At Factor House, we're dedicated to providing the best possible developer tooling for data-in-motion. Our products continue to evolve to meet the ever-growing demands of our customers, who rely on Kpow as the central repository for their organization's Kafka clusters and associated resources. For many teams, Kpow has become an integral part of their day-to-day Kafka workflow, offering a comprehensive suite of features to simplify and streamline Kafka management.
That's why we're thrilled to announce the release of Kpow's new API, available in version 93.1 onwards! This new API opens up a world of possibilities, allowing you to seamlessly integrate Kpow's capabilities into your own organization's tools, platforms, and operations.
In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at what our new API has to offer, how it can benefit your organization, and how you can get started with it. Let's dive in!
API overview
We're excited to introduce the latest addition to the Kpow family: our new API, now available in version 93.1 onwards. This API represents a significant milestone in our commitment to providing powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use tools for Kafka.
With our new API, you can now leverage Kpow's capabilities directly from your own tools and platforms, opening up a whole new range of possibilities for integrating Kpow into your existing workflows. Whether you're managing topics, consumer groups, or monitoring Kafka clusters, our API provides a seamless experience that mirrors the functionality of our user interface.
Our API is backed by all of Kpow's enterprise features, including role-based access control, multi-tenancy, and the audit log for data governance. This means you can securely manage access to your Kafka resources and isolate workloads as needed, all through a centralized interface.
In the sections below, we'll explore the different modules of Kpow's API, highlighting key features and benefits of each. Let's dive in and see how Kpow's API can empower your Kafka management!
Kafka API
Kpow's Kafka API allows you to perform a wide range of operations directly from your own tools and platforms. Here are some common Kafka operations you can perform with the API:
- Managing Topics: Create, delete, and modify Kafka topics, including configuring topic properties such as replication factor and partition count.
- Managing Consumer Groups: Create, delete, and manage consumer groups, including resetting consumer group offsets.
- Monitoring Kafka Clusters: Retrieve metrics and monitoring data for Kafka clusters, brokers, topics, and partitions.
- Managing ACLs (Access Control Lists): Configure access control for Kafka resources, including topics and consumer groups.
- Managing Quotas: Set and manage quotas for producer and consumer traffic, controlling the rate at which clients can produce or consume messages.
- Managing Transactional Producers: Implement transactional operations such as fencing and aborting transactions, ensuring data integrity in transactional systems.
Kpow's Kafka API supports the full surface of the AdminClient API, allowing you to leverage all the capabilities of Kafka within your own workflows.
Kpow's Kafka API is vendor-specific, meaning it supports any technology that speaks the Kafka protocol. Whether you're using RedPanda, MSK serverless, Confluent Cloud, or any other Kafka-compatible technology, you can integrate it seamlessly with Kpow.
For more details on the Kafka API, refer to our API documentation.
Schema Registry API
Kpow's Schema Registry API supports both AWS Glue and Confluent's schema registry. With this API you can:
- Create, edit and delete schemas
- Update schema compatibility
- Permanently delete soft-deleted schemas (saving money on your Confluent bill!)
For more details on the Schema Registry API, refer to our API documentation.
Kafka Connect API
Right now the Kafka Connect API endpoints only support Apache Kafka Connect and Confluent Cloud/Platform. We will be looking to support MSK Connect very shortly! With this API you can:
- Create, edit and delete connectors
- Restart/pause/stop connectors + tasks
- View connector task details like stacktraces
For more details on the Kafka Connect API, refer to our API documentation.
Kpow user management API
Kpow's user management API allows customers to manage user actions through an API:
- View user details (such as assigned roles)
- View and manage any temporary policies assigned to your user
- View and manage any scheduled mutations invoked by your user
- List all mutations performed by your user
Benefits for users
Kpow's API offers a centralized interface for managing all your Kafka clusters and related resources, regardless of the vendor or technology you're using. Whether you're operating in a multi-cloud environment, using multiple Kafka technologies, or managing on-premise clusters, Kpow provides a unified platform for managing all your Kafka infrastructure.
One of the key benefits of Kpow's API is its ability to simplify management and reduce complexity. By providing a single point of control for all your Kafka infrastructure, Kpow streamlines your Kafka workflows and makes it easier to manage your resources efficiently.
Additionally, Kpow's API is backed by robust role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-tenancy features. This ensures that you can securely manage access to your Kafka resources and isolate workloads as needed, providing the flexibility and security required for modern data management.
Already, many of our customers are leveraging Kpow's API and integrating it into their GitOps pipelines. This streamlines their operations and enhances their Kafka workflows, demonstrating the real-world benefits of using Kpow's API.
Getting started
Getting started with Kpow's API is quick and easy. Follow these simple steps to enable and start using the API in your environment:
- Enable the API: Add the following configuration to your Kpow deployment:
API_ENABLED=true API_PORT=3001
The API server will now be served at port 3001.
- Verify the API: You can verify that the API is running using cURL:
curl -X GET http://kpow:3001/kafka/v1/clusters
Authentication setup: Configure authentication through API tokens. Instructions on how to set up authentication can be found in Kpow's API reference documentation.
Authorization setup: Configure RBAC for authorization to manage access to your Kafka resources. This is also covered in the API reference documentation.
Once you have completed these steps, you will be ready to start using Kpow's API to enhance your Kafka workflows. For more details and advanced usage, refer to our API reference documentation.
What's next
At Factor House, we're committed to continually enhancing our API to provide you with the best possible Kafka management experience. In the coming months, we will be investing heavily in expanding the capabilities of Kpow's API, with a focus on adding more modules and expanding the surface area.
Some of the major API enhancements we have planned include:
- Kpow Data API: We are working on a data API that will allow querying and producing to Kafka topics directly through the API.
- ksqlDB API: We plan to add support for the ksqlDB API, allowing you to manage your ksqlDB resources directly from the Kpow API.
Stay tuned for more updates on our API development, including guides on integrating the API with GitHub Actions for GitOps and walkthroughs on setting up clients for Kpow's API in Java and other languages. If you have any specific use cases or features you would like to see covered in future updates, please reach out and let us know!
You can learn more about the Kpow API by reading our official documentation.
Give us your feedback!
Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we look forward to seeing how you leverage Kpow's API to unlock new possibilities in your Kafka infrastructure.
Ready to experience the power of Kpow's API for yourself? Visit our API reference documentation to learn more about the capabilities of our API and how you can start integrating it into your workflows.
Have feedback or suggestions for future updates? We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us and let us know how you're using Kpow's API to revolutionize your Kafka management.
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Unlock the power of Kpow's API and take your Kafka management to the next level. Get started today!