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How to install and run Kafka on Mac OS X

Start Kafka with ZooKeeperFor maximum compatibility purposes, we recommend to start Apache Kafka with ZooKeeper. If you would like to run Kafka without ZooKeeper, take a look at our KRaft mode guide.

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How to install Kafka with ZooKeeper on Mac

  1. Install Java JDK version 11
  2. Download Apache Kafka from https://kafka.apache.org/downloads under ‘Binary Downloads’
  3. Extract the contents on your Mac
  4. Start ZooKeeper using the binaries
  5. Start Kafka using the binaries in another process
  6. Setup the $PATH environment variables for easy access to the Kafka binaries

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Installing Java JDK 11

To install Apache Kafka on Mac, Java 11 is the only prerequisite.
  1. Navigate to Amazon Corretto 11 download page (the Amazon distribution of OpenJDK 11) install amazon-corretto-11-x64-macos-jdk.pkg
  2. Double click on the downloaded file and proceed with the installation steps.
  3. You have successfully installed Java JDK 11. You may delete the .pkg file.
Screenshot of Amazon Corretto installer that will give you the distribution of OpenJDK 11 needed to install Apache Kafka on Mac Please follow the instructions here to verify your installation of Amazon Corretto 11. Instructions on how to set the default version of Java on a Mac can be found here. Upon completion, you should get a similar output when doing java -version: 
openjdk version "11.0.10" 2021-01-19 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Corretto-11.0.10.9.1 (build 11.0.10+9-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Corretto-11.0.10.9.1 (build 11.0.10+9-LTS, mixed mode)shell

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Install Apache Kafka on Mac OS X

  1. Download the latest version of Apache Kafka from https://kafka.apache.org/downloads under Binary downloads.
The download page for Apache Kafka where you can download and install Kafka.
  1. Click on any of the binary downloads (it is preferred to choose the most recent Scala version - example 2.13). For this illustration, we will assume version 2.13-3.0.0.
  2. Download and extract the contents (double click in the Finder) to a directory of your choice, for example ~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0 .
  3. Navigate to the root of the Apache Kafka folder and open a Terminal. Or Open a Terminal and navigate to the root directory of Apache Kafka. For this example, we will assume that the Kafka download is expanded into the ~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0 directory.
Start ZooKeeper Apache Kafka depends on ZooKeeper for cluster management. Hence, prior to starting Kafka, ZooKeeper has to be started. There is no need to explicitly install ZooKeeper, as it comes included with Apache Kafka. Make sure your JAVA_HOME environment variable is set first, as instructed in the Install Java section, so that Java 11 is used when doing java -version From the root of Apache Kafka, run the following command to start ZooKeeper: 
~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh ~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0/config/zookeeper.properties
A screenshot of the process for starting ZooKeeper for Apache Kafka on Mac OS.
You can use the -daemon flag to run ZooKeeper in daemon mode in the background

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Start Apache Kafka

Open another Terminal window and run the following command from the root of Apache Kafka to start Apache Kafka. 
~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0/bin/kafka-server-start.sh ~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0/config/server.properties
A terminal screenshot showing that Apache Kafka is now running on Mac. Ensure to keep both terminal windows opened, otherwise you will shut down Kafka or ZooKeeper. Kafka is now started, congratulations!

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Setup the $PATH environment variable

In order to easily access the Kafka binaries, you can edit your PATH variable by adding the following line (edit the content to your system) to your system run commands (for example ~/.zshrc if you use zshrc): PATH="$PATH:/Users/stephanemaarek/kafka_2.13-3.0.0/bin" This ensures that you can now run the kafka commands without prefixing them. After reloading your terminal, the following should work from any directory 
kafka-topics.sh

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Optional: changing the Kafka and ZooKeeper data storage directory

For ZooKeeper:
  • edit the zookeeper.properties file at ~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0/config/zookeeper.properties and set the following to your heart’s desire dataDir=/your/path/to/data/zookeeper
  • start ZooKeeper using the update zookeeper.properties file as shown above
  • you can also make a copy of the zookeeper.properties file anywhere in your computer and edit that file instead, and reference it in the ZooKeeper start command shown above
For Kafka:
  • edit the server.properties file at ~/kafka_2.13-3.0.0/config/server.properties and set the following to your heart’s desire log.dirs=/your/path/to/data/kafka
  • start ZooKeeper using the update server.properties file as shown above
  • you can also make a copy of the server.properties file anywhere in your computer and edit that file instead, and reference it in the ZooKeeper start command shown above