Deploying Mimir on Kafka deployed with Strimzi operator

[Tehacz]

Hello,

Im trying to setup Mimir cluster (3.0.4) using the latest chart 6.0.6

I've setup the Kafka cluster using strimzi operator with listener:

      - name: plain
        port: 9092
        type: internal
        tls: false
        authentication:
          type: scram-sha-512

However im unable to connect to it with this mimir configuration:

ingest_storage:
  kafka:
        sasl_username: "${KAFKA_SASL_USERNAME}" 
        sasl_password: "${KAFKA_SASL_PASSWORD}" 
        topic: mimir-ingest

I think i've tried every possible combination of listeners to make it work with mimir but i only see in the logs:

│ ts=2026-03-24T18:13:35.571631516Z caller=logger.go:38 level=error task=autocreate_topic component=kafka_client msg="unable to initialize sasl" broker=seed_0 err="UNSUPPORTED_SASL_MECHANISM: The broker does not support the requested SASL mechanism."     
 ts=2026-03-24T18:13:35.571896074Z caller=mimir.go:1062 level=error msg="module failed" module=distributor-service err="starting module distributor-service: invalid service state: Failed, expected: Running, failure: unable to start distributor subservices: not healthy, 0 terminated, 1 failed: [failed to create topic mimir-ingest: UNSUPPORTED_SASL_MECHANISM: The broker does not support the requested SASL mechanism.[]"            
 
 
Im lost and hopeless and starting to wonder if strimzi kafka + mimir can work together given that mimir does not support yet any other mechanisms

[Tehacz]

Hello,

I've found a workaround to make it work until the 3.1.0 releases which supports scram-sha-512
#14307 ^

Workaround for now
When using strimzi Kafka to make mimir work i've had to configure custom listener:
Works with ( strimzi 0.51.0 & 4.2 kafka)

    listeners:
        - name: saslplain
          port: 9092
          type: internal
          tls: false
          authentication:
            listenerConfig:
              org.apache.kafka.common.security.plain.PlainLoginModule: required
              plain.sasl.jaas.config: >
                org.apache.kafka.common.security.plain.PlainLoginModule required 
                username="admin" password="yyy" user_admin="yyy" 
                user_mimir="xxx";
              sasl.enabled.mechanisms: PLAIN
            type: custom
            sasl: true
 < ... >
    authorization:
      type: simple
      superUsers:
        - admin
        - mimir