# Kafka Quickstart

Kafka is an open-source distributed event and stream-processing platform built to process demanding real-time data feeds. It is inherently scalable, with high throughput and availability.

## Create Kafka Clusters

1. From the **Create** menu in the top right of the [control panel](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/databases), click **Databases**.
2. Select Kafka as the database engine.
3. Choose the cluster configuration and datacenter, and give the cluster a unique name.**Tip**: For the best performance, create your database cluster in the same region as your Droplets.
4. Click **Create a Database Cluster**.

## Change Size or Number of Cluster Nodes

1. Select your database cluster from the [**Databases** page](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/databases).
2. Click the **Settings** tab.
3. Click **Edit** in the **Cluster configuration** section.
4. Select the node size.
5. Click **Save**.

## Add Additional Users or Databases

1. Select your database cluster from the [**Databases** page](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/databases).
2. Click the **Topics & Users** tab.
3. Enter users or database names in the corresponding field.
4. Click **Save**.

Use a client application or command-line tool to manage specific user permissions.

## Delete Clusters

1. Select your database cluster from the [**Databases** page](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/databases).
2. Click the **Settings** tab.
3. Click **Destroy** in the **Destroy this database cluster** section.
4. Enter the name of the database cluster.
5. Click **Destroy**.