Problem

When attempting to create a topic via rpk, you get the following error on a Redpanda cloud cluster.

Example RPK Command

 rpk topic create my-topic

Example Error

unable to create topics [my-topic]: EOF

Solution

Append your rpk command with --tls-enabled

 rpk topic create my-topic --tls-enabled

Please note that the EOF message may be observed in a private network access, such as VPC peering or Private Link. 
The error may differ when the rpk command is accessible through a public network. In such case, you may see the following error message.

unable to request metadata: invalid large response size 352518912 limit 104857600; 
  the first three bytes received appear to be a tls alert record for TLS v1.2; is this 
  a plaintext connection speaking to a tls endpoint?

 

If you still experience issues reach out to Redpanda Support