How to use Kafka with ClickHouse?

Introduction

Kafka is a distributed streaming platform that can be used to collect, store, and process large streams of data in real-time. ClickHouse is a columnar database that can be used to perform real-time analytical queries on large amounts of data.

To use Kafka with ClickHouse, you will need to set up a Kafka cluster and configure it to collect data from various sources. Once the data is collected, you can use a Kafka Connector to stream the data into ClickHouse. There are a few different ways to accomplish this, but one common approach is to use the Kafka Connector for ClickHouse, which is a Kafka Connect sink connector that can be used to stream data from Kafka into ClickHouse.

Runbook to setup Kafka with ClickHouse

  1. Set up a Kafka cluster: You can set up a Kafka cluster on your own hardware or use a cloud-based service like Confluent Cloud.
  2. Configure Kafka to collect data: Once your Kafka cluster is set up, you can configure it to collect data from various sources using producers.
  3. Install Kafka Connector for ClickHouse: This is a connector that can be used to stream data from Kafka into ClickHouse. You can find the instructions on how to install it on the connector’s GitHub page.
  4. Configure the connector: Once the connector is installed, you will need to configure it to connect to your Kafka cluster and ClickHouse instance. This typically involves setting up the connector’s properties in a configuration file.
  5. Start the connector: After the connector is configured, you can start it up and begin streaming data from Kafka into ClickHouse.
  6. Monitor the connector’s performance: You can use tools like Prometheus or Grafana to monitor the connector’s performance, including the number of records processed, the rate of records processed, and the rate of errors.

It’s worth noting that this is a high-level overview of how to use Kafka with ClickHouse and there are many details and nuances that you will need to consider when implementing this solution. The specific steps will depend on your specific use case, environment, and requirements.

Conclusion

In summary, to use Kafka with ClickHouse you can set up a Kafka cluster, configure it to collect data, install and configure the Kafka Connector for ClickHouse, start the connector, and monitor the connector’s performance. The above steps are a general guide, you may need to consult the documentation of the specific tools and technologies you are using to know more about the details of the implementation.

To know more about ClickHouse and Kafka, do consider reading the following articles:

About Shiv Iyer 237 Articles
Open Source Database Systems Engineer with a deep understanding of Optimizer Internals, Performance Engineering, Scalability and Data SRE. Shiv currently is the Founder, Investor, Board Member and CEO of multiple Database Systems Infrastructure Operations companies in the Transaction Processing Computing and ColumnStores ecosystem. He is also a frequent speaker in open source software conferences globally.