Kafka Traffic Generator

This tool generates and sends batches of messages to a Kafka topic using randomly generated data. Messages are generated in <key:int><valuse:json> format, you can define fields in a config file.

Usage

Usage of kafka-traffic-generator:

Environment variables:
  KTG_ACKS string
        Kafka acks setting [all, one, none] (default "none")
  KTG_BATCHDELAY int
        Delay between batches in milliseconds (default "0")
  KTG_BATCHNUM int
        Number of batches (0 - unlimited) (default "0")
  KTG_CA_PATH string
        Path to the CA certificate
  KTG_CERT_PATH string
        Path to the client certificate
  KTG_COMPRESSION string
        Kafka compression setting [none, gzip, snappy, lz4, zstd] (default "none")
  KTG_KAFKA string
        Kafka host address (default "localhost:9092")
  KTG_KEY_PATH string
        Path to the client key
  KTG_LOGLEVEL string
        Logging level [debug, info, warn, error]
  KTG_MSGNUM int
        Number of messages per batch (default "100")
  KTG_TOPIC string
        Kafka topic name

Binary file

1. Build:

make build

2. Create a configuration file in YAML format, e.g., topic.yaml, with the following structure:

kafka:
  host: <KAFKA_BROKER_HOST>
  acks: [all, one, none] ("none" by default)
  compression: [gzip, snappy, lz4, zstd] ("none" by default)
loglevel: [debug, information, warning, error]
topic:
  name: <TOPIC_NAME>
  batch_msgs: Positive integer
  batch_count: Positive integer -- 0 — Unlimited number of batches
  batch_delay_ms: Positive integer

fields:
  - name: <FIELD_NAME_1>
    function: <FIELD_GENERATION_FUNCTION_1>
    params:
      <PARAMETER_1>: <VALUE_1>
      <PARAMETER_2>: <VALUE_2>
      ...

  - name: <FIELD_NAME_2>
    function: <FIELD_GENERATION_FUNCTION_2>
    params:
      <PARAMETER_1>: <VALUE_1>
      <PARAMETER_2>: <VALUE_2>
      ...

Example of generating email sending events in a specific time period:

---
kafka:
  host: "kafka:9092"
  acks: one
  compression: gzip
topic:
  name: emails
  batch_msgs: 50
  batch_count: 2000
  batch_delay_ms: 500
fields:
  - name: "Date"
    function: daterange
    params:
      format: "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
      startdate: "1993-03-13 15:11:02"
      enddate:  "1993-05-16 15:11:02"
  - name: "Email"
    function: email
    params: {}
  - name: "Message"
    function: sentence
    params: {}

Additional examples located within the ./examples folder, and a comprehensive list of functions is available in the the gofakeit project.

3. Run the program with the path to the configuration file:

./bin/kafka-traffic-generator --config examples/simple.yaml

The program will load the configuration, generate the specified number of messages with random data, and send them to the Kafka topic.

4. After that you can see the messages in your Kafka topic:

{"Date":"1993-04-02 17:44:04","Email":"tedvon@carroll.biz","Message":"You with nobody Gabonese my."}
{"Date":"1993-04-20 02:18:18","Email":"ethylmcclure@goldner.info","Message":"By such where deeply so."}
{"Date":"1993-05-08 01:07:46","Email":"betsyoreilly@welch.info","Message":"Firstly of as board she."}
{"Date":"1993-05-08 08:25:17","Email":"theresiapollich@yost.info","Message":"Whom koala scarcely daily how."}
{"Date":"1993-04-28 02:34:36","Email":"colinernser@powlowski.biz","Message":"Other paint yesterday constantly below."}

Docker Image

A Docker image is available for easy deployment of the Kafka Traffic Generator. To use the Docker image, you can pull it by running the following command:

docker pull ghcr.io/orginux/kafka-traffic-generator:0.1.128

Once you have the image, you can run the Kafka Traffic Generator using Docker Compose. Here's an example configuration for running the tool:

services:
  ktg:
    image: ghcr.io/orginux/kafka-traffic-generator:0.1.128
    container_name: ktg
    networks:
      - kafka-network
    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: ./configs/
        target: /etc/ktg/
        read_only: true
    environment:
      KTG_CONFIG: /etc/ktg/test_1.yaml
      KTG_KAFKA: "kafka:29092"
      KTG_ACKS: all
      KTG_COMPRESSION: gzip
      KTG_TOPIC: topic1
      KTG_MSGNUM: 10
      KTG_DELAY: 500
      KTG_BATCHNUM: 5
      KTG_LOGLEVEL: debug

ToDo:

• Implement Kafka Authentication: Enhance security by adding Kafka authentication mechanisms;
• Improve Logging: Consider using log/slog, to provide better logging capabilities, structured logs, and log levels;
• Add CI/CD: Implement a CI/CD pipeline to automate the build and deployment process;
• Add exmples for usage shufflestrings;
• Compression: https://github.com/segmentio/kafka-go/blob/b2b17ac6021f0cc12ff5c4e57e155f141a2fabd4/compression.go#L11 ;
• Acks setting
• Implement multithreaded generator;
• Show final statistics after sending all messages or stop by signal;
• Implement API: Develop an API for better control and management of the Kafka Traffic Generator;
• Multi-Topic Support: Extend the generator to support working with multiple Kafka topics simultaneously;
• Add Tests: Write unit tests to ensure the stability and reliability of the Kafka Traffic Generator;

Dependencies

This project uses the following Go libraries:

• brianvoe/gofakeit: A powerful Go library for generating fake data.
• segmentio/kafka-go: A pure Go Kafka client library for interacting with Apache Kafka.