Back up Apache Kafka to Azure Blob Storage
Stream compressed topic data, consumer group offsets, and cluster metadata into a Blob container — with restores to any cluster at a precise moment in time.
Why Blob Storage for Kafka backups
Azure Blob Storage is the natural backup target for Kafka running on AKS, Azure VMs, or anywhere in an Azure estate: durable, cheap per GB, governed by lifecycle management rules, and completely outside your cluster's failure domain. OSO Kafka Backup writes a compressed, verifiable layout into your container — the storage format reference documents it in full.
Configuration
Point the backup at a storage account and container. Authentication uses an account key or a connection string — the Azure Blob Storage setup guide walks through creating the storage account and scoping credentials.
- Account key
- Connection string
- Run it
mode: backup
storage:
backend: azure
container: kafka-backups
account_name: mystorageaccount
prefix: backups/production
account_key: ${AZURE_STORAGE_KEY}
mode: backup
storage:
backend: azure
container: kafka-backups
account_name: mystorageaccount
connection_string: ${AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING}
kafka-backup backup --config backup.yaml
What gets backed up
Each backup captures topic records with timestamps and headers, consumer group offsets, and topic configuration, compressed with Zstd or LZ4 before upload. Restores can target the original cluster or a new one — including cross-cloud, so a backup taken from a cluster on AWS can be restored to one on Azure — and can stop at a precise millisecond for point-in-time recovery.
Frequently asked questions
How does OSO Kafka Backup authenticate to Azure Blob Storage?
With a storage account key or a connection string, supplied directly in the storage configuration or via environment variables. Credentials never need to be baked into images.
Can I restore an Azure backup to a cluster in another cloud?
Yes. Backups are portable: data backed up from any cluster can be restored to any other cluster, regardless of where either runs, because the backup lives in neutral object storage.
Does it work with Azure lifecycle management?
Yes. Backups are written under a configurable prefix inside your container, so lifecycle management rules can move older backups to cool or archive tiers, or delete them per your retention policy.
Can I run backups from Kafka on AKS?
Yes. The backup runs as a standard workload — CLI, container, or the Kubernetes operator — and streams to Blob Storage over the Azure SDK, so AKS-hosted Kafka including Strimzi is fully supported.
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