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# Kafka-less mode for Confluent Control Center

You can run Control Center without a bootstrap Kafka cluster when you operate in
CMF-enabled management mode. This configuration allows Control Center to remain
stateless in environments that do not require Kafka-based state storage, such as
those used only to monitor Flink clusters.

With Kafka-less mode, you can monitor and manage Flink clusters without provisioning
a bootstrap Kafka cluster. This mode is useful for Confluent Platform Flink-only deployments where
you use Control Center exclusively for Flink cluster management.

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## Configuration

To run Control Center in Kafka-less mode, configure the following required properties:

```none
# Required: Enable CMF mode
confluent.controlcenter.cmf.enable=true

# Required: Enable management mode
confluent.controlcenter.mode.enable=management

# Required: Disable Prometheus metrics
confluent.controlcenter.prometheus.enable=false

# Omit bootstrap.servers entirely
# bootstrap.servers=
```

## Requirements and constraints

Meet these requirements to run Control Center in Kafka-less mode:

- **Enable CMF mode**: Set `confluent.controlcenter.cmf.enable=true`
- **Enable management mode**: Set `confluent.controlcenter.mode.enable=management`
- **Disable Prometheus metrics**: Set `confluent.controlcenter.prometheus.enable=false`
- **Omit bootstrap servers**: Remove the `bootstrap.servers` property from the configuration. Do not set this property to an empty string.

#### IMPORTANT
This feature currently supports only configurations that do not use role-based access control (RBAC).

In Kafka-less mode, Control Center operates in a stateless manner. The interface does not
display monitoring or metrics information that requires Kafka-based state storage.

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## Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK) support

When you use Kafka-less mode with Confluent for Kubernetes (CFK), complete the following
additional requirements and configuration steps.

### Version requirements

CFK version 3.2.0 and later support empty bootstrap servers. Ensure your deployment
meets this requirement before you configure Kafka-less mode.

### Configure the Confluent Control Center custom resource

Add the following annotation to the Confluent Control Center custom resource to disable the Kafka dependency:

```yaml
metadata:
  annotations:
    platform.confluent.io/disable-kafka-dependency: "true"  # default is false
```

This annotation instructs CFK to skip the Kafka dependency check when it deploys Control Center.

### Configure dependencies

In the Confluent Control Center custom resource, omit Kafka from `spec.dependencies` altogether.

```yaml
spec:
  dependencies: {}
```

## Use cases

Kafka-less mode is ideal for the following deployment scenarios:

* For Flink-only deployments, organizations that use Confluent Platform exclusively for Apache Flink®
  and do not require Kafka clusters can run Control Center to manage Flink environments
  without the overhead of a bootstrap Kafka cluster.
* Use this mode to simplify infrastructure by removing the need for a Kafka cluster
  when you only need Flink management capabilities.
* This mode provides a lightweight option for development and testing environments
  focused on Flink workloads.

## Related topics

- [Reduced infrastructure mode](../overview.md#reduced-infra-mode) - General management mode without monitoring
- [Configure CMF](configuration.md#cmf-c3-config) - CMF configuration properties for Control Center
- [Use Confluent Control Center with Confluent Manager for Apache Flink](../cmf.md#cmf-flink-c3) - Using Control Center with Confluent Manager for Apache Flink
- [Control Center Configuration Reference for Confluent Platform](configuration.md#controlcenter-configuration) - Complete Control Center configuration reference
- [Data retention for Confluent Control Center](data-retention.md#c3-data-retention) - Data retention configuration for Control Center