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Redpanda Console Kubernetes Requirements and Recommendations

This page provides the system requirements and recommendations for deploying Redpanda Console on Kubernetes in production environments.

Operating system

  • Linux: All major distributions (Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, Debian)

  • Container platforms: Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift

  • Cloud platforms: AWS, GCP, Azure

CPU and memory

  • CPU: Minimum 2 cores. Recommended 4+ cores for production.

  • Memory: Minimum 1 GiB per replica. Recommended 1-2 GiB for most workloads, 2 GiB+ for high concurrency or large data sets.

Resource requests and limits

Set resource requests to ensure Redpanda Console always has enough CPU and memory to start, and set higher limits to allow for bursts. For production, use conservative requests and higher limits.

resources:
  requests:
    cpu: 100m
    memory: 512Mi
  limits:
    cpu: 4000m
    memory: 2Gi

  • Requests: Minimum guaranteed resources. Set conservatively to ensure scheduling on most nodes.

  • Limits: Maximum allowed resources. Set higher to allow for bursts. HPA can scale replicas based on CPU/memory utilization.

Scheduling constraints

Use node affinity and tolerations to control where Redpanda Console Pods are scheduled.

Example: Node affinity to prefer nodes with a specific label

affinity:
  nodeAffinity:
    requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
      nodeSelectorTerms:
      - matchExpressions:
        - key: node-role.kubernetes.io/console
          operator: In
          values:
          - "true"

Example: Tolerate a taint so Redpanda Console can run on tainted nodes

tolerations:
  - key: "console-only"
    operator: "Exists"
    effect: "NoSchedule"

  • Node affinity: Ensures Pods are scheduled only on nodes with matching labels.

  • Tolerations: Allow Pods to be scheduled on nodes with specific taints.

  • Combine affinity and tolerations for advanced scheduling and isolation patterns.

Auto-scaling

Use the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) to automatically scale based on CPU and memory utilization.

Storage

  • Minimum: 1 GiB available disk space

Network requirements

  • Redpanda connectivity: TCP access to Redpanda brokers on configured ports

  • Web interface: HTTP/HTTPS access for users (typically port 8080 or 443)

  • Schema Registry: TCP access to Schema Registry, if used

Security considerations

  • TLS encryption: Configure TLS for all network communications

  • Authentication: Set up appropriate authentication mechanisms

  • RBAC: Implement role-based access control where supported

  • Network policies: Use Kubernetes Network Policies to restrict access

Scaling and high availability

  • Deploy multiple Redpanda Console replicas for high availability and rolling updates.

  • Use pod anti-affinity to spread replicas across nodes.

  • For production, run at least two replicas.

Separate node deployment

Run Redpanda Console on separate nodes from Redpanda brokers for resource isolation and operational independence.

Schema Registry integration

  • Allocate extra memory for schema caching if using Schema Registry.

  • Ensure reliable network connectivity and configure authentication as needed.

Next steps

Suggested reading