Sending signals to a Debezium connector

Overview

The Debezium signaling mechanism provides a way to modify the behavior of a connector, or to trigger a one-time action, such as initiating an ad hoc snapshot of a table. To use signals to trigger a connector to perform a specified action, you can configure the connector to use one or more of the following channels:

SourceSignalChannel

You can issue a SQL command to add a signal message to a specialized signaling data collection. The signaling data collection, which you create on the source database, is designated exclusively for communicating with Debezium.

KafkaSignalChannel

You submit signal messages to a configurable Kafka topic.

JmxSignalChannel

You submit signals through the JMX signal operation.

Custom

You submit signals to a custom channel that you implement.

When Debezium detects that a new logging record or ad hoc snapshot record is added to the channel, it reads the signal, and initiates the requested operation.

Signaling is available for use with the following Debezium connectors:

• Db2

• MongoDB (Technology Preview)

• MySQL

• Oracle

• PostgreSQL

• SQL Server

You can specify which channel is enabled by setting the signal.enabled.channels configuration property. The property lists the names of the channels that are enabled. By default, Debezium provides the following channels: source and kafka. The source channel is enabled by default, because it is required for incremental snapshot signals.

Enabling source signaling channel

By default, the Debezium source signaling channel is enabled.

You must explicitly configure signaling for each connector that you want to use it with.

Procedure

1. On the source database, create a signaling data collection table for sending signals to the connector. For information about the required structure of the signaling data collection, see Structure of a signaling data collection.

2. For source databases such as Db2 or SQL Server that implement a native change data capture (CDC) mechanism, enable CDC for the signaling table.

3. Add the name of the signaling data collection to the Debezium connector configuration.
   In the connector configuration, add the property signal.data.collection, and set its value to the fully-qualified name of the signaling data collection that you created in Step 1.

   For example, signal.data.collection = inventory.debezium_signals.

   The format for the fully-qualified name of the signaling collection depends on the connector.
   The following example shows the naming formats to use for each connector:

   Db2

   _<schemaName>_._<tableName>_

   MongoDB

   _<databaseName>_._<collectionName>_

   MySQL

   _<databaseName>_._<tableName>_

   Oracle

   _<databaseName>_._<schemaName>_._<tableName>_

   PostgreSQL

   _<schemaName>_._<tableName>_

   SQL Server

   _<databaseName>_._<schemaName>_._<tableName>_

   For more information about setting the signal.data.collection property, see the table of configuration properties for your connector.

Structure of a signaling data collection

A signaling data collection, or signaling table, stores signals that you send to a connector to trigger a specified operation. The structure of the signaling table must conform to the following standard format.

• Contains three fields (columns).

• Fields are arranged in a specific order, as shown in Table 1.

Creating a signaling data collection

You create a signaling table by submitting a standard SQL DDL query to the source database.

Prerequisites

• You have sufficient access privileges to create a table on the source database.

Procedure

• Submit a SQL query to the source database to create a table that is consistent with the required structure, as shown in the following example:

  CREATE TABLE _<tableName>_ (id VARCHAR(_<varcharValue>_) PRIMARY KEY, type VARCHAR(_<varcharValue>_) NOT NULL, data VARCHAR(_<varcharValue>_) NULL);

The following example shows a CREATE TABLE command that creates a three-column debezium_signal table:

CREATE TABLE debezium_signal (id VARCHAR(42) PRIMARY KEY, type VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL, data VARCHAR(2048) NULL);

Enabling Kafka signaling channel

You can enable the Kafka signaling channel by adding it to the signal.enabled.channels configuration property, and then adding the name of the topic that receives signals to the signal.kafka.topic property. After you enable the signaling channel, a Kafka consumer is created to consume signals that are sent to the configured signal topic.

