Ingest data from NATS JetStream

You can ingest data from NATS JetStream into RisingWave by using the NATS source connector in RisingWave.

NATS is an open-source messaging system for cloud-native applications. It provides a lightweight publish-subscribe architecture for high-performance messaging.

NATS JetStream is a streaming data platform built on top of NATS. It enables real-time and historical access to streams of data via durable subscriptions and consumer groups.

PUBLIC PREVIEW

This feature is currently in public preview, meaning it is nearing the final product but may not yet be fully stable. If you encounter any issues or have feedback, please reach out to us via our Slack channel. Your input is valuable in helping us improve this feature. For more details, see our Public Preview Feature List.

Prerequisites

Before ingesting data from NATS JetStream into RisingWave, please ensure the following:

• The NATS JetStream server is running and accessible from your RisingWave cluster.
• If authentication is required for the NATS JetStream server, make sure you have the client username and password. The client user must have the subscribe permission for the subject.
• Create the NATS subject from which you want to ingest data.
• Ensure that your RisingWave cluster is running.

Ingest data into RisingWave

When creating a source, you can choose to persist the data from the source in RisingWave by using CREATE TABLE instead of CREATE SOURCE and specifying the connection settings and data format.

Syntax

CREATE { TABLE | SOURCE} [ IF NOT EXISTS ] source_name
[ schema_definition ]
WITH (
   connector='nats',
   server_url='<your nats server>:<port>', [ <another_server_url_if_available>, ...]
   subject='<subject>[,<another_subject...]',
   stream='<stream_name>',

-- optional parameters
   connect_mode='<connect_mode>',
   username='<your user name>',
   password='<your password>',
   jwt=`<your jwt>`,
   nkey=`<your nkey>`, ...

-- delivery parameters
   scan.startup.mode=`<startup_mode>`,
   scan.startup.timestamp.millis='xxxxx'
)
FORMAT PLAIN ENCODE data_encode;

schema_definition:

(
   column_name data_type [ PRIMARY KEY ], ...
   [ PRIMARY KEY ( column_name, ... ) ]
)

RisingWave performs primary key constraint checks on tables with connector settings but not on regular sources. If you need the checks to be performed, please create a table with connector settings.

For a table with primary key constraints, if a new data record with an existing key comes in, the new record will overwrite the existing record.

According to the NATS documentation, stream names must adhere to subject naming rules as well as being friendly to the file system. Here are the recommended guidelines for stream names:

• Use alphanumeric values.
• Avoid spaces, tabs, periods (.), greater than (>) or asterisks (*).
• Do not include path separators (forward slash or backward slash).
• Keep the name length limited to 32 characters as the JetStream storage directories include the account, stream name, and consumer name.
• Avoid using reserved file names like NUL or LPT1.
• Be cautious of case sensitivity in file systems. To prevent collisions, ensure that stream or account names do not clash due to case differences. For example, Foo and foo would collide on Windows or macOS systems.

