Deploy Kafka on Kubernetes with Strimzi

Deploy a 3-broker KRaft Kafka cluster with Strimzi, build keyed producer and consumer apps, sink to Postgres with Kafka Connect, monitor lag in Grafana.

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~25 minutes

8 Topics

Hands-on Scenarios

What You'll Learn

Architecture Overview & Problem Statement

This project deploys a replicated Apache Kafka cluster on Kubernetes with the Strimzi operator in KRaft mode (no ZooKeeper), then builds the pipeline...

Milestone 1: Install the Strimzi Operator

This milestone installs Strimzi, the operator that turns Kafka custom resources into running brokers.

Milestone 2: Deploy a 3-Broker KRaft Kafka Cluster

This milestone deploys three Kafka nodes that act as both controllers and brokers, with replication settings that survive the loss of one node.

Milestone 3: Create Topics with Proper Configuration

This milestone declares three topics as Kubernetes resources, with partitions and retention chosen deliberately.

Milestone 4: Build Producer and Consumer Services

This milestone deploys a keyed, idempotent producer and a consumer group, both written as small Python programs, and checks the lag.

Milestone 5: Sink Orders into PostgreSQL with Kafka Connect

This milestone deploys PostgreSQL and a Kafka Connect cluster with the JDBC connector, so every order event lands in a database table automatically.

Skills You'll Master

KUBERNETESKAFKATERRAFORMMONITORING

Curriculum Index8 topics

Architecture Overview & Problem Statement

This project deploys a replicated Apache Kafka cluster on Kubernetes with the Strimzi operator in KRaft mode (no...

Milestone 1: Install the Strimzi Operator

This milestone installs Strimzi, the operator that turns Kafka custom resources into running brokers.

Milestone 2: Deploy a 3-Broker KRaft Kafka Cluster

This milestone deploys three Kafka nodes that act as both controllers and brokers, with replication settings that...

Milestone 3: Create Topics with Proper Configuration

This milestone declares three topics as Kubernetes resources, with partitions and retention chosen deliberately.

Milestone 4: Build Producer and Consumer Services

This milestone deploys a keyed, idempotent producer and a consumer group, both written as small Python programs, and...

Milestone 5: Sink Orders into PostgreSQL with Kafka Connect

This milestone deploys PostgreSQL and a Kafka Connect cluster with the JDBC connector, so every order event lands in a...

Milestone 6: Monitor Kafka with Prometheus and Grafana

This milestone installs Prometheus and Grafana, scrapes the brokers and the exporter, and shows the metrics that matter...

Validation & Testing

This final step proves the cluster is healthy, the data flows end to end and a broker failure loses nothing.

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Career Impact

Roles that use the skills in this module.

Data Engineer
Platform Engineer
Site Reliability Engineer
DevOps Engineer

See how this is asked in interviews

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