How to use the "Delete Data" function in the CMon UI to delete ALL of the backup data on your own managed and hosted 'Cloud Storage Account', that will affect all 'Cloud Backup' device type devices that use that account (for the "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" Cloud Storage Account type only, that is managed and hosted by NovaBACKUP). This guide is only applicable to "NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage" devices that do utilize that "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" Cloud Storage Account type only in that case. The "Delete Data" function will not exist for self-hosted CMon Server installs (where you install and maintain your own CMon Server app keep in mind), nor will it apply to non-NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage based device types (where the NovaBACKUP corporation is hosting your Cloud data). In order to see and utilize the "Delete Data" button requires your CMon user to have the "Edit Cloud Storage Accounts" permission (as seen in the CMon Docs, near the bottom of this specific page for the "Delete Data" function here).
Note: It is important to point out that this how to guide is only useful if your end goal is to delete ALL of the backup data on your managed and hosted 'Cloud Storage Account' (which could contain multiple named 'Cloud Backup' device type devices in it, possibly for more than one computer in that case). If you only need to remove the backup data from a single specific backup job that is stored on a single 'Cloud Backup' device type device (and keep in mind that a single 'Cloud Storage Account' can have multiple named 'Cloud Backup' device type devices associated to it and using it, possibly for multiple computers to backup to the one 'Cloud Storage Account' account, each with their own named device), then you can utilize the other KB article here. This current "Delete Data" KB article that you are reading now is much easier to utilize though if your end goal is to delete ALL of the backup data, not just a partial amount of the backup data on a single backup job only.
NOTICE: PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH THIS FUNCTION AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE PERFORMING THE DELETE DATA FUNCTION ON THE CORRECT CLOUD STORAGE ACCOUNT (THAT COULD CONTAIN MULTIPLE 'NOVABACKUP CLOUD BACKUP' DEVICE TYPE DEVICES ASSOCIATED TO IT), AS THAT DATA WILL NOT BE RECOVERABLE TO ANY DEGREE FROM THE CLOUD AFTERWARDS (ON THE HOSTED CLOUD END AND ON YOUR END)!
There are two main parts that you need to do in order to be successful with these instructions. If you only do the first part of the instructions, but you don't do the second part of the instructions, then the backup data will be cleared out but any of your existing backup jobs that store to that same Cloud device will likely fail or have major issues. If you only use the "Delete Data" function via the CMon UI (that is the first part) then the likelihood that your existing backup jobs that run after that will fail to that same Cloud (S3) FPI device is high, and there is a section that covers what else you need to do after using that website function, that is covered in the "Step 4." section (that is the second part).
Prerequisites
Before you start, ensure that you have:
- NovaBACKUP 21.x client installed on your system, with a valid internet connection to the local machine, with a current connection to a public accessible CMon Server (the Step 1 will help you identify if that is true and to record the website address to use to login to the CMon UI with).
- A Cloud Storage Account set up with a "NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage (S3)" device connected to NovaBACKUP client. The device type is 'Cloud Backup' in that case, but it has to be a managed and hosted by NovaBACKUP Corp. device in that case, and it has to be accessible by a CMon Server (this function does not work on a self-hosted CMon Server keep in mind, it only works for a NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage (S3) account type).
- A CMon website user account to login with (username and password) to be able to login to CMon Server that your NovaBACKUP client's "Default Settings > CMon Server" tab is set to for the "Server name:" field value there, as that is where the "Delete Data" function exists in the CMon UI. The CMon website user account that you do login with, in order to even be able to see and utilize the "Delete Data" button function requires that user to have the "Edit Cloud Storage Accounts" permission (as seen in the CMon Docs, near the bottom of this specific page for the "Delete Data" function here). Step 2 covers how to identify the CMon Server and login to the CMon web UI, and to see if you have the required permission in the CMon UI to even use the "Delete Data" button function.
