System requirements

Dependencies

Kpow is provided as either a single Docker container or a JAR file.

Kpow connects to your Kafka cluster (and other Kafka resources) to snapshot them every minute. Those snapshots are computed into metrics. Snapshots, metrics, an audit log, and any other data Kpow requires to operate is held in local topics in your cluster.

Beyond at least one Kafka cluster Kpow has no further dependencies.

Memory and CPU

We recommend 8GB memory and 2 CPU for a production installation but encourage you to experiment with constraining resources as much as possible.

Kpow requires minimum heap of 256MB to start running, 1GB should be suitable for small / dev environments.

Memory constraints

Our Docker container starts the JAR file with initial and max memory constraints set to 70% of the resources provided to the container.

CMD java -XX:InitialRAMPercentage=80 -XX:MaxRAMPercentage=80 -jar /opt/factorhouse/lib/kpow.jar

Make sure you to set the memory available to the container on startup (-m8G in this case):

docker run -p 3000:3000 -m8G --env-file ./kpow.env factorhouse/kpow-ee:latest

If running in Kubernetes ensure that your pod resources are set. Preferably run with pod QOS class guaranteed by setting both the min and max memory and CPU to the same desired values.

When using the JAR file directly ensure you set suitable memory constraints with -Xmx and -Xms:

BOOTSTRAP="your-bootstrap-url" java -Xms8G -Xmx8G -jar ./kpow-latest.jar

Failing to set memory constraints may cause Kpow to consume more memory than required.

Disk space

Kpow does not use local disk so does not require any particular storage beyond configuration.

Kpow topics in your cluster may take up to 10GB replicated disk with the default data retention of 1-week.

Network

Kpow must be installed in reasonably close proximity to your Kafka resources as network latency can impact the ability to snapshot and compute telemetry.

Multi-Region Multi-Cluster installations are not officially supported, though we are aware users have configured such installations with some success.

Resources

Kpow uses the following resources:

A Kafka AdminClient to snapshot and update Kafka cluster resources
A SchemaRegistryClient to snapshot and update Schema and Subject resources
The Connect REST API to snapshot and update Kafka Connect resources
A Kafka Consumer to inspect data on topics
A Kafka Producer to produce data to topics

Kpow must be connected to at least one Kafka cluster.