Apache Kafka

Vanta Panel runs one shared Apache Kafka broker per server — a single-node Kafka 4 in KRaft mode (no ZooKeeper), installed once from vWHM and switched on per hosting account. Each enabled account gets its own SCRAM login, its own youraccount. topic prefix, and a 1 MB/s cap in each direction. The broker listens on 127.0.0.1:9092 only, so it is for apps running on the same server: Java, Node.js and Python apps, or PHP with the rdkafka extension.

What the panel provisions

Prerequisites

• RAM headroom. About 1 GB of heap on top of Apache, MariaDB and mail — not for a 2 GB VPS, Vanta Panel's minimum; the vWHM page itself warns you to check.
• Java 17 or newer. The installer reuses any java on the server or adds the distribution's default headless JRE; activating Java first from vWHM → Java Apps (OpenJDK 17) is the safest order.

Installing the broker (vWHM)

1. Open vWHM → Kafka (or the Apache Kafka tile on the dashboard). The Broker card shows Status not installed.
2. Click Install Kafka broker. The panel downloads Kafka, writes its configuration, formats storage with a panel-only admin credential, and creates, enables and starts the vantakafka service. You then see Kafka 4.3.1 installed and started on 127.0.0.1:9092.

Enabling an account

1. Open vWHM → Accounts, open the account and find the Kafka (event streaming) card. If the broker is not installed yet, the card says so and links to the Kafka page.
2. Click Enable Kafka → Kafka enabled for youraccount. This creates the SCRAM user, ACLs and quota; the vWHM Kafka page then lists the account under Accounts using Kafka with its topic count and a Manage link.

Disable Kafka revokes the credentials and ACLs; the account's topics stay on disk but are unreachable until re-enabled. Re-enabling generates a new password, so apps must be updated.

Using it from vPanel

1. Open vPanel → Kafka. The page only appears in the sidebar once your account is enabled; otherwise it says Kafka isn't enabled for this account. Contact your administrator…
2. The Connection panel shows bootstrap.servers, security.protocol = SASL_PLAINTEXT, sasl.mechanism = SCRAM-SHA-256, your username (your account name) and password, plus a ready-made JAAS line for Java clients.
3. Under Create topic, type the Topic name — letters, numbers, dots, dashes and underscores; the youraccount. prefix is added for you — choose Partitions (1–50) and click Create topic. You see Created topic youraccount.orders.
4. Your topics lists them; Delete removes a topic and all its messages after a confirmation.

For a Spring Boot app the properties are:

spring.kafka.bootstrap-servers=127.0.0.1:9092
spring.kafka.properties.security.protocol=SASL_PLAINTEXT
spring.kafka.properties.sasl.mechanism=SCRAM-SHA-256
spring.kafka.properties.sasl.jaas.config=org.apache.kafka.common.security.scram.ScramLoginModule required username="youraccount" password="…";
spring.kafka.consumer.group-id=youraccount.order-workers

The consumer group id must also start with your prefix — the ACL covers youraccount.* groups only.

Start, stop, status and logs

The vWHM Kafka page shows running or installed · stopped / failed, but has no start/stop buttons, and the Services page does not manage this unit. As root over SSH:

systemctl status vantakafka
systemctl restart vantakafka
journalctl -u vantakafka -n 200

Kafka's own log files are in /opt/kafka/logs; messages are kept for Kafka's default 7 days (the panel sets no override).

When not to use it

• Small VPS — 2 GB of RAM is not enough alongside the web stack.
• Clients elsewhere — the listener is loopback-only and unencrypted, and the panel cannot expose it.
• Durability or scale — one node, replication factor 1, no failover.
• A simple queue or cache — Redis is far lighter, and a cron job covers most scheduled work.

Troubleshooting

• Kafka install failed: could not download Kafka — outbound HTTPS is blocked; check the firewall.
• Status shows installed · failed right after install — run java -version (Kafka 4 needs 17+) and read journalctl -u vantakafka for an out-of-memory kill.
• Authentication failed — the password changes whenever Kafka is re-enabled for the account; copy the current one from vPanel.
• TopicAuthorizationException / GroupAuthorizationException — the topic or group.id is not under your youraccount. prefix.
• Connection refused from another machine — by design; only apps on this server can connect.
• Producer seems slow — you are hitting the 1 MB/s quota; Kafka throttles rather than errors.

FAQ

Is Kafka per account or per server?

Vanta Panel runs one broker per server, shared; each account gets an isolated slice of it — its own login, prefix and quota.

Do I need ZooKeeper?

No. Kafka 4 runs in KRaft mode; the single node is its own controller.

Can I connect from my laptop or another VPS?

No. The broker binds to 127.0.0.1 and the panel does not add TLS or a public listener.