Installation

Install the Stackable Operator for Apache Kafka and operators for its dependencies — ZooKeeper — as well as the commons, secret and listener operator which are required by all Stackable Operators.

There are multiple ways to install the Stackable Operator for Apache Kafka. stackablectl is the preferred way, but Helm is also supported. OpenShift users may prefer installing the operator from the RedHat Certified Operator catalog using the OpenShift web console.

stackablectl
Helm

The stackablectl command line tool is the recommended way to interact with operators and dependencies. Follow the installation steps for your platform if you choose to work with stackablectl.

After you have installed stackablectl, run the following command to install all operators necessary for Kafka:

stackablectl operator install \
  commons=25.3.0 \
  secret=25.3.0 \
  listener=25.3.0 \
  zookeeper=25.3.0 \
  kafka=25.3.0bash

The tool prints

Installed commons=25.3.0 operator
Installed secret=25.3.0 operator
Installed listener=25.3.0 operator
Installed zookeeper=25.3.0 operator
Installed kafka=25.3.0 operator

Consult the Quickstart to learn more about how to use stackablectl.

Add the Stackable Helm repository:

helm repo add stackable-stable https://repo.stackable.tech/repository/helm-stable/bash

Then install the Stackable Operators:

helm install --wait commons-operator stackable-stable/commons-operator --version 25.3.0
helm install --wait secret-operator stackable-stable/secret-operator --version 25.3.0
helm install --wait listener-operator stackable-stable/listener-operator --version 25.3.0
helm install --wait zookeeper-operator stackable-stable/zookeeper-operator --version 25.3.0
helm install --wait kafka-operator stackable-stable/kafka-operator --version 25.3.0bash

Helm deploys the operators in a Kubernetes Deployment and apply the CRDs for the Apache Kafka service (as well as the CRDs for the required operators).

What’s next

Set up a Kafka cluster and its dependencies.