Control infrastructure and recover Kafka data
Crossplane reconciles cloud and Kubernetes resources from declarative APIs. OSO Kafka Backup preserves Kafka records and consumer offsets for historical recovery.
Crossplane Kafka backup: two different control layers
Crossplane is strong at building platform control planes. Its providers expose external infrastructure as Kubernetes resources, then controllers reconcile those resources toward their declared state.
That model helps teams provision buckets, networks, clusters, and other dependencies through a consistent API. It also fits GitOps workflows because infrastructure declarations can live in version control.
OSO Kafka Backup protects the data inside a Kafka-compatible cluster. It copies topic records, consumer group offsets, and topic configuration to S3, Azure Blob, GCS, or a filesystem.
Crossplane can recreate declared infrastructure after a failure. It does not retain historical Kafka records or rewind a topic before an unwanted write. The disaster recovery guide explains why both recovery layers matter.
| Feature | OSO Kafka Backup | Crossplane |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Kafka data backup and restore | Infrastructure control plane |
| Control model | Backup and restore operations | Continuous desired-state reconciliation |
| Managed state | Kafka records, offsets, and topic settings | Kubernetes and external resources |
| Cloud provisioning | Not an infrastructure provisioner | Provider-managed resources |
| Kafka record capture | Built in | Not a Crossplane function |
| Consumer group offsets | Captured for recovery | Not retained as backup data |
| Point-in-time restore | Millisecond timestamp | Not a data-recovery feature |
| Logical error recovery | Restore an earlier known-good state | Reconciles the declared current state |
| GitOps fit | Operator custom resources | Core control-plane pattern |
| Best fit | Recovering Kafka data | Provisioning and governing infrastructure |
When to choose Crossplane or Kafka backup
Choose Crossplane when your platform team needs declarative APIs for external infrastructure. It is well suited to provisioning and governing cloud resources from Kubernetes.
Choose OSO Kafka Backup when you must restore Kafka records and consumer positions from an earlier known-good time. Backups also remain portable across reachable Kafka clusters.
Run both when Crossplane manages the recovery environment and OSO Kafka Backup protects the stream data. The operator GitOps guide shows how backup resources fit the same review and delivery model.
Frequently asked questions
Can Crossplane back up Kafka topic data?
Crossplane manages declared infrastructure through providers and Kubernetes resources. It does not copy Kafka records or consumer group offsets into recoverable backup storage.
Does recreating a Kafka cluster restore its records?
No. Recreating brokers, networking, and storage restores infrastructure capacity. You still need a data backup to restore topic records, topic settings, and consumer positions.
Can Crossplane and OSO Kafka Backup work together?
Yes. Crossplane can manage cloud infrastructure, while OSO Kafka Backup stores independent Kafka recovery points and restores them after the target cluster is available.
Which tool handles point-in-time Kafka recovery?
OSO Kafka Backup restores topic data to a millisecond timestamp. Crossplane reconciles declared resource state and does not provide historical Kafka data recovery.
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