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How to free up space in Metallic cloud storage


Userlevel 4
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My CommVault Metallic cloud storage hit 100% full.  I’ve deleted several months worth of backups and have run the data aging process multiple times but it still reports as 100% full.  What’s the trick to freeing up space on Metallic cloud storage?

Ken

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Best answer by Ken_H 15 August 2022, 19:42

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Hoping for an answer to this too. We’re nearly full as well.

Userlevel 7
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I think the only way to free-up space is to reduce retention because if I recall correctly you can't delete specific jobs. Removing backup with active backup history will of course also free-up space, but do mind the amount of capacity that you might get back can be limited because of deduplication and this might not be the desired solution. So check you environment and if everything is configured as required including backup agents in scope than you might need to consider baying more capacity. 

Never knew Metallic Cloud Storage has a hard limit because it's essentially Azure Blob Storage in the back. 

Userlevel 1
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There's also topic of retention locks, the anti ransomware feature. I'm not sure if you would be able to delete retained jobs before it meets it's retention, plus some buffor days related backup chains, deduplication etc. 

Userlevel 7
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Curious if you can encounter the same issue with metallic cloud storage as with physical storage.

When all space is consumed your pruning will result in not deleting data as there is no space left to perform the steps needed. When that happens on physical storage you need to add capacity in order to be able to free up space.

This is the case when reserved space on the data path is set to small and a block is being written which is larger than the reserved space. Resulting in 0 bytes free space left.

Userlevel 1
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Curious if you can encounter the same issue with metallic cloud storage as with physical storage.

When all space is consumed your pruning will result in not deleting data as there is no space left to perform the steps needed. When that happens on physical storage you need to add capacity in order to be able to free up space.

This is the case when reserved space on the data path is set to small and a block is being written which is larger than the reserved space. Resulting in 0 bytes free space left.

I guess not, currently by default few GBs of space is being left at each mount path to avoid such situation. Still we are talking about easily expandable cloud storage. 

Userlevel 4
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Curious if you can encounter the same issue with metallic cloud storage as with physical storage.

When all space is consumed your pruning will result in not deleting data as there is no space left to perform the steps needed. When that happens on physical storage you need to add capacity in order to be able to free up space.

This is the case when reserved space on the data path is set to small and a block is being written which is larger than the reserved space. Resulting in 0 bytes free space left.

I have HPE MSA disk shelves plugged into a Windows server at my DR site and there have been times I’ve needed to free up some space.  It’s a three step process 1) Using the java GUI navigate to Policies > Storage Policies > [policy_name] > select the copy in question > right-click > View > Jobs, 2) Delete some of the jobs, 3) Run the data aging process.  These same steps don’t seem to work on Metallic cloud storage.

Userlevel 7
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@Ken_H The difference might be related to the WORM capability that is used to protect the data from being deleted, but also mind you that cloud storage doesn't support sparse file capability so it prunes 8MB chunks or truncates.

Userlevel 4
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I deleted several backups from cloud storage on Friday afternoon then ran the data aging job but it didn’t free up any space on the cloud storage.  I received Alert emails throughout the day Friday and Saturday with the last email arriving Saturday night at 11:18 PM.  When I check this morning I see that my cloud storage now has 20GB free. 

I’ve opened support ticket 220812-568 to get some explanation on why the cloud storage seems to behave so differently than normal local storage.

Ken

Userlevel 3
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@Ken_H if its straight dedupe to cloud or local disk, its the same, if jobs are running or threads in the DDB are busy it will just take time

The fact that you’re getting some space back means pruning is working, whats your DDB copy stats say for size on disk?

Userlevel 4
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Hello everyone,

TL;DR is that CommVault can take up to 48 hours to delete backup data.

Thanks for all the feedback.  My experience with disk storage either locally or at my DR site has been that the Delete Job / Data Aging process would show results within the hour, often much quicker.  The response from CommVault on my ticket is that results can take up to 48 hours.  With the help of CommVault support, I’ve prepared a small document to help investigate delays in deleting backups.  Please see the attached file. 

 As I have reclaimed some space in my cloud storage, I’ve gone ahead and closed the support ticket.  No problems were found and no changes were made.

Ken

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