21. IBAMOE 9.0 Kafka extension

In order to be able to start processes based on new events, we will need to configure the IBAMOEKafka extension.

The IBAMOE Kafka extension allows the KIE Server (process and decision engine) to react to events and publish events to kafka topics.

📘 INFO: There are several options in IBAMOE to customize the Kafka address, topic names, etc. In our case, we’re using the default Kafka address, which is, localhost:9092. More customization information can be found in the official Red Hat product documentation: Configuring a KIE Server to send and receive Kafka messages from the process.

In this setup steps, we will configure IBAMOE only in the server level - we are not yet configuring the business project. We will see how to configure the project as we move forward on the labs.

21.1 Enabling the Kafka extension

We can configure the engine to support different capabilities. In order to enable processes to be started through eventing, we only need to enable the extension via system property.

1. With IBAMOE up and running, execute the following, where $JBOSS_HOME is the installation directory of the JBoss EAP instance you're running KIE Server from:

   $JBOSS_HOME/bin/jboss-cli.sh -c
   [standalone@localhost:9990 /] /system-property=org.kie.kafka.server.ext.disabled:add(value=false)
   [standalone@localhost:9990 /] :shutdown(restart=true)
   

The first command will enable the Kafka extension. Next, we're restarting EAP so that the new configuration is active. You can check EAP logs to confirm it is restarting.

The following output will show up in IBAMOE logs:

INFO  [org.kie.server.services.impl.KieServerImpl] (ServerService Thread Pool -- 74) Kafka KIE Server extension has been successfully registered as server extension

This is the only configuration you will need in a server level to be able to start processes using events.