24.1 beta 23.3 23.2 23.1

Introduction to rpk

The rpk command line interface tool is designed to manage your entire Redpanda cluster, without the need to run a separate script for each function, as with Apache Kafka. The rpk commands handle everything from configuring brokers and low-level tuning, to high-level general Redpanda tasks. For example, you can use rpk to perform rolling upgrades and tuning, monitor your cluster’s health, and implement access control lists (ACLs) and other security features. You can also use rpk to perform basic streaming tasks, such as creating topics, producing to topics, and consuming from topics.

In general, rpk commands can be divided into these categories:

  • Managing Redpanda

  • Managing topics, producing to topics, and consuming from topics

  • Debugging and tuning the host

  • Interacting with Redpanda Cloud

Installation methods

The rpk binary is bundled with Redpanda, so it is automatically installed on each Redpanda broker. In addition, you can install rpk on your local machine as a standalone binary. This method can be used for self-hosted and cloud deployments, as well as Kubernetes deployments.

After you install rpk, you can use it to interact with a Redpanda cluster. The cluster can run on your local machine, or it can run externally on a remote server or on Redpanda Cloud, for example.

The following diagram shows how rpk communicates with a Redpanda broker installed on your local machine. The rpk binary is installed as part of the Redpanda bundle.

rpk communicating with a broker on your local machine

The next diagram shows how rpk communicates with a remote cluster when you install rpk as a standalone binary on your local machine.

rpk communicating with a remote cluster

Specifying command properties

You can specify rpk command properties in the following ways:

  • By specifying the appropriate flag on the command line.

  • By defining the corresponding environment variables.

    Environment variable settings only last for the duration of a shell session.

  • By editing the configuration file settings in the rpk section of the redpanda.yaml file.

    Configuration file property settings stay the same for each shell session.

  • By editing the configuration file settings in the rpk.yaml file.

    Configuration file property settings stay the same for each shell session.

Command line flag settings take precedence over the corresponding environment variables, and environment variables take precedence over configuration file settings. If a required flag is not specified on the command line, Redpanda searches the environment variable. If the environment variable is not set, the value in the rpk.yaml configuration file is used, if that file is available, otherwise the value in the redpanda.yaml configuration file is used.

If you specify rpk command properties in the configuration files or as environment variables, you don’t need to specify them again on the command line.

Common configuration properties

Every rpk command supports a set of common configuration properties. You can set one or more options in an rpk command by using the -X flag:

rpk -X <config-option-1> -X <config-option-2>

Get a list of available options with -X list:

rpk -X list

Or, get a detailed description about each option with -X help:

rpk -X help

Some of the common configuration properties apply across all rpk commands as defaults. These default properties have keys with names starting with defaults, and they’re viewable in rpk -X list and rpk -X help. For more details, see rpk -X options.

Configuration flags deprecated by -X options

Prior to rpk supporting the -X flag, each common configuration option was itself a configurable flag. Those flags are deprecated in this version of rpk.

The following table lists the deprecated flags and their corresponding properties, environment variables, and configuration file settings.

Property Deprecated Flag Deprecated Configuration File Field Supported -X Flag

Redpanda Brokers

--brokers

rpk.kafka_api.brokers

brokers

Admin API

--api-urls

rpk.admin_api.addresses

admin.hosts

Redpanda TLS Key

--tls-key

rpk.kafka_api.tls.key_file

tls.key

Redpanda TLS Cert

--tls-cert

rpk.kafka_api.tls.cert_file

tls.cert

Redpanda TLS Truststore

--tls-truststore

rpk.kafka_api.tls.truststore_file

tls.ca

Redpanda SASL Mechanism

--sasl-mechanism

rpk.kafka_api.sasl.type

sasl.mechanism

Redpanda SASL Username

--user

rpk.kafka_api.sasl.user

user

Redpanda SASL Password

--password

rpk.kafka_api.sasl.password

pass

Redpanda Admin API TLS Key

--admin-api-tls-key

rpk.admin_api.tls.key_file

admin.tls.key

Redpanda Admin API TLS Cert

--admin-api-tls-cert

rpk.admin_api.tls.cert_file

admin.tls.cert

Redpanda Admin API TLS Truststore

--admin-api-tls-truststore

rpk.admin_api.tls.truststore_file

admin.tls.ca

Next steps