:_mod-docs-content-type: PROCEDURE

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

[id='proc-scaling-down-node-pools-{context}']
= Removing nodes from a node pool

[role="_abstract"]
This procedure describes how to scale down a node pool to remove nodes.
Currently, scale down is only possible for broker-only node pools containing nodes that run as dedicated brokers.

In this procedure, we start with four nodes for node pool `pool-a`:

.Kafka nodes in the node pool
[source,shell,subs="+quotes"]
----
NAME                 READY  STATUS   RESTARTS
my-cluster-pool-a-0  1/1    Running  0
my-cluster-pool-a-1  1/1    Running  0
my-cluster-pool-a-2  1/1    Running  0
my-cluster-pool-a-3  1/1    Running  0
----

Node IDs are appended to the name of the node on creation.
We remove node `my-cluster-pool-a-3`, which has a node ID of `3`.

NOTE: During this process, the ID of the node that holds the partition replicas changes. Consider any dependencies that reference the node ID.

.Prerequisites

* xref:deploying-cluster-operator-str[The Cluster Operator must be deployed.]
* xref:proc-configuring-deploying-cruise-control-str[Cruise Control is deployed with Kafka.]
* (Optional) xref:proc-automating-rebalances-{context}[Auto-rebalancing is enabled]. +
If auto-rebalancing is enabled, partition reassignment happens automatically during the node scaling process, so you don't need to manually initiate the reassignment through Cruise Control.
* (Optional) For scale down operations, xref:proc-managing-node-pools-ids-{context}[you can specify the node IDs to use in the operation]. +
If you have assigned a range of node IDs for the operation, the ID of the node being removed is determined by the sequence of nodes given.
If you have assigned a single node ID, the node with the specified ID is removed.  
Otherwise, the node with the highest available ID in the node pool is removed.  

.Procedure

. Reassign the partitions before decreasing the number of nodes in the node pool.
+
* If auto-rebalancing is enabled, partitions are moved off brokers that are going to be removed automatically, so you can skip this step. 
* If auto-rebalancing is not enabled, use the Cruise Control `remove-brokers` mode to move partition replicas off the brokers that are going to be removed.
+
.Using Cruise Control to reassign partition replicas
[source,shell,subs="+attributes"]
----
apiVersion: {KafkaRebalanceApiVersion}
kind: KafkaRebalance
metadata:
  # ...
spec:
  mode: remove-brokers
  brokers: [3]
----
+
We are reassigning partitions from node `my-cluster-pool-a-3`. 
The reassignment can take some time depending on the number of topics and partitions in the cluster.

. After the reassignment process is complete, and the node being removed has no live partitions, reduce the number of Kafka nodes in the node pool.
+
For example, node pool `pool-a` has four replicas. We remove a node by decreasing the number of replicas:
+
[source,shell]
----
kubectl scale kafkanodepool pool-a --replicas=3
----
+
.Output shows three Kafka nodes in the node pool
[source,shell]
----
NAME                       READY  STATUS   RESTARTS
my-cluster-pool-b-kafka-0  1/1    Running  0
my-cluster-pool-b-kafka-1  1/1    Running  0
my-cluster-pool-b-kafka-2  1/1    Running  0
----