[KAFKA-17536] Ensure clear error message when "new" consumer used with incompatible cluster

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Critical
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 3.9.0
• Fix Version/s: 4.0.0
• Component/s: clients, consumer
• Labels: kip-848-client-support
• Assignee: PoAn Yang
• Reporter: Kirk True
• Created: 12/Sep/24 16:24
• Updated: 16/Oct/24 08:31
• Resolved: 16/Oct/24 08:31

Description

In Kafka 4.0, by default the consumer uses the updated consumer group protocol defined in KIP-848. When the consumer is used with a cluster that does not support (or is not configured to use) the new protocol, the consumer will get an unfriendly error about unavailable APIs. Since this error could be the user's first impression when attempting to upgrade to 4.0, we need to make sure that the error is very clear about the remediation steps (set the group.protocol to CLASSIC on the client or upgrade and enable the new protocol on the cluster).

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #17411
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #17411