How to rekey a stream with a value using ksqlDB

Run it

Prerequisites

This tutorial installs Confluent Platform using Docker. Before proceeding:

• Install Docker Desktop (version 4.0.0 or later) or Docker Engine (version 19.03.0 or later) if you don’t already have it
• Install the Docker Compose plugin if you don’t already have it. This isn’t necessary if you have Docker Desktop since it includes Docker Compose.
• Start Docker if it’s not already running, either by starting Docker Desktop or, if you manage Docker Engine with systemd, via systemctl
• Verify that Docker is set up properly by ensuring no errors are output when you run docker info and docker compose version on the command line

Initialize the project

To get started, make a new directory anywhere you’d like for this project:

mkdir rekey-a-stream && cd rekey-a-stream

Then make the following directories to set up its structure:

mkdir src test

Get Confluent Platform

Next, create the following docker-compose.yml file to obtain Confluent Platform (for Kafka in the cloud, see Confluent Cloud):

version: '2'
services:
  broker:
    image: confluentinc/cp-kafka:7.4.1
    hostname: broker
    container_name: broker
    ports:
    - 29092:29092
    environment:
      KAFKA_BROKER_ID: 1
      KAFKA_LISTENER_SECURITY_PROTOCOL_MAP: PLAINTEXT:PLAINTEXT,PLAINTEXT_HOST:PLAINTEXT,CONTROLLER:PLAINTEXT
      KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS: PLAINTEXT://broker:9092,PLAINTEXT_HOST://localhost:29092
      KAFKA_OFFSETS_TOPIC_REPLICATION_FACTOR: 1
      KAFKA_GROUP_INITIAL_REBALANCE_DELAY_MS: 0
      KAFKA_TRANSACTION_STATE_LOG_MIN_ISR: 1
      KAFKA_TRANSACTION_STATE_LOG_REPLICATION_FACTOR: 1
      KAFKA_PROCESS_ROLES: broker,controller
      KAFKA_NODE_ID: 1
      KAFKA_CONTROLLER_QUORUM_VOTERS: 1@broker:29093
      KAFKA_LISTENERS: PLAINTEXT://broker:9092,CONTROLLER://broker:29093,PLAINTEXT_HOST://0.0.0.0:29092
      KAFKA_INTER_BROKER_LISTENER_NAME: PLAINTEXT
      KAFKA_CONTROLLER_LISTENER_NAMES: CONTROLLER
      KAFKA_LOG_DIRS: /tmp/kraft-combined-logs
      CLUSTER_ID: MkU3OEVBNTcwNTJENDM2Qk
  schema-registry:
    image: confluentinc/cp-schema-registry:7.3.0
    hostname: schema-registry
    container_name: schema-registry
    depends_on:
    - broker
    ports:
    - 8081:8081
    environment:
      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_HOST_NAME: schema-registry
      SCHEMA_REGISTRY_KAFKASTORE_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: broker:9092
  ksqldb-server:
    image: confluentinc/ksqldb-server:0.28.2
    hostname: ksqldb-server
    container_name: ksqldb-server
    depends_on:
    - broker
    - schema-registry
    ports:
    - 8088:8088
    environment:
      KSQL_CONFIG_DIR: /etc/ksqldb
      KSQL_LOG4J_OPTS: -Dlog4j.configuration=file:/etc/ksqldb/log4j.properties
      KSQL_BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS: broker:9092
      KSQL_HOST_NAME: ksqldb-server
      KSQL_LISTENERS: http://0.0.0.0:8088
      KSQL_CACHE_MAX_BYTES_BUFFERING: 0
      KSQL_KSQL_SCHEMA_REGISTRY_URL: http://schema-registry:8081
  ksqldb-cli:
    image: confluentinc/ksqldb-cli:0.28.2
    container_name: ksqldb-cli
    depends_on:
    - broker
    - ksqldb-server
    entrypoint: /bin/sh
    environment:
      KSQL_CONFIG_DIR: /etc/ksqldb
    tty: true
    volumes:
    - ./src:/opt/app/src
    - ./test:/opt/app/test

And launch it by running:

docker compose up -d

Write the program interactively using the CLI

To begin developing interactively, open up the ksqlDB CLI:

docker exec -it ksqldb-cli ksql http://ksqldb-server:8088

First, you’ll need to create a Kafka topic and stream to represent the movie ratings data. The following creates both in one shot. Notice that the stream has 2 partitions and no key set.

