Goal:

I want to create a message in an existing topic using the Apache Kafka CLI tools.

kafka-topics.sh works.

Problem: kafka-console-producer.sh fails.

kubectl -n kafscale-demo exec -it kafka-client -- /bin/bash

kafka-client:/$ /opt/kafka/bin/kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server kafscale-broker:9092 --list

demo-topic-1
demo-topic-2
orders-springboot

This error indicates an unsupported feature, TX:

kafka-client:/$ /opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh --bootstrap-server kafscale-broker:9092 --topic demo-topic-1

k1,v2
[2025-12-27 16:13:20,065] ERROR [Producer clientId=console-producer] Aborting producer batches due to fatal error (org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.Sender)
org.apache.kafka.common.errors.UnsupportedVersionException: The node does not support INIT_PRODUCER_ID with version in range [0,5]. The supported range is [-1,-1].
[2025-12-27 16:13:20,068] ERROR Error when sending message to topic demo-topic-1 with key: null, value: 5 bytes with error: (org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.ErrorLoggingCallback)
org.apache.kafka.common.errors.UnsupportedVersionException: The node does not support INIT_PRODUCER_ID with version in range [0,5]. The supported range is [-1,-1].
org.apache.kafka.common.KafkaException: Cannot execute transactional method because we are in an error state
at org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.TransactionManager.maybeFailWithError(TransactionManager.java:1042)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.TransactionManager.maybeAddPartition(TransactionManager.java:386)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.KafkaProducer.doSend(KafkaProducer.java:1092)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.KafkaProducer.send(KafkaProducer.java:993)
at kafka.tools.ConsoleProducer$.send(ConsoleProducer.scala:118)
at kafka.tools.ConsoleProducer$.loopReader(ConsoleProducer.scala:91)
at kafka.tools.ConsoleProducer$.main(ConsoleProducer.scala:100)
at kafka.tools.ConsoleProducer.main(ConsoleProducer.scala)
Caused by: org.apache.kafka.common.errors.UnsupportedVersionException: The node does not support INIT_PRODUCER_ID with version in range [0,5]. The supported range is [-1,-1].

We explicitly set enable.idempotence=false :

kafka-client:/$ /opt/kafka/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh --bootstrap-server kafscale-broker:9092 --topic demo-topic-1 --producer-property enable.idempotence=false

k1,v1
[2025-12-27 16:15:14,947] ERROR [Producer clientId=console-producer] Uncaught error in kafka producer I/O thread: (org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.Sender)
java.lang.RuntimeException: non-nullable field recordErrors was serialized as null
at org.apache.kafka.common.message.ProduceResponseData$PartitionProduceResponse.read(ProduceResponseData.java:923)
at org.apache.kafka.common.message.ProduceResponseData$PartitionProduceResponse.(ProduceResponseData.java:875)
at org.apache.kafka.common.message.ProduceResponseData$TopicProduceResponse.read(ProduceResponseData.java:552)
at org.apache.kafka.common.message.ProduceResponseData$TopicProduceResponse.(ProduceResponseData.java:497)
at org.apache.kafka.common.message.ProduceResponseData.read(ProduceResponseData.java:167)
at org.apache.kafka.common.message.ProduceResponseData.(ProduceResponseData.java:129)
at org.apache.kafka.common.requests.ProduceResponse.parse(ProduceResponse.java:299)
at org.apache.kafka.common.requests.AbstractResponse.parseResponse(AbstractResponse.java:115)
at org.apache.kafka.common.requests.AbstractResponse.parseResponse(AbstractResponse.java:109)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient.parseResponse(NetworkClient.java:776)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient.handleCompletedReceives(NetworkClient.java:949)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient.poll(NetworkClient.java:605)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.Sender.runOnce(Sender.java:349)
at org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.Sender.run(Sender.java:251)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)