---
title: "Kafka Connector"
slug: "kafka-connector"
description: "Use the Kafka connector in Lansweeper Flow Builder to publish and consume messages on Apache Kafka for high-performance data pipelines and streaming."
updated: 2026-07-17T15:45:18Z
published: 2026-06-12T14:54:43Z
canonical: "docs.lansweeper.com/kafka-connector"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.lansweeper.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Kafka Connector

Note on third‑party tools

              

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[Apache Kafka](https://kafka.apache.org/) is an event streaming platform to implement high-performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and other applications. This component allows publishing and consuming messages to/from Apache Kafka event streams.

## Connections

### Basic Username/Password

Basic Username and Password connection with optional SSL/TLS support.

Apache Kafka supports authentication using username and password with various SASL mechanisms. This connection requires credentials from the Kafka cluster administrator or from the managed Kafka service provider.

#### Prerequisites

- A Kafka cluster with SASL authentication enabled
- Username and password credentials with appropriate permissions
- Knowledge of the SASL mechanism configured on the cluster (PLAIN, SCRAM-SHA-256, or SCRAM-SHA-512)
- SSL/TLS certificates (if required by the Kafka cluster)

#### Setup Steps

**For managed Kafka services (e.g., Confluent Cloud, Amazon MSK, Azure Event Hubs):**

1. Navigate to the service provider's console
2. Locate the Kafka cluster and access the security settings
3. Generate or obtain API credentials (username and API key/password)
4. Note the SASL mechanism configured for the cluster
5. Download SSL certificates if required

**For self-hosted Kafka clusters:**

1. Contact the Kafka cluster administrator
2. Request credentials with the appropriate permissions for the use case
3. Obtain the SASL mechanism type configured on the cluster
4. Obtain SSL/TLS certificates if the cluster requires secure connections

Refer to the [Kafka SASL authentication documentation](https://kafka.apache.org/41/security/authentication-using-sasl/) for more information on authentication mechanisms.

#### Configure the Connection

Create a connection of type **Basic Username/Password** and enter:

- **Username**: Enter the username provided by the Kafka administrator or service provider
- **Password**: Enter the password or API key
- **Authentication Mechanism**: Select the SASL mechanism configured on the cluster:
  - `plain` - PLAIN SASL mechanism (transmits credentials in plaintext, use with SSL/TLS)
  - `scram-sha-256` - SCRAM-SHA-256 mechanism (recommended for production)
  - `scram-sha-512` - SCRAM-SHA-512 mechanism (higher security)
- **Enable SSL/TLS**: Check this option if the Kafka cluster requires secure connections
- **CA Certificate** (if SSL is enabled): Paste the Certificate Authority (CA) certificate in PEM format. This is required for SSL connections.
- **Client Certificate** (if required): Paste the client certificate in PEM format (only if the cluster requires mutual TLS authentication)
- **Client Key** (if required): Paste the client private key in PEM format (only if the cluster requires mutual TLS authentication)

              Security Recommendation

              

For production environments, use SCRAM-SHA-256 or SCRAM-SHA-512 with SSL/TLS enabled. The PLAIN mechanism transmits credentials without hashing and should only be used over encrypted connections.

              SSL/TLS Certificates

              

Certificates must be in PEM format. If the certificates are in other formats (JKS, PKCS12), convert them to PEM before pasting into the connection configuration.

| Input | Comments | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Username | Username. |  |
| Password | Password. |  |
| Authentication Mechanism | Desired authorization method for passing username/password. |  |
| Enable SSL/TLS | Enable SSL/TLS for secure connections. | false |
| CA Certificate | Certificate Authority (CA) certificate in PEM format. Required for SSL connections. |  |
| Client Certificate | Client certificate in PEM format (if required by the Kafka cluster). |  |
| Client Key | Client private key in PEM format (if required by the Kafka cluster). |  |

## Triggers

### Kafka Consumer

Consume messages from Kafka topics on a schedule.

| Input | Comments | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connection |  |  |
| Client ID | A Client Id is an optional identifier of a Kafka consumer that is passed to a Kafka broker with every request. |  |
| Brokers | A Kafka broker allows consumers to fetch messages by topic, partition and offset. |  |
| Consumer Group ID | The consumer group ID to use for this consumer. |  |
| Topics | List of topics to subscribe to. |  |
| Max Messages | Maximum number of messages to consume per trigger execution. | 100 |
| Session Timeout (ms) | The timeout for consumer session in milliseconds. | 30000 |
| Heartbeat Interval (ms) | The interval for sending heartbeats to the broker in milliseconds. | 3000 |
| From Beginning | Whether to start consuming from the beginning of the topic. | false |
| Auto Commit | Whether to automatically commit offsets after processing messages. | true |

## Actions

### Get Consumer Group Status

Get the status and lag information for a consumer group. Specify topics for better performance, or leave empty to check all topics.

| Input | Comments | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connection |  |  |
| Client ID | A Client Id is an optional identifier of a Kafka consumer that is passed to a Kafka broker with every request. |  |
| Brokers | A Kafka broker allows consumers to fetch messages by topic, partition and offset. |  |
| Consumer Group ID | The consumer group ID to check status for. |  |
| Topics to Check | Specific topics to check for this consumer group. Leave empty to check all topics (slower). |  |

### List Topics

List all topics in the Kafka cluster.

| Input | Comments | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connection |  |  |
| Client ID | A Client Id is an optional identifier of a Kafka consumer that is passed to a Kafka broker with every request. |  |
| Brokers | A Kafka broker allows consumers to fetch messages by topic, partition and offset. |  |

### Publish Messages

Publish a message to an Apache Kafka topic.

| Input | Comments | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connection |  |  |
| Client ID | A Client Id is an optional identifier of a Kafka consumer that is passed to a Kafka broker with every request. |  |
| Brokers | A Kafka broker allows consumers to fetch messages by topic, partition and offset. |  |
| Topic | A Topic is a category/feed name to which records are stored and published. |  |
| Messages | Provide a string for a message to be sent to the Kafka topic. |  |