etcd object counts and sizes

object-count-size.md

Exec into the etcd container

RKE1

docker exec -it etcd sh

RKE2

export CRI_CONFIG_FILE=/var/lib/rancher/rke2/agent/etc/crictl.yaml
etcdcontainer=$(/var/lib/rancher/rke2/bin/crictl ps --label io.kubernetes.container.name=etcd --quiet)
/var/lib/rancher/rke2/bin/crictl exec -it $etcdcontainer sh -c "ETCDCTL_ENDPOINTS='https://127.0.0.1:2379' ETCDCTL_CACERT='/var/lib/rancher/rke2/server/tls/etcd/server-ca.crt' ETCDCTL_CERT='/var/lib/rancher/rke2/server/tls/etcd/server-client.crt' ETCDCTL_KEY='/var/lib/rancher/rke2/server/tls/etcd/server-client.key' ETCDCTL_API=3 bash"

Count all objects

for key in `etcdctl get --prefix --keys-only /`
do
  size=`etcdctl get $key --print-value-only | wc -c`
  count=`etcdctl get $key --write-out=fields | grep \"Count\" | cut -f2 -d':'`
  if [ $count -ne 0 ]; then
    versions=`etcdctl get $key --write-out=fields | grep \"Version\" | cut -f2 -d':'`
  else
    versions=0
  fi
  total=$(($size * $versions))
  echo $total $size $versions $count $key >> /tmp/etcdkeys.txt
done

Optional: only specific object, eg: secrets

for key in `etcdctl get --prefix --keys-only /registry/secrets`
do
  size=`etcdctl get $key --print-value-only | wc -c`
  count=`etcdctl get $key --write-out=fields | grep \"Count\" | cut -f2 -d':'`
  if [ $count -ne 0 ]; then
    versions=`etcdctl get $key --write-out=fields | grep \"Version\" | cut -f2 -d':'`
  else
    versions=0
  fi
  total=$(($size * $versions))
  echo $total $size $versions $count $key >> /tmp/etcdkeys-secrets.txt
done

Sort the output

sort -n /tmp/etcdkeys.txt

Copy the file if needed

RKE1

docker cp etcd:/tmp/etcdkeys.txt .

RKE2

kubectl cp -n kube-system <etcd pod name>:/tmp/etcdkeys.txt ./etcdkeys.txt

The methods above don't actually give you an object count. The only reason it is sometimes 0 is because the key was deleted sometime between when you listed the keys and when the loop got around to asking for it.

To actually figure out how many revisions are being stored you have to recursively get --rev mod_revision to check how many previous versions are stored.

• etcd-io/etcd#11027
• https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/blob/v3.0.0/Documentation/dev-guide/interacting_v3.md#read-past-version-of-keys

etcdctl get --write-out=json "/kubernetes.io/operators.coreos.com/operators/ocs-operator.openshift-storage" | jq 'del(.kvs[].value)'
{
  "header": {
    "cluster_id": 14841639068965180000,
    "member_id": 10276657743932975000,
    "revision": 1102830774,
    "raft_term": 2
  },
  "kvs": [
    {
      "key": "L2t1YmVybmV0ZXMuaW8vb3BlcmF0b3JzLmNvcmVvcy5jb20vb3BlcmF0b3JzL29jcy1vcGVyYXRvci5vcGVuc2hpZnQtc3RvcmFnZQ==",
      "create_revision": 136141,
      "mod_revision": 1100941289,
      "version": 123416317
    }
  ],
  "count": 1
}

etcdctl get --write-out=json --rev 1100941289 "/kubernetes.io/operators.coreos.com/operators/ocs-operator.openshift-storage" | jq 'del(.kvs[].value)'
{"level":"warn","ts":"2024-01-17T12:42:32.904797-0800","logger":"etcd-client","caller":"v3@v3.5.10/retry_interceptor.go:62","msg":"retrying of unary invoker failed","target":"etcd-endpoints://0xc00025c000/127.0.0.1:2379","attempt":0,"error":"rpc error: code = OutOfRange desc = etcdserver: mvcc: required revision has been compacted"}
Error: etcdserver: mvcc: required revision has been compacted

I kinda think it's not worth the time/effort to do this because Kubernetes does a compaction every 5 minutes anyway by default.

We can also speed the whole thing up by using the get --from-key feature to iterate through the keys. This iterates through my 150k key etcd db in about 9s.

Note: you will want to reduce LIMIT to 50 or so if you're running this with an in-use etcd server. I found that restoring a snapshot locally and running reports against that is much safer and more reliable way to do analysis of a production server.

