Kafka Connect 3.0 has the ability to restart all the failed tasks of a connector:

POST /connectors/{name}/restart?includeTasks=<true|false>&onlyFailed=<true|false>

More info:

• https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/KAFKA/KIP-745%3A+Connect+API+to+restart+connector+and+tasks
• KAFKA-13035 updated documentation for connector restart REST API to … apache/kafka#10975

The existing kcctl restart connector <name> command should be enhanced with a parameter for leveraging this: --tasks=<all|failed>. Using these parameters with Connect < 3.0 should be ignored but log a warning. Completion of those options should not be done for Connect 3.0.

Thinking more about it, we actually could support this for any KC version, using the new (and more efficient API) if available, otherwise falling back to multiple separate API calls.