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The information stored in the value of the Kafka record is selected to include the topic name, the connector name, the task ID of the task that last reported the topic is used by the connector and a timestamp relative to when this topic was detected as active. While the record value is not essential to decide whether a topic is used by a connector and it is partially redundant compared to what is stored in the key, it makes these entries easier to read and follow as well as more useful during runtime or when troubleshooting the topics used by a connector. Whereas the Kafka record key includes the topic name and the connector name, the Kafka record value stores additionally the ID of the task that succeeded to store a topic status record last (in case more than one task produces a record concurrently for a short period of time) and a timestamp to mark when this topic was detected as active. In the future the record value can be easily extended to include additional information. 

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It is expected that, multiple Connect workers may compete to append more than one record to the status.storage.topic. These records will have the same key and because the topic is compacted, all the Kafka records of a specific key will eventually collapse into a single entry. As entrAs soon as a worker detects the addition of a topic to a connector's set of active topics, the worker will cease to not post update messages to the status.storage.topic for that connector.  additional update records for the connector and this newly-detected active topic.

Resetting a connector's set of active topics

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When a Connect worker receives this request, it sends a tombstone message for each topic in a connector's set of active topics. It's worth noting that this operation is not atomic with respect to the whole set of topics. Kafka provides atomicity at the record level and it guarantees that two records (e.g. a tombstone record and a topic status record) will be atomically appended to the log. Therefore, the order in which this may happen if a request to reset a connector's set of active topics is interleaved with actual production or consumption of records from the connector's tasks is not characterized by a happens-before relationship between reset (production of tombstone message) and recording (production of a non-tombstone message) actions. 

Resetting the set of active topics of a connector while this connector is running is fine, as long as the intention is to reset any topics that are no longer used by the connector and retain the ones that are active. Topic reset is a composable operation with respect to a connector's normal execution. Soon after the reset, the worker tasks will populate the status.storage.topic with new topic status messages for the topics that the connector is currently using.

Restarting, reconfiguring or deleting a connector

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