Article ID: kb00042Last Modified: 15-Oct-2026

Removing Backup Data of Discontinued Instances

Situation

The backup data of 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 use the "Users" menu:

  1. Open the 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).

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

Note that data removal operations cannot be canceled after initiation and, in some cases, they might take up to 96 hours to complete (depending on the cloud storage provider and storage class). Managed Backup user account deletion cannot be canceled either.

Data removal from Reporting -> Capacity Report menu

2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) should be enabled to delete backup data.

For removal of redundant backup data:

  1. Open the Management Console.
  2. In the Reporting menu, select Capacity Report;
  3. Navigate to the 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 initiate deletion of backup data for the retired machine(s) or backup prefix.

  1. Select Delete backup data.

  1. Confirm deletion.

  1. The deletion operation will be queued.

Additional methods of backup data deletion

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

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

Please exercise discretion, and also note that this feature may be unavailable for specific backup objects, such as SQL database backups.

To delete objects manually using CloudBerry Explorer (use the 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.

Be extra careful not to remove critical data accidentally. These deletions are not reversible. MSP360 is not responsible for any data deleted manually.

Note that if you delete any backed-up objects from cloud storage using this manual method, Backup applications will not track changes in the destination storage until data listing in the repository database is synchronized.

To Synchronize Repository:

  1. Open Backup Agent software;
  2. In the Tools menu, select Options;
  3. Switch to the Repository tab, then click Synchronize Repository.

To learn more about this procedure, refer to the Repository Explained article.