Aiven supports Apache Kafka^® 2.7

Aiven is keeping up with the times and releases support for Apache Kafka version 2.7, announced on December 21, 2020. The new version comes with a number of enhancements across the board, including security updates and performance improvements. Read on to find out what the new version means for you.

Apache Kafka 2.7 highlights

PEM support

KIP-651: Support PEM format for private keys and SSL certificates

PEM format is now supported for storing and distributing cryptographic keys. New configuration options ssl.keystore.key, ssl.keystore.certificate.chain and ssl.truststore.certificates were added to support the new format.

Performance optimisations

KIP-612, part 1: Ability to limit connection creation rate on brokers

If too many new connections are created simultaneously, it can significantly reduce broker performance. To solve this issue, version 2.7.0 adds a new configuration option max.connection.creation.rate limiting the acceptable amount of new connections for a broker.

Version 2.7.0 provides a partial solution to the problem - more improvements are coming in future releases.

KIP-599: Throttle create topic, create partition, and delete topic operations

Creating or deleting a large number of concurrent topics may hurt controller performance. Therefore the number of requests for these resource demanding operations is limited with a new quota in this version. Requests exceeding this limit are rejected with the error THROTTLING_QUOTA_EXCEED.

KIP-450: Kafka Streams - Sliding window aggregations in the DSL

Sliding window aggregation allows Kafka Streams applications to capture the most recent updates in a stream at a given point of time. It provides a more efficient way to do these types of aggregations than currently used hopping window aggregation.

Getting rid of ZooKeeper dependencies

KIP-497: Add inter-broker API to alter ISR

With a new AlterIsr API, only controllers can now update the Leader and ISR state. Leaders can no longer mutate the state directly. This solves some problems with delayed and inconsistent ISR state and - most importantly - helps to eventually replace ZooKeeper with a self-managed metadata quorum.

KIP-554: Add broker-side SCRAM configuration API

New broker-based API to change SCRAM settings for users. It is no longer necessary to use ZooKeeper for making these changes, hence this improvement also plays part in a bigger effort to remove ZooKeeper.

The list above is only the tip of the iceberg. For this release, there are over 50 smaller improvements and 90+ bug fixes. Please check the details here.

How to get started with Aiven for Apache Kafka 2.7

You can either launch a brand new cluster in the Aiven console or conduct a no-downtime upgrade to the latest version.

Wrapping up

If you are not already using Aiven’s managed Apache Kafka, maybe you should be! Get started at our Aiven for Apache Kafka product page.

Not using Aiven services yet? Sign up now for your free trial at https://console.aiven.io/signup!

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