etcd: mvcc: database space exceeded: full recovery guide for on-prem Kubernetes

May 17, 2026 · 9:38 AM UTC ·9 min read · 0 reactions · 0 comments · 23 views

#kubernetes #etcd #devops #sre #system administration

etcd: mvcc: database space exceeded: full recovery guide for on-prem Kubernetes

TL;DR · WeSearch summary

An on-prem Kubernetes cluster experienced a complete control plane outage due to etcd database space exhaustion. The issue stemmed from unmanaged etcd growth caused by lack of compaction and defragmentation across master nodes. Without regular maintenance, etcd's revision history filled the 2GB default quota, halting all writes and rendering the API server inoperable.

Key facts

▪The Kubernetes control plane became unreachable due to etcd hitting its 2GB storage limit, triggering a NOSPACE error.
▪etcd logs revealed that the database had stopped accepting writes, which caused the API server to fail and kubectl commands to time out.
▪Disk usage on the three master nodes showed inconsistent etcd data sizes, indicating a lack of compaction and defragmentation.
▪etcd stores every state change as a revision, and without compaction, old revisions accumulate and consume space.
▪Compaction removes outdated revision data logically, while defragmentation is required to reclaim physical disk space.

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Canonical URL	https://dev.to/kashishlakhara04/etcd-mvcc-database-space-exceeded-full-recovery-guide-for-on-prem-kubernetes-4pha
Publication time	Sun, 17 May 2026 09:38:40 +0000
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try { if(localStorage) { let currentUser = localStorage.getItem('current_user'); if (currentUser) { currentUser = JSON.parse(currentUser); if (currentUser.id === 1049233) { document.getElementById('article-show-container').classList.add('current-user-is-article-author'); } } } } catch (e) { console.error(e); } Kashish Lakhara Posted on May 17 etcd: mvcc: database space exceeded: full recovery guide for on-prem Kubernetes #kubernetes #devops #etcd #sre It was a regular working day when the first alert landed. Kubernetes health check showing the control plane was degraded. I'd seen these before. Usually a quick look, a quick fix. Then I ran kubectl get nodes. The command just hung. I ran it again and this time it returned, slowly. Something was off but not obviously broken.

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