Unable to complete Kafka installation lab

Hi,
I’m trying to finish the Kafka beginner course and get past the installation lab. This will be a short post because so far I cannot post, and this is a test post to see if it was the markup.
I had a VERY detailed post outlining the steps I did in the lab to get to where I got, but every time I try to post it, I get a 403 error. Is the community forum not able to take markdown posts anymore? I can send all the steps I did but so far I have been absolutely unable to write them to a post!!!

I am going to try test editing this post to see what part of posting is failing:

DOwnload of Java 17

sudo apt update sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre-headless

Hi @hugh

Which lab and question number couldn’t you complete? Could you please share the lab link? I’ll take a look.

https://learn.kodekloud.com/user/courses/learn-by-doing-beginner-s-guide-to-apache-kafka-foundations-and-development/module/b539de3c-eb0a-4971-854d-315228b9c5a1/lesson/8d81722c-5287-4c1a-918a-b98cd163b5b3?autoplay=true

Is the lab. I have a whole list of the steps I did but I keep getting 403 errors when I try to post anything but the most basic of markdown.

The lab was the Setting up a Kafta Environment. I can get as far as step 10, but I know there are problems before then because zookeeper service won’t stay up.

Hi @hugh

Could you please share a screenshot? I just checked on my side, and it worked fine, you can see my screenshot below.

I will have to restart the lab, but I think you are on the lab after because the lab I did was the one with no reference to Python. I clicked the back button:
https://learn.kodekloud.com/user/courses/learn-by-doing-beginner-s-guide-to-apache-kafka-foundations-and-development/module/b539de3c-eb0a-4971-854d-315228b9c5a1/lesson/2b3815f8-c27f-4a98-8642-14db53f88d64

It may be that I’m missing something but there is not enough information in the lab description nor AI agent to get past starting zookeeper service and keeping it running.

To show specific screenshots would mean restarting the lab. That will need to wait until I have another block of 1 hr uninterrupted.

I should add that I downloaded kafka v 4.0.0 while the description in the lab used v 3.7.1 as an example. On Apache Kafka official web site, v 3.7.2 is already marked end of life.

Zookeeper was version 3.8.4 which is the current stable release. One big difference I noticed from the example for the zookeeper.service file and what you would actually need is that there is no zookeeper-start.sh script. You instead run zkServer.sh start and it will automatically find its zoo.cfg file.

I don’t know if any of this may have a bearing on why the lab is not able to keep zookeeper or kafka running.

I tried again from a System76 Pop!OS desktop. I get about the same result. I can get kafka service going but I can’t get zookeeper to stay running. I can upload a log file but the forum doesn’t support any log file format.

Hi @hugh

Thanks for your feedback about the lab link. The solution for question 5 is not correct, version 3.7.1 no longer exists. I’ve passed this to the team so they can fix it. In the meantime, please use any available version, like 3.7.2, to complete the task. I’ll also look into the issue with Zookeeper not running.

Hi @hugh

I don’t see any issues with Zookeeper and Kafka. I was able to start them on my end without problems.

Which version of zookeeper did you use? I tried kafka v4.0.0 with zookeeper 3.8.4. Your last post suggested I switch to the EOL version of kafka to complete the exercise. I can definitely try that. Generally speaking, is zookeeper supposed to be able to run when kafka is not running? Given that in the kafka.service file, it had a dependency on zookeeper, it would suggest that zookeeper should stay running even if kafka not found, or is that time limited…

I used Kafka version 3.7.2. Please try again, I believe that’s why you weren’t able to start Zookeeper.

Which version of zookeeper? I’m wondering if one of the older ones does have a zookeeper-start.sh script as opposed to the zkServer.sh script in the current version.

Ah, in the 3.7.2 version of Kafka, zookeeper is included. It’s in the later releases that it’s separated out. One additional feedback. When I went into the next lab, the description section (i.e. the documentation) disappeared somewhere after about step 7. Also, unlike other courses, there appear to be no course notes for this one.

Hi @hugh

It’s working fine on my side. The issue might not be happening consistently.

Hi @hugh

For lab: Setting Up a Kafka Environment. The solution is updated, please try again.