in flume-kafka-sink/src/main/java/org/apache/flume/sink/kafka/KafkaSink.java [311:320]
public synchronized void start() {
// instantiate the producer
producer = new KafkaProducer<>(kafkaProps);
if (useKafkaTransactions) {
logger.info("Transactions enabled, initializing transactions");
producer.initTransactions();
}
counter.start();
super.start();
}