Additional configuration available for the consumer

• Db2 connector Kafka signal configuration properties

• MongoDB connector Kafka signal configuration properties

• MySQL connector Kafka signal configuration properties

• Oracle connector Kafka signal configuration properties

• PostgreSQL connector Kafka signal configuration properties

• SQL Server connector Kafka signal configuration properties

Message format

The key of the Kafka message must match the value of the topic.prefix connector configuration option.

The value is a JSON object with type and data fields.

When the signal type is set to execute-snapshot, the data field must include the fields that are listed in the following table:

The following example shows a typical execute-snapshot Kafka message:

Key = `test_connector`
Value = `{"type":"execute-snapshot","data": {"data-collections": ["schema1.table1", "schema1.table2"], "type": "INCREMENTAL"}}`

Enabling a JMX signaling channel

You can enable the JMX signaling by adding jmx to the signal.enabled.channels property in the connector configuration, and then enabling the JMX MBean Server to expose the signaling bean.

Sending JMX signals

Procedure

1. Use your preferred JMX client (for example. JConsole or JDK Mission Control) to connect to the MBean server.

2. Search for the Mbean debezium._<connector-type>_.management.signals._<server>_. The Mbean exposes signal operations that accept the following input parameters:

   p0

   The id of the signal.

   p1

   The type of the signal, for example, execute-snapshot.

   p2

   A JSON data field that contains additional information about the specified signal type.

3. Send an execute-snapshot signal by providing value for the input parameters.
   In the JSON data field, include the information that is listed in the following table:

   Table 3. Execute snapshot data fields

   Field	Default	Value
   type	incremental	The type of the snapshot to run. Currently Debezium supports only the incremental type.
   data-collections	N/A	An array of comma-separated regular expressions that match the fully-qualified names of the tables to include in the snapshot. Specify the names by using the same format as is required for the signal.data.collection configuration option.
   additional-condition	N/A	An optional string that specifies a condition that the connector evaluates to designate a subset of records to include in a snapshot.

   The following image shows an example of how to use JConsole to send a signal:

   

Custom signaling channel

The signaling mechanism is designed to be extensible. You can implement channels as needed to send signals to Debezium in a manner that works best in your environment.

Adding a signaling channel involves several steps:

1. Create a Java project for the channel to implement the channel, and add Debezium Core as a dependency.

2. Deploy the custom signaling channel.

3. Enable connectors to use the custom signaling channel by modifying the connector configuration.

Provide custom signaling channel

Custom signaling channels are Java classes that implement the io.debezium.pipeline.signal.channels.SignalChannelReader service provider interface (SPI). For example:

public interface SignalChannelReader {
    String name(); (1)
    void init(CommonConnectorConfig connectorConfig); (2)
    List<SignalRecord> read(); (3)
    void close(); (4)
}

Debezium core module dependencies

A custom signaling channel Java project has compile dependencies on the Debezium core module. You must include these compile dependencies in your project’s pom.xml file, as shown in the following example:

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.debezium</groupId>
    <artifactId>debezium-core</artifactId>
    <version>${version.debezium}</version> (1)
</dependency>

Declare your implementation in the META-INF/services/io.debezium.pipeline.signal.channels.SignalChannelReader file.

Deploying a custom signaling channel

Prerequisites

• You have a custom signaling channel Java program.

Procedure

• To use a custom signaling channel with a Debezium connector, export the Java project to a JAR file, and copy the file to the directory that contains the JAR file for each Debezium connector that you want to use it with.

  For example, in a typical deployment, the Debezium connector files are stored in subdirectories of a Kafka Connect directory (/kafka/connect), with each connector JAR in its own subdirectory (/kafka/connect/debezium-connector-db2, /kafka/connect/debezium-connector-mysql, and so forth).

Configuring connectors to use a custom signaling channel

Add the name of the custom signaling channel to the signal.enabled.channels configuration property.

Signal actions

You can use signaling to initiate the following actions:

• Add messages to the log.

• Trigger ad hoc snapshots.

• Stop execution of an ad hoc snapshot.

• Pause incremental snapshots.

• Resume incremenal snapshots.

