TL;DR
This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps:
- set up ClickHouse as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
- set up Kafka as a destination connector
- define which data you want to transfer and how frequently
You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.
This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.
What is ClickHouse
An open-source database management system for online analytical processing (OLAP), ClickHouse takes the innovative approach of using a column-based database. It is easy to use right out of the box and is touted as being hardware efficient, extremely reliable, linearly scalable, and “blazing fast”—between 100-1,000x faster than traditional databases that write rows of data to the disk—allowing analytical data reports to be generated in real-time.
What is Kafka
A communication solutions agency, Kafka is a cloud-based / on-prem distributed system offering social media services, public relations, and events. For event streaming, three main functionalities are available: the ability to (1) subscribe to (read) and publish (write) streams of events, (2) store streams of events indefinitely, durably, and reliably, and (3) process streams of events in either real-time or retrospectively. Kafka offers these capabilities in a secure, highly scalable, and elastic manner.
Prerequisites
- A ClickHouse account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
- A Kafka account.
- An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.
Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform that consolidates and streamlines the process of extracting and loading data from multiple data sources to data warehouses. It offers pre-built connectors, including ClickHouse and Kafka, for seamless data migration.
When using Airbyte to move data from ClickHouse to Kafka, it extracts data from ClickHouse using the source connector, converts it into a format Kafka can ingest using the provided schema, and then loads it into Kafka via the destination connector. This allows businesses to leverage their ClickHouse data for advanced analytics and insights within Kafka, simplifying the ETL process and saving significant time and resources.
Step 1: Set up ClickHouse as a source connector
1. First, navigate to the Airbyte dashboard and click on the "Destinations" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Next, click on the "Add Destination" button in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Select "ClickHouse" from the list of available destinations.
4. Enter the necessary information for your ClickHouse database, including the host, port, username, and password.
5. Choose the database and table you want to connect to from the dropdown menus.
6. Configure any additional settings, such as the batch size or maximum number of retries.
7. Test the connection to ensure that everything is working properly.
8. Once you have successfully connected to your ClickHouse database, you can begin syncing data from your source connectors to your ClickHouse destination.
Step 2: Set up Kafka as a destination connector
1. First, you need to have an Apache Kafka destination connector installed on your system. If you don't have it, you can download it from the Apache Kafka website.
2. Once you have the Apache Kafka destination connector installed, you need to create a new connection in Airbyte. To do this, go to the Connections tab and click on the "New Connection" button. 3. In the "New Connection" window, select "Apache Kafka" as the destination connector and enter the required connection details, such as the Kafka broker URL, topic name, and authentication credentials.
4. After entering the connection details, click on the "Test Connection" button to ensure that the connection is working properly.
5. If the connection test is successful, click on the "Save" button to save the connection.
6. Once the connection is saved, you can create a new pipeline in Airbyte and select the Apache Kafka destination connector as the destination for your data.
7. In the pipeline configuration, select the connection you created in step 3 as the destination connection.
8. Configure the pipeline to map the source data to the appropriate Kafka topic and fields.
9. Once the pipeline is configured, you can run it to start sending data to your Apache Kafka destination.
Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your ClickHouse data to Kafka
Once you've successfully connected ClickHouse as a data source and Kafka as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:
- Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
- Choose your source: Select ClickHouse from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
- Select your destination: Choose Kafka from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
- Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
- Select the data to sync: Choose the specific ClickHouse objects you want to import data from towards Kafka. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
- Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
- Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
- Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from ClickHouse to Kafka according to your settings.
Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your Kafka data warehouse is always up-to-date with your ClickHouse data.
Use Cases to transfer your ClickHouse data to Kafka
Integrating data from ClickHouse to Kafka provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:
- Advanced Analytics: Kafka’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your ClickHouse data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within ClickHouse alone.
- Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with ClickHouse, syncing to Kafka allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
- Historical Data Analysis: ClickHouse has limits on historical data. Syncing data to Kafka allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
- Data Security and Compliance: Kafka provides robust data security features. Syncing ClickHouse data to Kafka ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
- Scalability: Kafka can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding ClickHouse data.
- Data Science and Machine Learning: By having ClickHouse data in Kafka, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
- Reporting and Visualization: While ClickHouse provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to Kafka, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a ClickHouse table that needs to be converted to a Kafka table, Airbyte can do that automatically.
Wrapping Up
To summarize, this tutorial has shown you how to:
- Configure a ClickHouse account as an Airbyte data source connector.
- Configure Kafka as a data destination connector.
- Create an Airbyte data pipeline that will automatically be moving data directly from ClickHouse to Kafka after you set a schedule
With Airbyte, creating data pipelines take minutes, and the data integration possibilities are endless. Airbyte supports the largest catalog of API tools, databases, and files, among other sources. Airbyte's connectors are open-source, so you can add any custom objects to the connector, or even build a new connector from scratch without any local dev environment or any data engineer within 10 minutes with the no-code connector builder.
We look forward to seeing you make use of it! We invite you to join the conversation on our community Slack Channel, or sign up for our newsletter. You should also check out other Airbyte tutorials, and Airbyte’s content hub!
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