Storage FAQ

This document addresses common questions related to cloud storage services that can be used for GRAX. These include Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage. These resources contain the sum-total of all GRAX backup data for your organization. As such, they are a critical component of your GRAX deployment.

Can I use Azure Premium Storage for my storage container?

No. GRAX does not support the premium blob storage tier or API from Microsoft Azure. Use the standard storage tier instead.

Can Versioning be enabled in my storage bucket/container?

No. GRAX does not support versioning in the storage bucket or container. GRAX stores data in a proprietary format that keeps track of all record versions internally. Storage blobs/objects are not updated in place - they're rewritten as a new blob when replaced. The old blobs are then removed once no longer representative of the dataset. Enabling versioning thus has no affect on data safety but keeps these deleted blobs around indefinitely as a "non-current version." This will increase storage consumption and costs significantly beyond the documented expectations.

How can I clean deleted data from a bucket that had versioning enabled?

First, ensure that Versioning is now disabled or suspended indefinitely in the bucket. Next, use provider-specific tools to automatically remove the "non-current versions" for deleted objects from the bucket. AWS S3 supports Lifecycle Rules that can be used to automatically remove old versions of objects, and clean up delete markers left behind. A rule needs to be created to do the following:

1. Noncurrent Version Expiration - This removes the non-current versions of objects after a specified number of days. The rule should be configured to remove non-current versions after 1 day.
2. Remove Expired Object Delete Markers - This removes the delete markers left behind after the non-current versions are removed.

An example of a Lifecycle Rule that will remove non-current versions and delete markers after 1 day is shown below:

❗️

Warning

These examples are not filtered. They will apply to the entire bucket. If you share your GRAX bucket with other applications or data, these rules may delete non-current versions of storage objects that are not related to GRAX. Proceed with caution.

XML

<LifecycleConfiguration>
    <Rule>
        <Expiration>
           <ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker>true</ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker>
        </Expiration>
        <NoncurrentVersionExpiration>
            <NoncurrentDays>1</NoncurrentDays>
        </NoncurrentVersionExpiration>
    </Rule>
</LifecycleConfiguration>

JSON

{
    "Rules": [
        {
            "Expiration": {
                "ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker": true
            },
            "NoncurrentVersionExpiration": {
                "NoncurrentDays": 1
            }
        }
    ]
}