I've been trying to get parkeeper with a consul (0.5.2) backend to work with kafka (0.8.2.2). It starts up successfully, and fills in the startup-default keys just fine, but has trouble on a control-C exit (and fails to start up subsequently).
I've done the "does-it-restart" test with zookeeper and kafka and it passes just fine.
[2015-10-12 21:52:58,063] INFO 0 successfully elected as leader (kafka.server.ZookeeperLeaderElector)
[2015-10-12 21:52:58,195] INFO Registered broker 0 at path /brokers/ids/0 with address 02aeb061d8dd:9092. (kafka.utils.ZkUtils$)
[2015-10-12 21:52:58,209] INFO [Kafka Server 0], started (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
^C[2015-10-12 21:53:12,675] INFO [Kafka Server 0], shutting down (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:12,677] INFO [Kafka Server 0], Starting controlled shutdown (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:12,832] INFO [Kafka Server 0], Remaining partitions to move: (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:12,833] INFO [Kafka Server 0], Error code from controller: -1 (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:12,834] ERROR [KafkaApi-0] error when handling request Name: ControlledShutdownRequest; Version: 0; CorrelationId: 0; BrokerId: 0 (kafka.server.KafkaApis)
kafka.common.BrokerNotAvailableException: Broker id 0 does not exist.
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply$mcV$sp(KafkaController.scala:236)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.utils.Utils$.inLock(Utils.scala:535)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController.shutdownBroker(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.server.KafkaApis.handleControlledShutdownRequest(KafkaApis.scala:154)
at kafka.server.KafkaApis.handle(KafkaApis.scala:66)
at kafka.server.KafkaRequestHandler.run(KafkaRequestHandler.scala:59)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
[2015-10-12 21:53:17,835] WARN [Kafka Server 0], Retrying controlled shutdown after the previous attempt failed... (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:17,854] ERROR [KafkaApi-0] error when handling request Name: ControlledShutdownRequest; Version: 0; CorrelationId: 1; BrokerId: 0 (kafka.server.KafkaApis)
kafka.common.BrokerNotAvailableException: Broker id 0 does not exist.
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply$mcV$sp(KafkaController.scala:236)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.utils.Utils$.inLock(Utils.scala:535)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController.shutdownBroker(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.server.KafkaApis.handleControlledShutdownRequest(KafkaApis.scala:154)
at kafka.server.KafkaApis.handle(KafkaApis.scala:66)
at kafka.server.KafkaRequestHandler.run(KafkaRequestHandler.scala:59)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
[2015-10-12 21:53:17,855] INFO [Kafka Server 0], Remaining partitions to move: (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:17,856] INFO [Kafka Server 0], Error code from controller: -1 (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:22,858] WARN [Kafka Server 0], Retrying controlled shutdown after the previous attempt failed... (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:22,880] ERROR [KafkaApi-0] error when handling request Name: ControlledShutdownRequest; Version: 0; CorrelationId: 2; BrokerId: 0 (kafka.server.KafkaApis)
kafka.common.BrokerNotAvailableException: Broker id 0 does not exist.
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply$mcV$sp(KafkaController.scala:236)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController$$anonfun$shutdownBroker$1.apply(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.utils.Utils$.inLock(Utils.scala:535)
at kafka.controller.KafkaController.shutdownBroker(KafkaController.scala:234)
at kafka.server.KafkaApis.handleControlledShutdownRequest(KafkaApis.scala:154)
at kafka.server.KafkaApis.handle(KafkaApis.scala:66)
at kafka.server.KafkaRequestHandler.run(KafkaRequestHandler.scala:59)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
[2015-10-12 21:53:22,883] INFO [Kafka Server 0], Remaining partitions to move: (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:22,884] INFO [Kafka Server 0], Error code from controller: -1 (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:27,884] WARN [Kafka Server 0], Retrying controlled shutdown after the previous attempt failed... (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:27,887] INFO Closing socket connection to /172.17.0.1. (kafka.network.Processor)
[2015-10-12 21:53:27,888] WARN [Kafka Server 0], Proceeding to do an unclean shutdown as all the controlled shutdown attempts failed (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:27,889] INFO [Socket Server on Broker 0], Shutting down (kafka.network.SocketServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:27,892] INFO [Socket Server on Broker 0], Shutdown completed (kafka.network.SocketServer)
[2015-10-12 21:53:27,893] INFO [Kafka Request Handler on Broker 0], shutting down (kafka.server.KafkaRequestHandlerPool)
[2015-10-12 21:53:27,894] INFO [Kafka Request Handler on Broker 0], shut down completely (kafka.server.KafkaRequestHandlerPool)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,242] INFO [Replica Manager on Broker 0]: Shut down (kafka.server.ReplicaManager)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,243] INFO [ReplicaFetcherManager on broker 0] shutting down (kafka.server.ReplicaFetcherManager)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,244] INFO [ReplicaFetcherManager on broker 0] shutdown completed (kafka.server.ReplicaFetcherManager)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,255] INFO [Replica Manager on Broker 0]: Shut down completely (kafka.server.ReplicaManager)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,256] INFO Shutting down. (kafka.log.LogManager)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,263] INFO Shutdown complete. (kafka.log.LogManager)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,266] INFO Terminate ZkClient event thread. (org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkEventThread)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,270] INFO EventThread shut down (org.apache.zookeeper.ClientCnxn)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,270] INFO Session: 0x1 closed (org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeper)
[2015-10-12 21:53:28,271] INFO [Kafka Server 0], shut down completed (kafka.server.KafkaServer)
Haven't dug much further, let me know if I can get you any more info.