Disable Enterprise Features in Redpanda

Enterprise features in Redpanda are available only in the Enterprise Edition and require a valid license. If your cluster has enterprise features enabled without a valid license, it is essential to either upload a valid license or disable these features to maintain compliance with Redpanda licensing terms.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, consider the following:

  • Take a backup of your current configuration to allow rollback if needed.

  • Disabling enterprise features may affect cluster performance, security, or functionality. Test these changes in a staging environment before applying them to production.

  • If you need enterprise features, consider purchasing a valid license to continue using them. To get a trial license key or extend your trial period, generate a new trial license key. To purchase a license, contact Redpanda Sales.

Check for enterprise features in violation

To check the status of your license, use the rpk cluster license info command. This command provides a detailed overview of your Redpanda license, including whether your cluster has enterprise features enabled without a valid license.

This command reports license violations only if enterprise features in Redpanda are enabled without a valid license. It does not report license violations for enterprise features in Redpanda Connect or Redpanda Console.

  1. Ensure that rpk is installed and configured to connect to your cluster’s Admin API endpoint.

  2. Get the details about your cluster’s license:

    rpk cluster license info

    If the license violation status is true, you must either obtain a valid license or disable the enterprise features in use to ensure compliance.

Disable enterprise features

To disable specific enterprise features, refer to the following table:

These instructions apply to bare-metal deployments on Linux. If you are running Redpanda in a different environment, such as Kubernetes or Docker, the way you disable features may vary.
Feature Action to Disable

Audit Logging

Set the cluster config audit_enabled to false:

rpk cluster config set audit_enabled false

Continuous Data Balancing

Set the cluster config partition_autobalancing_mode to node_add:

rpk cluster config set partition_autobalancing_mode node_add

Continuous Intra-Broker Partition Balancing (core_balancing_continuous)

Set the cluster config core_balancing_continuous to false:

rpk cluster config set core_balancing_continuous false

FIPS Compliance

Set the node config fips_mode to disabled:

rpk node config set fips_mode disabled

Kerberos authentication

Remove GSSAPI from the cluster config sasl_mechanisms:

rpk cluster config set sasl_mechanisms <other-mechanisms>

Leader Pinning

Set default_leaders_preference to none:

rpk cluster config set default_leaders_preference none

OAUTHBEARER/OIDC authentication

Remove OIDC from the cluster config sasl_mechanisms and http_authentication:

rpk cluster config set sasl_mechanisms <other-mechanisms>
rpk cluster config set http_authentication <other-mechanisms>

Remote Read Replicas

Set the cluster config cloud_storage_enable_remote_read to false:

rpk cluster config set cloud_storage_enable_remote_read false

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Use rpk security role delete to delete all configured roles:

rpk security role list
rpk security role delete <role-name>

Server-Side Schema ID Validation

Set the cluster config enable_schema_id_validation to false:

rpk cluster config set enable_schema_id_validation false

Tiered Storage

Set the cluster config cloud_storage_enabled to false:

rpk cluster config set cloud_storage_enabled false

Verify the license status

When all required changes are made, confirm that the license violation status is now false.

rpk cluster license info

Suggested reading

For more information about licensing, see Redpanda Licenses and Enterprise Features.