Running the Connectors

To run the bridge connectors in standalone mode, complete this task.

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

To quickly begin development and testing, run the connector in standalone mode.

Prerequisites

You have already configured the bridge connector properties.

You have already configured application definitions in the realm server for the connectors.

Procedure

  1. Ensure access to the native TIBCO FTL client libraries.
    If you use Kafka's standard start scripts, you can ensure that java.library.path is set correctly by including it in the environment variable KAFKA_OPTS before starting the connector.
    • On Linux and macOS platforms, ensure that java.library.path contains TIBCO_HOME/ftl/version/lib. For example: 
      export KAFKA_OPTS="-Djava.library.path=TIBCO_HOME/ftl/version/lib"
    • On Windows platforms, ensure that the PATH variable contains TIBCO_HOME\ftl\version\bin. For example: 
      set KAFKA_OPTS="-Djava.library.path=TIBCO_HOME\ftl\version\bin"
  2. Ensure that the realm server is running and reachable.
    The connectors are FTL clients, and depend on the realm server for configuration definitions. For more details about the realm server, see TIBCO FTL Administration.
  3. Ensure that the bridge connector archive file tibftl-kafka-connect-1.0.0.jar is in the plug-ins directory.
    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 Kafka installation directory.
    For example: 
    cd TIBCO_HOME/akd/core/1.1
  5. Run the bridge connectors.
    Select from the following command line examples and modify as appropriate. Notice that each example command line supplies a configuration file for the 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