Quickstart

Get started with Zilla by trying some of its Kafka proxying and API gateway features. You will see how Zilla can operate as an HTTP Kafka Proxy to expose Kafka topics via REST and SSE endpoints. You can interact with Zilla as an MQTT Kafka Proxy to turn Kafka into an MQTT broker. You can leverage the Zilla gRPC Kafka Proxy to deliver protobuf messages from gRPC clients to gRPC servers through Kafka.

Prerequisites

This Quickstart is hosted at quickstart.aklivity.io meaning you can interact with it using any clients you prefer. The best way to experience the Zilla features in this Quickstart is by using the Zilla Quickstart Postman Workspace.

• The Postman desktop client to make MQTT and gRPC requests
• A Postman account
• Fork the Postman collections from the Zilla Quickstart Workspace

Warning

The live version of the quickstart is currently down for maintenance and any requests to quickstart.aklivity.io won't work. Please use the local deploy with docker compose setup and select the Local Zilla Quickstart environment in the Postman collection.

HTTP Kafka Proxy

The Zilla HTTP Kafka Proxy lets you configure application-centric REST APIs and SSE streams that unlock Kafka event-driven architectures.

1. Open the live http-messages Kafka topic, which will have all the JSON messages you create. You can switch the filter from live to newest to see all of the latest messages on the topic.
2. Fork the HTTP Kafka proxy Postman collection.
3. Open the live API stream and scroll to the bottom to view messages fetched from a Kafka topic as a Server-sent Events (SSE) stream. SSE is a text stream over HTTP that directly shows the raw output in a browser tab.
4. Use the Create a new message request to update and submit the JSON in the Body tab. The new object will appear in the SSE stream and the Kafka topic.
5. Get your Kafka message key from the http-messages topic and use the Get message by key request to fetch only your message using your key in the <key-from-kafka-topic> path variable.
6. To interact more with Zilla, use the Additional features in the Postman collection or copy the code samples.

You can easily configure many common Restful actions with the added benefit of built-in streaming with an SSE endpoint. The zilla.yaml config has simple and clear syntax for defining each HTTP endpoint.

Create

Create a new message.

  north_rest_api_http_kafka_mapping:
    type: http-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - method: POST
            path: /api/items
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: produce
          topic: http-messages
          key: ${idempotencyKey}

Read:all

Fetch all messages on the topic.

  north_rest_api_http_kafka_mapping:
    type: http-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - method: GET
            path: /api/items
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: fetch
          topic: http-messages
          merge:
            content-type: application/json

Read:key

Fetch one message by its key.

  north_rest_api_http_kafka_mapping:
    type: http-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - method: GET
            path: /api/items/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: fetch
          topic: http-messages
          filters:
            - key: ${params.id}

Update

Update a message based on its key.

  north_rest_api_http_kafka_mapping:
    type: http-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - method: PUT
            path: /api/items/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: produce
          topic: http-messages
          key: ${params.id}

Delete

Produce a blank message for a key.

  north_rest_api_http_kafka_mapping:
    type: http-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - method: DELETE
            path: /api/items/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: produce
          topic: http-messages
          key: ${params.id}

Stream:all

Stream all of the messages published on a Kafka topic.

  north_sse_kafka_mapping:
    type: sse-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - path: /api/stream
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          topic: http-messages

Stream:key

Stream messages for a specific key published on a Kafka.

  north_sse_kafka_mapping:
    type: sse-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - path: /api/stream/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          topic: http-messages
          filters:
            - key: ${params.id}

Full HTTP Proxy zilla.yaml Config

name: http-quickstart
bindings:
  # Proxy service entrypoint
  north_tcp_server:
    type: tcp
    kind: server
    options:
      host: 0.0.0.0
      port:
        - 7114
    routes:
      - when:
          - port: 7114
        exit: north_http_server
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*
  north_http_server:
    type: http
    kind: server
    options:
      versions:
        - h2
        - http/1.1
      access-control:
        policy: cross-origin
    routes:
      - when:
          - headers:
              :path: /api/stream
        exit: north_sse_server
      - when:
          - headers:
              :path: /api/stream/*
        exit: north_sse_server
      - when:
          - headers:
              :path: /api/*
        exit: north_rest_api_http_kafka_mapping
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*
        - http.*

