Apache Kafka on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS — Support & Quick Start

At a glance

Application ports	9092 (Kafka broker, PLAINTEXT); 9093 (controller) is local
Service(s)	kafka
Configuration	/opt/kafka/config/server.properties (listeners PLAINTEXT://:9092; set advertised.listeners to the address your clients use); cluster ID in /etc/app/kafka-cluster-id; tools in /opt/kafka/bin/
Logs	/var/log/kafka/kafka.log; journalctl -u kafka -f
Version	Apache Kafka 4.0.0 (KRaft, single node)
Platform	Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Quick start

1. SSH into the VM with the username and key you chose at deploy.
2. Kafka runs as the `kafka` systemd service in KRaft mode (no ZooKeeper) on port 9092; a unique cluster ID is generated at first boot.
3. Create a topic with `/opt/kafka/bin/kafka-topics.sh --create --topic my-topic --bootstrap-server localhost:9092`, set advertised.listeners for your clients, then point producers/consumers at the broker over your VNet.

First login

1. No credential is generated (PLAINTEXT listener, no SASL). Verify locally: /opt/kafka/bin/kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server 127.0.0.1:9092 --list.
2. Before remote clients connect, set advertised.listeners=PLAINTEXT://<VM-IP-or-DNS>:9092 in /opt/kafka/config/server.properties and `sudo systemctl restart kafka`; add SASL/TLS before exposing 9092 outside your VNet.

Still stuck?

Email support@dcassociatesgroup.com (response within 1 business day) or send a message via the contact form. Include the offer name, VM size, region, and any log output — sudo journalctl -u <service> -n 100 usually tells the story.