Node Eviction Timeout

When a machine is deleted, the machine-controller first evicts its pods, respecting PodDisruptionBudgets. If eviction does not finish before a timeout, the instance is deleted anyway. This way, a blocked eviction cannot stall machine deletion.

Configure the Timeout

The timeout is set by the skipEvictionAfter field:

  • Cluster: spec.componentsOverride.machineController.skipEvictionAfter
  • ClusterTemplate: the same path, inside the template’s cluster spec
  • Seed: spec.defaultComponentSettings.machineController.skipEvictionAfter

The Cluster value wins over the ClusterTemplate, which wins over the Seed.

ValueBehavior
unsetThe default of two hours applies.
0sThe timeout is disabled.
positive, for example 30mEviction stops after this duration and the node is force-deleted.
negativeRejected.
apiVersion: kubermatic.k8c.io/v1
kind: Cluster
spec:
  componentsOverride:
    machineController:
      skipEvictionAfter: 0s

With the timeout disabled, the machine waits for eviction as long as its node is Ready and a schedulable target node exists. Otherwise, eviction is still skipped.

Override the Timeout for a Machine

The machine-controller.kubermatic.io/skip-eviction-after annotation overrides the timeout for a machineDeployment or a single machine:

kubectl annotate machinedeployment --namespace kube-system <name> \
  machine-controller.kubermatic.io/skip-eviction-after=30m

kubectl annotate machine --namespace kube-system <name> \
  machine-controller.kubermatic.io/skip-eviction-after=1h
  • A machineDeployment annotation applies only to machines created afterwards.
  • 0 disables the timeout.
  • Negative or invalid values are logged and ignored. The cluster’s timeout applies instead.

In older machine-controller versions, an annotation value of 0 skipped eviction immediately. If you used 0 before upgrading, check that the new behavior is what you want.

Skip Eviction Entirely

To skip eviction for a node, use the kubermatic.io/skip-eviction annotation on the node.