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Delete backups left by deleted sites

A site deleted without its off-site backups leaves its archives and database dumps on the FTP or SFTP target, and no page of the site is left to reach them. Leftover backups searches the target for those files and lets you delete them. S3 targets are not searched.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • You hold the Manage off-site backup targets permission and have access to every site. Without both, the page sends you back to the dashboard.
  • At least one node has an FTP or SFTP off-site target.
  • Every node answers. The search asks each node which sites it hosts, and if one does not answer, nothing is reported as left over.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. Open Settings in the sidebar, then Backups. At the bottom, under Maintenance, find Leftover backups and click Find leftover backups.
  2. Click Search the off-site targets. The search runs as a Search for leftover backups job and the panel opens its page. The search deletes nothing.
  3. When the job is done, open Find leftover backups again. The page says when it was last searched and shows one block per target. A file counts as left over when no site on any node uses its domain as its name or alias. Sites in the trash count as in use.
  4. Open a folder to read its files. Each domain lists its files with Type (archive or database dump), Taken and Size. Files whose names a backup run does not write are listed as unknown and cannot be deleted here.
  5. Tick the files to delete, or tick a domain to tick all of its files. An archive and its database dump are two files, so tick both.
  1. Click Delete ticked files. Type delete in the dialog and click Delete files. A request names at most 5000 files.

The panel opens a Delete leftover backups job. Before it deletes, it asks every node again which sites it hosts. A file whose domain is in use again is left alone. If a node does not answer, nothing is deleted.

Check that it worked

Section titled “Check that it worked”
  • The job page lists deleted <folder>/<file> for each file.
  • Search again. The deleted files are gone from the page, and a target with nothing left reads nothing left over.
  • Each deleted file has its own entry in the audit log.

If it fails

Section titled “If it fails”
  • Leftover backups need the “Manage off-site backup targets” permission and access to every site.: ask an Owner or Administrator for the permission, or to run the search.
  • Nothing is called left over, because not every node answered.: bring the listed node back, or remove it from the node list if it is gone for good, then search again.
  • No node has an FTP/SFTP target, so there is nothing to search.: add a target first, see Copy backups off-site.
  • Tick at least one file to delete.: tick files before you click Delete ticked files.
  • could not list: the target could not be read. The message beside it gives the reason; fix the connection under Off-site copies and search again.
  • <n> of <total> file(s) could not be deleted: the job page names each file that stayed and why. Fix the FTP account’s delete permission and search again.
Section titled “Related”