How to Run Kafka, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch Containers in CI

The Kafka, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch modules each expose a helper (bootstrap servers, connection string, or HTTP host) tied to the mapped port.

Prefer the dedicated modules over raw images: KafkaContainer gives getBootstrapServers(), MongoDBContainer gives getConnectionString(), and ElasticsearchContainer gives getHttpHostAddress().

Steps

• Add the kafka, mongodb, and elasticsearch modules you need.
• Instantiate each container with a pinned image tag.
• Read the helper method instead of building a URL by hand.
• Wire the value into your client configuration.

Java example

@Container
static KafkaContainer kafka =
    new KafkaContainer(DockerImageName.parse("confluentinc/cp-kafka:7.6.0"));

@Container
static MongoDBContainer mongo =
    new MongoDBContainer("mongo:7");

@Container
static ElasticsearchContainer es =
    new ElasticsearchContainer("docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:8.13.4");

// kafka.getBootstrapServers();
// mongo.getConnectionString();
// es.getHttpHostAddress();

Gotchas

• Elasticsearch images are large; cache the layer or use Testcontainers Cloud to cut pull time.
• The Kafka module wires listeners for you, so do not override the advertised listeners unless you must.

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