Kafka GUI for Apache Kafka to manage topics, topics data, consumers group, schema registry, connect and more...

• Features
• Quick Preview
• Installation
  • Docker
  • Stand Alone
  • Kubernetes using Helm
• Configuration
  • JVM.options file
  • Kafka cluster
  • AKHQ
  • Security
  • Server
  • Micronaut
• Api
• Monitoring Endpoint
• Development Environment
• Who's using AKHQ

• General
  • Works with modern Kafka cluster (1.0+)
  • Connection on standard or ssl, sasl cluster
  • Multi cluster
• Topics
  • List
  • Configurations view
  • Partitions view
  • ACLS view
  • Consumers groups assignments view
  • Node leader & assignments view
  • Create a topic
  • Configure a topic
  • Delete a topic
• Browse Topic datas
  • View data, offset, key, timestamp & headers
  • Automatic deserializarion of avro message encoded with schema registry
  • Configurations view
  • Logs view
  • Delete a record
  • Sort view
  • Filter per partitions
  • Filter with a starting time
  • Filter data with a search string
• Consumer Groups (only with kafka internal storage, not with old Zookeeper)
  • List with lag, topics assignments
  • Partitions view & lag
  • ACLS view
  • Node leader & assignments view
  • Display active and pending consumers groups
  • Delete a consumer group
  • Update consumer group offsets to start / end / timestamp
• Schema Registry
  • List schema
  • Create / Update / Delete a schema
  • View and delete individual schema version
• Connect
  • List connect definition
  • Create / Update / Delete a definition
  • Pause / Resume / Restart a definition or a task
• Nodes
  • List
  • Configurations view
  • Logs view
  • Configure a node
• ACLS
  • List principals
  • List principals topic & group acls
• Authentification and Roles
  • Read only mode
  • BasicHttp with roles per user
  • User groups configuration
  • Filter topics with regexp for current groups
  • Ldap configuration to match AKHQ groups/roles

• Download docker-compose.yml file
• run docker-compose pull to be sure to have the last version of AKHQ
• run docker-compose up
• go to https://localhost:8080

It will start a Kafka node, a Zookeeper node, a Schema Registry, a Connect, fill with some sample data, start a consumer group and a kafka stream & start AKHQ.

First you need a configuration files in order to configure AKHQ connections to Kafka Brokers.

docker run -d \
    -p 8080:8080 \
    -v /tmp/application.yml:/app/application.yml \
    tchiotludo/akhq

• With -v /tmp/application.yml must be an absolute path to configuration file
• Go to https://localhost:8080

• Install Java 11
• Download the latest jar on release page
• Create an configuration files
• Launch the application with java -Dmicronaut.config.files=/path/to/application.yml -jar akhq.jar
• Go to https://localhost:8080

• Add the AKHQ helm charts repository:

helm repo add akhq https://akhq.io/

• Install it:

helm install --name akhq akhq/akhq

• Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/tchiotludo/akhq && cd akhq/deploy/helm/akhq

• Update helm values located in deploy/helm/values.yaml
  • configuration values will contains all related configuration that you can find in application.example.yml and will be store in a ConfigMap
  • secrets values will contains all sensitive configurations (with credentials) that you can find in application.example.yml and will be store in Secret
  • Both values will be merged at startup
• Apply the chart:

helm install --name=akhq-release-name  .

Configuration file can by default be provided in either Java properties, YAML, JSON or Groovy files. YML Configuration file example can be found here :application.example.yml

By default, the docker container will run with a jvm.options file, you can override it with your own with an Environment Variable. With the JVM_OPTS_FILE environment variable, you can override the jvm.options file by passing the path of your file instead.

Override the JVM_OPTS_FILE with docker run:

docker run -d \
    --env JVM_OPTS_FILE={{path-of-your-jvm.options-file}}
    -p 8080:8080 \
    -v /tmp/application.yml:/app/application.yml \
    tchiotludo/akhq

Override the JVM_OPTS_FILE with docker-compose:

version: '3.7'
services:
  akhq:
    image: tchiotludo/akhq-jvm:dev
    environment:
      JVM_OPTS_FILE: /app/jvm.options
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - /tmp/application.yml:/app/application.yml

If you do not override the JVM_OPTS_FILE, the docker container will take the defaults one instead.