CREATE STREAM ratings (old INT, id INT, rating DOUBLE)
    WITH (kafka_topic='ratings',
          partitions=2,
          value_format='avro');

Then insert the ratings data. Because the stream has no key, the records will be inserted in approximately a round-robin manner across the different partitions.

INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (1, 294, 8.2);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (2, 294, 8.5);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (3, 354, 9.9);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (4, 354, 9.7);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (5, 782, 7.8);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (6, 782, 7.7);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (7, 128, 8.7);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (8, 128, 8.4);
INSERT INTO ratings (old, id, rating) VALUES (9, 780, 2.1);

Now that you have a stream, let’s examine what key the Kafka messages have using the PRINT command:

PRINT ratings FROM BEGINNING LIMIT 9;

This should yield roughly the following output. PRINT pulls from all partitions of a topic. The order will be different depending on how the records were actually inserted:

Key format: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - no data processed
Value format: AVRO
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.720 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 2, "ID": 294, "RATING": 8.5}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.829 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 5, "ID": 782, "RATING": 7.8}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.875 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 6, "ID": 782, "RATING": 7.7}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.946 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 8, "ID": 128, "RATING": 8.4}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.652 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 1, "ID": 294, "RATING": 8.2}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.757 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 3, "ID": 354, "RATING": 9.9}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.793 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 4, "ID": 354, "RATING": 9.7}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.910 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 7, "ID": 128, "RATING": 8.7}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2022/12/02 21:56:48.982 Z, key: <null>, value: {"OLD": 9, "ID": 780, "RATING": 2.1}, partition: 1
Topic printing ceased

Note that the key is null for every message. This means that ratings data for the same movie could be spread across multiple partitions. This is generally not good for scalability when you care about having the same "kind" of data in a single partition.

Let’s fix that. Using KSQL’s appropriately named PARTITION BY clause we can apply a key to the messages and write it to a new stream. Here we’ll use the movie identifier, ID.

First we tell ksqlDB to query data from the beginning of the topic:

SET 'auto.offset.reset' = 'earliest';

Then, issue the following to create a new stream that is continuously populated by its query:

CREATE STREAM RATINGS_REKEYED
    WITH (KAFKA_TOPIC='ratings_keyed_by_id') AS
    SELECT *
    FROM RATINGS
    PARTITION BY ID;

To check that it’s working, let’s first describe the new stream:

DESCRIBE RATINGS_REKEYED;

Your output should resemble:

Name                 : RATINGS_REKEYED
 Field  | Type

 ID     | INTEGER          (key)
 OLD    | INTEGER
 RATING | DOUBLE

For runtime statistics and query details run: DESCRIBE <Stream,Table> EXTENDED;

Note the (key) at the end of the ID row that indicates the column is now stored in the Kafka message’s key.

Next, we can print out the contents of the output stream’s underlying topic to ensure the key has been correctly set.

PRINT ratings_keyed_by_id FROM BEGINNING LIMIT 9;

This should yield the roughly the following output:

Key format: KAFKA_INT
Value format: AVRO
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:30.376 Z, key: 128, value: {"OLD": 8, "RATING": 8.4}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:30.684 Z, key: 128, value: {"OLD": 7, "RATING": 8.7}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:30.781 Z, key: 294, value: {"OLD": 1, "RATING": 8.2}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:30.949 Z, key: 294, value: {"OLD": 2, "RATING": 8.5}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:31.099 Z, key: 354, value: {"OLD": 4, "RATING": 9.7}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:30.560 Z, key: 354, value: {"OLD": 3, "RATING": 9.9}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:30.873 Z, key: 780, value: {"OLD": 9, "RATING": 2.1}, partition: 1
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:31.021 Z, key: 782, value: {"OLD": 6, "RATING": 7.7}, partition: 0
rowtime: 2020/05/04 23:24:31.178 Z, key: 782, value: {"OLD": 5, "RATING": 7.8}, partition: 0
Topic printing ceased

As you can see, the key format is now KAFKA_INT and the ID column in each row has been removed from the value and into the key, meaning the data has be repartitioned such that all movies with the same ID are now in exactly one partition.

