Getting started with Redpanda on Kubernetes

Kubernetes (K8s) is a popular platform for deploying distributed systems and services in the cloud or on-premises. We built Redpanda to run on a variety of Kubernetes environments with ease. You can deploy Redpanda in a matter of minutes using our helm chart on any operating system, locally or with a variety of cloud providers.

Kubernetes environments supported by Redpanda

Redpanda supports public cloud and on-premises Kubernetes engines as well as options for local development on your machine.

Kubernetes environments supported for local development include kind and minikube. These options are popular with developers wanting to run a lightweight solution on their machines as part of a larger Apache-Kafka®-based development workflow.

For running clusters in the cloud, you can easily deploy Redpanda on public cloud Kubernetes environments, including those available on Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The 60-Second Guide for Kubernetes walks you step-by-step through the process to install Redpanda in a development environment on Kubernetes-in-Docker (kind), Minikube, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

Redpanda on Kubernetes with kind

kind is a fast and lightweight solution for running Kubernetes on MacOS, Windows, or Linux. You can use kind to deploy Redpanda on your development machine or laptop.

With Redpanda deployed on kind, you can support your development workflow for your existing applications, or to provide a development/test environment. This includes situations where you might want to spin up Redpanda for Continuous Integration/ Continuous Deployment (CI/CD). In these scenarios, Redpanda can be deployed on Kubernetes via kind,a simple and lightweight solution for running Kubernetes on MacOS, Windows, or Linux.

Redpanda on Kubernetes with minikube

Minikube is another solution that is lightweight and great for beginners. You can use minikube  to run a small cluster on your development laptop or other local environment.

Redpanda on public cloud Kubernetes engines

If you want to run Redpanda on lin the public cloud of your choice, for a production environment or perhaps for CI/CD and application testing, we make that simple too!

Redpanda on your own Kubernetes

The quickstart guide includes instructions for creating Kubernetes clusters, but you’re not limited to those options. By skipping the Kubernetes creation, the rest of the guide can be used to install on any Kubernetes cluster.

Cluster management with RPK

Once you have Redpanda set up, you can use rpk, Redpanda’s command-line interface (CLI), to interact with Redpanda. The quickstart mentioned in this post shows you how to execute some basic commands, such as produce and consume, but you don’t need to stop there! Use the rpk commands reference to see what else rpk can do for you.

We welcome any feedback you have about our Kubernetes support and quickstart guides. If something didn’t work for you, let us know so we can improve the documentation. Chat with us on Slack or leave us a GitHub issue. We look forward to hearing from you!