Connect to Kafka Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for Apache Kafka implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Kafka data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC Driver, you can include live Kafka data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Kafka data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Kafka data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Kafka and gain immediate access to Kafka data within your data lake. By surfacing Kafka data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Kafka data.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Kafka to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-apachekafka-plugin-20.0.0.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Kafka

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.apachekafka.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Kafka

Kafka will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Kafka data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Kafka JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.apachekafka.jar

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

Set BootstrapServers and the Topic properties to specify the address of your Apache Kafka server, as well as the topic you would like to interact with.

Authorization Mechanisms

• SASL Plain: The User and Password properties should be specified. AuthScheme should be set to 'Plain'.
• SASL SSL: The User and Password properties should be specified. AuthScheme should be set to 'Scram'. UseSSL should be set to true.
• SSL: The SSLCert and SSLCertPassword properties should be specified. UseSSL should be set to true.
• Kerberos: The User and Password properties should be specified. AuthScheme should be set to 'Kerberos'.

You may be required to trust the server certificate. In such cases, specify the TrustStorePath and the TrustStorePassword if necessary.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:apachekafka:RTK=5246...;User=admin;Password=pass;BootStrapServers=https://localhost:9091;Topic=MyTopic;

Access Kafka as an External Source

To add Kafka as an External Source, click to add a new source and select ApacheKafka. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New ApacheKafka Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Kafka data in Dremio, easily incorporating Kafka data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Apache Kafka in Dremio, you can incorporate live Kafka data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for Apache Kafka page for more information about connecting to Kafka. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Apache Kafka and get started today.