:_mod-docs-content-type: REFERENCE

[role="_abstract"]
= C

== Clients CA
[id="glossary-clients-ca_{context}"]
A Certificate Authority managed by the Strimzi Cluster Operator that issues TLS certificates for Kafka clients.
These certificates are used for mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication between external clients and Kafka brokers.

== Cluster CA
[id="glossary-cluster-ca_{context}"]
A Certificate Authority managed by the Strimzi Cluster Operator that issues TLS certificates to secure communication between Kafka brokers, internal components, and Kafka clients. 
These certificates enable encrypted and authenticated communication over TLS.

== Cluster Operator
[id="glossary-cluster-operator_{context}"]
The central operator responsible for deploying and managing Kafka clusters, Kafka Connect, Kafka MirrorMaker, and related components.

For more information, see the following:

* link:{BookURLOverview}#overview-components-cluster-operator-str[Cluster Operator^]
* link:{BookURLDeploying}#ref-operator-cluster-str[Configuring the Cluster Operator^]

== Cruise Control
[id="glossary-cruise-control_{context}"]
A component that provides automated Kafka cluster rebalancing and optimization.
Cruise Control is configured through the `Kafka` custom resource, while rebalancing operations are managed using the `KafkaRebalance` custom resource.

For more information, see the following:

* link:{BookURLDeploying}#cruise-control-concepts-str[Using Cruise Control for cluster rebalancing^]
* link:{BookURLDeploying}#proc-cruise-control-topic-replication-str[Using Cruise Control to modify topic replication factor^]
* link:{BookURLDeploying}#proc-cruise-control-moving-data-str[Using Cruise Control to reassign partitions on JBOD disks^]