// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// assembly-storage.adoc

[id='considerations-for-data-storage-{context}']
= Storage considerations

[role="_abstract"]
Efficient data storage is essential for Strimzi to operate effectively, and block storage is strongly recommended. 
Strimzi has been tested only with block storage, and file storage solutions like NFS are not guaranteed to work. 

Common block storage types supported by Kubernetes include:

* Cloud-based block storage solutions:
** Amazon EBS (for AWS)
** Azure Disk Storage (for Microsoft Azure)
** Persistent Disk (for Google Cloud)
* Persistent storage (for bare metal deployments) using {K8sLocalPersistentVolumes}
* Storage Area Network (SAN) volumes accessed by protocols like Fibre Channel or iSCSI

NOTE: Strimzi does not require Kubernetes raw block volumes.

== File systems

Kafka uses a file system for storing messages.
Strimzi is compatible with the XFS and ext4 file systems, which are commonly used with Kafka.
Consider the underlying architecture and requirements of your deployment when choosing and setting up your file system.

For more information, refer to {ApacheKafkaFileSystem} in the Kafka documentation.

== Disk usage
Solid-state drives (SSDs), though not essential, can improve the performance of Kafka in large clusters where data is sent to and received from multiple topics asynchronously.

NOTE: Replicated storage is not required, as Kafka provides built-in data replication.
