How to create a topic in Apache Kafka Message Broker 0.9.x?

To create a topic (associated with a message queue in other systems). you need the following
1. The zookeeper ensemble that Kafka clusters use.

For a kafka server cluster installation with a zookeeper ensemble. Refer How to setup a 2 Node Apache Kafka 0.9.0.1 cluster in CentOS 7?

Navigate to any node of Kafka installation instance namely

cd /usr/local/kafka/kafka_2.11-0.9.0.1

bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --zookeeper ZKNODE1:2181,ZKNODE2:2181,ZKNODE3:2181 --replication-factor 2 --partitions 8 --topic topicname

This assumes that you have a minimum 2 node cluster. If you setup more than 2 you can increase the replication factor correspondingly. The partition is the number of concurrent reads that you would like to perform form your application. In order to better utilize the partition you would need to understand partition key which we would cover int the later lessons.

For a local Kafka install. Refer to How to setup standalone instance of Apache Kafka 0.9.0.1 on localhost for Mac OS X?

Navigate to installation instance namely

cd /usr/local/kafka/kafka_2.11-0.9.0.1

bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --zookeeper yourmac.local:2181 --replication-factor 1 --partitions 4 --topic topicname