Archived agents

Topic

This article explains how to archive an active agent and view previously archived agents.

Environment

  • Datto SIRIS
  • Datto ALTO

Description

NOTE  Any offsite data for archived agents will count against your appliance's total offsite data quota. If your Datto device has limits on the number of agents, your archived agents will be counted in that total. Archived agents are also counted in per agent billing plans, so it's important to take them into account when calculating costs. If you have questions regarding billing for archived agents, contact your Datto Sales Executive.

An archived agent is a protected system's backup chain that has been permanently converted to a read-only archive by a device operator through the Archive Agent function. Archived agents retain their ability to be used for restoration in the event of a Disaster Recovery scenario, but you cannot write new backups to them.

Archived agents will no longer run normal local or offsite retention, therefore archived data will need to be manually managed both locally and in the Datto Cloud.

Datto may remove the archived agent dataset from the Datto Cloud according to the device's active Service Subscription. For example, if the device has 1 year time-based retention and the archived agent's most recent backup point is over a year old, the dataset may be removed from the Datto Cloud.

Archiving an Agent

  1. Connect to the Remote Web of the local device.

  2. Click Protect on the navigation bar.

  3. Click Configure Agent Settings / Configure System Settings for the desired agent pairing.

  4. Scroll to the Archive Agent setting under the Advanced section.

  5. Select Archive Agent and follow the permission prompts to archive the agent.

IMPORTANT  Archiving an agent is irreversible. Only use this option if you do not need to add additional snapshots or screenshots to the backup chain. You will be unable to re-pair the archived dataset with the protected machine in the future. An archived agent will retain all of the restore functionality that it had when it was an active dataset.

Viewing archived agents

On the BCDR Status page, archived agents will show a value of Agent Archived in the Last 10 Backups column.

Click the Protect tab of the device UI, then click the three dot menu in the top right, then Show Archived.

When the archived agents are visible, this option is replaced with Hide Archived, which will remove them from view again.

How archived agents handle the live dataset

The live dataset is a live disk image that is separate from the snapshot chain and so normally no longer required once an agent has been archived.

  • Archiving an agent also automatically removes the live dataset in order to reclaim storage space on the device. Backup and offsite data are still preserved and are not affected.
  • Agents archived prior to 2023 may still retain the live dataset and will require manual removal of the live dataset if you wish to reclaim the storage space the data occupies.
  • Migrated archived agents may have data associated with the live dataset, if there was local snapshots at the time of migration. If so, it will require manual removal of the live dataset if you wish to reclaim the storage space the data occupies.

Additional Resources