Deleting local and cloud data

Topic

Manual removal of selected snapshots from the local device or cloud may be necessary to manage used space on the device or in the cloud.

IMPORTANT  Datto recommends contacting Datto Technical Support before deleting data from your device. Deleted data may be impossible to recover.

For a general overview of how to use the features or navigate to the page, see our Manage Recovery Points article.

For enhanced security, certain features, such as the Delete all Cloud button, cannot be accessed locally, and are only available when accessing the Device Web UI from the Partner Portal.

Environment

  • Datto ALTO
  • Datto SIRIS
  • Datto NAS

Description

Examples of when you may want to remove data from the local device or cloud include:

  • Storage on the Datto device runs low.
  • Storage space in the Datto Cloud runs low.
  • The data is redundant or out-of-date.
  • A device's dataset becomes corrupted.
  • Removing a device from service.

Deleting local data

The term Local Data refers to information stored on the Datto device's storage drives. All data resides locally on the Datto device before replicating to the Datto Cloud. Local data may be manually deleted in following ways:

Each backup your Datto device takes is a unique data snapshot, also called a recovery point. Each recovery point contains all the information necessary to restore all the data present at the time of the backup. You can choose to delete one, some, or all of an agent's recovery points. To remove a specific restore point:

  • From the Manage Recovery Points page, select the recovery points(s) you would like to remove.

  • Then option at the bottom of the page to delete all local recovery points will be replaced with Delete # selected local recovery point(s), where # is the number of selected recovery points.

You will not be able to select or mark any point for deletion that your Datto appliance has flagged for offsite replication or considers a Connecting Point (an essential snapshot that is used to maintain consistency between the local and offsite backup chains).

Retention is the process of deleting recovery points according to a preset schedule. Retention automatically runs each day based on the schedule you set. The Force Retention feature lets you manually run retention to remove all eligible local recovery points that have passed their retention date.

Retention will not remove any recovery points that are waiting to sync offsite to the cloud.

This option, available at the bottom of the Manage Recovery Points page, removes all local recovery points that are not required to maintain an association with the offsite backup chain for the selected system. To permanently remove all backup points for a selected system, you must first archive the backup chain.

If you delete local data that you have not replicated to the Datto Cloud, it cannot be recovered. Data deletion is an irreversible action.

Deleting cloud data

The term Cloud Data refers to data stored offsite within the Datto Cloud. Data replicates to the cloud to provide redundancy if the physical Datto appliance is damaged or unreachable. If a disaster occurs, you can use the cloud data to restore to a hypervisor, virtual host, or a new physical machine.

Cloud data deletion is commonly done when the data is no longer needed, such as when a Datto partner takes the Datto device out of service or repurposes it. You can also delete cloud data if the size of one or more recovery points is causing billing tier overages, or if you've identified ransomware in a recovery point and need to remove the backup containing the infected data.

If an offsite point is removed accidentally, support may be able to assist due to Cloud Deletion Defense.

Cloud data may be manually deleted in the following ways:

Each backup your Datto device takes is a unique data snapshot, also called a recovery point. Each recovery point contains all the information necessary to restore all the data present at the time of the backup. You can choose to delete one, some, or all of an agent's recovery points. To remove a specific restore point:

  • From the Manage Recovery Points page, select the recovery points(s) you would like to remove.

  • Then option at the bottom of the page to delete all cloud recovery points will be replaced with Delete # selected cloud recovery point(s), where # is the number of selected recovery points.

You will not be able to select or mark any point for deletion that your Datto appliance has flagged for offsite replication or considers a Connecting Point (an essential snapshot that is used to maintain consistency between the local and offsite backup chains).

This option, available at the bottom of the Manage Recovery Points page, removes all cloud recovery points that are associated with the protected system. This does not include any points on the secondary replication.

Submitting a Prune Request

A prune request may be required if support needs to manually assist with data removal, such as when it is not visible in the portal or the above methods fail to remove the required recovery points. See Manual Deletions for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions

Your Datto appliance will only let you delete recovery points that it considers non-essential to the integrity of the backup chain. There are two types of essential recovery points which your Datto device will prevent you from manually removing:

  • Connecting points: A connecting point is a crucial recovery point that your Datto appliance uses to maintain consistency between the local and offsite backup chains. Connecting points allow the appliance to evaluate the data change between the last recovery point sent offsite and the most recent one, and request a cloud synchronization file consisting only of the incremental differences between the two. If you were to remove the connecting points from a backup chain, your device would send a full base image offsite every time it replicated data to the Datto Cloud.
  • Recovery points pending replication: You will not be able to delete recovery points on your device that are marked for offsite replication until the replication process completes.

To permanently remove all backup points for a selected system, you must first archive the backup chain.

Datto appliances use Inverse Backup Chain technology to ensure the maximum integrity of your backup chain.

When you attempt to remove an individual recovery point, your Datto appliance will evaluate the data it contains to see if any other recovery points in the Inverse Backup Chain rely on the information it contains. If it finds that any other recovery point references need the data, it will preserve it, and remove only the data unique to the selected backup point. For example, a 12 MB recovery point might contain 7 MB of data referenced by other backup points in the chain; if you were to delete this recovery point, you would only recover 5 MB.

When you delete all local or all cloud data, the same principle applies; your Datto appliance will remove all of the unique data contained in the backups while preserving the critical data needed to maintain the connecting points between your local and cloud chains. To permanently remove all backup points for a selected system, you must first archive the backup chain.

You can learn more about Inverse Backup Chain technology and how it affects space reclamation in our Explaining the Inverse Chain and Investigating Large Recovery Points article.

Local retention will not run if there are points outside the retention date window that are waiting to sync offsite. When large amounts of data are waiting to get offsite, a RoundTrip may be the best way to get the data uploaded to the Datto Cloud.

Additional Resources