// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// assembly-config.adoc

[id='con-config-kafka-connect-multiple-instances-{context}']
= Configuring Kafka Connect for multiple instances

[role="_abstract"]
By default, Strimzi configures the group ID and names of the internal topics used by Kafka Connect.
When running multiple instances of Kafka Connect, you must change these default settings using the following `config` properties:

[source,yaml,subs="attributes+"]
----
apiVersion: {KafkaConnectApiVersion}
kind: KafkaConnect
metadata:
  name: my-connect
spec:
  config:
    group.id: my-connect-cluster # <1>
    offset.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-offsets # <2>
    config.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-configs # <3>
    status.storage.topic: my-connect-cluster-status # <4>
    # ...
  # ...
----
<1> The Kafka Connect cluster group ID within Kafka.
<2> Kafka topic that stores connector offsets.
<3> Kafka topic that stores connector and task status configurations.
<4> Kafka topic that stores connector and task status updates.

NOTE: Values for the three topics must be the same for all instances with the same `group.id`.

Unless you modify these default settings, each instance connecting to the same Kafka cluster is deployed with the same values. 
In practice, this means all instances form a cluster and use the same internal topics.

Multiple instances attempting to use the same internal topics will cause unexpected errors, so you must change the values of these properties for each instance.