  # REST proxy endpoints to Kafka a topic
  north_rest_api_http_kafka_mapping:
    type: http-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      #region rest_create
      - when:
          - method: POST
            path: /api/items
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: produce
          topic: http-messages
          key: ${idempotencyKey}
      #endregion rest_create
      #region rest_update
      - when:
          - method: PUT
            path: /api/items/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: produce
          topic: http-messages
          key: ${params.id}
      #endregion rest_update
      #region rest_delete
      - when:
          - method: DELETE
            path: /api/items/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: produce
          topic: http-messages
          key: ${params.id}
      #endregion rest_delete
      #region rest_retrieve_all
      - when:
          - method: GET
            path: /api/items
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: fetch
          topic: http-messages
          merge:
            content-type: application/json
      #endregion rest_retrieve_all
      #region rest_retrieve_id
      - when:
          - method: GET
            path: /api/items/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: fetch
          topic: http-messages
          filters:
            - key: ${params.id}
    #endregion rest_retrieve_id

  # SSE Server to Kafka topics
  north_sse_server:
    type: sse
    kind: server
    exit: north_sse_kafka_mapping
  north_sse_kafka_mapping:
    type: sse-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      #region sse_stream_all
      - when:
          - path: /api/stream
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          topic: http-messages
          #endregion sse_stream_all
          #region sse_stream_id
      - when:
          - path: /api/stream/{id}
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          topic: http-messages
          filters:
            - key: ${params.id}
            #endregion sse_stream_id

  # Kafka sync layer
  north_kafka_cache_client:
    type: kafka
    kind: cache_client
    exit: south_kafka_cache_server
  south_kafka_cache_server:
    type: kafka
    kind: cache_server
    options:
      bootstrap:
        - http-messages
    exit: south_kafka_client

  # Connect to local Kafka
  south_kafka_client:
    type: kafka
    kind: client
    options:
      servers:
        - ${{env.KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVER}}
    exit: south_tcp_client
  south_tcp_client:
    type: tcp
    kind: client
telemetry:
  # Desired metrics to track
  metrics:
    - http.active.requests
    - http.request.size
    - http.response.size
    - stream.opens.sent
    - stream.opens.received
    - stream.closes.sent
    - stream.closes.received
    - stream.errors.sent
    - stream.errors.received
    - stream.active.sent
    - stream.active.received
  exporters:
    # Enable Standard Out logs
    stdout_logs_exporter:
      type: stdout

Where to learn more

HTTP Kafka proxy Overview and Features | Simple CRUD API Example | Simple SSE Stream Example | Petstore Demo

MQTT Kafka proxy

The Zilla MQTT Kafka Proxy manages MQTT client connections and messages through Kafka topics.

1. Open the live mqtt-messages Kafka topic, which will have all of the MQTT messages sent to the broker. You can switch the filter from live to newest to see all of the latest messages on the topic.
2. Fork the MQTT Kafka proxy Postman collection in the Postman Desktop client.
3. Connect to the broker with the Pub/Sub request. Send one of the saved messages, or you can send any message on any MQTT topic. Subscribe to topics in the Topics tab.
4. Observe the MQTT Broker messages on the Kafka topics with your message in the body and the MQTT topic as the key.
5. Connect to the broker with the Simulator Topics request to subscribe to the simulated messages being published to the broker.

A Zilla MQTT broker is defined using three specific Kafka topics. The messages Kafka topic will have all of the MQTT messages sent to the broker, where the MQTT topic is the Kafka message key and the MQTT payload is the Kafka message value. Marking messages with the retain flag set to true will produce a message on the retained Kafka topic. The sessions Kafka topic is used to manage MQTT client connections.

