Loading Avro Data from Kafka

In this example, you load Avro-format key and value data as JSON from a Kafka topic named topic_avrokv into a VMware Tanzu Greenplum table named avrokv_from_kafka. You perform the load as the Greenplum role gpadmin. The table avrokv_from_kafka resides in the public schema in a Tanzu Greenplum named testdb.

A producer of the Kafka topic_avrokv topic emits customer expense messages in JSON format that include the customer identifier (integer), the year (integer), and one or more expense amounts (decimal). For example, a message with key 1 for a customer with identifier 123 who spent $456.78 and $67.89 in the year 1997 follows:

1	{ "cust_id": 123, "year": 1997, "expenses":[456.78, 67.89] }

You will use the Confluent Schema Registry and run a Kafka Avro console producer to emit keys and Avro JSON-format customer expense messages, and use the VMware Tanzu Greenplum streaming server gpkafka load command to load the data into the avrokv_from_kafka table.

Prerequisites

Before you start this procedure, ensure that you:

Have administrative access to running Confluent Kafka and Tanzu Greenplum clusters
Have configured connectivity as described in the loading Prerequisites.
Identify and note the ZooKeeper hostname and port.
Identify and note the address of the Confluent Schema Registry server(s).
Identify and note the hostname and port of the Kafka broker(s).
Identify and note the hostname and port of the Tanzu Greenplum coordinator node.

This procedure assumes that you have installed the Confluent Kafka distribution.

Procedure

Create a Kafka topic named topic_json_gpkafka. For example:

kafkahost$ $KAFKA_INSTALL_DIR/bin/kafka-topics --create \
    --zookeeper localhost:2181 --replication-factor 1 --partitions 1 \
    --topic topic_avrokv

Start a Kafka Avro console producer. You will manually input message data to this producer. For example:

kafkahost$ $KAFKA_INSTALL_DIR/bin/kafka-avro-console-producer \
    --broker-list localhost:9092 \
    --topic topic_avrokv \
    --property parse.key=true --property key.schema='{"type" : "int", "name" : "id"}' \
    --property value.schema='{ "type" : "record", "name" : "example_schema", "namespace" : "com.example", "fields" : [ { "name" : "cust_id", "type" : "int", "doc" : "Id of the customer account" }, { "name" : "year", "type" : "int", "doc" : "year of expense" }, { "name" : "expenses", "type" : {"type": "array", "items": "float"}, "doc" : "Expenses for the year" } ], "doc:" : "A basic schema for storing messages" }'

The producer waits for messages.

Input the following messages to the Avro console producer.

Note
You must enter a tab between the key and value. Replace TAB with a tab.

1 TAB {"cust_id":1313131, "year":2012, "expenses":[1313.13, 2424.24]}
2 TAB {"cust_id":3535353, "year":2011, "expenses":[761.35, 92.18, 14.41]}
3 TAB {"cust_id":7979797, "year":2011, "expenses":[4489.00]}

Verify that the Kafka Avro console producer published the messages to the topic by running a Kafka Avro console consumer. Specify the print.key property to have the consumer display the Kafka key. For example:
```
kafkahost$ $KAFKA_INSTALL_DIR/bin/kafka-avro-console-consumer \
    --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --topic topic_avrokv \
    --from-beginning --property print.key=true
```
Open a new terminal window, log in to the Tanzu Greenplum coordinator host as the gpadmin administrative user, and set up the Greenplum environment. For example:
```
$ ssh gpadmin@gpcoord
gpcoord$ . /usr/local/greenplum-db/greenplum_path.sh
```
Construct the load configuration file. Open a file named avrokvload_cfg.yaml in the editor of your choice. For example:
```
gpcoord$ vi avrokvload_cfg.yaml
```

Fill in the load configuration parameter values based on your environment. This example assumes:

Your Tanzu Greenplum coordinator hostname is gpcoord.
The Tanzu Greenplum server is running on the default port.
Your Kafka broker host and port is localhost:9092.
Your Confluent Schema Registry address is http://localhost:8081. The avrokvload_cfg.yaml file might include the following contents:

DATABASE: testdb
USER: gpadmin
HOST: gpcoord
PORT: 5432
VERSION: 2
KAFKA:
   INPUT:
     SOURCE:
        BROKERS: localhost:9092
        TOPIC: topic_avrokv
     VALUE:
        COLUMNS:
          - NAME: c1
            TYPE: json
        FORMAT: avro
        AVRO_OPTION:
          SCHEMA_REGISTRY_ADDR: http://localhost:8081
     KEY:
        COLUMNS:
          - NAME: id
            TYPE: json
        FORMAT: avro
        AVRO_OPTION:
          SCHEMA_REGISTRY_ADDR: http://localhost:8081
     ERROR_LIMIT: 0
   OUTPUT:
     TABLE: avrokv_from_kafka
     MAPPING:
        - NAME: id
          EXPRESSION: id
        - NAME: customer_id
          EXPRESSION: (c1->>'cust_id')::int
        - NAME: year
          EXPRESSION: (c1->>'year')::int
        - NAME: expenses
          EXPRESSION: array(select json_array_elements(c1->'expenses')::text::float)
   COMMIT:
     MINIMAL_INTERVAL: 2000

The mapping in this configuration assigns each message value field to a separate column and ignores the message key.

Create the target Tanzu Greenplum table named avrokv_from_kafka. For example:

gpcoord$ psql -d testdb

testdb=# CREATE TABLE avrokv_from_kafka( id json, customer_id int, year int, expenses decimal(9,2)[] );

Exit the psql subsystem:
```
testdb=# \q
```
Run the gpkafka load command to batch load the JSON data published to the topic_json_gpkafka topic into the Greenplum table. For example:
```
gpcoord$ gpkafka load --quit-at-eof ./avrokvload_cfg.yaml
```
The command exits after it reads all data published to the topic.
Examine the command output, looking for messages that identify the number of rows inserted/rejected. For example:
```
... -[INFO]:- ... Inserted 3 rows
... -[INFO]:- ... Rejected 0 rows
```

View the contents of the Tanzu Greenplum target table avrokv_from_kafka:

gpcoord$ psql -d testdb

testdb=# SELECT * FROM avrokv_from_kafka ORDER BY customer_id;
 id | customer_id | year |       expenses       
----+-------------+------+----------------------
 1  |     1313131 | 2012 | {1313.13,2424.24}
 2  |     3535353 | 2011 | {761.35,92.18,14.41}
 3  |     7979797 | 2011 | {4489.00}
(3 rows)