Yandex Cloud
Search
Contact UsGet started
  • Pricing
  • Customer Stories
  • Documentation
  • Blog
  • All Services
  • System Status
    • Featured
    • Infrastructure & Network
    • Data Platform
    • Containers
    • Developer tools
    • Serverless
    • Security
    • Monitoring & Resources
    • ML Services
    • Business tools
  • All Solutions
    • By industry
    • By use case
    • Economics and Pricing
    • Security
    • Technical Support
    • Start testing with double trial credits
    • Cloud credits to scale your IT product
    • Gateway to Russia
    • Cloud for Startups
    • Center for Technologies and Society
    • Yandex Cloud Partner program
  • Pricing
  • Customer Stories
  • Documentation
  • Blog
© 2025 Direct Cursus Technology L.L.C.
Yandex Data Streams
  • Access management
  • Pricing policy
    • Overview
    • Authenticating and connecting to the database
  • FAQ

In this article:

  • Endpoint
  • Prerequisites
  • Authentication
  • Example of writing and reading a message
  1. Kafka API
  2. Authenticating and connecting to the database

Authentication and database connection using the Kafka API

Written by
Yandex Cloud
Improved by
Max Z.
Updated at August 15, 2025
  • Endpoint
  • Prerequisites
  • Authentication
  • Example of writing and reading a message

EndpointEndpoint

The Kafka API endpoint appears in the management console under: Data Streams → [Your Stream] → Overview → Kafka API endpoint.

The endpoint has the following format: <FQDN_YDB>:PORT. For example, ydb-01.serverless.yandexcloud.net:9093.

PrerequisitesPrerequisites

To authenticate, take these steps:

  1. Create a service account.
  2. Assign the following roles to the service account:
    • ydb.kafkaApi.client and ydb.viewer: for reading from a data stream.
    • ydb.kafkaApi.client and ydb.editor: for writing to a data stream.
  3. Create an API key with the yc.ydb.topics.manage scope.

AuthenticationAuthentication

The Kafka API uses the SASL_SSL/PLAIN authentication mechanism.

The following parameters are required:

  • <database>: Database path. The database path appears in the management console under: Data Streams → [Your Stream] → Overview → Endpoint (a substring following database=).

    For example, if the Endpoint field contains grpcs://ydb.serverless.yandexcloud.net:2135/?database=/ru-central1/b1gia87mbaomkfvs6rgl/etnudu2n9ri35luqe4h1, the database path is /ru-central1/b1gia87mbaomkfvs6rgl/etnudu2n9ri35luqe4h1.

  • <api-key>: API key.

These parameters will be used for authentication when reading and writing messages:

  • <sasl.username> = @<database> (Note that the database path must be prefixed with the @ symbol)
  • <sasl.password> = <api-key>

Example of writing and reading a messageExample of writing and reading a message

This example uses the following parameters:

  • <kafka-api-endpoint>: Endpoint.
  • <stream-name>: Data stream name.
  1. If you are using a dedicated database, you need to Install an SSL certificate:

     sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/ && \
     wget "https://storage.yandexcloud.net/cloud-certs/CA.pem" \
      --output-document /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/YandexInternalRootCA.crt && \
     sudo chmod 0655 /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/YandexInternalRootCA.crt
    

    The certificate will be saved to the /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/YandexInternalRootCA.crt file.

  2. Install kcat, an open-source tool for producing and consuming data:

    sudo apt-get install kafkacat
    
  3. Run the following command to get messages from the stream:

    Serverless database
    Dedicated database
    kcat -C \
      -b <kafka-api-endpoint> \
      -t <stream-name> \
      -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
      -X sasl.mechanism=PLAIN \
      -X sasl.username="<sasl.username>" \
      -X sasl.password="<sasl.password>"
    
    kcat -C \
      -b <kafka-api-endpoint> \
      -t <stream-name> \
      -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
      -X sasl.mechanism=PLAIN \
      -X sasl.username="<sasl.username>" \
      -X sasl.password="<sasl.password>" \
      -X ssl.ca.location=/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/YandexInternalRootCA.crt
    

    This command will continuously read new messages from the stream.

  4. In a separate terminal, run the following command to send a message to the stream:

    Serverless database
    Dedicated database
    echo "test message" | kcat -P \
        -b <kafka-api-endpoint> \
        -t <stream-name> \
        -k key \
        -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
        -X sasl.mechanism=PLAIN \
        -X sasl.username="<sasl.username>" \
        -X sasl.password="<sasl.password>"
    
    echo "test message" | kcat -P \
        -b <kafka-api-endpoint> \
        -t <stream-name> \
        -k key \
        -X security.protocol=SASL_SSL \
        -X sasl.mechanism=PLAIN \
        -X sasl.username="<sasl.username>" \
        -X sasl.password="<sasl.password>" \
        -X ssl.ca.location=/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/Yandex/YandexInternalRootCA.crt
    

For details on working with Data Streams via the Kafka API and more examples, refer to the YDB documentation.

Was the article helpful?

Previous
Overview
Next
FAQ
© 2025 Direct Cursus Technology L.L.C.