[Beta] Kafka Connector

Note

The Kafka Connector is available in closed beta beginning 30 November 2023. Please reach out to your Samsara representative if you are interested in participating in this beta program.

Use the Kafka Connector to automatically stream Samsara data into a Kafka cluster.

This connector supports the following data tables:

• Speed data

• GPS locations of vehicles, trailers, and powered equipment

Requirements

• Kafka: Kafka 0.10.1.0 or a later release.

• Samsara: API access

  Data tables will only return values if customers have matching licenses that provide access to that data (proper API access).

Deployment

Samsara built the integration and will assist with deployments as needed. Follow the steps below to get started. If there are any issues, please contact Samsara Support.

1. Reach out to your Samsara representative to request the Kafka Connector.

   Samsara will set up beta candidates in small batches based on specific use cases.

2. Select and set up the cloud platform of your choice to deploy a Kafka cluster.

   There are several deployment options you can use. Refer to the Kafka developer guide to view a list of options and to learn more. The remaining steps use the Confluent Kafka cluster to complete the setup.

3. Create a topic in your Confluent Kafka cluster to receive data from Samsara.

   If your Kafka cluster is not accessible from outside of your network, it may be necessary to:

   • Allow inbound connections to all brokers for the Samsara Kafka Connector. To obtain the list of IP addresses, log in to your Samsara dashboard and navigate to Settings > Webhooks.

     For additional details, contact your Samsara representative.

   • Configure advertised listeners to externally resolvable addresses or hostnames. For more information, see the Confluent documentation about Kafka Listeners.

4. Configure a SASL/PLAIN user on the broker.

   See steps 1-3 in the configuration documentation about Kafka Listeners.

   You must configure SASL SSL, and not SASL PLAIN text.

5. Grant the user ACLS write access and define access to the new topic.

   

   For your specific Topic name, grant the same Permission, Operation, and Pattern Types as shown, and then click Next.

6. Record the key and secret for future use in the Samsara dashboard.

   

7. From the Samsara dashboard, set up the Kafka Connector.

   1. Obtain and open the Kafka setup link from your Samsara rep.

   2. Enter the following information generated from your Kafka cluster:

      

      • Kafka Server URL: You can find the URL in the Cluster Settings under Bootstrap server. This location may be different if the user is not using Confluent.

      • Kafka SASL Username: This field is the Key that Confluent generated when you set up topic access as described in the previous step.

      • Kafka SASL Password: This field is the Secret that Confluent generated when you set up topic access as described in the previous step.

      • Kafka Topic ID: This field is the Topic name for which your access settings are defined in your Kafka cluster.

   3. Click Save when finished.

      If the configuration is successful, Samsara displays a Successfully created Kafka subscription notification. The connector stream initialization will take a few minutes to complete.

Support

For issues related to the integration, contact Samsara Support.