What is the name of the replication mechanism in Kafka? ZooKeeper vs KRaft?

In Kafka, the replication mechanism ensures data reliability and fault tolerance.

• ZooKeeper is an external system that has been used for a long time to manage Kafka metadata, including replication coordination, leader election, and cluster information storage.

• KRaft (Kafka Raft) is Kafka's built-in metadata management mechanism based on the Raft algorithm. It replaces ZooKeeper, simplifying architecture and increasing performance.

Thus, replication in Kafka is managed through leader and replica coordination:

• When using ZooKeeper, the leader is elected and controlled through it.
• When using KRaft, the leader is elected and metadata is stored within Kafka itself, without an external service.

KRaft is a modern approach that gradually replaces ZooKeeper in newer Kafka versions.