Running the Connectors

To run the bridge connectors in standalone mode, follow these instructions.

Run and manage the bridge connectors as you would any other Apache Kafka connector. It can run in either standalone or distributed mode. For details see Apache Kafka Connect.

To quickly begin development and testing, running the connector in standalone mode provides the most direct feedback to verify your configuration settings.

Prerequisites

Pre-configured bridge connector properties.

Pre-configured application definitions in the FTL server for the connectors.

Procedure

  1. Ensure access to the native TIBCO FTL client libraries.
    If you use Apache Kafka's standard start scripts, ensure that java.library.path is set correctly by including it in the environment variable KAFKA_OPTS before starting the connector. For example: 
    export KAFKA_OPTS="-Djava.library.path=TIBCO_HOME/ftl/version/lib  $KAFKA_OPTS"
  2. Ensure that the FTL server is running and reachable.
    The connectors are FTL clients, and depend on the FTL server for configuration definitions. For more details about the FTL server, see TIBCO FTL Administration.
  3. Ensure that the bridge connector archive file tibftl-kafka-connect-version.jar is in the plug-ins directory.
    Apache Kafka's configuration file config/connect-standalone.properties specifies the location of the plug-ins directory as the value of the plugin.path property.

    You can either set this property to the location of the archive file, or copy the archive file to the plug-ins directory.

  4. Navigate to the Apache Kafka installation directory.
    For example: 
    cd TIBCO_HOME/akd/core/version
  5. Run the bridge connectors.
    Select from the following command line examples and modify as appropriate. Notice that each command line example supplies a configuration file for the Apache Kafka Connect worker, and a configuration file for each bridge connector instance.
    • Source Connector, Standalone 
      bin/connect-standalone.sh
  config/connect-standalone.properties 
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-source.properties
    • Sink Connector, Standalone 
      bin/connect-standalone.sh
  config/connect-standalone.properties 
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-sink.properties
    • Both Connectors, Standalone For bidirectional communication, supply both configuration properties files. 
      bin/connect-standalone.sh
  config/connect-standalone.properties 
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-source.properties
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-sink.properties
    • Multiple Connectors, Standalone To publish or subscribe to multiple FTL endpoints, run multiple instances of the connector. Provide a separate configuration file for each instance. 
      bin/connect-standalone.sh
  config/connect-standalone.properties 
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-source-A.properties
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-source-B.properties
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-sink-C.properties
  config/tibftl-kafka-connect-sink-D.properties