Kubernetes Cluster Requirements
This topic is a checklist with the prerequisites and system requirements for installing production Redpanda in a Kubernetes cluster using the Helm chart.
Operating system​
Minimum required version of the Linux kernel: 3.10.0-514 or 4.18
Kubernetes​
Minimum required Kubernetes version: 1.21
Make sure to do the following:
Helm​
Minimum required Helm version: 3.6.0
Number of worker nodes​
You must provision one worker node for each Redpanda broker that you plan to deploy in your Redpanda cluster. Each Pod replica that runs a Redpanda broker requires its own dedicated worker node for the following reasons:
- Redpanda brokers are designed to have access to all resources, such as CPU and memory, on their host machine.
- External clients access Redpanda brokers using the address of a worker node. See External networking.
Storage volumes​
Redpanda brokers must store their data on disk. As a result, each Pod that runs a Redpanda broker must have its own storage volume.
To learn what Redpanda recommends, see the storage best practices.
To learn how to configure storage, see Configure storage.
External networking​
For external access, each worker node in your cluster must have a static, externally accessible IP address to allow clients to connect to the NodePort Service and access the Redpanda broker. Redpanda uses the following default ports:
| Node port | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 30081 | Schema registry |
| 30082 | HTTP proxy |
| 31092 | Kafka API |
| 31644 | Admin API |
Redpanda recommends using NodePorts instead of Loadbalancers. See the external networking best practices.
Tuning​
Before deploying Redpanda to production, each worker node that runs Redpanda must be tuned to optimize the Linux kernel for Redpanda processes.
See Tuning Kubernetes Worker Nodes for Production