cmccabe commented on a change in pull request #10227: URL: https://github.com/apache/kafka/pull/10227#discussion_r590746266
########## File path: KIP-500.md ########## @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@ +KIP-500 Early Access Release +============================ + +# Introduction +It is now possible to run Apache Kafka without Apache ZooKeeper! We call this mode [self-managed mode](https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-500%3A+Replace+ZooKeeper+with+a+Self-Managed+Metadata+Quorum). It is currently *EARLY ACCESS AND SHOULD NOT BE USED IN PRODUCTION*, but it is available for testing in the Kafka 2.8 release. + +When the Kafka cluster is in self-managed mode, it does not store its metadata in ZooKeeper. In fact, you do not have to run ZooKeeper at all, because it stores its metadata in a Raft quorum of controller nodes. + +Self-managed mode has many benefits-- some obvious, and some not so obvious. Clearly, it is nice to manage and configure one service rather than two services. In addition, you can now run a single process Kafka cluster. Most important of all, self-managed mode is more scalable. We expect to be able to [support many more topics and partitions](https://www.confluent.io/kafka-summit-san-francisco-2019/kafka-needs-no-keeper/) in this mode. + +# Quickstart + +## Warning +Self-managed mode in Kafka 2.8 is provided for testing only, *NOT* for production. We do not yet support upgrading existing ZooKeeper-based Kafka clusters into this mode. In fact, when Kafka 3.0 is released, it may not even be possible to upgrade your self-managed clusters from 2.8 to 3.0 without downtime. There may be bugs, including serious ones. You should *assume that your data could be lost at any time* if you try the early access release of KIP-500. + +## Generate a cluster ID +The first step is to generate an ID for your new cluster, using the kafka-storage tool: + +~~~~ +$ ./bin/kafka-storage.sh random-uuid +xtzWWN4bTjitpL3kfd9s5g +~~~~ + +## Format Storage Directories +The next step is to format your storage directories. If you are running in single-node mode, you can do this with one command: + +~~~~ +$ ./bin/kafka-storage.sh format -t xtzWWN4bTjitpL3kfd9s5g -c ./config/raft-combined.properties Review comment: I agree that in the long term `{broker,controller,combined}.properties` are nice. In the short term, though this could create confusion for people who want to run with ZK enabled (which is going to be most people, until we get out of "preview") So let's go with nozk-* for now.... ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: us...@infra.apache.org