Write your statements to a file

Now that you have a series of statements that’s doing the right thing, the last step is to put them into a file so that they can be used outside the CLI session. Create a file at src/statements.sql with the following content:

CREATE STREAM ratings (old INT, id INT, rating DOUBLE)
    WITH (kafka_topic='ratings',
          partitions=2,
          value_format='avro');

CREATE STREAM RATINGS_REKEYED
  WITH (KAFKA_TOPIC='ratings_keyed_by_id') AS
    SELECT *
    FROM RATINGS
    PARTITION BY ID;

Test it

Create the test data

Create a file at test/input.json with the inputs for testing:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 1,
        "id": 294,
        "rating": 8.2
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 2,
        "id": 294,
        "rating": 8.5
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 3,
        "id": 354,
        "rating": 9.9
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 4,
        "id": 354,
        "rating": 9.7
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 5,
        "id": 782,
        "rating": 7.8
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 6,
        "id": 782,
        "rating": 7.7
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 7,
        "id": 128,
        "rating": 8.7
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 8,
        "id": 128,
        "rating": 8.4
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings",
      "value": {
        "old": 9,
        "id": 780,
        "rating": 2.1
      }
    }
  ]
}

Similarly, create a file at test/output.json with the expected outputs:

{
  "outputs": [
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 294,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 8.2,
        "OLD": 1
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 294,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 8.5,
        "OLD": 2
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 354,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 9.9,
        "OLD": 3
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 354,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 9.7,
        "OLD": 4
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 782,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 7.8,
        "OLD": 5
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 782,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 7.7,
        "OLD": 6
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 128,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 8.7,
        "OLD": 7
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 128,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 8.4,
        "OLD": 8
      }
    },
    {
      "topic": "ratings_keyed_by_id",
      "key": 780,
      "value": {
        "RATING": 2.1,
        "OLD": 9
      }
    }
  ]
}

Invoke the tests

Lastly, invoke the tests using the test runner and the statements file that you created earlier:

docker exec ksqldb-cli ksql-test-runner -i /opt/app/test/input.json -s /opt/app/src/statements.sql -o /opt/app/test/output.json

Which should pass:

	 >>> Test passed!

Deploy on Confluent Cloud

Run your app with Confluent Cloud

Instead of running a local Kafka cluster, you may use Confluent Cloud, a fully managed Apache Kafka service.

Sign up for Confluent Cloud, a fully managed Apache Kafka service.
After you log in to Confluent Cloud Console, click Environments in the lefthand navigation, click on Add cloud environment, and name the environment learn-kafka. Using a new environment keeps your learning resources separate from your other Confluent Cloud resources.
From the Billing & payment section in the menu, apply the promo code CC100KTS to receive an additional $100 free usage on Confluent Cloud (details). To avoid having to enter a credit card, add an additional promo code CONFLUENTDEV1. With this promo code, you will not have to enter a credit card for 30 days or until your credits run out.
Click on LEARN and follow the instructions to launch a Kafka cluster and enable Schema Registry.

Next, from the Confluent Cloud Console, click on Clients to get the cluster-specific configurations, e.g., Kafka cluster bootstrap servers and credentials, Confluent Cloud Schema Registry and credentials, etc., and set the appropriate parameters in your client application.

Now you’re all set to run your streaming application locally, backed by a Kafka cluster fully managed by Confluent Cloud.

How to rekey a stream with a value

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