Run Redpanda as a Kafka-compatible broker and connect Kafka clients
domain: docs.redpanda.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Start Redpanda via Docker or rpk: rpk container start creates a local single-node cluster with the Kafka API listener enabled by default
Point existing Kafka clients at Redpanda by setting bootstrap.servers to the Redpanda broker address; no code changes are required for standard Kafka client operations
Use rpk topic create YOUR_TOPIC --partitions N --replicas N to create topics; rpk is Redpanda's CLI tool replacing kafka-topics.sh
Access the Redpanda Console (web UI) for topic inspection, consumer group monitoring, and schema registry management
Configure rpk.yaml or redpanda.yaml for production settings including advertised listeners, TLS, and SASL authentication
Known gotchas
Redpanda does not run on the JVM and does not support all Kafka broker-side configurations; some advanced broker properties are ignored or behave differently
Redpanda's Kafka API compatibility covers most common operations but some Kafka admin APIs or internal topics may not be fully supported; test connector compatibility explicitly
Redpanda's default developer mode disables certain production safety checks (e.g., fsync); enable production mode for data durability in non-test environments
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