---
alias: installation-guide-planning-and-installation-guides-kafka
description: "This documentation outlines Kafka connection configuration, including authentication methods and deployment considerations"
---

# Kafka Connection Setup

In this section you can see information on what you must prepare to configure the connection to Kafka.

## Authentication Methods

There are different required settings depending on the authentication method selected. Both are listed in the tables below:

### Using Mutual TLS authentication

| Item                | Description                  | Planning and installation guide            | Checked                                    |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ |
| Cluster Certificate Authority | The Kafka cluster certificate authority | This will be used to connect to Kafka when using mutual TLS | [[installation-guide-accountsandsecurity]] |  |
| User public key | The kafka user public key | This will be used to connect to Kafka when using mutual TLS | [[installation-guide-accountsandsecurity]] |  |
| User private key | The kafka user private key | This will be used to connect to Kafka when using mutual TLS | [[installation-guide-accountsandsecurity]] |  |

Table: Kafka connection setup using Mutual TLS authentication

### Using SASL SSL Plain

| Item                | Description                  | Planning and installation guide            | Checked                                    |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ |
| Kafka Username | The Kafka User name     | This will be used to connect to Kafka when using SASL SSL Plain | [[installation-guide-accountsandsecurity]] |  |
| Kafka Password | The Kafka User password | This will be used to connect to Kafka when using SASL SSL Plain | [[installation-guide-accountsandsecurity]] |  |

Table: Kafka connection setup using SASL SSL Plain

## Deployment

Critical Manufacturing MES uses Kafka for event streaming. Ensure that the Kafka deployment complies with the [[system-requirements-kafka#minimum-system-requirement|Minimum System Requirements]] defined for the platform.

As stated above, Critical Manufacturing MES provides two forms of authentication to communicate with Kafka:

* Mutual TLS (client certificates)
* SASL Plain (username and password).

!!! info
	For an adequate operation connection setup for Kafka under Critical Manufacturing MES, the user must have the permissions described in [[installation-guide-accountsandsecurity]].

When running MES on OpenShift, we recommend using Red Hat Streams for Apache Kafka version 3.7.0 or higher. Please contact Red Hat at [Red Hat Support](https://www.redhat.com/en/services/support) for detailed instructions on setting up AMQ Streams.

It is also possible to use Confluent Cloud. Please contact Confluent at [Confluent Support](https://support.confluent.io/) for detailed instructions on setting up Kafka.