I also came across this error. I created the kafka_server_jass.conf manually and put it under directory /usr/hdf/current/kafka-broker/config/. And then In Ambari kafka-env template, add the path to file kafka_server_jass.conf to environment variable KAFKA_OPTS like this: export KAFKA_OPTS="-Djava.security.auth.login.config=/usr/hdf/current/kafka-broker/config/kafka_server_jaas.conf" With this settings, kafka broker can start up. ... View more

I think your problem is similar to this one https://community.hortonworks.com/questions/120978/hdp-kafka-service-setup-with-saslplain-not-working.html I did what @Jeff Groves said, it worked. You might have a try. ... View more