AKHQ: Kafka GUI Management Tool
Master AKHQ, the popular open-source web UI for managing Apache Kafka. Learn installation, configuration, and how to leverage AKHQ for topic management, consumer group monitoring, and message browsing.
What is AKHQ?
AKHQ (formerly KafkaHQ) is an open-source web interface for Apache Kafka that provides a user-friendly GUI for managing Kafka clusters. It offers topic management, message browsing, consumer group monitoring, and Schema Registry integration.
AKHQ Key Features
Installing AKHQ
Docker Installation
# Run AKHQ with Docker
docker run -d \
-p 8080:8080 \
-v ./application.yml:/app/application.yml \
tchiotludo/akhqDocker Compose Setup
# docker-compose.yml
version: '3'
services:
akhq:
image: tchiotludo/akhq
ports:
- "8080:8080"
environment:
AKHQ_CONFIGURATION: |
akhq:
connections:
my-cluster:
properties:
bootstrap.servers: "kafka:9092"
schema-registry:
url: "http://schema-registry:8081"
connect:
- name: "connect"
url: "http://connect:8083"Kubernetes Helm Installation
# Add Helm repository
helm repo add akhq https://akhq.io/
# Install AKHQ
helm install akhq akhq/akhq \
--namespace kafka \
--set configuration."akhq.connections.my-cluster.properties.bootstrap\.servers"="kafka:9092"AKHQ Configuration
Complete Configuration Example
# application.yml
akhq:
connections:
production:
properties:
bootstrap.servers: "broker1:9092,broker2:9092,broker3:9092"
security.protocol: SASL_SSL
sasl.mechanism: PLAIN
sasl.jaas.config: >
org.apache.kafka.common.security.plain.PlainLoginModule required
username="user" password="password";
schema-registry:
url: "https://schema-registry:8081"
basic-auth-username: "sr-user"
basic-auth-password: "sr-password"
connect:
- name: "production-connect"
url: "https://connect:8083"
security:
default-group: reader
groups:
admin:
roles:
- topic/read
- topic/insert
- topic/delete
- topic/config/update
- node/read
- node/config/update
- group/read
- group/delete
- group/offsets/update
reader:
roles:
- topic/read
- node/read
- group/readUsing AKHQ Features
Message Search
Search and filter messages by key, value, headers, or timestamp. AKHQ supports regex patterns and time-based queries for message inspection.
Topic Management
Create, configure, and delete topics. View partition details, replica status, and modify topic configurations directly from the UI.
Consumer Groups
Monitor consumer group lag, member assignments, and offset positions. Reset offsets to specific positions when needed.
Schema Registry
View and manage Avro, JSON, and Protobuf schemas. Track schema versions and compatibility across your topics.
AKHQ Limitations
No Built-in Metrics Collection
AKHQ doesn't collect or visualize broker metrics. You'll need separate monitoring tools like Prometheus/Grafana for comprehensive observability.
Limited Alerting Capabilities
No native alerting for consumer lag or cluster issues. External alerting solutions are required for production monitoring.
Basic Historical Data
AKHQ provides point-in-time views without historical trends or time-series analysis of cluster metrics.
Self-Managed Infrastructure
Requires deployment and maintenance of AKHQ infrastructure. No managed service option available.
Need More Than AKHQ Provides?
While AKHQ is great for basic Kafka administration, KLogic provides comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and observability that AKHQ lacks.