Kafka delete topics when auto.create.topics is enabled

Question

We have a 2 node kafka cluster with both auto.create.topics.enable and delete.topic.enable set to true. Our app reads from a common request topic and responds to a response topic provided by the client in the request payload.

auto.create.topics is set to true as our client has an auto-scale environment wherein a new worker will read from a new response topic. Due to some implementation issues on the client side, there are a lot of topics created which have never been used (end offset is 0) and we are attempting to clean that up.

The problem is that upon deleting the topic, it is being recreated almost immediately. These topics don't have any consumer (as the worker listening to it is already dead).

I have tried the following

Kafka CLI delete command

kafka-topics.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic <topic-name> --delete

Create a zookeeper node under

/admin/delete_topics/<topic-name>

Both don't seem to work. In the logs, I see that a request for delete was received and the corresponding logs/indexes were deleted. But within a few seconds/minutes, the topic is auto-created. Logs for reference -

INFO [Partition <topic-name>-0 broker=0] No checkpointed highwatermark is found for partition <topic-name>-0 (kafka.cluster.Partition)
INFO Replica loaded for partition <topic-name>-0 with initial high watermark 0 (kafka.cluster.Replica)
INFO Replica loaded for partition <topic-name>-0 with initial high watermark 0 (kafka.cluster.Replica)
INFO [Partition <topic-name>-0 broker=0] <topic-name>-0 starts at Leader Epoch 0 from offset 0. Previous Leader Epoch was: -1 (kafka.cluster.Partition)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-4.7a79dfc720624d228d5ee90c8d4c325e-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-4.7a79dfc720624d228d5ee90c8d4c325e-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-4.7a79dfc720624d228d5ee90c8d4c325e-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-4 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-4.7a79dfc720624d228d5ee90c8d4c325e-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-2.d32a905f9ace459cb62a530b2c605347-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-2.d32a905f9ace459cb62a530b2c605347-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-2.d32a905f9ace459cb62a530b2c605347-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-2 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-2.d32a905f9ace459cb62a530b2c605347-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-3.0670e8aefae5481682d53afcc09bab6a-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-3.0670e8aefae5481682d53afcc09bab6a-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-3.0670e8aefae5481682d53afcc09bab6a-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-3 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-3.0670e8aefae5481682d53afcc09bab6a-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-7.ac76d42a39094955abfb9d37951f4fae-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-7.ac76d42a39094955abfb9d37951f4fae-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-7.ac76d42a39094955abfb9d37951f4fae-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-7 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-7.ac76d42a39094955abfb9d37951f4fae-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-1.4872c74d579f4553a881114749e08141-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-1.4872c74d579f4553a881114749e08141-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-1.4872c74d579f4553a881114749e08141-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-1 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-1.4872c74d579f4553a881114749e08141-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-0.489b7241226341f0a7ffa3d1b9a70e35-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-0.489b7241226341f0a7ffa3d1b9a70e35-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-0.489b7241226341f0a7ffa3d1b9a70e35-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-0 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-0.489b7241226341f0a7ffa3d1b9a70e35-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-5.6d659cd119304e1f9a4077265364d05b-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-5.6d659cd119304e1f9a4077265364d05b-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-5.6d659cd119304e1f9a4077265364d05b-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-5 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-5.6d659cd119304e1f9a4077265364d05b-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Deleted log /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-6.652d1aec02014a3aa59bd3e14635bd3b-delete/00000000000000000000.log. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted offset index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-6.652d1aec02014a3aa59bd3e14635bd3b-delete/00000000000000000000.index. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted time index /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-6.652d1aec02014a3aa59bd3e14635bd3b-delete/00000000000000000000.timeindex. (kafka.log.LogSegment)
INFO Deleted log for partition <topic-name>-6 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-6.652d1aec02014a3aa59bd3e14635bd3b-delete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO [GroupCoordinator 0]: Removed 0 offsets associated with deleted partitions: <topic-name>-0. (kafka.coordinator.group.GroupCoordinator)
INFO [ReplicaFetcherManager on broker 0] Removed fetcher for partitions Set(<topic-name>-0) (kafka.server.ReplicaFetcherManager)
INFO [ReplicaAlterLogDirsManager on broker 0] Removed fetcher for partitions Set(<topic-name>-0) (kafka.server.ReplicaAlterLogDirsManager)
INFO [ReplicaFetcherManager on broker 0] Removed fetcher for partitions Set(<topic-name>-0) (kafka.server.ReplicaFetcherManager)
INFO [ReplicaAlterLogDirsManager on broker 0] Removed fetcher for partitions Set(<topic-name>-0) (kafka.server.ReplicaAlterLogDirsManager)
INFO Log for partition <topic-name>-0 is renamed to /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0/<topic-name>-0.185c7eda12b749a2999cd39b3f90c738-delete and is scheduled for deletion (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO Creating topic <topic-name> with configuration {} and initial partition assignment Map(0 -> ArrayBuffer(0, 1)) (kafka.zk.AdminZkClient)
INFO [KafkaApi-0] Auto creation of topic <topic-name> with 1 partitions and replication factor 2 is successful (kafka.server.KafkaApis)
INFO [ReplicaFetcherManager on broker 0] Removed fetcher for partitions Set(<topic-name>-0) (kafka.server.ReplicaFetcherManager)
INFO [Log partition=<topic-name>-0, dir=/home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0] Loading producer state till offset 0 with message format version 2 (kafka.log.Log)
INFO [Log partition=<topic-name>-0, dir=/home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0] Completed load of log with 1 segments, log start offset 0 and log end offset 0 in 0 ms (kafka.log.Log)
INFO Created log for partition <topic-name>-0 in /home/ec2-user/data/kafka/0 with properties {compression.type -> producer, message.format.version -> 2.2-IV1, file.delete.delay.ms -> 60000, max.message.bytes -> 1000012, min.compaction.lag.ms -> 0, message.timestamp.type -> CreateTime, message.downconversion.enable -> true, min.insync.replicas -> 1, segment.jitter.ms -> 0, preallocate -> false, min.cleanable.dirty.ratio -> 0.5, index.interval.bytes -> 4096, unclean.leader.election.enable -> false, retention.bytes -> -1, delete.retention.ms -> 86400000, cleanup.policy -> [delete], flush.ms -> 9223372036854775807, segment.ms -> 604800000, segment.bytes -> 1073741824, retention.ms -> 86400000, message.timestamp.difference.max.ms -> 9223372036854775807, segment.index.bytes -> 10485760, flush.messages -> 9223372036854775807}. (kafka.log.LogManager)
INFO [Partition <topic-name>-0 broker=0] No checkpointed highwatermark is found for partition <topic-name>-0 (kafka.cluster.Partition)
INFO Replica loaded for partition <topic-name>-0 with initial high watermark 0 (kafka.cluster.Replica)
INFO Replica loaded for partition <topic-name>-0 with initial high watermark 0 (kafka.cluster.Replica)
INFO [Partition <topic-name>-0 broker=0] <topic-name>-0 starts at Leader Epoch 0 from offset 0. Previous Leader Epoch was: -1 (kafka.cluster.Partition)