Step 1: Verify that the NovaBACKUP client is connected to a CMon Server, and then test to make sure that you can login to the CMon UI website that your NovaBACKUP 21.x client uses
- Open NovaBACKUP client: Launch the NovaBACKUP client software (to verify the CMon Server address mainly)
- Go to "Default Settings" and then "CMon Server" and verify the "Server name:" field value. That is the web address for the CMon Server that you will login to via a web browser (you will need to add https:// in front of the address, so please record or copy that address and insert that in front of the address, to be utilized in the next step). The "Server name:" field value will normally contain the text "online-backup.com" in it. Also at the bottom of that same dialog make sure that it shows that "The service is started.". If not start it with the "Start Service" button there.
- Go to Device tab in the NovaBACKUP client: Verify that the "NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage" device in question that you want to delete the backup data on is still listed, and that this device cannot be "edited" using the client UI (in that case it will be a "managed" device which is necessary here), and in the "Size" column in the Device tab to the right of that device that it reports at least some usage, that you now want to delete all of that stored backup data on next.
- You should also make sure that the Windows service namned "Backup Client Agent Service" is in the running state currently, as if it is not that may point to a different issue going on here, and the "Delete Data" button may still work for you but that would not be optimal.
Step 2: Using a web browser login to the CMon Server website address that you identified in the prior step (you can also use the green "Click HERE to add an online device" button in the client Device tab)
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Login to the CMon Server website address (and confirm if your user does have the permissions to even see the "Delete Data" function after that):
Using a web browser login to the website address that you recorded in Step 1, or you you can also use the green "Click HERE to add an online device" button in the client Device tab, and then once at that website click the "Login" button, then login to the CMon website UI there with your user. Your user needs to have the "Edit Cloud Storage Accounts" permission (as seen in the CMon Docs, near the bottom of this specific page for the "Delete Data" function here) in order to perform the "Delete Data" function, so you can check the priveledge now in that case. If it does have that permission then you will see a "Delete Data" function to utilize in "Cloud Storage Accounts" dialog in the CMon UI, as long as your CMon user that is logged in does have that permission.
Step 3: Use the "Delete Data" function in the "Cloud Storage Accounts" area (in the top toolbar) of CMon web UI
- Click on "Cloud Storage Accounts" in the top toolbar of CMon, and that should take you to a list of your Cloud Storage Accounts, which in that case you will need to know which "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" that is in this list is utilized by the "Cloud backup" device in question that you want to perform the CMon "Delete Data" function on:
- After you locate the named "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" in the list of Cloud Storage Accounts, that you want to perform the "Delete Data" function on in that case, then click the "View" button on the far right of that account next. Note: If you don't see any "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" account in the above list, then stop there, as your account either can't view that area of the CMon, due to lack of permissions to use the function, or there is no "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" account" to be able to use this function with.
- Then click the "Delete Data" button, as seen at the bottom of the above screenshot. A pop-up dialog will display on screen that has you confirm if you want to do that, with a "OK" and "Cancel" button to utilize there at that point:
- If you do click on the "OK" button then it will proceed to perform the "Delete Data" function, and once that has completed it will show a green notification message (fairly quickly) at the top right that the "Data Deleted Successfully", like this:
- You are now done with the CMon UI portion of the "Delete Data" function. However, and as additional instructions to follow after the usage of that "Delete Data" function had showed successful in the CMon UI, you will most likely (as long as the client has locally stored data on it from prior job runs to that device in question) need to perform at least one of the manual via the client steps on the client computer that utilizes that "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" + Cloud backup device that you just performed that function on to make that Cloud backup device work properly after that. Read on for those further instruction sets, for those two manual via the client methods to follow (you should only need to follow one of the methods out of the two, unless for very rare cases where both may be required), to delete the FPI data directory for that Cloud backup device, or to create a brand new backup job to run that backup job, instead of a prior existing backup job in that case. So, please be sure to perform at least 1 out of 2 of the following additional instruction sets after you got done with Step 3 above.
