Maintaining Apache Iceberg Tables: Compaction, Expiry, and Cleanup

This article is part 10 of a 15-part Apache Iceberg Masterclass, focusing on four key maintenance operations for Iceberg tables: compaction (file rewriting to merge small files), snapshot expiry (removing old snapshots for time travel cleanup), orphan file cleanup (deleting unreferenced files after expiry), and manifest rewriting. It explains how these operations prevent table degradation, improve query performance, and manage storage. The article also covers three approaches to running maintenance (manual, semi-automated, fully automated), recommended schedules, and common pitfalls. Includes code examples in Spark and Dremio for each operation.