#!/bin/bash -euo pipefail

LIMIT=500
TMPFILE=$(mktemp)
NEXT_KEY=$(etcdctl get --limit 1 --keys-only --prefix / )
while true; do
	etcdctl get --limit $LIMIT --write-out=json --from-key "$NEXT_KEY" |
	tee >(jq -r '(.kvs[-1].key | @base64d),(.count)' > $TMPFILE) |
	jq -c '.kvs[1:][] |
		(
			(.key | @base64d) as $key |
			($key | split("/")) as $keya |
			{
			  "fullkey": $key,
			  "api": $keya[1],
			  "group": $keya[2],
			  "namespace": $keya[3],
			  "resource": $keya[4],
			  "size": (.value | @base64d | length),
			  "versions": (.version),
			}
		)' |
	tee -a keys_raw.json |
	jq -r '.fullkey'

	if [ "$(sed -n -e 2p <$TMPFILE)" == "1" ]; then
		break
	fi
	NEXT_KEY="$(sed -n -e 1p <$TMPFILE)"

	echo "Remaining keys: $(sed -n -e 2p <$TMPFILE)"
done
rm $TMPFILE

Heres some useful reports you can generate from this data.

largest 10 groups by size:

jq -s 'group_by(.group) | map({ group: (.[0].group), total: ([.[] | .size] | reduce .[] as $num (0; .+$num)) }) | sort_by(.total) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json

largest 10 namespaces by size

jq -s 'group_by(.namespace) | map({ namespace: (.[0].namespace), total: ([.[] | .size] | reduce .[] as $num (0; .+$num)) }) | sort_by(.total) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json

largest 10 namepaces by count

jq -s 'group_by(.namespace) | map({ namespace: (.[0].namespace), count: (. | length)}) | sort_by(.count) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json

largest 10 groups by count

jq -s 'group_by(.group) | map({ group: (.[0].group), count: (. | length)}) | sort_by(.count) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json

highest 10 versions

jq -s 'sort_by(.versions) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json

Thanks, I'll take a look into this approach 👍

The methods above don't actually give you an object count

Correct, I mistakenly conflated this gist with another one-liner to gather the object counts:

etcdctl get /registry --prefix=true --keys-only | grep -v ^$ | awk -F'/' '{ if ($3 ~ /cattle.io/) {h[$3"/"$4]++} else { h[$3]++ }} END { for(k in h) print h[k], k }' | sort -n

Note the cattle.io portion is just to split out the different CRDs we work with.

thanks @dkeightley for sharing this.

When testing https://gist.github.com/dkeightley/8f2211d6e93a0d5bc294242248ca8fbf?permalink_comment_id=4836323#gistcomment-4836323 against etcd 3.6 I spotted mistmatch of the api/group/namespace

here is a modified version wrapped in bash functions for easier discovery and invocation. Hoping this can help others

# Produces a file in current directory of format
# - fullkey: full etcd-key
# - k8s api
# - k8s group
# - k8s namespace
# - resource name
# - size in bytes
# - versions
#
# Example:
#{
#  "fullkey": "/registry/apiextensions.k8s.io/customresourcedefinitions/grafanas.grafana.integreatly.org",
#  "api": "customresourcedefinitions",
#  "group": "apiextensions.k8s.io",
#  "namespace": null,
#  "resource": "grafanas.grafana.integreatly.org",
#  "size": 336909,
#  "versions": 3
#}
#
#
#{"fullkey":"/registry/apiextensions.k8s.io/customresourcedefinitions/grafanas.grafana.integreatly.org","api":"customresourcedefinitions","group":"apiextensions.k8s.io","namespace":null,"resource":"grafanas.grafana.integreatly.org","size":336909,"versions":3}
# Credit from https://gist.github.com/dkeightley/8f2211d6e93a0d5bc294242248ca8fbf?permalink_comment_id=4836323#gistcomment-4836323
function extract_k8s_etcd_keys_size_and_versions() {
  LIMIT=500
  TMPFILE=$(mktemp)
  RESULT_FILE=keys_raw.json
  NEXT_KEY=$(etcdctl get --limit 1 --keys-only --prefix / )
  while true; do
  	etcdctl get --limit $LIMIT --write-out=json --from-key "$NEXT_KEY" |
  	tee >(jq -r '(.kvs[-1].key | @base64d),(.count)' > $TMPFILE) |
  	jq -c '.kvs[1:][] |
  		(
  			(.key | @base64d) as $key |
  			($key | split("/")) as $keya |
  			{
  			  "fullkey": $key,
  			  "api": $keya[3],
  			  "group": $keya[2],
  			  "namespace": $keya[5],
  			  "resource": $keya[4],
  			  "size": (.value | @base64d | length),
  			  "versions": (.version),
  			}
  		)' |
  	tee -a $RESULT_FILE |
  	jq -r '.fullkey'

  	if [ "$(sed -n -e 2p <$TMPFILE)" == "1" ]; then
  		break
  	fi
  	NEXT_KEY="$(sed -n -e 1p <$TMPFILE)"

