Metadata API
A metadata request is a Kafka client request that retrieves information about cluster brokers, topics, partitions, leadership, and assignments.
Kafka for Architects
A metadata request is a Kafka client request that retrieves cluster metadata such as partition leadership and broker assignments.
- How it is used
- Routes producer writes to current partition leaders by retrieving broker and partition assignments.
- How deep it goes
- Explains discovery, caching, refresh timing, and recovery from leadership changes without detailing protocol encoding.
- Examples
- Uses cached broker mappings, five-minute refreshes, stale-leader errors, and batch resends as concrete operational examples.
- What you can do after
- Diagnose producer routing failures by recognizing stale metadata and the client refresh-and-retry response.
Apache Kafka in Action
A metadata request is a Kafka client request that retrieves information about topics, partitions, brokers, and partition leaders.
- How it is used
- Connects Kafka clients to the brokers and partition leaders required for producing or consuming messages.
- How deep it goes
- Explains request flow, cached cluster information, leader discovery, and failure recovery without detailing the request protocol.
- Examples
- Demonstrates kafka-topics.sh with one broker, multiple bootstrap servers, and a figure showing client-to-leader discovery.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure Kafka clients with resilient bootstrap addresses and understand how they recover connections after leader changes.
Related concepts
- clientused by · A client is a person, organization, device, or software component that receives or uses a product, service, resource, or functionality provided by another entity.
- producerused by · A producer is an entity or process that creates or supplies values, data, messages, events, or work for another entity to consume.
- metadataproduces · Metadata is information that describes, identifies, or provides context about other data, resources, or artifacts.
- Kafka brokerproduces · A Kafka broker is a server process in an Apache Kafka cluster that stores records and handles producer, consumer, and other client requests.
- partitionproduces · A partition is a distinct subdivision of a larger data, storage, or work unit that can be stored, managed, or processed separately.
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