Does anyone know the reason behind the topic being re-created when no consumers are listening and no producers are producing to the topic? Could replication be behind it (some race condition perhaps)? We are using Kafka 2.2.

Deleting the log directory for that topic directly seems to work, however, this is cumbersome when there are thousands of topics created. We want to have a cleanup script that does this periodically as due to the auto-scale nature of the client environment, there may be frequent orphaned response topics.

Update

I tried Giorgos' suggestion by disabling auto.create.topics.enable and then deleting the topic. This time the topic did get deleted, but none of my applications through any errors (which leads to me the conclusion that there are no consumers/producers to the said topic).

Further, when auto.create.topics.enable is enabled and the topic is created with a replication-factor=1, the topic does not get re-created after deletion. This leads me to believe that perhaps replication is the culprit. Could this be a bug in Kafka? Jumped the gun here; turns out something is listening/re-creating these topics from the customer environment.

Answer 1

Even if you've mentioned that no consumer/producer is consuming/producing from the topic, it sounds that this is the case. Maybe you have any connectors running on Kafka Connect that replicate data from/to Kafka?

If you still can't find what is causing the re-creation of the deleted Kafka topics, I would suggest setting auto.create.topics.enable to false (temporarily) so that topics cannot be automatically re-created. Then the process that is causing topic re-creation will normally fail and this is going to be reported in your logs.