What are Kafka consumer group offsets?

What are Kafka consumer group offsets?

Kafka consumer group offsets are markers that track the position of a consumer in a Kafka topic. They indicate the last message that was successfully processed by a consumer in a group.

How do offsets work in a consumer group?

Offsets are stored in Kafka and are unique to each partition of a topic. When a consumer reads messages, it commits the offset of the last message it processed, allowing it to resume from that point in case of a failure.

Can I manually manage offsets?

Yes, you can manually manage offsets by using the Kafka API to commit offsets at specific points, allowing for more control over message processing.

What happens if a consumer fails?

If a consumer fails, another consumer in the same group can take over and start processing from the last committed offset, ensuring no messages are lost.

How can I monitor consumer group offsets?

You can monitor consumer group offsets using tools like Kafka's command-line tools or third-party monitoring solutions that provide insights into consumer lag and offset metrics.