Is it possible to access Zookeeper in Strimzi Kafka installed with Route listener type on OpenShift?

Question

I have Strimzi Kafka cluster on OpenShift, configured like described here:

https://strimzi.io/blog/2019/04/30/accessing-kafka-part-3/

Basically like this:

kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: ...
spec:
  kafka:
    version: 2.7.0
    replicas: 2
    listeners:
      plain: {}
      tls:
        authentication:
          type: tls
      external:
        type: route
        tls: true
        authentication:
          type: tls
    authorization:
      type: simple

According to the article above, I can only access bootstrap server via port 443 . Basically, this set up works and does what I need.

I am wondering if I can get external access to Zookeper to manage cluster via command line from my machine? And if yes, should I download Kafka binaries and use CLI from archive? Or I need to login to Zookeeper Pod (eg via OpenShift UI) and manage Kafka cluster via CLI from there?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Strimzi does not provide any access to Zookeeper. It is locked down using mTLS and network policies. If you really need it, you can use this unofficial project https://github.com/scholzj/zoo-entrance and create a route manually your self. But it is not secure - so use it on your own risk. Openin a temrinal inside the Zookeeper pod would be an option as well. But in most cases, you should not need Zookeeper access today as Kafka is anyway preparing for its removal.