MQTT broker

north_mqtt_server:
  type: mqtt
  kind: server
  exit: north_mqtt_kafka_mapping
north_mqtt_kafka_mapping:
  type: mqtt-kafka
  kind: proxy
  options:
    topics:
      sessions: mqtt-sessions
      messages: mqtt-messages
      retained: mqtt-retained

Full MQTT proxy zilla.yaml Config

name: mqtt-quickstart

bindings:
  # Proxy service entrypoint
  north_tcp_server:
    type: tcp
    kind: server
    options:
      host: 0.0.0.0
      port:
        - 7183
    routes:
      - when:
          - port: 7183
        exit: north_mqtt_server
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*

  # MQTT Server to Kafka topics
  #region mqtt_broker_mapping
  north_mqtt_server:
    type: mqtt
    kind: server
    exit: north_mqtt_kafka_mapping
  north_mqtt_kafka_mapping:
    type: mqtt-kafka
    kind: proxy
    options:
      topics:
        sessions: mqtt-sessions
        messages: mqtt-messages
        retained: mqtt-retained
    #endregion mqtt_broker_mapping
    exit: north_kafka_cache_client
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*

  # Kafka sync layer
  north_kafka_cache_client:
    type: kafka
    kind: cache_client
    exit: south_kafka_cache_server
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*
  south_kafka_cache_server:
    type: kafka
    kind: cache_server
    options:
      bootstrap:
        - mqtt-messages
        - mqtt-retained
    exit: south_kafka_client
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*

  # Connect to local Kafka
  south_kafka_client:
    type: kafka
    kind: client
    options:
      servers:
        - ${{env.KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVER}}
    exit: south_tcp_client
  south_tcp_client:
    type: tcp
    kind: client

telemetry:
  # Desired metrics to track
  metrics:
    - stream.opens.sent
    - stream.opens.received
    - stream.closes.sent
    - stream.closes.received
    - stream.errors.sent
    - stream.errors.received
    - stream.active.sent
    - stream.active.received
  exporters:
    # Enable Standard Out logs
    stdout_logs_exporter:
      type: stdout

Where to learn more

Overview and Features | Setup an MQTT Kafka broker | Taxi Demo

gRPC Kafka proxy

The Zilla gRPC Kafka Proxy lets you implement gRPC service definitions from protobuf files to produce and consume messages via Kafka topics.

1. Open the live grpc-request and grpc-response Kafka topics, which will have all of the service methods request and response messages respectively. You can switch the filter from live to newest to see all of the latest messages on the topic.
2. Fork the gRPC Kafka proxy Postman collection in the Postman Desktop client.
3. Invoke the GetFeature service method with the default message.
4. Observe the requested message payload on the Kafka topic followed by the response message with the keys having the same UUID. The gRPC method routing information is captured in the Kafka messages header values.
5. Try out the additional RPC method types in the Postman collection.

Zilla is routing all RouteGuide protobuf messages from any gRPC client to a gRPC server through Kafka. The zilla.yaml config implements all of the RPC methods from the RouteGuide service protobuf definition.

• GetFeature - Uses Server-side streaming to produce the client request message and the server's response message.
• ListFeature - Uses Server-side streaming to produce the client request message and stream the list of server response messages.
• RecordRoute - Uses Client-side streaming to produce a stream of client request messages and the server's response message.
• RouteChat - Uses Bidirectional streaming to stream both the client request messages and server's response messages.

RouteGuide Server

catalogs:
  host_filesystem:
    type: filesystem
    options:
      subjects:
        route_guide:
          path: protos/route_guide.proto

...
north_grpc_server:
  type: grpc
  kind: server
  catalog:
    host_filesystem:
      - subject: route_guide
  exit: north_grpc_kafka_mapping

...
north_grpc_kafka_mapping:
  type: grpc-kafka
  kind: proxy
  routes:
    - when:
        - method: routeguide.RouteGuide/*
      exit: north_kafka_cache_client
      with:
        capability: produce
        topic: grpc-request
        acks: leader_only
        reply-to: grpc-response

RouteGuide Remote Server

west_kafka_grpc_remote_server:
  type: kafka-grpc
  kind: remote_server
  entry: north_kafka_cache_client
  options:
    acks: leader_only
  routes:
    - when:
        - topic: grpc-request
          reply-to: grpc-response
          method: routeguide.RouteGuide/*
      with:
        scheme: http
        authority: ${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_HOST}}:${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_PORT}}

