Prerequisites

Test Network Connectivity

1. Ports 443 and 9092 need to be open to the public internet for outbound traffic. To check, try accessing the following from your web browser:

• http://portquiz.net:443
• http://portquiz.net:9092

Sign up for GCP account

1. In order to complete this lab, you need to have a GCP account. Sign up for an account here: https://cloud.google.com/

Confluent Cloud – Sign Up and Create Resources

Sign Up

1. Sign up for a Confluent Cloud account: https://www.confluent.io/get-started/

2. Once you have signed up and logged in, click on the menu icon at the upper right hand corner, click on “Billing & payment”, then enter payment details under “Payment details & contacts”.

Log In

1. First, access Confluent Cloud sign-in by navigating here.
2. When provided with the username and password prompts, fill in your credentials.

   If you’re logging in for the first time you will see a wizard that will walk you through the some tutorials. Minimize this as you will walk through these steps in this guide.

Create an Environment and Cluster

An environment contains Confluent clusters and its deployed components such as Connect, ksqlDB, and Schema Registry. You have the ability to create different environments based on your company’s requirements. Confluent has seen companies use environments to separate Development/Testing, Pre-Production, and Production clusters.

1. Click + Add environment.

   There is a default environment ready in your account upon account creation. You can use this default environment for the purpose of this lab if you do not wish to create an additional environment.

   • Specify a meaningful name for your environment and then click Create.

     It will take a few minutes to assign the resources to make this new environment available for use.

2. Now that you have an environment, let’s create a cluster. Select Create Cluster.

   Confluent Cloud clusters are available in 3 types: Basic, Standard, and Dedicated. Basic is intended for development use cases so you should use that for this lab. Basic clusters only support single zone availability. Standard and Dedicated clusters are intended for production use and support Multi-zone deployments. If you’re interested in learning more about the different types of clusters and their associated features and limits, refer to this documentation.

   • Choose the Basic cluster type.

   • Click Begin Configuration.

   • Choose GCP as your Cloud Provider and your preferred Region.

     We recommend you choose Las Vegas (west4) as the region for the purpose of this lab.

   • Specify a meaningful Cluster Name and then review the associated Configuration & Cost, Usage Limits, and Uptime SLA before clicking Launch Cluster.

Create an API Key Pair

1. Select API keys on the navigation menu.
2. If this is your first API key within your cluster, click Create key. If you have set up API keys in your cluster in the past and already have an existing API key, click + Add key.
3. Select Global Access, then click Next.
4. Save your API key and secret - you will need these during the lab.
5. After creating and saving the API key, you will see this API key in the Confluent Cloud UI in the API keys tab. If you don’t see the API key populate right away, refresh the browser.

Enable Schema Registery

1. On the navigation menu, select Schema Registery.
2. Click Set up on my own.
3. Choose GCP as the cloud provider and a supported Region
4. Click on Enable Schema Registry.

Next Up – the Live Lab!