// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// assembly-deployment-configuration.adoc

[id='proc-manual-delete-pod-pvc-kafka-{context}']
= Deleting Kafka nodes manually

This procedure describes how to delete an existing Kafka node by using a Kubernetes annotation.
Deleting a Kafka node consists of deleting both the `Pod` on which the Kafka broker is running and the related `PersistentVolumeClaim` (if the cluster was deployed with persistent storage).
After deletion, the `Pod` and its related `PersistentVolumeClaim` are recreated automatically.

WARNING: Deleting a `PersistentVolumeClaim` can cause permanent data loss. The following procedure should only be performed if you have encountered storage issues.

.Prerequisites

* A running Kafka cluster.
* A running Cluster Operator.

.Procedure

. Find the name of the `Pod` that you want to delete.
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For example, if the cluster is named _cluster-name_, the pods are named _cluster-name_-kafka-_index_, where _index_ starts at zero and ends at the total number of replicas.

. Annotate the `Pod` resource in Kubernetes.
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Use `kubectl annotate`:
[source,shell,subs="+quotes,attributes+"]
kubectl annotate pod _cluster-name_-kafka-_index_ strimzi.io/delete-pod-and-pvc=true

. Wait for the next reconciliation, when the annotated pod with the underlying persistent volume claim will be deleted and then recreated.

.Additional resources

* For more information about deploying the Cluster Operator, see xref:cluster-operator-str[].
* For more information about deploying the Kafka cluster, see xref:deploying-kafka-cluster-str[].

