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Redpanda Migrator¶
Redpanda Migrator is a bundle of Redpanda Connect components that replicates topics, consumer-group offsets, schemas, and ACLs between two Kafka-API clusters — typically from an existing Apache Kafka deployment to a Redpanda target. Positioned as a Kafka-Connect-alternative migration path that "simplif[ies] the shift from Kafka to Redpanda" without a separate Kafka Connect cluster.
Stub page — expand on future Redpanda Migrator internals sources.
Offset translation (2024-12-03, Redpanda 24.3)¶
Starting with the 24.3 release, Redpanda Migrator supports offset translation for consumer applications:
"Redpanda Migrator now supports offset translation for consumer applications that need to switch between reading data from the source cluster and the target cluster without losing their place in the stream. Enable seamless failover and ensure that consumers automatically read from the correct offsets in your migration's target cluster."
(Source: sources/2024-12-03-redpanda-redpanda-243-extends-lakehouses-with-streaming-data-cdc)
Available as an Enterprise connector for self-managed Redpanda Connect and in Redpanda Cloud via Redpanda Connect.
Component reference:
redpanda_migrator_offsets.
Architectural relationship to Shadowing¶
The later 2025-11-06 release of Redpanda Shadowing displaces the Migrator + offset-translation path for Redpanda-to-Redpanda DR specifically — Shadowing uses broker-internal replication with byte-for-byte offset preservation, eliminating the need for a translation map.
Migrator remains the path for:
- Kafka → Redpanda migrations (one-time or ongoing) where the source cluster is not a Redpanda broker and therefore broker-internal replication isn't available.
- Redpanda ↔ Redpanda cross-cluster flows that need Kafka-Connect-style pipeline flexibility (transformation, filtering, schema projection) alongside replication.
See the 2025-11-06 Shadowing launch post's verbatim: "No MirrorMaker 2 or Redpanda Migrator connectors are used under the hood" — explicit architectural distinction.
2026-08-25 update (Redpanda 26.2). Shadowing now sources from Confluent/Kafka clusters too — including API-mode Schema Registry replication over the REST API — narrowing Migrator's remaining "source isn't a Redpanda broker" niche for schema-carrying migrations. The 26.2 post frames the connector approach as "another deployment to stand up, secure, and babysit for the duration of the migration" and positions in-broker Shadowing as the successor. Migrator's residual advantage is Kafka-Connect-style pipeline transformation (Bloblang mapping, filtering, projection) that Shadowing's faithful-replica model does not offer. (Source: sources/2026-08-25-redpanda-push-button-migration-from-confluent-to-redpanda-with-shadowing)
Seen in¶
- sources/2024-12-03-redpanda-redpanda-243-extends-lakehouses-with-streaming-data-cdc — offset-translation capability disclosure.
- sources/2026-08-25-redpanda-push-button-migration-from-confluent-to-redpanda-with-shadowing — Shadowing 26.2 supersedes Migrator for Confluent/Kafka schema-carrying migrations (mentioned as prior state: "Redpanda Migrator in Redpanda Connect eased some of this, but it was still another deployment to stand up, secure, and babysit.").
Related¶
- systems/redpanda · systems/redpanda-connect — host.
- systems/redpanda-shadowing — the 2025-11 architectural successor for Redpanda-to-Redpanda DR.
- systems/kafka — typical source cluster.
- cross-cluster-offset-translation-map — the failover-state substrate Migrator maintains.
- concepts/offset-preserving-replication — Shadowing's dual approach.
- concepts/asynchronous-replication — the upstream Kafka analogue Migrator competes with.
- concepts/schema-registry — the 26.2 Shadowing capability that narrows Migrator's schema-migration niche.
- companies/redpanda — vendor.