  	echo "Remaining keys: $(sed -n -e 2p <$TMPFILE)"
  done
  rm $TMPFILE
}

function extract_k8s_etcd_keys_size_and_versions_commented() {
  LIMIT=500
  TMPFILE=$(mktemp)
  RESULT_FILE=keys_raw.json
  NEXT_KEY=$(etcdctl get --limit 1 --keys-only --prefix / )
  while true; do
   etcdctl get --limit $LIMIT --write-out=json --from-key "$NEXT_KEY" |
   tee >(jq -r '(.kvs[-1].key | @base64d),(.count)' > $TMPFILE) |
   # Main jq processing pipeline:
   jq -c '.kvs[1:][] |              # Extract all key-value pairs except the first one (already processed), iterate over each
   (
   (.key | @base64d) as $key |      # Decode the base64-encoded key and store it in variable $key
   ($key | split("/")) as $keya |   # Split the decoded key by "/" delimiter and store the array in variable $keya
   {
     "fullkey": $key,               # Store the full decoded key path
     "api": $keya[3],               # Extract the API component (2nd element after split, e.g., "registry")
     "group": $keya[2],             # Extract the group component (3rd element, e.g., "acme.cert-manager.io")
     "namespace": $keya[5],         # Extract the namespace component (4th element, e.g., "challenges")
     "resource": $keya[4],          # Extract the resource name (5th element, e.g., "08-mdb-spike")
     "size": (.value | @base64d | length),  # Decode the base64-encoded value and calculate its byte length
     "versions": (.version),        # Extract the version number from the etcd key-value metadata
   }
   )' |
   tee -a $RESULT_FILE |
   jq -r '.fullkey'

   if [ "$(sed -n -e 2p <$TMPFILE)" == "1" ]; then
   break
   fi
   NEXT_KEY="$(sed -n -e 1p <$TMPFILE)"

   echo "Remaining keys: $(sed -n -e 2p <$TMPFILE)"
  done
  rm $TMPFILE
}


function display_largest_10_groups_by_size() {
  jq -s 'group_by(.group) | map({ group: (.[0].group), total: ([.[] | .size] | reduce .[] as $num (0; .+$num)) }) | sort_by(.total) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json
}

function display_largest_10_namespaces_by_size() {
  jq -s 'group_by(.namespace) | map({ namespace: (.[0].namespace), total: ([.[] | .size] | reduce .[] as $num (0; .+$num)) }) | sort_by(.total) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json
}

function display_largest_10_namespaces_by_size_commented() {
  jq -s '
    # Group all objects by their namespace field
    group_by(.namespace)

    # For each group, create a new object with:
    # - namespace: the namespace name (taken from first element)
    # - total: sum of all size values in that namespace
    | map({
        namespace: (.[0].namespace),
        total: (
          # Extract all size values from the current group
          [.[] | .size]

          # Use reduce to sum all size values:
          # - Iterate through each size value (as $num)
          # - Start with accumulator = 0
          # - For each iteration, add $num to the accumulator (. + $num)
          # - Result is the total sum of all sizes in this namespace
          | reduce .[] as $num (0; . + $num)
        )
      })

    # Sort the resulting array by the total field in ascending order
    | sort_by(.total)

    # Reverse to get descending order (largest first)
    | reverse

    # Take only the first 10 elements (top 10 largest namespaces)
    | .[0:10]
  ' keys_raw.json
}


function display_largest_10_namespaces_by_size_time_versions_commented() {
   jq -s '
     # Define a function to format numbers with thousand separators (commas)
     def format_number:
       tostring
       # Split string into array of characters, reverse it
       | explode | reverse
       # Insert comma (ASCII 44) every 3 digits
       | to_entries
       | map(
           if (.key > 0 and (.key % 3) == 0)
           then [44, .value]  # 44 is ASCII code for comma
           else [.value]
           end
         )
       | flatten
       # Reverse back and convert to string
       | reverse | implode;

     # Group all entries by namespace field
     group_by(.namespace)
     # Transform each group into namespace summary
     | map({
         namespace: (.[0].namespace),
         # Calculate total size: sum of (size × versions) for all resources
         total_bytes: (
           map(.size * .versions)  # Multiply size by version count for each resource
           | add                    # Sum all values (cleaner than reduce)
         )
       })
     # Sort by total size in descending order
     | sort_by(.total_bytes) | reverse
     # Keep only top 10 namespaces
     | limit(10; .[])
     # Collect back into array and format
     | [.]
     | map({
         namespace: .namespace,
         total_bytes: (.total_bytes | format_number )
       })
   ' keys_raw.json
 }

#
function display_largest_10_namespaces_by_key_count() {
  jq -s 'group_by(.namespace) | map({ namespace: (.[0].namespace), count: (. | length)}) | sort_by(.count) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json
}

function display_largest_10_groups_by_key_count() {
  jq -s 'group_by(.group) | map({ group: (.[0].group), count: (. | length)}) | sort_by(.count) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json
}

function display_highest_10_versions() {
 jq -s 'sort_by(.versions) | reverse | .[0:10]' keys_raw.json
}