> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://artie.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Manage your Managed Kafka cluster

> Create and delete topics, change retention, edit the IP allowlist, generate a new password, resize, and delete or restore an Artie Managed Kafka cluster.

## What you'll need

* To be a company admin. Changes to the cluster, its topics, and its login need one.
* A cluster that's active. Open it from the **Kafka** page in the Artie Dashboard.

## Topics

Create topics from the **Topics** tab. For everything else, open the topic.

| Task | Click | Good to know |
| - | - | - |
| Create a topic | **New topic** | Names use letters, digits, `.`, `_`, and `-`, up to 249 characters. Partitions default to 1. Every partition has 3 replicas. |
| Add partitions | **Add partitions** | You can't remove partitions later. |
| Change retention | **Change retention** | Whole days. Topics with tiered storage, even paused, keep at most 14 days. |
| Tiered storage | **Turn on**, **Pause**, **Resume**, or **Change days on disk** | Pausing deletes nothing. Compacted topics can't use tiered storage. |
| Delete a topic | **Delete topic**, then type the topic's name | Deletes the topic and all of its messages for good. |

> [!WARNING]
>
> Shorter retention and deleted topics can't be undone. Kafka deletes the messages, and clients still reading them lose them or get errors.

Topics starting with `__` are Kafka's internal topics and can't be changed or deleted.

## Cluster settings

Change these on the **Settings** tab. The cluster runs one change at a time.

| Setting | Restarts brokers | Good to know |
| - | - | - |
| Allowed IP ranges | No | Click **Edit**, change the ranges, then **Save ranges**. Takes about a minute. Clients in a range you remove are cut off. |
| Brokers | No | Add up to 30. Each broker adds a port, so widen your firewall rules first. New topics use every broker; existing partitions stay where they are. Removing brokers isn't available yet. |
| Instance type | Yes, one at a time | Brokers restart onto new machines. |
| Storage per broker | No | Grow only. AWS allows 3 storage changes per 24 hours, at least an hour apart. |
| Tiered storage | Days on disk and disk cap: yes, one at a time | Turning it on or off doesn't restart. Turning it off pauses it on every topic. |
| Storage autoscaling | No | Changes take effect within 12 hours. |

> [!WARNING]
>
> If you remove every allowed IP range, any client with the password can connect from anywhere.

To rename the cluster, click its name at the top of its page. The address doesn't change.

## Generate a new password

On the **Connect** tab, click **Generate new password**. Your apps stop connecting with the old password as soon as the new one is ready, so update them right away.

## Delete and restore a cluster

**1. Delete the cluster**

At the top of the cluster's page, click **Delete cluster** and type the cluster's name to confirm. You can delete a cluster when it's active or failed.

> [!WARNING]
>
> Clients lose access as soon as you delete the cluster.

**2. Restore it within 7 days, if you need to**

Artie keeps a deleted cluster's data for 7 days. Deleted clusters are listed under **Deleted** on the **Kafka** page with the date their data is kept until. Click **Restore**, then **Restore cluster**.

The restored cluster has the same name, address, topics, consumer group offsets, password, size, and IP allowlist. Restoring counts toward your [account limits](https://artie.com/docs/managed-kafka/limits.md#account-limits), so a cluster you created after deleting this one can block the restore. A cluster that never finished its first deploy has nothing to restore.

After 7 days, the cluster's topics and messages are deleted for good.


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