Console sends redundant validate requests to Kafka Connect and has short timeout for high-load clusters

Hi team,

We’ve observed a couple of issues related to how Redpanda Console interacts with Kafka Connect when viewing connector details:

1. Redundant validate requests on connector view

When accessing a Kafka Connect connector in Redpanda Console, the UI triggers two consecutive validate API calls (i.e., POST /connector-plugins/<plugin>/config/validate), even if no changes are made to the configuration.

This happens immediately on page load and creates unnecessary overhead on the Kafka Connect REST API.

Expected Behavior:

• validate should only be triggered when the user actively modifies or submits configuration, not during page load.

2. Timeout too short for high-load clusters

In some clusters with high load or slow plugin validation, the validate request may take up to 20 seconds to respond. We have already configured requestTimeout: 60s in redpanda-console-config.yaml, but Console still times out the validate call after approximately 6 seconds.

Suggestion:

• Increase the default timeout to accommodate common cases (e.g., 30s).
• Consider using async loading or warning UI if validation takes long, rather than failing outright.

Version:

• Redpanda Console v2.8.5

These improvements would significantly enhance stability and user experience when using Console in large or high-latency Kafka Connect environments.

Thanks a lot for your great work!

Start with the connector-details UI and trace the POST /connector-plugins//config/validate request, then inspect the timeout handling associated with redpanda-console-config.yaml. Done means no validation request occurs on page load, validation still works after configuration changes, and slow validation requests receive the intended timeout behavior.