:_mod-docs-content-type: ASSEMBLY

// This assembly is included in the following assemblies:
//
// deploying/assembly-deploy-kafka-connect.adoc

[id='using-kafka-connect-with-plug-ins-{context}']
= Adding Kafka Connect connectors

[role="_abstract"]
Kafka Connect uses connectors to integrate with other systems to stream data.
A connector is an instance of a Kafka `Connector` class, which can be one of the following type:

Source connector:: A source connector is a runtime entity that fetches data from an external system and feeds it to Kafka as messages.
Sink connector:: A sink connector is a runtime entity that fetches messages from Kafka topics and feeds them to an external system.

include::../../shared/snip-intro-connectors.adoc[]

Add connector plugins to Kafka Connect in one of the following ways:

* xref:creating-new-image-using-kafka-connect-build-{context}[Configure Kafka Connect to build a new container image with plugins automatically]
* xref:using-image-volumes-to-add-connector-plugins-{context}[Mount connector plugins as Kubernetes Image volumes]
* xref:creating-new-image-from-base-{context}[Create a Docker image from the base Kafka Connect image] (manually or using continuous integration)

After plugins have been added to the container image, you can start, stop, and manage connector instances in the following ways:

* xref:proc-deploying-kafkaconnector-{context}[Using Strimzi’s `KafkaConnector` custom resource]
* xref:con-exposing-kafka-connect-api-{context}[Using the Kafka Connect API] 

You can also create new connector instances using these options.

//Procedure to create container images using Strimzi and Kafka Connect build
include::../../modules/deploying/proc-deploy-kafka-connect-using-kafka-connect-build.adoc[leveloffset=+1]
//Procedure to use Image Volumes to add connector plugins to Kafka Connect
include::../../modules/deploying/proc-deploy-kafka-connect-using-image-volumes.adoc[leveloffset=+1]
//Procedure to create container images from base image
include::../../modules/deploying/proc-deploy-kafka-connect-new-image-from-base.adoc[leveloffset=+1]
//Procedure to deploy a KafkaConnector resource
include::../../modules/deploying/proc-deploying-kafkaconnector.adoc[leveloffset=+1]
//Exposing the Kafka Connect API
include::../../modules/deploying/con-exposing-kafka-connect-api.adoc[leveloffset=+1]
//Securing the Kafka Connect API
include::../../modules/deploying/con-securing-kafka-connect-api.adoc[leveloffset=+1]
//Switching from the Kafka Connect API to KafkaConnector
include::../../modules/deploying/con-switching-api-to-kafka-connector.adoc[leveloffset=+1]