Some signals are not compatible with all connectors.

Logging signals

You can request a connector to add an entry to the log by creating a signaling table entry with the log signal type. After processing the signal, the connector prints the specified message to the log. Optionally, you can configure the signal so that the resulting message includes the streaming coordinates.

Ad hoc snapshot signals

You can request a connector to initiate an ad hoc snapshot by creating a signal with the execute-snapshot signal type. After processing the signal, the connector runs the requested snapshot operation.

Unlike the initial snapshot that a connector runs after it first starts, an ad hoc snapshot occurs during runtime, after the connector has already begun to stream change events from a database. You can initiate ad hoc snapshots at any time.

Ad hoc snapshots are available for the following Debezium connectors:

• Db2

• MongoDB

• MySQL

• Oracle

• PostgreSQL

• SQL Server

For more information about ad hoc snapshots, see the Snapshots topic in the documentation for your connector.

Additional resources

• Db2 connector ad hoc snapshots

• MongoDB connector ad hoc snapshots

• MySQL connector ad hoc snapshots

• Oracle connector ad hoc snapshots

• PostgreSQL connector ad hoc snapshots

• SQL Server connector ad hoc snapshots

Ad hoc snapshot stop signals

You can request a connector to stop an in-progress ad hoc snapshot by creating a signal table entry with the stop-snapshot signal type. After processing the signal, the connector will stop the current in-progress snapshot operation.

You can stop ad hoc snapshots for the following Debezium connectors:

• Db2

• MongoDB

• MySQL

• Oracle

• PostgreSQL

• SQL Server

You must specify the type of the signal. The data-collections field is optional. Leave the data-collections field blank to request the connector to stop all activity in the current snapshot. If you want the incremental snapshot to proceed, but you want to exclude specific collections from the snapshot, provide a comma-separated list of the names of the collections or regular expressions to exclude. After the connector processes the signal, the incremental snapshot proceeds, but it excludes data from the collections that you specify.

Incremental snapshots

Incremental snapshots are a specific type of ad hoc snapshot. In an incremental snapshot, the connector captures the baseline state of the tables that you specify, similar to an initial snapshot. However, unlike an initial snapshot, an incremental snapshot captures tables in chunks, rather than all at once. The connector uses a watermarking method to track the progress of the snapshot.

By capturing the initial state of the specified tables in chunks rather than in a single monolithic operation, incremental snapshots provide the following advantages over the initial snapshot process:

• While the connector captures the baseline state of the specified tables, streaming of near real-time events from the transaction log continues uninterrupted.

• If the incremental snapshot process is interrupted, it can be resumed from the point at which it stopped.

• You can initiate an incremental snapshot at any time.

Incremental snapshot pause signals

You can request a connector to pause an in-progress incremental snapshot by creating a signal table entry with the pause-snapshot signal type. After processing the signal, the connector will stop pause current in-progress snapshot operation. Therefor it’s not possible to specify the data collection as the snapshot processing will be paused in position where it is in time of processing of the signal.

You can pause incremental snapshots for the following Debezium connectors:

• Db2

• MongoDB

• MySQL

• Oracle

• PostgreSQL

• SQL Server

You must specify the type of the signal. The data field is ignored.

Incremental snapshot resume signals

You can request a connector to resume a paused incremental snapshot by creating a signal table entry with the resume-snapshot signal type. After processing the signal, the connector will resume previously paused snapshot operation.

You can resume incremental snapshots for the following Debezium connectors:

• Db2

• MongoDB

• MySQL

• Oracle

• PostgreSQL

• SQL Server

You must specify the type of the signal. The data field is ignored.

For more information about incremental snapshots, see the Snapshots topic in the documentation for your connector.

Additional resources

• Db2 connector incremental snapshots

• MongoDB connector incremental snapshots

• MySQL connector incremental snapshots

• Oracle connector incremental snapshots

• PostgreSQL connector incremental snapshots

• SQL Server connector incremental snapshots