Parameters

Field	Notes
server_url	Required. URLs of the NATS JetStream server, in the format of address:port. If multiple addresses are specified, use commas to separate them.
subject	Required. NATS subject that you want to ingest data from. To specify more than one subjects, use a comma.
stream	Required. NATS stream that you want to ingest data from.
connect_mode	Required. Authentication mode for the connection. Allowed values: plain: No authentication. user_and_password: Use user name and password for authentication. For this option, username and password must be specified. credential: Use JSON Web Token (JWT) and NKeys for authentication. For this option, jwt and nkey must be specified.
jwt and nkey	JWT and NKEY for authentication. For details, see JWT and NKeys.
username and password	Conditional. The client user name and password. Required when connect_mode is user_and_password.
scan.startup.mode	Optional. The offset mode that RisingWave will use to consume data. The supported modes are: earliest: Consume from the earliest available message, corresponding to deliver policy DeliverAll. latest: Consume from the next message, corresponding to DeliverNew policy. timestamp: Consume from a particular UNIX timestamp specified via scan.startup.timestamp.millis, corresponding to DeliverByStartTime policy. If not specified, the default value earliest will be used.
scan.startup.timestamp.millis	Conditional. Required when scan.startup.mode is timestamp. RisingWave will start to consume data from the specified UNIX timestamp.
data_encode	Supported encodes: JSON, PROTOBUF, BYTES.
consumer.deliver_subject	Optional. Subject to deliver messages to.
consumer.durable_name	Required. Durable name for the consumer.
consumer.name	Optional. Name of the consumer.
consumer.description	Optional. Description of the consumer.
consumer.deliver_policy	Optional. Policy on how messages are delivered.
consumer.ack_policy	Optional. Acknowledgment policy for message processing (e.g., None, All, Explicit).
consumer.ack_wait.sec	Optional. Time to wait for acknowledgment before considering a message as undelivered.
consumer.max_deliver	Optional. Maximum number of times a message will be delivered.
consumer.filter_subject	Optional. Filter for subjects that the consumer will process.
consumer.filter_subjects	Optional. List of subjects that the consumer will filter on.
consumer.replay_policy	Optional. Policy for replaying messages (e.g., Instant, Original).
consumer.rate_limit	Optional. Rate limit for message delivery in bits per second.
consumer.sample_frequency	Optional. Frequency for sampling messages, ranging from 0 to 100.
consumer.max_waiting	Optional. Maximum number of messages that can be waiting for acknowledgment.
consumer.max_ack_pending	Optional. Maximum number of acknowledgments that can be pending.
consumer.headers_only	Optional. If true, only message headers will be delivered.
consumer.max_batch	Optional. Maximum number of messages to process in a single batch.
consumer.max_bytes	Optional. Maximum number of bytes to receive in a single batch.
consumer.max_expires.sec	Optional. Maximum expiration time for a message in seconds.
consumer.inactive_threshold.sec	Optional. Time in seconds before a consumer is considered inactive.
consumer.num.replicas	Optional. Number of replicas for the consumer.
consumer.memory_storage	Optional. If true, messages will be stored in memory.
consumer.backoff.sec	Optional. Backoff time in seconds for retrying message delivery.

Examples

The following SQL query creates a table that ingests data from a NATS JetStream source.

CREATE TABLE live_stream_metrics
WITH
  (
    connector = 'nats',
    server_url = 'nats-server:4222',
    subject = 'live_stream_metrics',
    stream = 'risingwave',
    connect_mode = 'plain'
  ) FORMAT PLAIN ENCODE PROTOBUF (
    message = 'livestream.schema.LiveStreamMetrics',
    schema.location = 'http://file_server:8080/schema'
  );

The parameters supported by the async_nats crate are all supported in the RisingWave NATS source connector.

CREATE SOURCE test_source
WITH (
    connector='nats',
    server_url='{{ env_var("SERVER") }}',
    subject='risingwave.test.source',
    stream='risingwave-test-source',
    scan.startup.mode='earliest',
    connect_mode='user_and_password',
    username='{{ env_var("USER") }}',
    password='{{ env_var("PASSWORD") }}',
    consumer.durable_name='risingwave-test-source',
    consumer.description='desc-test-source',
    consumer.ack_policy='all',
    consumer.ack_wait=10,
    consumer.max_deliver=10,
    consumer.filter_subjects='demo.subject.filter.*',
    consumer.filter_subjects='demo.subject.filter.1,demo.subject.filter.2',
    consumer.replay_policy='instant',
    consumer.rate_limit=100000000000,
    consumer.sample_frequency=100,
    consumer.max_waiting=10,
    consumer.max_ack_pending=10,
    -- consumer.idle_heartbeat=60, not available in async_nats crate
    consumer.max_batch=1000,
    consumer.max_bytes=1000000000,
    consumer.max_expires=3600,
    consumer.inactive_threshold=10000000,
    consumer.memory_storage='false',
    consumer.backoff='10,30,60',
    consumer.num_replicas=1
) FORMAT PLAIN ENCODE JSON;