• akhq.connections is a key value configuration with :
  • key: must be an url friendly (letter, number, _, -, ... dot are not allowed here) string the identify your cluster (my-cluster-1 and my-cluster-2 is the example above)
  • properties: all the configurations found on Kafka consumer documentation. Most important is bootstrap.servers that is a list of host:port of your Kafka brokers.
  • schema-registry: (optional)
    • url: the schema registry url
    • basic-auth-username: schema registry basic auth username
    • basic-auth-password: schema registry basic auth password
    • properties: all the configurations for registry client, especially ssl configuration
  • connect: (optional list, define each connector as a element of a list)
    • name: connect name
    • url: connect url
    • basic-auth-username: connect basic auth username
    • basic-auth-password: connect basic auth password
    • ssl-trust-store: /app/truststore.jks
    • ssl-trust-store-password: trust-store-password
    • ssl-key-store: /app/truststore.jks
    • ssl-key-store-password: key-store-password

Configuration example for kafka cluster secured by ssl for saas provider like aiven (full https & basic auth):

You need to generate a jks & p12 file from pem, cert files give by saas provider.

openssl pkcs12 -export -inkey service.key -in service.cert -out client.keystore.p12 -name service_key
keytool -import -file ca.pem -alias CA -keystore client.truststore.jks

Configurations will look like this example:

akhq:
  connections:
    ssl-dev:
      properties:
        bootstrap.servers: "{{host}}.aivencloud.com:12835"
        security.protocol: SSL
        ssl.truststore.location: {{path}}/avnadmin.truststore.jks
        ssl.truststore.password: {{password}}
        ssl.keystore.type: "PKCS12"
        ssl.keystore.location: {{path}}/avnadmin.keystore.p12
        ssl.keystore.password: {{password}}
        ssl.key.password: {{password}}
      schema-registry:
        url: "https://{{host}}.aivencloud.com:12838"
        basic-auth-username: avnadmin
        basic-auth-password: {{password}}
        properties: {}
      connect:
        - name: connect-1
          url: "https://{{host}}.aivencloud.com:{{port}}"
          basic-auth-username: avnadmin
          basic-auth-password: {{password}}

• akhq.pagination.page-size number of topics per page (default : 25)

• akhq.topic.default-view is default list view (ALL, HIDE_INTERNAL, HIDE_INTERNAL_STREAM, HIDE_STREAM)
• akhq.topic.internal-regexps is list of regexp to be considered as internal (internal topic can't be deleted or updated)
• akhq.topic.stream-regexps is list of regexp to be considered as internal stream topic
• akhq.topic.skip-consumer-groups disable loading of consumer group information when showing topics (true), default is to load the information

These parameters are the default values used in the topic creation page.

• akhq.topic.retention Default retention in ms
• akhq.topic.replication Default number of replica to use
• akhq.topic.partition Default number of partition

• akhq.topic-data.sort: default sort order (OLDEST, NEWEST) (default: OLDEST)
• akhq.topic-data.size: max record per page (default: 50)
• akhq.topic-data.poll-timeout: The time, in milliseconds, spent waiting in poll if data is not available in the buffer (default: 1000).

• akhq.security.default-group: Default group for all the user even unlogged user. By default, the default group is admin and allow you all read / write access on the whole app.

By default, security & roles is enabled by default but anonymous user have full access. You can completely disabled security with micronaut.security.enabled: false.

If you need a read-only application, simply add this to your configuration files :

akhq:
  security:
    default-group: reader

Groups allow you to limit user

Define groups with specific roles for your users

• akhq.security.default-group: Default group for all the user even unlogged user

• akhq.security.groups: Groups list definition

  • group-name: Group identifier
    • roles: Roles list for the group
    • attributes.topics-filter-regexp: Regexp to filter topics available for current group

3 defaults group are available :

• admin with all right
• reader with only read acces on all AKHQ
• no-roles without any roles, that force user to login

• akhq.security.basic-auth: List user & password with affected roles
  • actual-username: Login of the current user as a yaml key (may be anything email, login, ...)
    • password: Password in sha256, can be converted with command echo -n "password" | sha256sum
    • groups: Groups for current user

Take care that basic auth will use session store in server memory. If your instance is behind a reverse proxy or a loadbalancer, you will need to forward the session cookie named SESSION and / or use sesssion stickiness

Configure how the ldap groups will be matched in AKHQ groups

• akhq.security.ldap.group: Ldap groups list
  • ldap-group-name: Ldap group name (same name as in ldap)
    • groups: AKHQ group list to be used for current ldap group

Example using online ldap test server

Configure ldap connection in micronaut

micronaut:
  security:
    ldap:
      default:
        enabled: true
        context:
          server: 'ldap:https://ldap.forumsys.com:389'
          managerDn: 'cn=read-only-admin,dc=example,dc=com'
          managerPassword: 'password'
        search:
          base: "dc=example,dc=com"
        groups:
          enabled: true
          base: "dc=example,dc=com"