...
west_route_guide_tcp_client:
  type: tcp
  kind: client
  options:
    host: ${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_HOST}}
    port: ${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_PORT}}

route_guide.proto

File not found

Full gRPC proxy zilla.yaml Config

name: grpc-quickstart

#region route_guide_proto
catalogs:
  host_filesystem:
    type: filesystem
    options:
      subjects:
        route_guide:
          path: protos/route_guide.proto
#endregion route_guide_proto

bindings:
  # Proxy service entrypoint
  north_tcp_server:
    type: tcp
    kind: server
    options:
      host: 0.0.0.0
      port:
        - 7151
    routes:
      - when:
          - port: 7151
        exit: north_grpc_http_server
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*
  north_grpc_http_server:
    type: http
    kind: server
    options:
      versions:
        - h2
      access-control:
        policy: cross-origin
    exit: north_grpc_server
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*
        - http.*

  # gRPC service definition to Kafka topics
  #region route_guide_service_definition
  north_grpc_server:
    type: grpc
    kind: server
    catalog:
      host_filesystem:
        - subject: route_guide
    exit: north_grpc_kafka_mapping
    #endregion route_guide_service_definition
    telemetry:
      metrics:
        - stream.*
        - grpc.*
  #region route_guide_service_mapping
  north_grpc_kafka_mapping:
    type: grpc-kafka
    kind: proxy
    routes:
      - when:
          - method: routeguide.RouteGuide/*
        exit: north_kafka_cache_client
        with:
          capability: produce
          topic: grpc-request
          acks: leader_only
          reply-to: grpc-response
  #endregion route_guide_service_mapping

  # Kafka sync layer
  north_kafka_cache_client:
    type: kafka
    kind: cache_client
    exit: south_kafka_cache_server
  south_kafka_cache_server:
    type: kafka
    kind: cache_server
    options:
      bootstrap:
        - grpc-request
        - grpc-response
    exit: south_kafka_client

  # Connect to local Kafka
  south_kafka_client:
    type: kafka
    kind: client
    options:
      servers:
        - ${{env.KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVER}}
    exit: south_tcp_client
  south_tcp_client:
    type: tcp
    kind: client

  # Kafka to external gRPC server
  #region route_guide_interface
  west_kafka_grpc_remote_server:
    type: kafka-grpc
    kind: remote_server
    entry: north_kafka_cache_client
    options:
      acks: leader_only
    routes:
      - when:
          - topic: grpc-request
            reply-to: grpc-response
            method: routeguide.RouteGuide/*
        with:
          scheme: http
          authority: ${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_HOST}}:${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_PORT}}
        #endregion route_guide_interface
        exit: west_route_guide_grpc_client

  # gRPC RoutGuide server config
  west_route_guide_grpc_client:
    type: grpc
    kind: client
    exit: west_route_guide_http_client
  west_route_guide_http_client:
    type: http
    kind: client
    options:
      versions:
        - h2
    exit: west_route_guide_tcp_client
  #region route_guide_server
  west_route_guide_tcp_client:
    type: tcp
    kind: client
    options:
      host: ${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_HOST}}
      port: ${{env.ROUTE_GUIDE_SERVER_PORT}}
  #endregion route_guide_server

telemetry:
  # Desired metrics to track
  metrics:
    - http.active.requests
    - http.request.size
    - http.response.size
    - stream.opens.sent
    - stream.opens.received
    - stream.closes.sent
    - stream.closes.received
    - stream.errors.sent
    - stream.errors.received
    - stream.active.sent
    - stream.active.received
    - grpc.active.requests
    - grpc.requests.per.rpc
    - grpc.responses.per.rpc
  exporters:
    # Enable Standard Out logs
    stdout_logs_exporter:
      type: stdout

Where to learn more

gRPC Kafka proxy Overview and Features | Simple gRPC Server | Full Route Guide example

Run the Quickstart locally

Download and run the Zilla quickstart cookbook using this install script. It will start Zilla and everything you need for this guide.

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aklivity/zilla-examples/main/startup.sh | sh -

Note

Alternatively, download quickstart and follow the README yourself.

The key components this script will setup:

• Configured Zilla instance
• Kafka instance and topics
• Kafka UI for browsing topics & messages
• gRPC Route Guide server
• MQTT message simulator

Now you can select the Local Zilla Quickstart environment from the Postman environments dropdown for the collections to work with the Zilla instance running on localhost.