# Deployment

This section covers everything you need to deploy an Apache Pinot cluster, from bootstrapping your first ZooKeeper-connected cluster through configuring tables, ingestion pipelines, and component-level settings. Use these guides to stand up Pinot in any environment -- bare metal, VMs, or containers -- before moving on to production hardening.

## When to use these guides

* You are deploying Pinot for the first time outside of the quickstart.
* You need to start individual Pinot components (controller, broker, server) with custom configuration files.
* You are setting up tables, schemas, and ingestion jobs against a running cluster.
* You want to optimize your configuration using the recommendation engine or decouple the controller from the real-time data path.

## Prerequisites

* Java 11 or later installed (or Docker if using container-based deployment).
* A running Apache ZooKeeper ensemble (three nodes recommended for production).
* Access to a deep store (local filesystem for development; S3, GCS, HDFS, or ADLS for production).
* The Pinot binary distribution downloaded from [pinot.apache.org/download](https://pinot.apache.org/download) or the official Docker image.

## Child pages

### Cluster setup

[Set up a Pinot cluster](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/setup-cluster) walks through creating a cluster namespace and starting controller, broker, and server instances.

### Advanced Pinot setup

[Advanced Pinot Setup](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/advanced-pinot-setup) provides step-by-step instructions for starting each Pinot component individually using Docker or launcher scripts, configuring components with custom config files, creating batch and streaming tables, and loading data.

### Server startup status checkers

[Server Startup Status Checkers](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/server-startup-status-checkers) explains readiness and liveness health checks, static consumption wait, offset-based and freshness-based segment checkers, and recommended configurations for QA and production environments.

### Table setup

[Set up a table](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/setup-table) links to table creation instructions including schema design, table configuration, and index settings.

### Ingestion setup

[Set up ingestion](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/setup-ingestion) covers creating segments and running batch data ingestion jobs to load data into your tables.

### Decoupling controller from the data path

[Decoupling Controller from the Data Path](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/decoupling-controller-from-the-data-path) explains how to bypass the controller during real-time segment completion by uploading completed segments directly to deep store, and how to enable peer download for failure recovery.

### Command-line interface (CLI)

[CLI Reference](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/cli) documents every `pinot-admin.sh` command -- from `AddSchema` and `AddTable` through `RebalanceTable`, `LaunchDataIngestionJob`, and cluster validation utilities.

### Configuration recommendation engine

[Configuration Recommendation Engine](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/deployment/configuration-recommendation-engine) describes the rule-based engine accessible via the controller REST API that recommends optimal index, partitioning, segment size, and real-time provisioning settings based on your schema, query patterns, and workload characteristics.

## Next step

Once your cluster is deployed and serving data, harden it for production use. See [Production Guides](https://docs.pinot.apache.org/operate-pinot/production-guides) for capacity planning, health checks, graceful operations, and disaster recovery.