As I stated in my recent comment, the flume kafka client was upgraded as a part of the CDH5.8 upgrade to be able to use the new consumer API, which supports secure communication with kerberos. Versions prior to CDH5.8 use the old api which doesn't support kerberos or SSL. You will have to upgrade to get this new functionality, or run flume outside of Cloudera Manager, using tarballs or RPM's. -pd ... View more