If you want to enable anonymous auth to your LDAP server you can pass :

managerDn: ''
managerPassword: ''

Debuging ldap connection can be done with

curl -i -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
       -d '{ "configuredLevel": "TRACE" }' \
       https://localhost:8080/loggers/io.micronaut.configuration.security

Configure AKHQ groups and Ldap groups and users

akhq:
  security:
    groups:
      topic-reader: # just a key, no matter will be override by name below
        name: "topic-reader" # Group name
        roles:  # roles for the group
          - topic/read
        attributes:
          # Regexp to filter topic available for group
          topics-filter-regexp: "test\\.reader.*"
      topic-writer: # just a key, no matter will be override by name below
        name: "topic-writer" # Group name
        roles:
          - topic/read
          - topic/insert
          - topic/delete
          - topic/config/update
        attributes:
          topics-filter-regexp: "test.*"
    ldap:
      group:
        mathematicians:
          groups:
            - topic-reader
        scientists:
          groups:
            - topic-reader
            - topic-writer
      user:
        franz:
          groups:
            - topic-reader
            - topic-writer

• akhq.server.base-path: if behind a reverse proxy, path to akhq with trailing slash (optional). Example: akhq is behind a reverse proxy with url https://my-server/akhq, set base-path: "/akhq/". Not needed if you're behind a reverse proxy with subdomain https://akhq.my-server/

• akhq.clients-defaults.{{admin|producer|consumer}}.properties: default configuration for admin producer or consumer. All properties from Kafka documentation is available.

Since AKHQ is based on Micronaut, you can customize configurations (server port, ssl, ...) with Micronaut configuration. More information can be found on Micronaut documentation

AKHQ docker image support 3 environment variables to handle configuraiton :

• AKHQ_CONFIGURATION: a string that contains the full configuration in yml that will be written on /app/configuration.yml on container.
• MICRONAUT_APPLICATION_JSON: a string that contains the full configuration in JSON format
• MICRONAUT_CONFIG_FILES: a path to to a configuration file on container. Default path is /app/application.yml

Take care when you mount configuration files to not remove akhq files located on /app. You need to explicitely mount the /app/application.yml and not mount the /app directory. This will remove the AKHQ binnaries and give you this error: /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: 9: exec: ./akhq: not found

volumeMounts:
- mountPath: /app/application.yml
  subPath: application.yml
  name: config
  readOnly: true

An experimental api is available that allow you to fetch all the exposed on AKHQ through api.

Take care that this api is experimental and will change in a future release. Some endpoint expose too many datas and is slow to fetch, and we will remove some properties in a future in order to be fast.

Example: List topic endpoint expose log dir, consumer groups, offsets. Fetching all of theses is slow for now and we will remove these in a future.

You can discover the api endpoint here :

• /api: a RapiDoc webpage that document all the endpoints.
• /swagger/akhq.yml: a full OpenApi specifications files

Several monitoring endpoint is enabled by default. You can disabled it or restrict access only for authenticated users following micronaut configuration below.

• /info Info Endpoint with git status informations.
• /health Health Endpoint
• /loggers Loggers Endpoint
• /metrics Metrics Endpoint
• /prometheus Prometheus Endpoint

You can debug all query duration from AKHQ with this commands

curl -i -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
       -d '{ "configuredLevel": "TRACE" }' \
       https://localhost:8080/loggers/org.akhq

You can have access to last feature / bug fix with docker dev image automatically build on tag dev

docker pull tchiotludo/akhq:dev

The dev jar is not publish on GitHub, you have 2 solutions to have the dev jar :

Get it from docker image

docker pull tchiotludo/akhq:dev
docker run --rm --name=akhq -it tchiotludo/akhq:dev
docker cp akhq:/app/akhq.jar . 

Or build it with a ./gradlew shadowJar, the jar will be located here build/libs/akhq-*.jar

A docker-compose is provide to start a development environnement. Just install docker & docker-compose, clone the repository and issue a simple docker-compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml up to start a dev server. Dev server is a java server & webpack-dev-server with live reload.

• Adeo
• Auchan Retail
• Bell
• BMW Group
• Boulanger
• GetYourGuide
• Klarna
• La Redoute
• Leroy Merlin
• NEXT Technologies
• Nuxeo
• Pipedrive
• BARMER

Many thanks to:

• JetBrains for their free OpenSource license.
• Apache, Apache Kafka, Kafka, and associated open source project names are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation. AKHQ is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or otherwise associated with the Apache Software.

Apache 2.0 © tchiotludo