# Prerequisites for Installing Confluent Platform with Ansible Playbooks ## General requirements The following table summarizes version compatibility among Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform (Confluent Ansible) and other required components. In the table, the **Confluent Platform** specifies the default Confluent Platform version that the particular version of **Confluent Ansible** installs. | Confluent Platform : Confluent Ansible | Ansible and Python Versions | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - 8.3.0 : 8.3.0
- 8.2.0 : 8.2.0
- 8.1.0 : 8.1.0
- 8.0.1 : 8.0.1
- 8.0.0 : 8.0.0 | - Ansible 11.x [ansible-core 2.18] & Python 3.11 - 3.12
- Ansible 10.x [ansible-core 2.17] & Python 3.10 - 3.12
- Ansible 9.x [ansible-core 2.16] & Python 3.10 - 3.12 [*Note 1*] | | - 7.9.3 : 7.9.3
- 7.9.2 : 7.9.2
- 7.9.1 : 7.9.1
- 7.9.0 : 7.9.0
- 7.8.4 : 7.8.4
- 7.8.3 : 7.8.3
- 7.8.2 : 7.8.2 [*Note 2*]
- 7.8.0 : 7.8.0
- 7.7.5 : 7.7.5
- 7.7.4 : 7.7.4
- 7.7.3 : 7.7.3
- 7.7.2 : 7.7.2
- 7.7.1 : 7.7.1 [*Note 3*]
- 7.7.0 : 7.7.0 | * Ansible 9.x [ansible-core 2.16] & Python 3.10 - 3.12
* Ansible 8.x [ansible-core 2.15] & Python 3.9 - 3.11
* Ansible 7.x [ansible-core 2.14] & Python 3.9 - 3.11 | | - 7.6.7 : 7.6.7
- 7.6.6 : 7.6.6
- 7.6.5 : 7.6.5
- 7.6.4 : 7.6.4
- 7.6.3 : 7.6.3
- 7.6.2 : 7.6.2
- 7.6.1 : 7.6.1
- 7.6.0 : 7.6.0
- 7.5.10 : 7.5.10
- 7.5.9 : 7.5.9
- 7.5.8 : 7.5.8
- 7.5.7 : 7.5.7
- 7.5.6 : 7.5.6
- 7.5.5 : 7.5.5
- 7.5.4 : 7.5.4
- 7.5.3 : 7.5.3
- 7.5.2 : 7.5.2
- 7.5.1 : 7.5.1
- 7.5.0 : 7.5.0
- 7.4.11 : 7.4.11
- 7.4.10 : 7.4.10
- 7.4.9 : 7.4.9
- 7.4.8 : 7.4.8
- 7.4.7 : 7.4.7
- 7.4.6 : 7.4.6
- 7.4.5 : 7.4.5
- 7.4.4 : 7.4.4
- 7.4.3 : 7.4.3
- 7.4.2 : 7.4.2
- 7.4.1 : 7.4.1
- 7.4.0 : 7.4.0 | - Ansible 7.x [ansible-core 2.14] & Python 3.6 - 3.11
- Ansible 6.x [ansible-core 2.13] & Python 3.6 - 3.10
- Ansible 5.x [ansible-core 2.12] & Python 3.6 - 3.10
- Ansible 4.x [ansible-core 2.11] & Python 3.6 - 3.9 | | - 7.3.14 : 7.3.15
- 7.3.13 : 7.3.14
- 7.3.12 : 7.3.13
- 7.3.11 : 7.3.12
- 7.3.10 : 7.3.11
- 7.3.9 : 7.3.10
- 7.3.8 : 7.3.9
- 7.3.7 : 7.3.8
- 7.3.6 : 7.3.7
- 7.3.5 : 7.3.6
- 7.3.4 : 7.3.5
- 7.3.3 : 7.3.4
- 7.3.2 : 7.3.3
- 7.3.1 : 7.3.2
- 7.3.0 : 7.3.1
- 7.2.15 : 7.2.15
- 7.2.14 : 7.2.14
- 7.2.13 : 7.2.13
- 7.2.12 : 7.2.12
- 7.2.11 : 7.2.11
- 7.2.10 : 7.2.10
- 7.2.9 : 7.2.9
- 7.2.8 : 7.2.8
- 7.2.7 : 7.2.7
- 7.2.6 : 7.2.6
- 7.2.5 : 7.2.5
- 7.2.4 : 7.2.4
- 7.2.3 : 7.2.3 | - Ansible 6.x [ansible-core 2.13] & Python 3.6 - 3.10
- Ansible 5.x [ansible-core 2.12] & Python 3.6 - 3.10
- Ansible 4.x [ansible-core 2.11] & Python 3.6 - 3.9 | | - 7.2.2 : 7.2.2
- 7.2.1 : 7.2.1
- 7.2.0 : 7.2.0 | - Ansible 4.x [ansible-core 2.11] & Python 3.6 - 3.9 | * [ *Note 1* ] Even though Ansible 9.x reaches its end-of-life in May 2025, Confluent Ansible will continue to support the version because it is the only Ansible version (core - 2.16) which is compatible with RHEL 8. * [ *Note 2* ] Confluent Ansible does not have the 7.8.1 release. * [ *Note 3* ] When running Confluent Ansible 7.7.x, you may see the following warning message: ```text [WARNING]: Collection confluent.platform does not support Ansible version 2.15 ``` The minimum supported version of Ansible was updated in Confluent Ansible, and you can ignore this warning message. ### Unified Stream Manager and Confluent Control Center version compatibility The following table lists the Unified Stream Manager and Confluent Control Center versions supported by each Confluent Ansible version: | Confluent Ansible Version | Unified Stream Manager Versions | Confluent Control Center Versions | |-----------------------------|-----------------------------------|-------------------------------------| | Confluent Ansible 8.3.x | 1.0.x - 1.1.x | 2.4.x - 2.5.x | | Confluent Ansible 8.2.x | 1.0.x - 1.1.x | 2.4.x - 2.5.x | | Confluent Ansible 8.1.x | 1.0.x - 1.1.x | 2.3.x | | Confluent Ansible 8.0.x | N/A | 2.2.x | | Confluent Ansible 7.9.x | 1.0.x - 1.1.x | 2.0.x - 2.1.x | The prerequisites and considerations for installing and using Confluent Ansible 8.3 are: * Ansible package 7.x+ We recommend