kafka-console-consumer custom deserializer

Question

I would like to use my custom value.deserializer when using the kafka-console-consumer command line tool. Something like this:

./kafka-console-consumer --bootstrap-server kafka2:29092 \
                         --property value.deserializer=My.Custom.KafkaDeserializer \
                         --topic TEST

But its unable to find my custom class...

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: My.Custom.KafkaDeserializer

How can I reference the appropriate jar file so that the script will recognize it?

Answer 1

You need to place the deserializer jar under the "libs" folder of your Kafka server.

Answer 2

As already said there is an opened JIRA for that (https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-2526) and a custom deserializer can't be used yet.