Log rotation¶

logrotate controls log file growth in Percona XtraDB Cluster Pods. Without rotation, MySQL and related logs can grow until they consume the Persistent Volume and affect database stability.

In Percona Operator for MySQL, logrotate runs inside the logcollector sidecar container in every PXC Pod. Starting from Operator 1.20.0, logrotate scripts and default configuration are shipped with the Operator image and copied into the Pod by an init container.

On each scheduled run, logrotate applies the configured rules to MySQL log files and executes the post-rotate script:

It rotates matching log files according to size and retention rules.
It can compress old files if configured.
It runs postrotate script (/opt/percona/logcollector/logrotate/postrotate-mysql.sh by default) to make MySQL continue writing to the active log files after rotation.

Configure log rotation¶

You can customize log rotation in PXC to match your workload, for example by changing retention and size thresholds for MySQL error/slow logs, enabling compression, or adding rules for extra files such as GRA_*.log and audit.log. This gives you predictable disk usage and keeps troubleshooting or compliance logs for the required period.

You can configure log rotation in three ways:

Set a custom log rotation schedule inline in the Custom Resource.
Override the default logrotate configuration inline in the Custom Resource.
Extend the default configuration with additional .conf files from a ConfigMap.

When you change logrotate configuration, the Operator detects config changes and performs a rolling restart of PXC Pods.

Set a custom log rotation schedule¶

Edit the deploy/cr.yaml Custom Resource manifest. Set the log rotation schedule in cron format using the spec.logcollector.logRotate.schedule option.

This example runs log rotation every 6 hours:
```
spec:
  logcollector:
    logRotate:
      schedule: "0 */6 * * *"
```

Apply the Custom Resource:

kubectl apply -f deploy/cr.yaml -n <namespace>

Override the default logrotate configuration¶

Use the spec.logcollector.logRotate.configuration section in the Custom Resource to completely override the default logrotate settings. For example, you want to rotate logs when their size is between 5M (minimum) and 50M (maximum) and keep 5 rotated files. Also, compress rotated logs.

Important

You must provide the full logrotate configuration because the Operator replaces the default configuration with the one you provide. Refer to the default configuration to see the built-in logrotate rules and use it as a guide for your custom settings.

Here’s the example configuration:

spec:
  logcollector:
    logRotate:
      schedule: "0 0 * * *"
      configuration: |
        /var/lib/mysql/[!G]*.log {
          daily
          minsize 5M
          maxsize 50M
          rotate 5
          missingok
          compress
          delaycompress
          notifempty
          sharedscripts
          postrotate
            /opt/percona/logcollector/logrotate/postrotate-mysql.sh
          endscript
        }

Apply the Custom Resource:

kubectl apply -f deploy/cr.yaml -n <namespace>

Extend the default logrotate configuration via ConfigMap¶

You can pass additional configuration options for the default logrotate configuration via a ConfigMap. Use the spec.logcollector.logRotate.extraConfig.name option to load additional .conf files from a ConfigMap.

For example, the following ConfigMap adds separate rotation rules for Galera-related logs (GRA_*.log) and for audit logs (audit.log) with different rotation and compression settings.

Create a ConfigMap configuration file. For example, custom-logrotate.yaml. Specify additional rules:

custom-logrotate.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: my-logrotate-config
data:
  gra-logs.conf: |
    /var/lib/mysql/GRA_*.log {
      daily
      rotate 7
      missingok
      notifempty
      compress
      delaycompress
    }
  audit-log.conf: |
    /var/lib/mysql/audit.log {
      daily
      rotate 14
      minsize 10M
      maxsize 200M
      missingok
      compress
      delaycompress
      notifempty
    }

Create the ConfigMap:

kubectl apply -f custom-logrotate.yaml -n <namespace>

Reference the ConfigMap in your Custom Resource:

spec:
  logcollector:
    logRotate:
      extraConfig:
        name: my-logrotate-config

Update the configuration:

kubectl apply -f deploy/cr.yaml -n <namespace>

Last update: June 1, 2026
Created: June 1, 2026