Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

Chapter 7. Nodes page

The Nodes page lists all nodes created for a Kafka cluster, including nodes that perform broker, controller, or dual roles. You can filter the list by node pool, role (broker or controller), or status.

For each node, you can view its status. For broker nodes, the page shows partition distribution across the cluster, including the number of partition leaders and followers.

Broker status is shown as one of the following:

Not Running
The broker has not yet been started or has been explicitly stopped.
Starting
The broker is initializing and connecting to the cluster. It is discovering and joining the metadata quorum.
Recovery
The broker has joined the cluster but is in recovery mode. It is replicating necessary data and metadata before becoming fully operational. It is not yet serving client requests.
Running
The broker is fully operational. It is registered with the controller and serving client requests.
Pending Controlled Shutdown
The broker has initiated a controlled shutdown. It will shut down gracefully after completing in-flight operations.
Shutting Down
The broker is shutting down. Client connections are closing, and internal resources are being released.
Unknown
The broker’s state is unknown, possibly due to an unexpected error or failure.

If the broker has a rack ID, it identifies the rack or datacenter in which the broker resides.

Controller status is shown as one of the following, describing the controller’s role within the metadata quorum:

Quorum leader
The controller is the active leader, coordinating cluster metadata updates and managing operations like partition reassignments and broker registrations.
Quorum follower
The controller is a follower in the metadata quorum, passively replicating updates from the leader while maintaining a synchronized state. It is ready to take over as the leader if needed.
Quorum follower lagged
The controller is a follower but has fallen behind the leader. It is not fully up to date with the latest metadata and may be ineligible for leader election until it catches up.
Unknown
The controller’s state is unknown, possibly due to an unexpected error or failure.

Click on the right arrow (>) next to a node name to view more information about the node, including its hostname and disk usage.

Click on the Rebalance tab to show any rebalances taking place on the cluster.

Note

Consider rebalancing if partition distribution is uneven to ensure efficient resource utilization.

7.1. Managing rebalances
Copy link

When you configure KafkaRebalance resources to generate optimization proposals on a cluster, you can check their status from the Rebalance tab. The Rebalance tab presents a chronological list of KafkaRebalance resources from which you can manage the optimization proposals. You can filter the list by name, status, or rebalance mode.

Note

Cruise Control must be enabled to run alongside the Kafka cluster in order to use the Rebalance tab. For more information on setting up and using Cruise Control to generate proposals, see the Streams for Apache Kafka documentation.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Kafka cluster in the Streams for Apache Kafka Console, then click Kafka nodes.

  2. Check the information on the Rebalance tab.

    For each rebalance, you can view its status and the time it was last updated.

    Expand
    Table 7.1. Rebalance status descriptions
    StatusDescription

    New

    Resource has not been observed by the operator before

    PendingProposal

    Optimization proposal not generated

    ProposalReady

    Optimization proposal is ready for approval

    Rebalancing

    Rebalance in progress

    Stopped

    Rebalance stopped

    NotReady

    Error ocurred with the rebalance

    Ready

    Rebalance complete

    ReconciliationPaused

    Rebalance is paused

    Note

    The status of the KafkaRebalance resource changes to ReconciliationPaused when the strimzi.io/pause-reconciliation annotation is set to true in its configuration.

  3. Click on the right arrow (>) next to a rebalance name to view more information about the broker, including its rebalance mode, and whether auto-approval is enabled. If the rebalance involved brokers being removed or added, they are also listed.

Optimization proposals can be generated in one of three modes:

  • full is the default mode and runs a full rebalance.
  • add-brokers is the mode used after adding brokers when scaling up a Kafka cluster.
  • remove-brokers is the mode used before removing brokers when scaling down a Kafka cluster.

If auto-approval is enabled for a proposal, a successfully generated proposal goes straight into a cluster rebalance.

Viewing optimization proposals

Click on the name of a KafkaRebalance resource to view a generated optimization proposal. An optimization proposal is a summary of proposed changes that would produce a more balanced Kafka cluster, with partition workloads distributed more evenly among the brokers.

For more information on the properties shown on the proposal and what they mean, see the Streams for Apache Kafka documentation.

Managing rebalances

Select the options icon (three vertical dots) and click on an option to manage a rebalance.

  • Click Approve to approve a proposal.
    The rebalance outlined in the proposal is performed on the Kafka cluster.
  • Click Refresh to generate a fresh optimization proposal.
    If there has been a gap between generating a proposal and approving it, refresh the proposal so that the current state of the cluster is taken into account with a rebalance.
  • Click Stop to stop a rebalance.
    Rebalances can take a long time and may impact the performance of your cluster. Stopping a rebalance can help avoid performance issues and allow you to revert changes if needed.
Note

The options available depend on the status of the KafkaBalance resource. For example, it’s not possible to approve an optimization proposal if it’s not ready.

Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Theme

© 2026 Red HatBack to top