all: Remove 16k IOPS recommendation

[StephanDollberg]

This minimum performance recommendation was fairly arbitrary and doesn't really work in practice.

Remove it everywhere it's mentioned.

Description

Resolves https://redpandadata.atlassian.net/browse/
Review deadline:

Page previews

Checks

• New feature
• Content gap
• Support Follow-up
• Small fix (typos, links, copyedits, etc)

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This PR restructures Redpanda storage performance documentation by removing explicit 16,000 IOPS minimum thresholds and reorganizing guidance across three files. The core requirements document now emphasizes NVMe-based storage, specifies XFS/ext4 filesystem mounting for data directories and Tiered Storage cache, notes Kubernetes volume type support, and warns against NFS. The production readiness checklist adds NVMe storage class requirements, while the self-test documentation is simplified to reference the benchmarks rather than prescribe a specific IOPS threshold.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~3 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• redpanda-data/docs#1343: Main PR that revised the same production storage requirements by reworking NVMe/16,000 IOPS guidance and removing explicit IOPS minimums while strengthening NVMe requirements.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 inconclusive)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Description check	❓ Inconclusive	The description is incomplete. It provides rationale for the change and marks it as a small fix, but lacks the actual JIRA ticket reference and page previews as required by the template.	Complete the placeholder JIRA ticket reference and add page previews for each modified file to help reviewers verify the changes.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately reflects the main change in the PR: removing the 16k IOPS recommendation from the documentation.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch stephan/remove-16k-iops-rec

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[micheleRP]

Critical issues (must fix)

1. [modules/deploy/pages/redpanda/kubernetes/k-production-readiness.adoc:530–531] Two sibling bullets in the same "Storage performance requirements" section still reference the recommendation this PR removes. With the 16,000 IOPS bullet gone, these read as dangling references:

   • Line 530: * Consider provisioned IOPS where available to meet or exceed the minimum — what minimum? No minimum is defined on this page anymore.
   • Line 531: * Enable xref:develop:manage-topics/config-topics.adoc#configure-write-caching[write caching] to help Redpanda perform better in environments with disks that don't meet the recommended IOPS — what recommendation?

   Fix: Rewrite both bullets so they stand alone without referring to a removed number. Suggested rewordings:

   • Line 530 → * Consider provisioned IOPS where available to guarantee consistent storage performance
   • Line 531 → * Enable xref:develop:manage-topics/config-topics.adoc#configure-write-caching[write caching] to improve performance on storage with limited IOPS

   Alternatively, delete both bullets if they were only meaningful in the context of the 16k threshold.

Suggestions (should consider)

1. [modules/deploy/partials/self-test.adoc] After this removal, the partial is reduced to two short paragraphs — an intro sentence and a single xref — under an H1 = Perform a self test. The partial is included with leveloffset=+1 into three deployment pages (dev-deployment.adoc, production-deployment.adoc, k-production-deployment.adoc), where it renders as an H2 section with no actionable guidance. Consider either:

   • Retiring the partial and inlining the single xref at the three call sites, or
   • Renaming the heading to something like = Verify storage performance so it still matches the (now thinner) content.

   Not blocking — the partial still renders correctly, but it's become very thin.

[StephanDollberg]

Have deleted the extra k8s bullet points.

Left the other thing.

[micheleRP]

looks great, thanks for the PR @StephanDollberg!