Deleting your gateway and removing associated resources
If you don't plan to continue using your gateway, consider deleting the gateway and its associated resources. Removing resources avoids incurring charges for resources you don't plan to continue using and helps reduce your monthly bill.
When you delete a gateway, it no longer appears on the AWS Storage Gateway Management Console and its iSCSI connection to the initiator is closed. The procedure for deleting a gateway is the same for all gateway types; however, depending on the type of gateway you want to delete and the host it is deployed on, you follow specific instructions to remove associated resources.
Note
When you delete a Tape Gateway, any tapes that are currently in the
AVAILABLE status are also deleted, and any data on those tapes is lost.
If you want to retain data from tapes that are being used by a gateway that you want to
delete, you must archive the tapes before you delete the gateway. For more information,
see Archiving Virtual Tapes.
You can delete a gateway using the Storage Gateway console or programmatically. You can find information following about how to delete a gateway using the Storage Gateway console. If you want to programmatically delete your gateway, see AWS Storage Gateway API Reference.
Topics
Deleting Your Gateway by Using the Storage Gateway Console
The procedure for deleting a gateway is the same for all gateway types. However, depending on the type of gateway you want to delete and the host the gateway is deployed on, you might have to perform additional tasks to remove resources associated with the gateway. Removing these resources helps you avoid paying for resources you don't plan to use.
Note
For gateways deployed on an Amazon EC2 instance, the instance continues to exist until you delete it.
For gateways deployed on a virtual machine (VM), after you delete your gateway the gateway VM still exists in your virtualization environment. To remove the VM, use the VMware vSphere client, Microsoft Hyper-V Manager, or Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) client to connect to the host and remove the VM. Note that you can't reuse the deleted gateway's VM to activate a new gateway.
To delete a gateway
Open the Storage Gateway console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/storagegateway/home
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Choose Gateways, then select one or more gateways to delete.
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For Actions, choose Delete gateway. The confirmation dialog box appears.
Warning
Before you do this step, make sure that there are no applications currently writing to the gateway's volumes. If you delete the gateway while it is in use, data loss can occur. When a gateway is deleted, there is no way to get it back.
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Verify that you want to delete the specified gateways, then type the word delete in the confirmation box, and choose Delete.
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(Optional) If you want to provide feedback about your deleted gateway, complete the feedback dialog box, then choose Submit. Otherwise, choose Skip.
Important
You no longer pay software charges after you delete a gateway, but resources such as virtual tapes, Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) snapshots, and Amazon EC2 instances persist. You will continue to be billed for these resources. You can choose to remove Amazon EC2 instances and Amazon EBS snapshots by canceling your Amazon EC2 subscription. If you want to keep your Amazon EC2 subscription, you can delete your Amazon EBS snapshots using the Amazon EC2 console.
Removing Resources from a Gateway Deployed On-Premises
You can use the instructions following to remove resources from a gateway that is deployed on-premises.
Removing Resources from a Tape Gateway Deployed on a VM
When you delete a gateway–virtual tape library (VTL), you perform additional cleanup steps before and after you delete the gateway. These additional steps help you remove resources you don't need so you don't continue to pay for them.
If the Tape Gateway you want to delete is deployed on a virtual machine (VM), we suggest that you take the following actions to clean up resources.
Important
Before you delete a Tape Gateway, you must cancel all tape retrieval operations and eject all retrieved tapes.
After you have deleted the Tape Gateway, you must remove any resources associated with the Tape Gateway that you don't need to avoid paying for those resources.
When you delete a Tape Gateway, you can encounter one of two scenarios.
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The Tape Gateway is connected to AWS – If the Tape Gateway is connected to AWS and you delete the gateway, the iSCSI targets associated with the gateway (that is, the virtual tape drives and media changer) will no longer be available.
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The Tape Gateway is not connected to AWS – If the Tape Gateway is not connected to AWS, for example if the underlying VM is turned off or your network is down, then you cannot delete the gateway. If you attempt to do so, after your environment is back up and running you might have a Tape Gateway running on-premises with available iSCSI targets. However, no Tape Gateway data will be uploaded to, or downloaded from, AWS.
If the Tape Gateway you want to delete is not functioning, you must first deactivate it before you delete it, as described following:
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To delete tapes that have the RETRIEVED status from the library, eject the tape using your backup software. For instructions, see Archiving the Tape.
After deactivating the Tape Gateway and deleting tapes, you can delete the Tape Gateway. For instructions on how to delete a gateway, see Deleting Your Gateway by Using the Storage Gateway Console.
If you have tapes archived, those tapes remain and you continue to pay for storage until you delete them. For instruction on how to delete tapes from a archive. see Deleting virtual tapes from your Tape Gateway.
Important
You are charged for a minimum of 90 days storage for virtual tapes in a archive. If you retrieve a virtual tape that has been stored in the archive for less than 90 days, you are still charged for 90 days storage.
Removing Resources from a Gateway Deployed on an Amazon EC2 Instance
If you want to delete a gateway that you deployed on an Amazon EC2 instance, we recommend that you clean up the AWS resources that were used with the gateway, specifically the Amazon EC2 instance, any Amazon EBS volumes, and also tapes if you deployed a Tape Gateway. Doing so helps avoid unintended usage charges.
Removing Resources from Your Tape Gateway Deployed on Amazon EC2
If you deployed a Tape Gateway, we suggest that you take the following actions to delete your gateway and clean up its resources:
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Delete all virtual tapes that you have retrieved to your Tape Gateway. For more information, see Deleting virtual tapes from your Tape Gateway.
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Delete all virtual tapes from the tape library. For more information, see Deleting virtual tapes from your Tape Gateway.
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Delete the Tape Gateway. For more information, see Deleting Your Gateway by Using the Storage Gateway Console.
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Terminate all Amazon EC2 instances, and delete all Amazon EBS volumes. For more information, see Clean Up Your Instance and Volume in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
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Delete all archived virtual tapes. For more information, see Deleting virtual tapes from your Tape Gateway.
Important
You are charged for a minimum of 90 days storage for virtual tapes in the archive. If you retrieve a virtual tape that has been stored in the archive for less than 90 days, you are still charged for 90 days storage.