Step 4: After having used and already completed the "Delete Data" function in the "Cloud Storage Accounts" area (in the top toolbar) of CMon web UI, additional steps will be required in order for your backup job to work to write to that Cloud backup device (that the data was deleted from in Step 3):
Additional manual via the client instructions set for the manual Method 1 out of 2 (Delete FPI Data Dir for the Cloud backup device in question, but do not create a new backup job):
This additional manual via the client instructions set, for Method 1 out of 2, would be for those customer's that don't want to create a new backup job name (new backup job script that has never run before) to continue utilizing the device that you had performed the CMon "Delete Data" function on, as the additional manual instruction set to need to do next after that (which in this case is Method 1 out of 2). This set of 6 steps in this paragraph would be for if you have not already by at this point, after performing the above CMon "Delete Data" function steps first, deleted the FPI Data Dir folder for the Cloud backup device in question, and you still need to do that manual deletion of FPI Data Dir part then you will follow these simple additional to the CMon "Data Delete" button instructions set in that case:
- You will first need to determine what the "Device name value" is for all of the devices that do utilize that ["Cloud Storage Accounts > "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account"] account entry that you had already by this point performed the CMon "Delete Data" functon on. You can verify that by looking in the CMon at ALL Agents that would utilize the above "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" that you had just performed the CMon "Delete Data" function on with success, which will require you to look in the Agents and Groups dialog in CMon and then drill down to the "Devices" tab inside ALL Agents in that case, to know what actual device name is that was utilized by that "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account". Record the actual device name for ALL Agent that did utilize that above "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account", which will not always be the same value as the "User name" field value on the "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" in question, you will need to keep in mind, and that is because the ["Cloud Storage Accounts > "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account"] account entry itself doesn't equate to the "Device name value" (unfortunately), so it can be a bit difficult to match on, but luckily inside the Cloud Storage Account that you had performed the CMon "Delete Data" function in, also has a "Devices" tab to be able to click on, to verify what we need to verify here for this step, so in order to do that verification step you can follow Steps 1 to 3 in the top of this KB article to know about and to confirm on for this step (if you were to click on the "Devices" tab, in Step 3), and for reference from that example Step 3 that "Devices" tab for that "Cloud Storage Account" looks like this, where it lists all of the Agents and all of the Agents Devices that the example ["Cloud Storage Accounts > "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account"] account had utilized (but keep in mind that the Cloud Storage Account in the example in this KB article, in Step 3, had utilized for the "User name" field value "jferraez10-s3", but that will not always match the same value for the "Device" name field value in the actual Cloud Backup "Device", which will NOT ALWAYS BE THE CASE THAT IT WILL MATCH LIKE THAT, FOR BOTH THE CLOUD ACCOUNT USER NAME AND THE DEVICE NAME VALUES!:
- Note: The "Device" name value per Agent in the above ["Cloud Storage Accounts > "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" > "Devices"] dialog will also match up and be the equivalent folder value on that single listed Agent, in the 'C:\ProgramData\NovaStor\NovaStor NovaBACKUP\FPI\' folder (that would be the default FPI Data Dir folder, but it can be custom defined as you can read in this article here, so be aware of that) as a 'jferraez10-s3' sub-folder under the FPI parent folder, in that case (which you will be doing in the next step, to delete that device folder, for the "Device" name value in question that is seen above in this example in that case). This information about the device name value that you will record as part of Steps 1-2 here are required in order to perform the next step, which is Step 3; otherwise you won't know exactly which sub-folder to delete based on the device name of the account you just deleted the data on (especially if you have multiple FPI devices, which each will have their own sub-folder under that parent FPI folder, if you have backed up to each device at least once before that will be true).
- Connect to the actual physical or virtual client machine (as you will need to access some client files/folders locally) that does utilize the "Amazon S3 Compatible Cloud Storage Account" device, that you just performed the CMon "Delete Data" functon on just prior to this point, by going on to that machine via RDP or locally, and then using Windows Explorer navigate to the FPI Data Dir folder first, which by default, and for most customers will be the folder: 'C:\ProgramData\NovaStor\NovaStor NovaBACKUP\FPI\', and then locate the same named Cloud backup device there, as a sub-folder under the FPI folder, and then delete that folder via Windows Explorer, so that it is no longer remaining as a folder name in that FPI folder.
