EDUCBA Logo

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Explore
    • EDUCBA Pro
    • PRO Bundles
    • Featured Skills
    • New & Trending
    • Fresh Entries
    • Finance
    • Data Science
    • Programming and Dev
    • Excel
    • Marketing
    • HR
    • PDP
    • VFX and Design
    • Project Management
    • Exam Prep
    • All Courses
  • Blog
  • Enterprise
  • Free Courses
  • Log in
  • Sign Up
Home Data Science Data Science Tutorials Kafka Tutorial Kafka Partition Key
 

Kafka Partition Key

Updated March 6, 2023

Kafka Partition Key

 

 

Introduction to Kafka Partition Key

In Kafka, the data is store in the key-value combination or pair. On the partition level, the storage happens. The key value is nothing but a messaging system. On the same basis, Kafka is working. It is useful to define the destination partition of the message. As per the requirement or configuration, we can customize or modify the Kafka partition also. In Kafka, the hash base partition is used to identify the partition id (as per the provided key). If we haven’t set it or keep it as null in the environment, then the Kafka producer will pick any random partition and keep the messages or data into it.

Watch our Demo Courses and Videos

Valuation, Hadoop, Excel, Mobile Apps, Web Development & many more.

Syntax:

As such, there is no specific syntax available for it. Generally, we are using the configuration command for the Kafka partition key.

Note: While working with the Kafka partition key. We are using the core Kafka commands and Kafka partition key command for the troubleshooting front. At the time of Kafka partition key configuration, we are using the CLI method. But generally, we are using the UI tool only.

How does the Kafka Partition key work?

  • As we have seen, It is useful to define the destination partition of the message. As per the defined key, the Kafka producer will elect the specific partition and pushing the Kafka messages or data into the partition. If we haven’t provided it, Kafka will use the default hash key partition and push the messages into it. Majorly the Kafka partition is deal with parallelism. If we are increasing the number of partition, it will also increase the parallel process also. On the producer and the broker end, the write operation will perform on the different partition topic. The operation will deal with the parallelism method.
  • Kafka will allow consuming the data on the single partition only for a single consumer thread on the Kafka consumer end. Hence the grade of parallelism in the consumer will be restricted with the number of the partition (will be consumed). If you want to increase or high throughput, we need to increase the number of Kafka broker.

Kafka Partition / Partition Key Calculation

While calculating the Kafka throughput, we need to consider the partition formula in the Kafka. To calculate it, we need to consider some formulate values. Let consider calculating the throughput as per the single Kafka partition for the producer (let’s say it as “p”). For the consumer front, let’s say it is “c”. For the target throughput, let’s say it is “t”. As per the max partition, it will be “t/p and t/c”. The individual throughput can be archive depends on the producer as per the compression codec, replication factor, batching size, type of acknowledgement, etc. On the single partition, one producer can produce the message at 10 sec of MB/sec.

Note: The Kafka partition will deal with parallelism, i.e., designing the Kafka environment, and we need to run the parallel jobs on Kafka. Then we need to take care of the Kafka partition. As per the standard documentation, we need to keep at least 3 Kafka brokers. The partition key will be unique in a single topic.

Kafka Partition Key

As per the above diagram, the Kafka broker will manage the number of topics present in the Kafka environment. The Kafka topics are divided into a number of partitions. The records in the topic are in an unalterable sequence. Each message or record in a partition was allocated and identified by its inimitable offset value in the Kafka environment. The number of Kafka partition value will increase the parallelism process in the Kafka environment.

While the producer will publish the number of records or messages on the topic, it will help to publish with the help of the leader only. The partition leader will attach the record to its commit logs. It will rise or increment the record offset. After the consumer committed, Kafka exposes the records or messages to the consumer. The data comes in a stacked of cluster.

Before the producer sends the data, it will request for the metadata information of the Kafka cluster broker. The metadata having the leader broker information of the individual portions. As per the metadata information, the producer will know who is the partition leader and writes the data with the help of the partition leader only.

The Kafka producer will use the partition key to get on which partition the data need to write. The default operation is to use the hash key to calculate the partition.

Example

Given below is the example to implement or check the Kafka partition key:

In the Kafka environment, the producer will produce the data. The producer will know on which partition the data needs to write. It will take the decision on the bases of the producer leader. Here, no broker comes into the picture. The producer will attach the key to the records and allow storing the data on the specific Kafka topic or partition. All the records with the same key will arrive in the same Kafka Partition.

Note: The default port of the Kafka broker in the cluster mode may verify depend on the Kafka environment.
  • The cluster Kafka broker port is “6667”.
  • The single Kafka broker port is “9092”.
  • On TLS or SSL Kafka environment, the port will be “9093”.

Code:

./kafka-topics.sh --create --zookeeper 10.10.132.70:2181 --replication-factor 1 --partitions 3 --topic elearning_kafka_tpc

Explanation:

  •  As per the above command, we have created the “elearning_kafka_tpc” Kafka topic. It will come up with the default partition key.

Output:

Kafka Partition Key. 2JPG

Conclusion

We have seen the uncut concept of “Kafka partition key” with the proper example, explanation and methods with different outputs. As per the requirement, we can create multiple partitions in the topic. With the help of a key, we can forcefully say that the data or messages need to move on to the specific partition.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Kafka Partition Key. Here we discuss the introduction, working, Kafka partition/partition key calculation and example. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. Kafka Zookeeper
  2. Kafka Console Producer
  3. Kafka Monitoring
  4. Kafka MirrorMaker

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Follow us!
  • EDUCBA FacebookEDUCBA TwitterEDUCBA LinkedINEDUCBA Instagram
  • EDUCBA YoutubeEDUCBA CourseraEDUCBA Udemy
APPS
EDUCBA Android AppEDUCBA iOS App
Blog
  • Blog
  • Free Tutorials
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Log in
Courses
  • Enterprise Solutions
  • Free Courses
  • Explore Programs
  • All Courses
  • All in One Bundles
  • Sign up
Email
  • [email protected]

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2025 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

EDUCBA
Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

By continuing above step, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more

🚀 Limited Time Offer! - ENROLL NOW