This chapter covers
- Examining the Kafka architecture
- Sending messages with producers
- Reading messages with consumers
- Installing and running Kafka
Although this is a book about Kafka Streams, it’s impossible to explore Kafka Streams without discussing Kafka. After all, Kafka Streams is a library that runs on Kafka.
Kafka Streams is designed very well, so it’s possible to get up and running with little or no Kafka experience, but your progress and ability to fine-tune Kafka will be limited. Having a good fundamental knowledge of Kafka is essential to get the most out of Kafka Streams.
Note
This chapter is for developers who are interested in getting started with Kafka Streams but have little or no experience with Kafka itself. If you have a good working knowledge of Kafka, feel free to skip this chapter and proceed directly to chapter 3.