Erasing specific files from laptop backups - is it possible?

Hi ​@drPhil 

 

For laptop clients and plans managed through the Command Center, there is no direct equivalent to the "Erase Data by Browsing" (also known as "Delete Data by Browsing") feature that is available in the legacy CommCell Console for file system agents. 

Hi ​@drPhil ,

Commvault meets GDPR regulations and assist Enterprises to meet them,

GDPR Compliance | Commvault

The delete option and "right to be forgotten" is fully supported in CommandCenter 

• Deleting Data using the Command Center
• Deleting Backup Data and Archive Data from the Web Console

I just confirmed on my 11.46 lab,

Thanks,

Abdu

Hi ​@Pradeep  and ​@AbdulRahman AlSindiony - thank you for your contributions.
 

Indeed, it is possible to delete backed up items when browsing during a restore, as written by ​@AbdulRahman AlSindiony 

However, we are not sure whether the data is physically deleted from the disk/tape library, since the blocks could very often be part of a deduplicated store shared with other data etc.

Therefore, we would need an answer from a Commvault employee familiar with the compliance side of things (GDPR etc.):

If after deleting an item from Command Center, is the data physically removed from the storage, or does this only make it unrecoverable? And is any special licence or advanced feature needed to achieve actual physical removal?

Hi ​@drPhil ,

Deleting data from the CommadnCenter Browse window takes the same effect as deleting a specific job for example, 

If you delete a Deduped Job in Commvault, this doesn’t mean that all blocks are physically deleted (pruned), only if those blocks are not referenced by any other jobs, only then the blocks will be deleted from the storage.

However, deleting a specific file or job, makes sure it’s no longer recoverable, Data that has been deleted cannot be restored.

This is applicable only for Deduped media, if this doesn’t meet your organization requirements or if you need to make sure ALL blocks are physically deleted, you can leverage non-deduped policies, but this will come at cost of storage savings.

Thanks,

Abdu