# Create an Apache Kafka topic
<a name="msk-serverless-create-topic"></a>

In this step, you use the previously created client machine to create a topic on the serverless cluster.

**Topics**
+ [Setting up your environment for creating topics](#msk-serverless-create-topic-prerequisites)
+ [Creating a topic and writing data to it](#msk-serverless-create-topic-procedure)

## Setting up your environment for creating topics
<a name="msk-serverless-create-topic-prerequisites"></a>
+ Before creating a topic, make sure that you've downloaded the AWS MSK IAM JAR file to your Kafka installation's `libs/` directory. If you haven't done this yet, run the following command in your Kafka's `libs/` directory.

  ```
  wget https://github.com/aws/aws-msk-iam-auth/releases/download/v2.3.0/aws-msk-iam-auth-2.3.0-all.jar
  ```

  This JAR file is required for IAM authentication with your MSK Serverless cluster.
+ When running Kafka commands, you might need to make sure the `classpath` includes the AWS MSK IAM JAR file. To do this, do one of the following:
  + Set the `CLASSPATH` environment variable to include your Kafka libraries as shown in the following example.

    ```
    export CLASSPATH=<path-to-your-kafka-installation>/libs/*:<path-to-your-kafka-installation>/libs/aws-msk-iam-auth-2.3.0-all.jar
    ```
  + Run Kafka commands using the full Java command with explicit `classpath`, as shown in the following example.

    ```
    java -cp "<path-to-your-kafka-installation>/libs/*:<path-to-your-kafka-installation>/libs/aws-msk-iam-auth-2.3.0-all.jar" org.apache.kafka.tools.TopicCommand --bootstrap-server $BS --command-config client.properties --create --topic msk-serverless-tutorial --partitions 6
    ```

## Creating a topic and writing data to it
<a name="msk-serverless-create-topic-procedure"></a>

1. In the following `export` command, replace *my-endpoint* with the bootstrap-server string you that you saved after you created the cluster. Then, go to the `kafka_2.12-2.8.1/bin` directory on the client machine and run the `export` command.

   ```
   export BS=my-endpoint
   ```

1. Run the following command to create a topic called `msk-serverless-tutorial`.

   ```
   <path-to-your-kafka-installation>/bin/kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server $BS --command-config client.properties --create --topic msk-serverless-tutorial --partitions 6
   ```

**Next Step**

[Produce and consume data in MSK Serverless](msk-serverless-produce-consume.md)