SYSTEM DROP REPLICA fails during replica scale-down due to no retry — stale ZK metadata left behind

[ihyeokss]

Summary

During replica scale-down (replicasCount: 2 → 1), the operator executes SYSTEM DROP REPLICA before the deleted replica's Keeper session has expired. The command fails with Code: 305, Can't drop replica ... because it's active, and the operator does not retry. This leaves stale replica metadata (znodes) in ClickHouse Keeper permanently.

Environment

• Operator version: 0.26.0
• ClickHouse version: 24.8 (Altinity Stable)
• Database engine: Atomic with ReplicatedMergeTree tables (38 tables)
• Keeper session_timeout_ms: 120000 (CHI spec)
• Cluster layout: 2 shards × 2 replicas

Steps to Reproduce

1. Deploy a CHI with replicasCount: 2
2. Scale down to replicasCount: 1
3. Observe operator logs

Observed Behavior

Kubernetes resource deletion (Pod, StatefulSet, Service) completes normally. Then:

07:03:43Z Drop replica: chi-dev-botmanager-bmch-0-1 at 0-0
07:03:43Z FAILED to drop replica on host 0-1, err: Code: 305, Can't drop replica ..., because it's active
07:03:44Z Drop replica: chi-dev-botmanager-bmch-1-1 at 1-0
07:03:44Z FAILED to drop replica on host 1-1, err: Code: 305, Can't drop replica ..., because it's active
07:03:44Z FAILED single try. No retries will be made
07:03:44Z processed replicas: 2

Timeline: Pods deleted at 07:02:08Z–07:02:18Z, DROP REPLICA attempted at 07:03:43Z — approximately 86–95 seconds after pod termination, which is less than the configured session_timeout_ms of 120000.

Result: After reconcile completes, the deleted replicas become inactive in system.replicas, but their znodes remain in Keeper:

SELECT path, groupArray(name) FROM system.zookeeper
WHERE path LIKE '%/replicas'
  AND path LIKE '%botmanager%'
GROUP BY path;

-- Both deleted replica names (bmch-0-1, bmch-1-1) still present as children
-- 38 stale paths per deleted replica (one per ReplicatedMergeTree table)

system.replicas shows total_replicas = 2 instead of expected 1.

Root Cause

In pkg/controller/chi/worker-deleter.go, dropZKReplicas() calls dropZKReplica() for each removed host. The underlying HostDropReplica() in pkg/model/chi/schemer/schemer.go uses SetRetry(false):

// Single attempt, no retry on failure
opts.SetRetry(false)

There is no wait for the replica to become inactive before executing SYSTEM DROP REPLICA. The regular scale-down path in dropZKReplicas iterates removed hosts and immediately attempts the drop.

reconcile.host.wait.replicas.delay does not apply to this code path — it controls replication lag wait, not post-deletion session cleanup.

Expected Behavior

The operator should either:

1. Wait for replica_is_active = 0 (poll system.replicas) before executing SYSTEM DROP REPLICA, or
2. Retry on Code: 305 (because it's active) with backoff, at least for session_timeout_ms + buffer duration

Workaround

Reducing session_timeout_ms from 120000 to 60000 in the CHI spec narrows the race window enough that the operator's drop timing falls after session expiry.

We verified this with live experiments on a dev cluster:

session_timeout_ms	DROP REPLICA result
120000	❌ because it's active (reproduced twice)
60000	✅ Success (verified twice consecutively)

For cases where the race is still hit, manual cleanup is required:

-- Run on surviving replica of each shard
SYSTEM DROP REPLICA 'chi-dev-botmanager-bmch-0-1';
SYSTEM DROP REPLICA 'chi-dev-botmanager-bmch-1-1';

Related

• ZooKeeper entries not cleaned up when a shard is removed #1927 — ZK entries not cleaned on shard removal (different code path: shardFunc is no-op, whereas replica removal does invoke hostFunc but fails due to this timing issue)

[bhardwajparth51]

hey is this something open for external contributors? happy to work if not already in progress

[sunsingerus]

welcome to contribute