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  1. When a new log segment is created, the broker will create a time index file for the log segment. 
  2. The default initial / max size of the time index files is the same as the offset index files. (time index entry is 1.5x of the size of offset index entry, user should set the configuration accordingly).
  3. Each log segment maintains the largest timestamp so far in that segment. The initial value of the largest timestamp is -1 for a newly created segment.
  4. When broker receives a message, if the message is not rejected due to timestamp exceeds threshold, the message will be appended to the log. (The timestamp will either be LogAppendTime or CreateTime depending on the configuration)
  5. When broker appends the message to the log segment, if an offset index entry is inserted, it will also insert a time index entry if the max timestamp so far is greater than the timestamp in the last time index entry.
    • For message format v0, the timestamp is always -1, so no time index entry will be inserted when message is appended.
  6. When the current active segment is rolled out or closed. A time index entry will be inserted into the time index to ensure the last time index entry has the largest timestamp of the log segment.
    1. If largest timestamp in the segment is non-negative (at least one message has a timestamp), the entry will be (largest_timestamp_in_the_segment -> base_offset_of_the_next_segment)
    2. If largest timestamp in the segment is -1 (No message in the segment has a timestamp), the entry will be (last_modification_time_of_the_segment -> base_offset_of_the_next_segment) time index will be empty and the largest timestamp would be default to the segment last modification time.

The time index is not monotonically increasing for the segments of a partition. Instead, it is only monotonically increasing within each individual time index file. i.e. It is possible that the time index file for a later log segment contains smaller timestamp than some timestamp in the time index file of an earlier segment. 

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Currently time based log rolling is based on the creating time of the log segment. With this KIP, the time based rolling would be changed to only based on the largest timestamp ever seen in a log segment. A message timestamp. More specifically, if the first message in the log segment has a timestamp, A new log segment will be rolled out if current time timestamp in the message about to be appended is greater than largest timestamp ever seen the timestamp of the first message in the log segment + log.roll.ms. When message.timestamp.type=CreateTime, user should set max.message.time.difference.ms appropriately together with log.roll.ms to avoid frequent log segment roll outfrequent log segment roll out.

During the migration phase, if the first message in a segment does not have a timestamp, the log rolling will still be based on the (current time - create time of the segment).

Search message by timestamp

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Use case discussion

 Use caseGoalSolution with Index based on LogAppendTime indexSolution with Index based on CreateTime indexComparison
1Search by timestamp

Not lose messages

If user want to search for a message with CreateTime CT. They can use CT to search in the LogAppendTime index. Because LogAppendTime > CT for the same message (assuming no skew clock). If the clock is skewed, people can search with CT - X where X is the max skew.

If user want to search for a message with LogAppendTime LAT, they can just search with LAT and get a millisecond accuracy.

User can just search with CT and get a minute level granularity precise offset.

If the latency in the pipeline is greater than one minute, user might consume less message by using CreateTime index. Otherwise, LogAppendTime index is probably preferred.User may see duplicates when searching by CreateTime.

Consider the following case:

  1. A message m1 with CreateTime CT arrives broker at LAT1.
  2. Some time later at LAT2, another message m2 with CreateTime CT arrives at broker.

If user want to search with CT after they consumed m2, they will have to reconsume from m1. Depending on how big LAT2 - LAT1 is, the amount of messages to be reconsumed can be very big.

2Search by timestamp (bootstrap)
  1. Not lose messages
  2. Consume less duplicate messages

In bootstrap case, all the LAT would be close. For example If user want to process the data in last 3 days and did the following:

  1. Dump a big database into Kafka
  2. Reprocess the message in last 3 days.

In this case, LogAppendTime index does not help too much. That means user needs to filter out the data older than 3 days before dumping them into Kafka.

In bootstrap case, the CreateTime will not change, if user follow the same procedure started in LogAppendTime index section. Searching by timestamp will work.LogAppendTime index needs further attention from user.
3Failover from cluster 1 to cluster 2
  1. Not lose messages
  2. Consume less duplicate messages

Similar search by timestamp. User can choose to use CT or LAT of cluster 1 to search on cluster 2. In this case, searching with CT - MaxLatencyOfCluster will provide strong guarantee on not losing messages, but might have some duplicates depending on the difference in latency between cluster 1 and cluster 2.

User can use CT to search and get minute level granularityprecise offset. Duplicates are still not avoidable.

There can be some tricky cases here. Consider the following case [1]:

  • m1 with CT1 and m2 with CT2 are both produced to cluster 1 and cluster 2.
  • m1 is created earlier than m2. i.e. CT1 < CT2
  • m1 arrives cluster 1 at LAT11 and arrives cluster 2 at LAT12, assuming LAT11 < LAT12
  • m2 arrives cluster 2 at LAT21 and arrives cluster 2 at LAT22, assuming LAT12 > LAT22

In this case, m1 is created before m2. Due to latency difference, m1 arrives cluster 1 then m2 does, m2 arrives cluster 2 before m1 does.

If a consumer consumed m2 in cluster 2 and fail over to cluster 1, simply search by CT2 will miss m1 because m1 has larger offset than m2 in cluster 2 but smaller offset than m2 in cluster 1. So the same trick or CT - MaxLatencyOfCluster is still needed.

In cross cluster fail over case, both solution can provide strong guarantee of not losing messages. But both needs to depend on the knowledge of MaxLatencyOfCluster.
4Get lag for consumers by timeKnow how long a consumer is lagging by time.With LogAppendTime in the message, consumer can easily find out the lag by time and estimate how long it might need to reach the log end.Not supported. 
5Broker side latency metricLet the broker to report latency of each topic. i.e. LAT - CTThe latency can be reported as LAT - CT.The latency can be reported as System.currentTimeMillis - CTThe two solutions are the same. This latency information can be used for MaxLatencyOfCluster in use case 3.

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