Stream data from Azure Stream Analytics into confluent cloud

This article describes how to connect your Azure Stream Analytics job directly to confluent cloud kafka as an output.

Prerequisites

• You have a confluent cloud kafka cluster.
• You have an API Key file for your kafka cluster, which contains the API key to use as a username, API Secret to use as a password, and the Bootstrap server address.
• You have an Azure Stream Analytics job. You can create an Azure Stream Analytics job by following the documentation: Quickstart: Create a Stream Analytics job by using the Azure portal
• Your confluent cloud kafka cluster must be publicly accessible and not behind a firewall or secured in a virtual network.
• You should have an existing key vault. You can create a key vault resource by following the documentation Quickstart: Create a key vault using the Azure portal

Configure Azure Stream Analytics to use managed identity

Azure Stream Analytics requires you to configure managed identity to access key vault. You can configure your ASA job to use managed identity by navigating to the Managed Identity tab on the left side under Configure.

1. Click on the managed identity tab under configure.
2. Select on Switch Identity and select the identity to use with the job: system-assigned identity or user-assigned identity.
3. For user-assigned identity, select the subscription where your user-assigned identity is located and select the name of your identity.
4. Review and save.

Download certificate from LetsEncrypt

The stream analytics kafka output is a librdkafka-based client. For the output to connect to confluent cloud, you need TLS certificates that confluent cloud uses for server authentication. Confluent cloud uses TLS certificates from Let’s Encrypt, an open certificate authority (CA).

Download the ISRG Root X1 certificate in PEM format on the site of LetsEncrypt.

Configure Key vault with permissions

Azure Stream Analytics integrates seamlessly with Azure Key vault to access stored secrets needed for authentication and encryption when using mTLS or SASL_SSL security protocols. Your Azure Stream Analytics job connects to your Azure Key vault using managed identity to ensure a secure connection and avoid the exfiltration of secrets. To use the certificate you downloaded, you must upload it to key vault first.

To upload certificates, you must have "Key Vault Administrator" access to your Key vault. Follow the following to grant admin access:

1. In your keyvault, select Access control (IAM).

2. Select Add > Add role assignment to open the Add role assignment page.

3. Assign the role using the following configuration:

Setting	Value
Role	Key Vault Administrator
Assign access to	User, group, or service principal
Members	<Your account information or email>

Upload certificate to Key vault as a secret via Azure CLI

Make sure you have Azure CLI configured and installed locally with PowerShell. You can visit this page to get guidance on setting up Azure CLI: Get started with Azure CLI

Login to Azure CLI:

az cloud set -n AzureChinaCloud
az login

Connect to your subscription containing your key vault:

az account set --subscription <subscription name>

For example:

az account set --subscription mymicrosoftsubscription

The following command can upload the certificate as a secret to your key vault:

The <your key vault> is the name of the key vault you want to upload the certificate to. <name of the secret> is any name you want to give to your secret and how it shows up in the key vault. <file path to certificate> is the path to the location of the downloaded certificate. You can right-click on the certificate and copy the path to the certificate.

az keyvault secret set --vault-name <your key vault> --name <name of the secret> --file <file path to certificate>

For example:

az keyvault secret set --vault-name mykeyvault --name confluentsecret --file C:\Users\Downloads\isrgrootx1.pem

Grant the Stream Analytics job permissions to access the certificate in the key vault

For your Azure Stream Analytics job to read the secret in your key vault, the job must have permission to access the key vault. Use the following steps to grant special permissions to your stream analytics job:

1. In your key vault, select Access control (IAM).

2. Select Add > Add role assignment to open the Add role assignment page.

3. Assign the role using the following configuration:

Setting	Value
Role	Key vault secrets user
Managed identity	Stream Analytics job for System-assigned managed identity or User-assigned managed identity
Members	<Name of your Stream Analytics job> or <name of user-assigned identity>

Configure kafka output in your stream analytics job

1. In your stream analytics job, select Outputs under Job Topology

2. Select Add output > Kafka to open the Kafka New output configuration blade.

3. Use the following configuration:

Property name	Description
Output Alias	A friendly name used in queries to reference your input
Bootstrap server addresses	A list of host/port pairs to establish the connection to your confluent cloud kafka cluster. Example: pkc-56d1g.chinanorth3.azure.confluent.cloud:9092
Kafka topic	The name of your kafka topic in your confluent cloud kafka cluster.
Security Protocol	Select SASL_SSL. The mechanism supported is PLAIN.
Event Serialization format	The serialization format (JSON, CSV, Avro, Parquet, Protobuf) of the incoming data stream.
Partition key	Azure Stream Analytics assigns partitions using round partitioning. Keep blank if a key doesn't partition your input
Kafka event compression type	The compression type used for outgoing data streams, such as Gzip, Snappy, Lz4, Zstd, or None.

Use the following configuration:

Setting	Value
Username	confluent cloud API Key
Password	confluent cloud API secret
Key vault name	Name of Azure Key vault with Uploaded certificate
Truststore certificates	name of the key vault secret that holds the ISRG Root X1 certificate

Save configuration and test connection

Save your configuration. Your Azure Stream Analytics job validates using the configuration provided. A successful test connection shows up in the portal if your stream analytics job can connect to your kafka cluster.

Limitations

• The certificate you upload to key vault must be in PEM format.
• The minimum version of kafka must be kafka version 0.10.
• Azure Stream Analytics doesn't support authentication to confluent cloud using OAuth or SAML single sign-on (SSO). You must use API Key via the SASL_SSL protocol.
• You must use Azure CLI to upload certificate as a secret to key vault. You can't upload certificates with multiline secrets to key vault using the Azure portal.

Next steps