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Kafka's controller currently has no visibility into each broker's static configuration. When a broker registers with the controller via BrokerRegistrationRequest, it reports its supported feature versions, listeners, rack, and log directories, but not its configuration values (i.e., the settings defined in server.properties). This creates a fundamental gap that blocks two categories of improvements:

Aligning incrementalAlterConfigs validation (KIP-1256)

The controller and broker currently behave differently when processing Admin.incrementalAlterConfigs requests. One key inconsistency is that brokers immediately reject invalid dynamic configuration values, while the controller silently drops them. To replicate broker-side validation logic, the controller needs each broker's static configuration as context — certain dynamic configuration constraints depend on the static values present on that broker. Without this information, the controller cannot perform faithful broker-equivalent validation.

Enforcing configuration constraints during MetadataVersion upgrades (KIP-1294)

As the cluster's MetadataVersion advances, new constraints on configuration values may come into effect. For example, a future MetadataVersion might raise the minimum value of log.segment.bytes from 1 byte to 3 MB. Without knowledge of each broker's static configuration, the controller cannot proactively verify that all brokers satisfy the constraints of the target version before allowing an upgrade 
to proceed. The incompatibility can only be discovered after the fact, when a broker fails on restart.

This KIP addresses the root cause shared by both problems: the controller lacks broker static configuration data. We propose that brokers include their non-sensitive static configurations in BrokerRegistrationRequest, and that the controller persists this information in RegisterBrokerRecord so it survives controller failovers. This KIP intentionally contains no validation logic — it provides only the infrastructure that KIP-1256 and KIP-1294 build upon.

Public Interfaces

BrokerRegistrationRequest

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