In this post, we’ll describe how to provision your Apache Kafka cluster using either Supertubes or the Koperator so that it is accessible by external client applications that run outside the Kubernetes cluster. There are two methods that allow you to externally publish your Kafka cluster: using LoadBalancer type services using NodePort type services The LoadBalancer method is a very convenient way to publish your Kafka cluster, as it allows you to forgo setting up a Load Balancer, provisioning public IPs, configuring routing rules, etc.