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Support

Get help with OSO Kafka Backup through community resources or enterprise support.

Community Support​

GitHub Issues​

Report bugs and request features:

Before opening an issue:

  1. Search existing issues for similar problems
  2. Check the documentation for solutions
  3. Gather relevant information (see below)

What to include:

## Environment
- OSO Kafka Backup version: X.Y.Z
- Kafka version: X.Y.Z
- Storage backend: S3 / Azure / GCS / Local
- OS: Linux / macOS / Windows
- Deployment: CLI / Docker / Kubernetes

## Problem Description
What you expected vs. what happened

## Steps to Reproduce
1. Step one
2. Step two
3. ...

## Configuration (redact sensitive data)
```yaml
mode: backup
source:
  bootstrap_servers:
    - kafka:9092
# ...

Logs​

[Relevant debug logs]

Additional Context​

Any other relevant information


### GitHub Discussions

For questions, ideas, and community help:

- **Discussions**: https://github.com/osodevops/kafka-backup/discussions

Categories:
- **Q&A**: Ask questions
- **Ideas**: Feature suggestions
- **Show and Tell**: Share your use cases
- **General**: General discussion

### Community Slack

Join the community Slack for real-time help:

- **Invite link**: https://oso.sh/slack
- **Channel**: #kafka-backup

## Enterprise Support

Support for Kafka Backup, the Enterprise binary and the Strimzi Backup Operator is included with the Kafka Backup Enterprise licence. There is one support model, not tiers, and it is delivered by OSO's own engineers, the team that builds and maintains the software.

### Hours and channels

| Item | Detail |
|------|--------|
| Support hours | 08:00 to 18:00 Central European Time, Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays. Response targets are measured within these hours. |
| Outside support hours | There is no staffed 24x7 desk. A ticket raised outside support hours is picked up at the start of the next support period. Out-of-hours P1 call-out and on-call cover for agreed days are available as priced options in the licence agreement. |
| Channels | support@oso.sh, the OSO support portal (access details are issued at onboarding), and a shared Slack Connect or Microsoft Teams channel set up at onboarding. |
| Access to your systems | None. OSO has no standing access to your clusters, storage or data; diagnostics are shared by you at your discretion. |

### Priorities and response targets

| Priority | Definition | Initial response | Resolution target |
|----------|------------|------------------|-------------------|
| **P1 Critical** | A restore needed for recovery is failing or blocked, production backups have stopped with no workaround, or backup data is suspected incomplete or corrupt | 60 minutes | Workaround or restore path within 4 hours |
| **P2 High** | Backup or restore degraded or partially failing; a workaround exists but is not sustainable | 4 hours | 1 business day |
| **P3 Medium** | A non-critical function is impaired, or a production issue has an acceptable workaround | 1 business day | 3 business days |
| **P4 Low** | Questions, guidance, documentation and feature requests | 2 business days | 5 business days or the next scheduled release |

Resolution targets are working objectives rather than guarantees. Every P1 incident receives a documented root cause analysis within 5 business days of resolution. Escalation runs from the responding engineer to a lead engineer and then to the CTO. The full escalation path, the supported-version window, the security-fix policy and the maintenance commitments are published in the operator repository's [SUPPORT.md](https://github.com/osodevops/strimzi-backup-operator/blob/main/SUPPORT.md) and apply equally to the engine.

### Raising a ticket

Include the kafka-backup or operator version, the storage backend and Kafka version, the configuration with secrets redacted, the relevant log excerpt, and for the operator the output of `kubectl get kafkabackups,kafkarestores -o yaml` together with the operator log. Set the priority using the definitions above; the responding engineer confirms it, and where the two views differ the higher priority applies until the initial assessment is complete.

## Self-Service Resources

### Documentation

- **This site**: Comprehensive documentation
- **CLI Help**: `kafka-backup --help`
- **Command Help**: `kafka-backup backup --help`

### Troubleshooting Guides

- [Common Errors](./common-errors)
- [Performance Issues](./performance-issues)
- [Offset Discontinuity](./offset-discontinuity)
- [Debug Mode](./debug-mode)

### Version Information

```bash
# Check version
kafka-backup --version

# Output:
# kafka-backup 0.15.11

Health Check​

When metrics are enabled for a running backup or restore, verify the HTTP server and inspect the live series directly:

curl --fail http://127.0.0.1:8080/health
curl --fail http://127.0.0.1:8080/metrics

There is no doctor command. Run validate-restore before a restore, or validate --path ... --backup-id ... to verify an existing backup.

Gathering Diagnostic Information​

System Information​

# Version
kafka-backup --version

# Environment
uname -a
cat /etc/os-release  # Linux
sw_vers              # macOS

# Resources
free -h              # Memory
df -h                # Disk
nproc                # CPUs

Configuration​

# Export config (redact passwords!)
kafka-backup config show --config backup.yaml --redact

Logs​

# Enable debug logging
export RUST_LOG=debug
kafka-backup backup --config backup.yaml 2> debug.log

# Compress for upload
gzip debug.log

Network Diagnostics​

# Test Kafka connectivity
kafka-broker-api-versions --bootstrap-server kafka:9092

# Test storage connectivity
aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket/  # S3
az storage blob list --container-name my-container  # Azure
gsutil ls gs://my-bucket/  # GCS

Metrics​

# Prometheus metrics
curl http://localhost:9090/metrics > metrics.txt

Frequently Asked Questions​

General​

Q: Is there a size limit for backups? A: No inherent limit. Limited only by storage capacity.

Q: Can I backup to multiple storage backends? A: Not simultaneously. Run separate backups for different backends.

Q: Is the data encrypted at rest? A: Depends on storage backend configuration. S3 SSE, Azure encryption, etc.

Performance​

Q: Why is my backup slow? A: See Performance Issues. Common causes: network, compression, storage.

Q: How can I speed up restore? A: Use parallel restores, reduce compression level during backup, use faster storage tier.

Offsets​

Q: How do I handle consumer offset reset? A: Use three-phase restore or header-based offset reset. See Offset Management.

Q: Can I restore to a different number of partitions? A: Yes, with scan_all_partitions: true for offset reset.

Enterprise​

Q: How do I get an enterprise trial? A: Visit https://oso.sh/kafka-backup/trial or run kafka-backup license request.

Q: What features require enterprise? A: Encryption, masking, RBAC, audit logging, Schema Registry sync, plugins.

Release Notes​

Stay updated with new releases:

Security​

Reporting Security Issues​

Do not report security vulnerabilities through public GitHub issues.

Email: security@oso.sh

Include:

  • Description of the vulnerability
  • Steps to reproduce
  • Potential impact
  • Suggested fix (if any)

Reports are acknowledged within two business days and given a severity assessment within five. Coordinated disclosure, the supported-version window and how fixes are published are set out in the security policy.

Security Advisories​

Published at: https://github.com/osodevops/kafka-backup/security/advisories

Contributing​

We welcome contributions!

Ways to contribute:

  • Report bugs
  • Suggest features
  • Improve documentation
  • Submit pull requests

Contact Information​

PurposeContact
General questionssupport@oso.sh
Sales inquiriessales@oso.sh
Security issuessecurity@oso.sh
Partnershipspartners@oso.sh

Next Steps​