Old messages aren’t getting deleted? Kafka’s retention policy might be misconfigured.
🛠️ Key Settings to Check
retention.ms: How long messages are stored.log.retention.bytes: Total log size before old data is deleted.segment.ms&segment.bytes: Segment size before eligible for cleanup.
✅ Troubleshooting Tips
- Use this to inspect a topic:
kafka-topics.sh --describe --topic <your-topic> --bootstrap-server <broker>
- Is cleanup policy set to
delete?
cleanup.policy=delete
- Did you restart the broker after config change?
- Manual deletion only happens when segment files are closed — check
segment.ms.