Confusion about delete Kafka Topic

Question

I'm using Kafka 0.8.0, it's Cloudera version. When I deleted the topic such as: kafka-topics --zookeeper 10.0.0.11:2181/ --delete --topic test it response:

Topic test is already marked for deletion.

But afterwards I recreated it, it throw exception as following:

kafka-topics --create --zookeeper 10.0.0.11:2181 --partitions 90 --replication-factor 2 --topic test

Error while executing topic command Topic "test" already exists.
kafka.common.TopicExistsException: Topic "test" already exists.

Any ideas please? How should I delete the topic and it's data.

Answer 1

My Kakfa version is kafka_2.10-0.8.2.2, below link works for me (from Delete topic in Kafka 0.8.1.1)

Add below line in ${kafka_home}/config/server.properties

delete.topic.enable=true   

Restart the kafka server with new config:

${kafka_home}/bin/kafka-server-start.sh ~/kafka/config/server.properties

Delete the topics you wish to:

${kafka_home}/bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic daemon12

More information from Kafka FAQ:

Deleting a topic is supported since 0.8.2.x. You will need to enable topic deletion (setting delete.topic.enable to true) on all brokers first.

Answer 2

1. Make sure that, In kafka's config.poperties file 'delete.topic.enable' property should be true.

2. use below command

   bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic test

Even if topic is not deleted then follow next steps.

3. open terminal zookeeper client mode:

   A. stop zookeeper

   B. rmr /broker/topics

   C. check given topic using below command

   /bin/kafka-topics.sh --zookeeper maxiq:2181 --list

Answer 3

If delete.topic.enable is set to false by default, the topics are not deleted on execution of --delete command (as displayed in the command response).

Topic test is marked for deletion.
Note: This will have no impact if delete.topic.enable is not set to true.

In order to overcome this, use steps mentioned by @Shawn

Answer 4

The best and easy to make delete.topic.enable=true is not modify the server.property file.

Because, if kafka restart from ambari, it will overwrite this file, delete.topic.enable =false again.

Only at ambari, click on kafak/config/advance kafka broker/delete.topic.enable =true, it will work.

I just found that out as now.