Title: Installing and Getting Started with Apache Kafka on Ubuntu

Introduction

Apache Kafka is a powerful distributed streaming platform for building high-throughput, low-latency applications for real-time data handling. It’s a popular choice across industries in scenarios like log aggregation, website activity tracking, real-time analytics, and building scalable messaging systems. Let’s explore how to install Kafka on your Ubuntu machine.

Prerequisites

• An Ubuntu system (this guide works with Ubuntu 18.04 and above)
• Java JDK (version 8 or later)
• Basic command-line familiarity

Step-by-Step Installation Guide

1. Install Java:
2. Bash
3. sudo apt update
4. sudo apt install default-JDK
5. Java -version # Verify installation
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8. Create a Kafka User (Optional but Recommended):
9. Bash
10. sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash kafka
11. sudo passwd kafka
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14. Download Apache Kafka:

• • Visit the Apache Kafka downloads page: 
  • Choose the latest release version (e.g., 3.7.0) with the Scala version compatible with your projects (usually 2.12 or 2.13).
• Download the binary using the download link or curl:
• Bash
• curl -O https://downloads.apache.org/kafka/3.7.0/kafka_2.13-3.7.0.tgz
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1. Extract the Archive:
2. Bash
3. tar -xzf kafka_2.13-3.7.0.tgz
4. cd kafka_2.13-3.7.0
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Basic Configuration

1. Configuring the Server:

• • The central server configuration file is at config/server.properties. Open it in your favorite text editor.
  • Find the listener property and specify your server’s address and port (e.g., listeners=PLAINTEXT://your_server_ip:9092)
  • Consider modifying the log. dirs property to specify where to store Kafka data.

1. Configuring Zookeeper:

• • Kafka relies on Zookeeper, so edit config/zookeeper.properties
  • Modify the dataDir property to point to a location for Zookeeper data.

Starting Kafka

1. Start Zookeeper:
2. Bash
3. bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh config/zookeeper.properties & 
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6. Start the Kafka Server:
7. Bash
8. bin/kafka-server-start.sh config/server.properties &
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Testing Your Installation (Optional)

1. Create a Topic:
2. Bash
3. bin/Kafka-topics.sh –create –topic test-topic –bootstrap-server localhost:9092
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6. Produce Messages:
7. Bash
8. bin/kafka-console-producer.sh –topic test-topic –bootstrap-server localhost:9092
9. “` (Type some messages, press Enter to send)
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13. Consume Messages:
14. Bash
15. bin/Kafka-console-consumer.sh –topic test-topic –from-beginning –bootstrap-server localhost:9092 
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Common Use Cases

• Real-time data pipelines: Process data streams from websites, applications, and sensors.
• Messaging system: Kafka provides a durable, scalable message queue for applications.
• Microservices: Kafka is excellent for communication between microservices.

Conclusion

There you have it! You’ve successfully installed Apache Kafka on Ubuntu. Now, go forth and build excellent real-time data applications.