Kafka Messaging Modular Input
Overview
Details
Kafka version 0.8.1.1 is used for the consumer and the testing of this Modular Input.
Splunk Kafka Messaging Modular Input v1.3.4
Overview
This is a Splunk Modular Input Add-On for indexing messages from a Kafka broker or cluster of brokers that are managed by Zookeeper.
Kafka version 0.8.1.1 is used for the consumer and the testing of this Modular Input.
What is Kafka ?
Dependencies
- Splunk 5.0+
- Java Runtime 1.7+
- Supported on Windows, Linux, MacOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, HP-UX, AIX
- Kafka 0.8+
Setup
- Optionally set your JAVA_HOME environment variable to the root directory of your JRE installation.If you don't set this , the input will look for a default installed java executable on the path.
- Untar the release to your $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps directory
- Restart Splunk
- If you are using a Splunk UI Browse to
Settings -- Data Inputs -- Kafka Messagingto add a new Input stanza via the UI - If you are not using a Splunk UI (ie: you are running on a Universal Forwarder) , you need to add a stanza to inputs.conf directly as per the specification in
README/inputs.conf.spec. Theinputs.conffile should be placed in alocaldirectory under an App or User context.
Activation Key
You require an activation key to use this App. Visit http://www.baboonbones.com/#activation to obtain a non-expiring key
Logging
Any log entries/errors will get written to $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/splunk/splunkd.log
These are also searchable in Splunk : index=_internal error kafka.py
JVM Heap Size
The default heap maximum is 64MB.
If you require a larger heap, then you can alter this in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/kafka_ta/bin/kafka.py on line 95
JVM System Properties
You can declare custom JVM System Properties when setting up new input stanzas.
Note : these JVM System Properties will apply to the entire JVM context and all stanzas you have setup
Customized Message Handling
The way in which the Modular Input processes the received Kafka messages is enitrely pluggable with custom implementations should you wish.
To do this you code an implementation of the com.splunk.modinput.kafka.AbstractMessageHandler class and jar it up.
Ensure that the necessary jars are in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/kafka_ta/bin/lib directory.
If you don't need a custom handler then the default handler com.splunk.modinput.kafka.DefaultMessageHandler will be used.
This handler simply trys to convert the received byte array into a textual string for indexing in Splunk.
Code examples are on GitHub : https://github.com/damiendallimore/SplunkModularInputsJavaFramework/tree/master/kafka/src/com/splunk/modinput/kafka
Troubleshooting
- JAVA_HOME environment variable is set or "java" is on the PATH for the user's environment you are running Splunk as
- You are using Splunk 5+
- You are using a 1.7+ Java Runtime
- You are targetting Kafka version 0.8+
- You are running on a supported operating system
- Look for any errors in $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/splunk/splunkd.log
- Run this command as the same user that you are running Splunk as and observe console output : "$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk cmd python ../etc/apps/kafka_ta/bin/kafka.py --scheme"
Contact
This project was initiated by Damien Dallimore , damien@baboonbones.com
Release Notes
Version 1.3.4
cosmetic fixes
Version 1.3.3
cosmetic fixes
Version 1.3.2
updated docs
Version 1.3.1
added trial key functionality
Version 1.3
docs updated
Version 1.2
minor manager xml ui tweak for 7.1
Version 1.1
Added an activation key requirement , visit http://www.baboonbones.com/#activation to obtain a free,non-expiring key
Docs updated
Splunk 7.1 compatible
Version 1.0
Added a new custom handler : com.splunk.modinput.kafka.CSVWithHeaderDecoderHandler
This allows you to roll out CSV files (with or without header) into KV or JSON before indexing.
Example config you could pass to the custom message handler when you declare it
headers=header1:header2:header3,outputFormat=json,hasHeaderRow=false
Version 0.9.2
Better JSON handling for HEC output (hat tip to Tivo)
Version 0.9.1
Better logging around HEC success/failure
Can now add custom timestamp into HEC payload
New custom handler (JSONBodyWithTimeExtraction) for pulling out timestamp from JSON messages from Kafka and adding this into HEC payload
Version 0.9
Added support to optional output to Splunk via a HEC (HTTP Event Collector) endpoint
Version 0.8.1
Added support for raw connection string format so that multiple zookeeper hosts
can be provided in a comma delimited manner
ie: hostname1:port1,hostname2:port2,hostname3:port3/chroot/path
Version 0.8
Added chroot support for zookeeper connection strings
Version 0.7
Enabled TLS1.2 support by default.
Made the core Modular Input Framework compatible with latest Splunk Java SDK
Please use a Java Runtime version 7+
If you need to use SSLv3 , you can turn this on in bin/kafka.py
SECURE_TRANSPORT = "tls"
#SECURE_TRANSPORT = "ssl"
Version 0.6
You can now pass a charset name to the DefaultHandler
Version 0.5
Initial beta release