Using Kafka Command-line Tools

Kafka command-line tools are located in /usr/bin:
  • kafka-topics
    Create, alter, list, and describe topics. For example:
    $ /usr/bin/kafka-topics --zookeeper zk01.example.com:2181 --list
    sink1
    t1
    t2
    $ /usr/bin/kafka-topics --create --zookeeper hostname:2181/kafka --replication-factor 2 
      --partitions 4 --topic topicname 
                            
  • kafka-console-consumer
    Read data from a Kafka topic and write it to standard output. For example:
    $ /usr/bin/kafka-console-consumer --zookeeper zk01.example.com:2181 --topic t1
  • kafka-console-producer
    Read data from standard output and write it to a Kafka topic. For example:
    $ /usr/bin/kafka-console-producer --broker-list kafka02.example.com:9092,kafka03.example.com:9092 --topic t1
  • kafka-consumer-offset-checker (deprecated)
    Check the number of messages read and written, as well as the lag for each consumer in a specific consumer group. For example:
    $ /usr/bin/kafka-consumer-offset-checker --group flume --topic t1 --zookeeper zk01.example.com:2181
  • kafka-consumer-groups

    To view offsets as in the previous example with the ConsumerOffsetChecker, you describe the consumer group using the following command:
    $ /usr/bin/kafka-consumer-groups --zookeeper zk01.example.com:2181 --describe --group flume
    
    GROUP   TOPIC  PARTITION  CURRENT-OFFSET  LOG-END-OFFSET  LAG     OWNER
    flume   t1     0          1               3               2       test-consumer-group_postamac.local-1456198719410-29ccd54f-0