Geo-replicator fails when replicating a topic

Symptoms

Event Streams geo-replicator fails when replicating a topic with the following error:

FAILED
Event Streams API request failed:
Error response from server. Status code: 500. Connection was closed

Causes

The Event Streams operator uses the EventStreamsGeoReplicator custom resource to create a configured KafkaMirrorMaker2 custom resource.

The behavior of the EventStreamsGeoReplicator has changed after moving to StrimziPodSets in Event Streams versions 11.2.0 and later. When you configure the KafkaMirrorMaker2 custom resource, StrimziPodSets roll the pod, which means there is a period of time where no pods are available leading to the error mentioned earlier.

Resolving the problem

You can resolve the problem in one of the following ways:

  • Specify multiple replicas in the EventStreamsGeoReplicator custom resource.

    This means that there is always a pod available to process the geo-replicator-create command, even when the connector is not available (it will not be available until both pods have rolled).

    For example, to configure geo-replication with 2 replicas, set the value of the spec.replicas field to 2:

    spec:
  # ...
  replicas: 2

  • Before entering the geo-replicator-create command, ensure the KafkaMirrorMaker2 pods are completely rolled by checking their status is Ready.