Install Apache Kafka

In this article, we'll explore how to install Apache Kafka and Kafka Tool to track the consumer, producers,topics,groups etc in Kafka UI.

Apache Kafka Tutorial :

Download JDK:
If Java is not setup at your machine, download the JDK by visiting the following link. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Extract the downloaded JDK at specific folder.
Set the path: Under Environment Variables, set the JAVA_HOME and PATH variable as below.
JAVA_HOME =C:/jdk-1.8.0_60
PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin
Now, to confirm the Java installation, open cmd window and type "java -version" to see installed jdk version.

Download : Go to the download page of Apache Kafka https://kafka.apache.org/downloads.html and download the Scala 2.12 - kafka_2.12-0.10.2.1.tgz

Start zookeeper : This Kafka installation comes with a built-in zookeeper. Zookeeper is mainly used to track the status of the nodes present in the Kafka cluster and to keep track of Kafka topics, messages, etc.
```
# Start the ZooKeeper service
.\bin\windows\zookeeper-server-start.bat .\config\zookeeper.properties
```

Start the Apache Kafka : Use below command to start the Apache Kafka

# Start the Kafka broker service
.\bin\windows\kafka-server-start.bat .\config\server.properties

Download the Kafka UI Tool for your operating system. Kafka tool is a GUI application for managing Kafka clusters.
Once it is downloaded,installed at your machine as per below steps:

Once it is installed, open Kafka Tool.
It'll show pop up message to configure connection for Kafka Cluster. Click on Ok

Once Cluster is configured, it'll listen to the zookeeper (2181) as mentioned in above step. You can start the zookeper and kafka server as mentioned in Kafka Install Section. You can run the Kafka Example1 or Example 2 to see the created broker, consumer,topic, partition, offset details etc.