:_mod-docs-content-type: SNIPPET

//standard custom resources intro text
The deployment of Kafka components onto a Kubernetes cluster using Strimzi is highly configurable through the use of custom resources. 
These resources are created as instances of APIs introduced by Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), which extend Kubernetes resources.

CRDs act as configuration instructions to describe the custom resources in a Kubernetes cluster,
and are provided with Strimzi for each Kafka component used in a deployment, as well as users and topics.
CRDs and custom resources are defined as YAML files.
Example YAML files are provided with the Strimzi distribution.

CRDs also allow Strimzi resources to benefit from native Kubernetes features like CLI accessibility and configuration validation.
