diff --git a/ansible/roles/rancher/defaults/main.yml b/ansible/roles/rancher/defaults/main.yml
index 6ab52e6..67e581c 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/rancher/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/rancher/defaults/main.yml
@@ -4,3 +4,20 @@
 rancher_redeploy_k8s_env: true
 rancher_cluster_health_state: healthy
 rancher_cluster_health_check_retries: 30
+rancher:
+  # The following variables can be set via the UI under advanced/settings.
+  # All of these affect tables in the cattle db and are uninteresting
+  # to the user (they serve the internal logic of the cattle), but
+  # they can eat a lot of space when a deployment is busy or faulty.
+  #
+  # Audit-Log is the only user-facing option here and it is represented
+  # in the UI.
+  #
+  # Auto-purge deleted entries from most tables after this long (seconds)
+  main_tables_purge_after_seconds: 28800  # 8 hours
+  # Auto-purge Event entries after this long (seconds)
+  events_purge_after_seconds: 28800       # 8 hours
+  # Auto-purge Service Log entries after this long (seconds)
+  service_log_purge_after_seconds: 86400  # 1 day
+  # Auto-purge Audit Log entries after this long (seconds)
+  audit_log_purge_after_seconds: 2592000  # 30 days
diff --git a/ansible/roles/rancher/tasks/rancher_server.yml b/ansible/roles/rancher/tasks/rancher_server.yml
index e1eb5a5..add7b3c 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/rancher/tasks/rancher_server.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/rancher/tasks/rancher_server.yml
@@ -39,3 +39,26 @@
     key_private: "{{ env.data.apikey.private }}"
     rancher_agent_image: "{{ env.data.registration_tokens.image }}"
     rancher_agent_reg_url: "{{ env.data.registration_tokens.reg_url }}"
+
+- name: Configure the size of the rancher cattle db and logs
+  block:
+    - name: Main tables
+      rancher1_api:
+        server: "{{ rancher_server_url }}"
+        option: main_tables.purge.after.seconds
+        value: "{{ rancher.main_tables_purge_after_seconds }}"
+    - name: Events
+      rancher1_api:
+        server: "{{ rancher_server_url }}"
+        option: events.purge.after.seconds
+        value: "{{ rancher.events_purge_after_seconds }}"
+    - name: Service log
+      rancher1_api:
+        server: "{{ rancher_server_url }}"
+        option: service_log.purge.after.seconds
+        value: "{{ rancher.service_log_purge_after_seconds }}"
+    - name: Audit log
+      rancher1_api:
+        server: "{{ rancher_server_url }}"
+        option: audit_log.purge.after.seconds
+        value: "{{ rancher.audit_log_purge_after_seconds }}"