerstate
- kafka_server_replicamanager_isrexpandspersec
- kafka_server_replicamanager_isrshrinkspersec
- kafka_server_replicamanager_leadercount
- kafka_server_replicamanager_partitioncount
- kafka_server_replicamanager_underreplicatedpartitions
- kafka_server_sessionexpirelistener_zookeeperauthfailurespersec
- kafka_server_sessionexpirelistener_zookeeperdisconnectspersec
- kafka_server_sessionexpirelistener_zookeeperexpirespersec
- kafka_server_sessionexpirelistener_zookeepersyncconnectspersec
- kafka_server_socketservermetrics_connection_close_rate
- kafka_server_socketservermetrics_connection_count
- kafka_server_socketservermetrics_connection_creation_rate
- kafka_server_socketservermetrics_connections
- kafka_server_zookeeperclientmetrics_zookeeperrequestlatencyms
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_delete_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_delete_latency_max
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_delete_rate
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_fetch_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_fetch_rate
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_put_if_absent_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_put_if_absent_latency_max
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_put_if_absent_rate_rate
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_put_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_put_latency_max
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_put_rate
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_restore_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_restore_latency_max
- kafka_streams_stream_state_metrics_restore_rate
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_commit_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_commit_latency_max
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_poll_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_poll_latency_max
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_process_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_process_latency_max
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_punctuate_latency_avg
- kafka_streams_stream_thread_metrics_punctuate_latency_max
- kafka_topic_partition_current_offset
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_error_queries
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_liveness_indicator
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_messages_consumed_per_sec
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_messages_produced_per_sec
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_not_running_queries
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_num_active_queries
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_num_idle_queries
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_num_persistent_queries
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_pending_shutdown_queries
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_rebalancing_queries
- ksql_ksql_engine_query_stats_running_queries
- ksql_ksql_metrics_ksql_queries_query_status
- process_cpu_seconds_total
- zookeeper_avgrequestlatency
- zookeeper_inmemorydatatree_nodecount
- zookeeper_inmemorydatatree_watchcount
- zookeeper_maxrequestlatency
- zookeeper_minrequestlatency
- zookeeper_numaliveconnections
- zookeeper_outstandingrequests
- zookeeper_quorumsize
- zookeeper_status_quorumsize
- zookeeper_ticktime
Changelog
# 0.0.6 - September 2023
* New Filter Metrics option for configuring the Grafana Agent, which saves on metrics cost by dropping any metric not used by this integration. Beware that anything custom built using metrics that are not on the snippet will stop working.
* New hostname relabel option, which applies the instance name you write on the text box to the Grafana Agent configuration snippets, making it easier and less error prone to configure this mandatory label.
# 0.0.5 - May 2023
* Update mixin to latest version:
- Kafka overview: Show only 0.99 percentile by default
- Kafka lag: Change table panel to bar chart for partitions per topic panel
- Kafka lag: Stretch kafka lag dashboard to full screen width
- Kafka lag panels: Convert old graph to timeseries (message per sec/per minute)
- Kafka lag: Change delta() to increase() for per minute metrics
- Add multichoice and 'All' options supportable in 'job'
- Zookeeper dashboard: Use sentence case
- Zookeeper dashboard: Get templated variables by non quorum metric. Otherwise, standalone zookeeper couldn't be discovered
- Zookeeper dashboard: Add support in queries to jmx_config metrics notations used in Strimzi operator
- Zookeeper dashboard: Convert graphs to timeseries panel
- Zookeeper dashboard: Temp fix for latency graphs ignoring (minrequestlatency, ticktime)
# 0.0.4 - December 2022
* Update mixin to latest version:
- Fix missing job and instance label on all the dashboards
- Fix alert names to have a Kafka prefix
# 0.0.3 - February 2022
* Added the following alerts:
- OfflinePartitonCount
- UnderReplicatedPartitionCount
- ActiveController
- UncleanLeaderElection
- ISRExpandRate
- ISRShrinkRate
- BrokerCount
- ZookeeperSyncConnect
# 0.0.2 - October 2021
* Update mixin to latest version:
- Update all rate queries to use `$__rate_interval` so they respect the default resolution
# 0.0.1 - June 2021
* Initial release
Cost
By connecting your Kafka instance to Grafana Cloud, you might incur charges. To view information on the number of active series that your Grafana Cloud account uses for metrics included in each Cloud tier, see Active series and dpm usage and Cloud tier pricing.
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