Producing and consuming messages from a Kafka client

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 13, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Producing and consuming messages from a Kafka client

    This guide explains how to produce and consume messages to and from Hermes using a Kafka client within the ServiceNow Zurich release. Hermes operates with a dual Kafka cluster setup to ensure failover and high availability, requiring specific configurations for producing and consuming messages.

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    Key Requirements

    • Topic creation: Start by creating a topic in the Hermes Kafka cluster.
    • Processes: You need three processes—one producer process and two consumer processes—to communicate with Hermes.
    • Dual clusters: Hermes uses two Kafka clusters for failover, so two separate consumer clients are required.
    • Consumer configuration: Configure two distinct consumer bootstrap addresses—one for each cluster—with port ranges 4100-4150 and 4200-4250.
    • Producer configuration: Producer clients use ports in the 4000-4050 range.

    Network and Connectivity

    • Ensure the following port ranges are open with your network administrator before starting:
      Producer: 4000-4050
      Consumer 1: 4100-4150
      Consumer 2: 4200-4250
    • Use the openssl sclient command to test connectivity for each port range to verify firewall accessibility.
    • Adjust the domain in the command if your instance uses a different domain than service-now.com.

    Bootstrap Address Configuration

    • Producers connect using bootstrap addresses on ports 4000-4050, e.g., <instancename>.service-now.com:4000 to :4003.
    • Two consumers must be configured with distinct bootstrap addresses corresponding to their port ranges:
      Consumer A: ports 4100-4150
      Consumer B: ports 4200-4250
    • Follow the provided string patterns when configuring Kafka client producer and consumer properties to ensure proper connectivity.

    Using the Command-Line Interface (CLI)

    • The list command shows topics from one or both Kafka clusters; topics may vary depending on synchronization status.
    • Topics created for failover include a cluster identification prefix.
    • Internal topics appear alongside user-created topics.
    • Deleting a topic requires removing it from each cluster separately; this cannot be done with a single CLI command.
    • To delete a topic from both clusters, delete the topic record in your ServiceNow instance following the documented steps.

    Learn how to produce and consume messages to Hermes from a Kafka client.

    To begin exchanging messages from a Kafka client, start by creating a topic in the Hermes Kafka cluster. After you successfully create the topic, you must create a total of three processes to communicate with Hermes.

    • One process is required to produce messages to Hermes.
    • Two processes are required to consume messages from Hermes. Two processes are required because Hermes uses a pair of Kafka clusters for failover purposes. If one cluster goes down, data is produced to the other Hermes Kafka cluster.
      Important:
      You must configure two distinct consumer bootstrap addresses, one for each consumer client.

    One consumer process uses ports in the 410x range and the other uses ports in the 420x range. This means you must define two distinct clients, one for each port range. Within each client configuration, you can define consumer group IDs.

    Required port ranges

    Work with your network administrator to ensure that the following port ranges are open before you begin exchanging messages using Hermes:
    • Producer: 4000-4050
    • Consumer1: 4100-4150
    • Consumer2: 4200-4250

    To confirm that the ports are accessible through the firewall, run the following command:

    openssl s_client -connect <instance_name>.service-now.com:<port> -servername <instance_name>.service-now.com
    • Change the service-now.com domain if your instance uses a different domain name.
    • Complete the test using ports from each of the three port ranges. For example: test 4000-4003, 4100-4103, and 4200-4203.

    If the command fails internally but succeeds from a client outside the network, consult your network administrator to gain access through the network firewall.

    Bootstrap addresses

    Use the following port mappings to connect producers and consumers to the Kafka cluster bootstrap addresses. All Application Delivery Controllers used by Hermes follow this same convention.

    Important:
    The following Hermes bootstrap address examples use ports 4000-4003, 4100-4103, and 4200-4203. However, you must open the following port ranges to ensure connectivity as additional clusters are added to the Hermes Messaging Service.
    • Producer: 4000-4050
    • Consumer1: 4100-4150
    • Consumer2: 4200-4250

    Producer clients use ports ranging from 4000 to 4050. For example:

    Producers = "<instance_name>.service-now.com:4000,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4001,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4002,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4003"

    Because Hermes uses a pair of Kafka clusters, you must configure two consumer clients with separate consumer bootstrap addresses.

    Important:
    You must configure two distinct consumer bootstrap addresses, one for each consumer client.
    • The first consumer client uses ports ranging from 4100 to 4150. For example:
      Consumer A = "<instance_name>.service-now.com:4100,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4101,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4102,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4103"
    • The second consumer client uses ports ranging from 4200 to 4250. For example:
      Consumer B = "<instance_name>.service-now.com:4200,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4201,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4202,<instance_name>.service-now.com:4203"

    When you configure producer and consumer properties for your own Kafka client, use this string pattern.

    Using the command-line interface (CLI)

    When using the list command to view a list of topics, a list of current topics are returned from one or both clusters. Topics might be returned from only one cluster, depending on when the last synchronization occurred. Topics created for failover purposes are differentiated by a three-letter cluster identification prefix.

    When accessing the Hermes clusters using the CLI, internal topics appear in addition to any topics you've created. For details, see KB1705399.

    You can't delete a topic from both Kafka clusters using a single command in the command-line interface (CLI). However, you can delete the topic from both clusters by deleting the topic record in your instance. See Delete a topic in Hermes.