Self-hosted SigNoz needs 4 GB of memory and its PVCs hold all your data

TL;DR

Treat the ClickHouse PVCs as your data field - back them up before any uninstall, and only delete them when you truly mean to wipe history. The stack brings ClickHouse, ClickHouse Keeper, Postgres, and an OTel collector, so budget at least 4 GB of Docker memory or components fail to start.

Steps

1. Give a self-hosted SigNoz at least 4 GB of memory before debugging failing pods. When data stops appearing, start at the collector and work backward toward the app, not the reverse. Treat the ClickHouse PVCs as your data field - back them up before any uninstall, and only delete them when you truly mean to wipe history.

When to use

You are seeing this: Give a self-hosted SigNoz at least 4 GB of memory before debugging failing pods. Use this skill when you run into "Self-hosted SigNoz needs 4 GB of memory and its PVCs hold all your data".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Source: A SigNoz self-host deployment guide documents the resource and uninstall traps. The stack brings ClickHouse, ClickHouse Keeper, Postgres, and an OTel collector, so budget at least 4 GB of Docker memory or components fail to start. When no metrics appear, the checklist is: confirm the OTel collector is running, verify services can reach it, read the collector logs, and check the agent configuration. Uninstalling via helm leaves PVCs behind; deleting them destroys the data.

Verified resolution: Give a self-hosted SigNoz at least 4 GB of memory before debugging failing pods. When data stops appearing, start at the collector and work backward toward the app, not the reverse. Treat the ClickHouse PVCs as your data field - back them up before any uninstall, and only delete them when you truly mean to wipe history.

Source URL: https://github.com/openresilienceinitiative/oriso-signoz/blob/HEAD/DEPLOYMENT.md