- Now you will need to verify that the folder name no longer exists on the client end, after performing the above step, by listing the folders under the parent 'C:\ProgramData\NovaStor\NovaStor NovaBACKUP\FPI\' folder, where the folder name will equate to the device name in the Device tab for that Cloud backup device in question that you had completed the CMon "Delete Data" step on.
- Run the original and already existing backup job, that uses that same Cloud backup device (that is a "NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage" or "Generic S3" device type) as the target. If it completes with success and doesn't fail immediately then we should be good here. If it fails nearly immediately with the error "failed with "Error e0010001d: An internal error occurred. - Job processing failure" as the only error, then you may want to try running that same existing backup job one more time, or you can also try to disable the Retention "Maximum Backup Age" option in the backup job settings and save the backup job and then try running that same job again after that to see if that can fix it (and if you did disable the Retention "Maximum Backup Age" option in the backup job settings you will want to re-enable that setting after that, to the original value you were utilizing prior there, and save the backup job and run it again to see if it works without failure still).
- You are done here, and in that case you will not be required to create a new backup job name (which the "Additional manual via the client instructions set for the manual Method 2 out of 2 covers below). However, if the original and already existing backup job, that uses that same Cloud backup device (that is a "NovaBACKUP Cloud Storage" or "Generic S3" device type) as the target, then you will be required to follow the "Additional manual via the client instructions set for the manual Method 2 out of 2" instruction set below:
Additional manual via the client instructions set for the manual Method 2 out of 2 (Create a new backup job, but do not delete the FPI Data Dir folder for that device):
This additional manual via the client instructions set, for Method 2 out of 2, would be for those customer's that DO want to create a new backup job name (new backup job script that has never run before) which the backup target will be the Cloud backup device in question (that you did the CMon "Delete Data" function on already), but who don't want to delete the FPI Data Dir folder for the Cloud backup device in question, to continue utilizing the device that you had performed the CMon "Delete Data" function on, as the additional manual instruction set to need to do next after that (which in this case is Method 2 out of 2). This set of 2 steps in this paragraph would be for if you have not already by at this point, after performing the above CMon "Delete Data" function steps first, created a new backup job name (new backup job script that has never run before) to the above Cloud backup device, and you did not perform the prior stated Method 1 of 2 FPI Data Dir part of the instructions, then you will follow these simple additional to the CMon "Data Delete" button instruction set in that case:
- Run the backup client and then go to the 'Backup' tab and click on 'New Job' in the top toolbar, or "New Backup Job" in the large circle button menu, and create a new backup job there, with a different name that any job that has run prior to that same Cloud backup devie in question, that you had performed the CMon "Delete Data" function on that is, and set the target / Backup to device to that same Cloud backup device after that and save the job. To be very clear here this means that the name of the backup job, in the "Backup Name:" field at the top left must be a brand new job name then in that case (that has never been used before by that device as the caveat). Since you did not delete the FPI Data Dir folder for that device in question (because you chose to go with the additional manual via the client instructions set, for Method 2 out of 2, in that case), and that is why we must create a brand new backup job name (new backup job script that has never run before to that same Cloud backup device target that is). Save the backup job.
- Run that brand new backup job manually, via the 'Backup' tab, or on schedule (you can right click and do a "Run Now" in the Schedule tab for that listed backup job will start it manually once).
- See if the backup job completed with success or failed. It normally will fail nearly immediately in that case if a problem regarding this "Delete Data" function and needing to perform the additional manual via the client instructions set still exists. And in that case we would suggest performing all of the steps again but this time when it comes to the additional manual via the client instructions set, that you will want to perform both of the methods, Method 1 AND Method 2. Then try running the new backup job again that has never run before to see if that clears up the problem.
If you still run into any issues with the CMon "Delete Data" function then please create a support ticket for that at https://novabackup.com/ticket. Thanks.