kafka-kubernetes

# Kafka on Kubernetes Deployment

Expert guidance for deploying Apache Kafka on Kubernetes using industry-standard tools.

## When to Use This Skill

I activate when you need help with:
- **Kubernetes deployments**: "Deploy Kafka on Kubernetes", "run Kafka in K8s", "Kafka Helm chart"
- **Operator selection**: "Strimzi vs Confluent Operator", "which Kafka operator to use"
- **StatefulSet patterns**: "Kafka StatefulSet best practices", "persistent volumes for Kafka"
- **Production K8s**: "Production-ready Kafka on K8s", "Kafka high availability in Kubernetes"

## What I Know

### Deployment Options Comparison

| Approach | Difficulty | Production-Ready | Best For |
|----------|-----------|------------------|----------|
| **Strimzi Operator** | Easy | ✅ Yes | Self-managed Kafka on K8s, CNCF project |
| **Confluent Operator** | Medium | ✅ Yes | Enterprise features, Confluent ecosystem |
| **Bitnami Helm Chart** | Easy | ⚠️  Mostly | Quick dev/staging environments |
| **Custom StatefulSet** | Hard | ⚠️  Requires expertise | Full control, custom requirements |

**Recommendation**: **Strimzi Operator** for most production use cases (CNCF project, active community, KRaft support)

## Deployment Approach 1: Strimzi Operator (Recommended)

**Strimzi** is a CNCF Sandbox project providing Kubernetes operators for Apache Kafka.

### Features
- ✅ KRaft mode support (Kafka 3.6+, no ZooKeeper)
- ✅ Declarative Kafka management (CRDs)
- ✅ Automatic rolling upgrades
- ✅ Built-in monitoring (Prometheus metrics)
- ✅ Mirror Maker 2 for replication
- ✅ Kafka Connect integration
- ✅ User and topic management via CRDs

### Installation (Helm)

```bash
# 1. Add Strimzi Helm repository
helm repo add strimzi https://strimzi.io/charts/
helm repo update

# 2. Create namespace
kubectl create namespace kafka

# 3. Install Strimzi Operator
helm install strimzi-kafka-operator strimzi/strimzi-kafka-operator \
  --namespace kafka \
  --set watchNamespaces="{kafka}" \
  --version 0.39.0

# 4. Verify op