Kafka Manager provides a web interface for inspecting Kafka clusters and performing administrative actions such as managing topics or partition assignments. It can be useful when operators want a shared view of broker state and consumer progress rather than using command-line tools for every task. The project is now called CMAK, and its historical ZooKeeper-based assumptions need checking against the Kafka cluster in use. Administrative access can change or delete real messaging data.
Current guidance
The historical stable/kafka-manager chart names yahoo/kafka-manager. The upstream repository now calls the project CMAK, Cluster Manager for Apache Kafka, and explicitly documents the name change. It is a management interface with potentially destructive topic and partition operations, separate from the Kafka brokers it manages.
The current README still documents ZooKeeper-host configuration and old Kafka compatibility examples. A reachable CMAK page does not prove compatibility with a current KRaft-only cluster. Identify the broker version and metadata mode, then require explicit evidence that the chosen manager supports the operations and authentication model you need.
Protect the management UI and its credentials, and distinguish read-only inspection from topic deletion, reassignment or configuration changes. Test consumer-offset visibility and a harmless administrative operation on a disposable cluster before granting production privileges. Preserve any manager-specific configuration during migration, but treat broker data and recovery independently. The archived chart’s bundled app version should not be substituted for a current compatibility statement; no suitable successor or current cluster combination is certified here.
Historical upstream link check · 2026-10-09
The recorded upstream address responded successfully (HTTP 200) on 2026-10-09. GitHub confirms that helm/charts is archived: this is a historical chart distribution, not evidence that the application itself is retired. Link availability does not certify the historical installation instructions or current security support.
Website availability is separate from project, chart and image support. Use the current guidance and primary sources on this page to assess the distribution.
Historical Kubedex content
Original publication: 2018-12-22T08:30:49+00:00. Preserved for context. Commands, versions, prices and results below reflect the original research.
Kafka Manager is a tool for managing Apache Kafka.
It supports the following :
- Manage multiple clusters
- Easy inspection of cluster state (topics, consumers, offsets, brokers, replica distribution, partition distribution)
- Run preferred replica election
- Generate partition assignments with option to select brokers to use
- Run reassignment of partition (based on generated assignments)
- Create a topic with optional topic configs (0.8.1.1 has different configs than 0.8.2+)
- Delete topic (only supported on 0.8.2+ and remember set delete.topic.enable=true in broker config)
- Topic list now indicates topics marked for deletion (only supported on 0.8.2+)
- Batch generate partition assignments for multiple topics with option to select brokers to use
- Batch run reassignment of partition for multiple topics
- Add partitions to existing topic
- Update config for existing topic
- Optionally enable JMX polling for broker level and topic level metrics.
- Optionally filter out consumers that do not have ids/ owners/ & offsets/ directories in zookeeper.
The post kafka-manager appeared first on kubedex.com.
Sources & further reading
Spotted something that needs another look?
Help improve this page →