Run Kafka, ZK in container docker run -d -p 2181:2181 --name zookeeper jplock/zookeeper docker run -d -p 9092:9092 --name kafka --link zookeeper:zookeeper ches/kafka List topics ./kafka-topics --zookeeper localhost:2181 --list Console consumer in docker # kafka, zk all running as containers sudo docker run --rm --link zookeeper:zookeeper ches/kafka kafka-console-consumer.sh --topic audit --from-beginning --zookeeper zookeeper:2181 List topics # kafka, zk all running as containers sudo docker run --rm --link zookeeper:zookeeper ches/kafka kafka-topics.sh --list --zookeeper zookeeper:2181 For a topic find partition count ./kafka-topics.sh --describe --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic topic_name