Removing Backup Data of Discontinued Instances

Situation

The backup data affiliated with already retired machines of certain Managed Backup user accounts is still kept in cloud storage, taking space and affecting billing.

Cause

The need to remove (purge) the backup data of retired machines can emerge when:

• The instances are completely retired and cloud backup data for them is no longer valuable (i.e. orphaned data);
• Data migration from retired instances to new ones was completed, and the new instances are already backed-up.

Solutions

Data removal from "Organization" -> "Users" menu:

The most basic method to delete unnecessary data of Managed Backup Service users is to utilize "Users" menu:

1. Open your Management Console.
2. In the Organization menu, select Users.
3. Find the user account that needs to be deleted, then click the Delete button. This feature requires 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication)

4. Select one of the available options (listed in the order of appearance on screen):
   • Delete Managed Backup user account from the Management Console and keep all associated backed-up data;
   • Delete Managed Backup user account alongside all associated backed-up data;
   • Delete only the backup data associated with selected instances but keep Managed Backup user account intact.

Data removal from Reporting -> Capacity Report menu

For removal of redundant backup data:

1. Open your Management Console.
2. In the Reporting menu, select Capacity Report;
3. Navigate to storage account and Managed Backup user account associated with backup data that needs to be deleted;
4. Click the Delete backup data/ backup record button to nitiate deletion of backup data for retired machine(-s) or backup prefix

5. Select Delete backup data.

6. Confirm deletion.

7. The deletion operation will be queued.

Additional methods of backup data deletion

To delete backup data selectively on active (not retired) machine / instance:

1. Open Backup Agent software directly on the machine;
2. Switch to the Backup Storage tab;
3. Right-click on the backup object that needs to be deleted, then press Delete button:

To delete objects manually using CloudBerry Explorer tool (use version compatible with your cloud storage provider):

1. Download CloudBerry Explorer tool.
2. Specify credentials for your cloud storage.
3. Browse cloud storage contents and delete unnecessary data.