Kubernetes Strimzi Kafka Operator

Deploys the Strimzi Kafka Operator on a Kubernetes cluster using the official Strimzi Helm chart (v0.42.0). Strimzi extends Kubernetes with custom resource definitions for managing Apache Kafka clusters, topics, users, connectors, and mirrors. Once installed, the operator watches all namespaces and lets you declaratively create and manage Kafka deployments as native Kubernetes resources.

What Gets Created

When you deploy a KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator resource, OpenMCF provisions:

• Namespace — created only when createNamespace is true; defaults to strimzi-operator if namespace is not specified
• Strimzi Helm Release — the kubernetes-strimzi-kafka-operator chart (v0.42.0) from https://strimzi.io/charts/, configured with watchAnyNamespace: true, which installs:
  • The Strimzi Cluster Operator Deployment with configurable CPU and memory limits
  • Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) for Kafka, KafkaTopic, KafkaUser, KafkaConnect, KafkaMirrorMaker2, KafkaBridge, KafkaRebalance, and KafkaNodePool
  • ServiceAccount, ClusterRole, and ClusterRoleBinding for operator RBAC
  • ValidatingWebhookConfiguration for CRD validation
• Kubernetes Labels — standard OpenMCF labels (resource-kind, resource-id, organization, environment) are applied to the namespace and propagated to operator resources for consistent metadata

Prerequisites

• A Kubernetes cluster with kubectl configured for access
• Cluster-admin permissions to install CRDs and ClusterRoles required by the operator
• Kubernetes 1.25+ recommended for full Strimzi 0.42 compatibility

Quick Start

Create a file strimzi-operator.yaml:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator
metadata:
  name: strimzi
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: dev.KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator.strimzi
spec:
  namespace:
    value: strimzi-operator
  createNamespace: true
  container:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "1000m"
        memory: "1Gi"
      requests:
        cpu: "50m"
        memory: "100Mi"

Deploy:

openmcf apply -f strimzi-operator.yaml

This installs the Strimzi Kafka Operator in the strimzi-operator namespace with default resource allocations. After deployment, you can create Kafka, KafkaTopic, and KafkaUser custom resources in any namespace.

Configuration Reference

Required Fields

Optional Fields

Note on valueFrom: The namespace field is a StringValueOrRef type. You can provide a literal string with value, or use valueFrom to reference the output of another OpenMCF resource (e.g., a KubernetesNamespace). See the foreign key reference example below.

Examples

Minimal Operator Installation

Install the Strimzi Kafka Operator with defaults in the strimzi-operator namespace:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator
metadata:
  name: strimzi
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: dev.KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator.strimzi
spec:
  namespace:
    value: strimzi-operator
  createNamespace: true
  container: {}

Operator with Increased Resources

Deploy the operator with higher resource allocations for clusters running many Kafka instances:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator
metadata:
  name: strimzi-prod
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: prod.KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator.strimzi-prod
spec:
  namespace:
    value: strimzi-operator
  createNamespace: true
  container:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "2000m"
        memory: "2Gi"
      requests:
        cpu: "500m"
        memory: "512Mi"

Operator in a Custom Namespace with Foreign Key Reference

Install the operator in an OpenMCF-managed namespace using a valueFrom reference:

apiVersion: kubernetes.openmcf.org/v1
kind: KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator
metadata:
  name: strimzi-shared
  labels:
    openmcf.org/provisioner: pulumi
    pulumi.openmcf.org/organization: my-org
    pulumi.openmcf.org/project: my-project
    pulumi.openmcf.org/stack.name: staging.KubernetesStrimziKafkaOperator.strimzi-shared
spec:
  namespace:
    valueFrom:
      kind: KubernetesNamespace
      name: platform-operators
      field: spec.name
  container:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpu: "1000m"
        memory: "1Gi"
      requests:
        cpu: "100m"
        memory: "256Mi"

Stack Outputs

After deployment, the following outputs are available in status.outputs:

Related Components

• KubernetesNamespace — pre-create a namespace to reference via valueFrom
• KubernetesKafka — deploy Kafka clusters managed by this operator
• KubernetesHelmRelease — alternative approach for deploying Helm charts with full value control