Disclaimer

tl;dr - At the end of the day, it's all the same Apache Kafka running in a container. You're just dependent on how it is configured. And which variables make it so.

_{The following uses confluentinc docker images, not wurstmeister/kafka, although there is a similar configuration, I have not tried it. If using that image, read their Connectivity wiki.}

_{Nothing against the wurstmeister image, but it's community maintained, not built in an automated CI/CD release... Bitnami ones are similarly minimalistic and are more well maintained}. _{For bitnami Kafka images, refer their README}

_{debezium/kafka docs on it are mentioned here.Note: advertised host and port settings are deprecated. Advertised listeners covers both. Similar to the Confluent containers, Debezium can use KAFKA_ prefixed broker settings to update its properties.}

_{spotify/kafka is deprecated and outdated.
fast-data-dev or lensesio/box are great for an all in one solution, but are bloated if you only want Kafka}

For supplemental reading, a fully-functional docker-compose, and network diagrams, see this blogor this blog by @rmoff

Answer

The Confluent quickstart (Docker) document assumes all produce and consume requests will be within the Docker network.

You could fix the problem of connecting to kafka:9092 by running your Kafka client code within its own container as that uses the Docker network bridge, but otherwise you'll need to add some more environment variables for exposing the container externally, while still having it work within the Docker network.

First add a protocol mapping of PLAINTEXT_HOST:PLAINTEXT that will map the listener protocol to a Kafka protocol

Key: KAFKA_LISTENER_SECURITY_PROTOCOL_MAP
Value: PLAINTEXT:PLAINTEXT,PLAINTEXT_HOST:PLAINTEXT

Then setup two advertised listeners on different ports. (kafka here refers to the docker container name; it might also be named broker, so double check your service + hostnames). Notice the protocols match the right side values of the mappings above

Key: KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS
Value: PLAINTEXT://kafka:9092,PLAINTEXT_HOST://localhost:29092

When running the container, add -p 29092:29092 for the host port mapping

tl;dr

(with the above settings)

And if something still doesn't work, KAFKA_LISTENERS can be set to include <PROTOCOL>://0.0.0.0:<PORT> where both options match the advertised setting and Docker-forwarded port

Client on same machine, not in a container

Advertising localhost and the associated port will let you connect outside of the container, as you'd expect.

In other words, when running any Kafka Client outside the Docker network (including CLI tools you might have installed locally), use localhost:29092 for bootstrap servers and localhost:2181 for Zookeeper (requires Docker port forwarding)

Client on another machine

If trying to connect from an external server, you'll need to advertise the external hostname/ip of the host as well as/in place of localhost.
Simply advertising localhost with a port forward will not work because Kafka protocol will still continue to advertise the listeners you've configured.

This setup requires Docker port forwarding and router port forwarding if not in the same local network, for example, your container is running in the cloud and you want to interact with it from your local machine.

Client in a container, on the same host

This is the least error-prone configuration; you can use DNS service names directly.

When running an app in the Docker network, use kafka:9092 (see advertised PLAINTEXT listener config above) for bootstrap servers and zookeeper:2181 for Zookeeper, just like any other Docker service communication (doesn't require any port forwarding)

If you use separate docker run commands, or Compose files, you need to define a shared network manually

See the example Compose file for the full Confluent stack

Related question

Connect to Kafka on host from Docker (ksqlDB)

Appendix

For anyone interested in Kubernetes deployments: https://operatorhub.io/?keyword=Kafka

When you first connect to a kafka node, it will give you back all the kafka node and the url where to connect. Then your application will try to connect to every kafka directly.

Issue is always what is the kafka will give you as url ? It's why there is the KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS which will be used by kafka to tell the world how it can be accessed.

Now for your use-case, there is multiple small stuff to think about:

Let say you set plaintext://kafka:9092

• This is OK if you have an application in your docker compose that use kafka. This application will get from kafka the URL with kafka that is resolvable through the docker network.
• If you try to connect from your main system or from another container which is not in the same docker network this will fail, as the kafka name cannot be resolved.

==> To fix this, you need to have a specific DNS server like a service discovery one, but it is big trouble for small stuff. Or you set manually the kafka name to the container ip in each /etc/hosts

If you set plaintext://localhost:9092

• This will be ok on your system if you have a port mapping ( -p 9092:9092 when launching kafka)
• This will fail if you test from an application on a container (same docker network or not) (localhost is the container itself not the kafka one)

==> If you have this and wish to use a kafka client in another container, one way to fix this is to share the network for both container (same ip)

Last option : set an IP in the name: plaintext://x.y.z.a:9092

This will be ok for everybody... BUT how can you get the x.y.z.a name ?

The only way is to hardcode this ip when you launch the container: docker run .... --net confluent --ip 10.x.y.z .... Note that you need to adapt the ip to one valid ip in the confluent subnet.

before zookeeper

1. docker container run --name zookeeper -p 2181:2181 zookeeper

after kafka

2. docker container run --name kafka -p 9092:9092 -e KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT=192.168.8.128:2181 -e KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS=PLAINTEXT://ip_address_of_your_computer_but_not_localhost!!!:9092 -e KAFKA_OFFSETS_TOPIC_REPLICATION_FACTOR=1 confluentinc/cp-kafka

in kafka consumer and producer config

@Beanpublic ProducerFactory<String, String> producerFactory() {    Map<String, Object> configProps = new HashMap<>();    configProps.put(ProducerConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG, "192.168.8.128:9092");    configProps.put(ProducerConfig.KEY_SERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG, StringSerializer.class);    configProps.put(ProducerConfig.VALUE_SERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG, StringSerializer.class);    return new DefaultKafkaProducerFactory<>(configProps);}@Beanpublic ConsumerFactory<String, String> consumerFactory() {    Map<String, Object> props = new HashMap<>();    props.put(ConsumerConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG, "192.168.8.128:9092");    props.put(ConsumerConfig.GROUP_ID_CONFIG, "group_id");    props.put(ConsumerConfig.KEY_DESERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG, StringDeserializer.class);    props.put(ConsumerConfig.VALUE_DESERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG, StringDeserializer.class);    return new DefaultKafkaConsumerFactory<>(props);}

I run my project with these regulations. Good luck dude.