---
title: Charmhub | Deploy Apache Kafka Connect using Charmhub - The Open Operator Collection
description: Deploy the latest version of Apache Kafka Connect on any cloud.
url: https://charmhub.io/kafka-connect/docs/h-deploy-anywhere
---

# Apache Kafka Connect

[Canonical](https://charmhub.io/publisher/data-platform "View all packages from Canonical")

* [Canonical](https://charmhub.io/publisher/data-platform "View all packages from Canonical")

Platform:

24.04

22.04

4/stable 37

```
juju deploy kafka-connect --channel 4/stable
```

[Learn to deploy on juju >](https://juju.is/docs/juju/manage-applications)

---

#### Relevant links

* [Homepage](https://github.com/canonical/kafka-connect-operator)

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#### Contacts

##### Maintainers

+ [Canonical Data Platform](mailto:data-platform@lists.launchpad.net)

* [Submit a bug](https://github.com/canonical/kafka-connect-operator/issues)

---

Share your thoughts on this charm with the community on discourse.

[Join the discussion](https://discourse.charmhub.io/)

# How to deploy Charmed Apache Kafka

For K8s Charmed Apache Kafka, see the [Charmed Apache Kafka K8s documentation](https://discourse.charmhub.io/t/charmed-kafka-k8s-documentation-how-to-deploy/13266) instead.

To deploy a Charmed Apache Kafka cluster on a bare environment, it is necessary to:

1. Set up a Juju Controller
2. Set up a Juju Model
3. Deploy Charmed Apache Kafka and Charmed Apache ZooKeeper
4. (Optionally) Create an external admin user

In the next subsections, we will cover these steps separately by referring to
relevant Juju documentation and providing details on the Charmed Apache Kafka specifics.
If you already have a Juju controller and/or a Juju model, you can skip the associated steps.

## [Juju controller setup](https://charmhub.io/kafka-connect/docs/h-deploy-anywhere#p-30274-juju-controller-setup)

Make sure you have a Juju controller accessible from
your local environment using the [Juju client snap](https://snapcraft.io/juju).

List available controllers:
Make sure that the controller’s back-end cloud is **not** K8s.
The cloud information can be retrieved with the following command

```
juju list-controllers
```

Switch to another controller if needed:

```
juju switch <controller>
```

If there are no suitable controllers, create a new one:

```
juju bootstrap <cloud> <controller>
```

where `<cloud>` – the cloud to deploy controller to, e.g., `localhost`. For more information on how to set up a new cloud, see the How to manage clouds guide in Juju documentation.

For more Juju controller setup guidance, see the [How to manage controllers](https://discourse.charmhub.io/t/1111) guide in Juju documentation.

## [Juju model setup](https://charmhub.io/kafka-connect/docs/h-deploy-anywhere#p-30274-juju-model-setup)

You can create a new Juju model using

```
juju add-model <model>
```

Alternatively, you can switch to any existing Juju model:

```
juju switch <model-name>
```

Make sure that the model is of a correct type (not `k8s`):

```
juju show-model | yq '.[].type'
```

## [Deploy Charmed Apache Kafka and Charmed Apache ZooKeeper](https://charmhub.io/kafka-connect/docs/h-deploy-anywhere#p-30274-deploy-charmed-apache-kafka-and-charmed-apache-zookeeper)

Charmed Apache Kafka and Charmed Apache ZooKeeper can both be deployed as follows:

```
$ juju deploy kafka --channel 3/stable -n <kafka-units>
$ juju deploy zookeeper --channel 3/stable -n <zookeeper-units>
```

where `<kafka-units>` and `<zookeeper-units>` – the number of units to deploy for Charmed Apache Kafka and Charmed Apache ZooKeeper. We recommend values of at least `3` and `5` respectively.

Connect Charmed Apache ZooKeeper and Charmed Apache Kafka by relating/integrating them:

```
$ juju relate kafka zookeeper
```

Check the status of the deployment:

```
juju status
```

The deployment should be complete once all the units show `active` or `idle` status.

## [(Optional) Create an external admin users](https://charmhub.io/kafka-connect/docs/h-deploy-anywhere#p-30274-optional-create-an-external-admin-users)

Charmed Apache Kafka aims to follow the *secure by default* paradigm. As a consequence, after being deployed the Apache Kafka cluster
won’t expose any external listener.
In fact, ports are only opened when client applications are related, also
depending on the protocols to be used.

For more information about the available listeners and protocols please refer to [this table](https://charmhub.io/kafka-connect/docs/r-listeners).

It is however generally useful for most of the use cases to create a first admin user
to be used to manage the Apache Kafka cluster (either internally or externally).

To create an admin user, deploy the [Data Integrator Charm](https://charmhub.io/data-integrator) with
`extra-user-roles` set to `admin`:

```
juju deploy data-integrator --channel stable --config topic-name=test-topic --config extra-user-roles=admin
```

… and relate it to the Apache Kafka charm:

```
juju relate data-integrator kafka
```

To retrieve authentication information, such as the username and password, use:

```
juju run data-integrator/leader get-credentials
```

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