Kafka Datasource Plugin

Visualize real-time streaming data from Apache Kafka directly in your Grafana dashboards. This plugin enables you to monitor live Kafka topics with automatic updates and time-series visualizations.

Version Compatibility

• Apache Kafka v0.9 or later
• Grafana v9.0 or later
• Network access from Grafana server to Kafka brokers

Installation

For the installation process, please refer to the plugin installation docs.

Configuration

After installation, configure the plugin by adding a new Kafka data source in Grafana and filling out the following fields:

• Servers: Comma-separated list of Kafka bootstrap servers (e.g. broker1:9092, broker2:9092)
• Security Protocol: Choose the protocol (e.g. PLAINTEXT, SASL_SSL)
• SASL Mechanisms: Specify SASL mechanism if required (e.g. PLAIN, SCRAM-SHA-512)
• SASL Username/Password: Provide credentials if SASL authentication is enabled
• Log Level: Set log verbosity (debug, error)
• Healthcheck Timeout: Timeout for health checks in milliseconds (default: 2000ms)
• API Key: (Deprecated) This field is deprecated and will be removed in future versions. Avoid using it for new configurations.

Provisioning

You can automatically configure the Kafka datasource using Grafana's provisioning feature. Create a YAML file in your Grafana provisioning directory just like example in provisioning/datasources/datasource.yaml. This allows you to set up the Kafka data source without manual configuration through the Grafana UI.

Build The Query

1. Create a new dashboard panel
2. Select your Kafka data source
3. Configure the query:
   • Topic: Your Kafka topic name
   • Partition: Partition number (usually 0)
   • Auto offset reset: Choose "latest" for new data or "last 100" for recent history
   • Timestamp Mode: Use "Now" for real-time or "Message Timestamp" for event time

Supported Data Format

Your Kafka messages should contain simple JSON with numeric values:

{
    "temperature": 23.5,
    "humidity": 65.2,
    "pressure": 1013.25
}

Each numeric field becomes a separate series in your graph, allowing you to monitor multiple metrics from a single topic.

Getting Help

• Check the GitHub repository for documentation and examples
• Review sample producer code in different programming languages
• Report issues or request features via GitHub Issues