diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2c2e52c03d2..81bca4a149a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ WIRE_TAGS = "oss"
 -include local/Makefile
 include .bingo/Variables.mk
 
-.PHONY: all deps-go deps-js deps build-go build-backend build-server build-cli build-js build build-docker-full build-docker-full-ubuntu lint-go golangci-lint test-go test-js gen-ts test run run-frontend clean devenv devenv-down protobuf drone help gen-go gen-cue fix-cue
+.PHONY: all deps-go deps-js deps build-go build-backend build-example-apiserver build-server build-cli build-js build build-docker-full build-docker-full-ubuntu lint-go golangci-lint test-go test-js gen-ts test run run-frontend clean devenv devenv-down protobuf drone help gen-go gen-cue fix-cue
 
 GO = go
 GO_FILES ?= ./pkg/...
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/README.md b/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/README.md
index 685637a27ef..8b1b9322c15 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/README.md
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/README.md
@@ -3,34 +3,23 @@
 The example-apiserver closely resembles the 
 [sample-apiserver](https://github.com/kubernetes/sample-apiserver/tree/master) project in code and thus
 allows the same
-[CLI flags](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/command-line-tools-reference/kube-apiserver/) as kube-apiserver
+[CLI flags](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/command-line-tools-reference/kube-apiserver/) as kube-apiserver.
 It is currently used for testing our deployment pipelines for aggregated servers.
 
 ## Prerequisites:
-1. etcd
-  ```shell
-  brew install etcd
-  ```
-2. kind: you will need kind (or another local K8s setup) if you want to test aggregation.
+1. kind: you will need kind (or another local K8s setup) if you want to test aggregation.
   ```
   go install sigs.k8s.io/kind@v0.20.0 && kind create cluster
   ```
 
 ## Usage
 
-Have `etcd` running in your environment:
-
-```shell
-etcd &
-```
-
-With etcd running, you can now start the example-apiserver. The Authn / Authz flags are set up so that the kind cluster
+You can start the example-apiserver with an invocation as shown below. The Authn / Authz flags are set up so that the kind cluster
 can be used as a root server for this example-apiserver (in aggregated mode). Here, it's assumed that you have a local
 kind cluster and that you can provide its kubeconfig in the parameters to the example-apiserver.
 
 ```shell
 go run ./pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver \
-  --etcd-servers=http://127.0.0.1:2379 \
   --authentication-kubeconfig ~/.kube/config \
   --authorization-kubeconfig ~/.kube/config \
   --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config \
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/main.go b/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/main.go
index 7ecce09251f..92a163798f8 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/main.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/main.go
@@ -18,10 +18,6 @@ func NewCommandStartExampleAPIServer(defaults *ExampleServerOptions, stopCh <-ch
 				return err
 			}
 
-			if err := o.Validate(args); err != nil {
-				return err
-			}
-
 			config, err := o.Config()
 			if err != nil {
 				return err
diff --git a/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/server.go b/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/server.go
index 519d620bc58..5d4aac8947c 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/server.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/grafana-example-apiserver/server.go
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ func (o ExampleServerOptions) Config() (*genericapiserver.RecommendedConfig, err
 
 	o.RecommendedOptions.Admission = nil
 	o.RecommendedOptions.CoreAPI = nil
+	o.RecommendedOptions.Etcd = nil
 
 	serverConfig := genericapiserver.NewRecommendedConfig(Codecs)
 
@@ -91,6 +92,8 @@ func (o ExampleServerOptions) Config() (*genericapiserver.RecommendedConfig, err
 }
 
 // Validate validates ExampleServerOptions
+// NOTE: we don't call validate on the top level recommended options as it doesn't like skipping etcd-servers
+// the function is left here for troubleshooting any other config issues
 func (o ExampleServerOptions) Validate(args []string) error {
 	errors := []error{}
 	errors = append(errors, o.RecommendedOptions.Validate()...)