installing the Ansible package instead of Ansible Core (ansible-core). Ansible Core contains a minimal number of modules and plugins, and you might have to manually install additional modules and plugin that Confluent Ansible requires. For details on selecting an Ansible package and version to install, see [Installing Ansible — Ansible Community Documentation](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/9/installation_guide/intro_installation.html). * SSH access between Ansible control nodes and Confluent Platform hosts For the steps and the command to verify the SSH connections for all the hosts involved, see [Prepare Ansible Inventory File to Install Confluent Platform](ansible-prepare.md#ansible-prepare). * `sudo` access for SSH user to all Confluent Platform hosts Starting in 7.1.0, Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform supports tag-based separation of tasks that require root permission from tasks that do not require root permission. You can run the latter tasks without root privileges. However, there are certain steps where you do need root access. For details, see [Install Confluent Platform without root access](ansible-install.md#ansible-install-without-root-access). * (Optional) Internet connectivity to pull Confluent Platform software from `packages.confluent.io`. If you don’t have internet access, refer to [Deploy Confluent Platform in Air-Gapped Environment Using Ansible Playbooks](ansible-airgap.md#ansible-airgap-deployment) for deploying in an air-gapped environment. * For detailed version requirements for the controller node, the managed node, and Python, see [Ansible Support Matrix](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/release_and_maintenance.html#ansible-core-support-matrix). * For Unified Stream Manager and Confluent Control Center version compatibility, see the [compatibility matrix](#ansible-requirements-usm-c3-compatibility) earlier in this topic. * The Python versions specified in the table apply to both the control node and target node. It is recommended that these versions be set as the system default Python on each node. ## Supported Confluent Platform versions It is highly recommended that you use the version of Confluent Ansible as referred in the above table in accordance with the Confluent Platform version. ## Hardware Starting in the 7.6.0 release, Confluent Ansible supports the X86 and ARM64 hardware architecture for the production workloads. For more information about hardware support, see the [on-premises system requirements](/platform/current/installation/system-requirements.html) for Confluent Platform components. ## Operating systems Confluent Ansible supports the operating systems listed in the [Confluent Platform System Requirements](/platform/current/installation/system-requirements.html#sys-req-os), except for those marked as deprecated. Note that, for Confluent Ansible 8.0 and Confluent Platform 8.0, you can use RHEL 8 only with Ansible 9.x. RHEL 8 does not support Ansible versions later than 9.x. ## Network ### Internet protocols You can use Confluent Ansible to deploy Confluent Platform on machines on an IPv6 network, an IPv4 network, or dual-stack with both IPv4 and IPv6. ### Ports Refer to the [ports used](/platform/current/installation/system-requirements.html#sys-req-ports) by Confluent Platform components. ## Users Each Confluent Platform component runs under its own user set up during installation. The usernames are prefixed with `cp-` followed by the component name. For example, `cp-kafka` and `cp-schema-registry`. The one exception is that KRaft runs as the `cp-kafka` user. ## Time synchronization Clock synchronization on each Kafka broker is required to ensure the full system functions correctly. See [Time synchronization requirement](/platform/current/installation/system-requirements.html#time-sync) for details. ## Locale The en_US.UTF-8 locale is required for installing Confluent Platform using Confluent Ansible. ## Next step [Download Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform](ansible-download.md#ansible-download).