Strimzi is a Kubernetes operator for deploying and managing Kafka clusters and related components. It fits organizations that already have a reliable, well-operated Kubernetes environment and want to reduce the complexity of running Kafka themselves. section 14.2.3
The Cluster Operator manages Kafka brokers, coordination through KRaft or ZooKeeper, Kafka Connect, monitoring, and Cruise Control. Strimzi also manages users, topics, ACLs, authorization, authentication secrets, and TLS key pairs. section 14.2.3
Strimzi’s operator model divides responsibilities across several components:
- Cluster Operator deploys and manages brokers, coordination nodes, Kafka Connect, and other Strimzi components. section 14.2.3
- User Operator manages Kafka users, authentication secrets, authorization, and TLS key pairs. section 14.2.3
- Topic Operator creates and manages Kafka topics with minimal operational effort. section 14.2.3
Choosing Strimzi for a Kubernetes Kafka platform
An organization with a performant Kubernetes cluster can use Strimzi to run Kafka while keeping cluster operations inside its existing Kubernetes ecosystem. The choice still requires recent Kubernetes versions and careful storage evaluation; GlusterFS and NFS are specifically discouraged, and resource choices can affect throughput, latency, and performance. section 14.2.3 section 14.2.4
Figure 14.3 The architecture of Strimzi
The architecture diagram shows how Strimzi operators and Kafka-related components fit together. section 14.2.3
