Workspace archival
Introduction
At the end of the project lifecycle, users might opt for the archival of their Workspace. Most of the organisations opt for downloading all the data from their Workspace and archiving it in an institutional archiving repository. Some users however might consider archiving it on the myDRE platform itself. This is now possible.
Archiving on myDRE
Archival of a Workspace on myDRE means that the data storage account is archived in blob storage (Archival tier). This is a cheaper type of storage. Read more about blob storage here: Blobstorage
By default, the retention period for archival is 15 years.
Be aware that VMs or disks attached to VMs are not archived, just the data and a point-in-time snapshot (Z and I drives) with metadata.
This snapshot includes the following metadata (all at the time of archival):
- Which users were present and in what role.
- Workspace tags such as the title and cost center.
- Network security group (nsg) rules - which IP addresses and/or security rules were allowed/open.
- VM name(s).
- VM template(s) were used.
- CPU/RAM of the VM(s).
- Date of Workspace creation.
- Date of Workspace archival.
- Who archived the Workspace.
Be aware that this is not a backup and won't fully restore the Workspace. The snapshot with metadata could be used to recreate the Workspace from scratch with the addition of the storage account with archived data.
Contact your local Research Support member if you want to have your Workspace archived. Please include the following information:
- Name of the Workspace in dws-xxx-YYY format.
- Approval of the Accountable.
- Do you want to have your Workspace deleted after archival?