diff --git a/docs/vars.md b/docs/vars.md
index 6e127cbbdb1a9b21ce3dc652478d5b9d513f55c1..06f1e6f6fbce31596231661a719f50cadf617b0b 100644
--- a/docs/vars.md
+++ b/docs/vars.md
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ node_taints:
   The auditing parameters can be tuned via the following variables (which default values are shown below):
   * `audit_log_path`: /var/log/audit/kube-apiserver-audit.log
   * `audit_log_maxage`: 30
-  * `audit_log_maxbackups`: 1
+  * `audit_log_maxbackups`: 10
   * `audit_log_maxsize`: 100
   * `audit_policy_file`: "{{ kube_config_dir }}/audit-policy/apiserver-audit-policy.yaml"
 
diff --git a/roles/kubernetes/control-plane/defaults/main/main.yml b/roles/kubernetes/control-plane/defaults/main/main.yml
index 32cabb91e976f337a3b74e1daad9f4ae14533c37..a97f2f965b345387d13994448b2b3048e49fb5ee 100644
--- a/roles/kubernetes/control-plane/defaults/main/main.yml
+++ b/roles/kubernetes/control-plane/defaults/main/main.yml
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ audit_log_path: /var/log/audit/kube-apiserver-audit.log
 # num days
 audit_log_maxage: 30
 # the num of audit logs to retain
-audit_log_maxbackups: 1
+audit_log_maxbackups: 10
 # the max size in MB to retain
 audit_log_maxsize: 100
 # policy file