Recycle Bin

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Most RDS SQL Server instances are moved to the Recycle Bin after they are released or their subscriptions are canceled. You can unlock or rebuild an instance from the Recycle Bin within a specific retention period to ensure business continuity. You can also permanently destroy an instance in the Recycle Bin after it expires or a payment becomes overdue to ensure data security.

Important
  • When you delete an instance, a final backup is created. If this backup is in progress (the instance status is Deleting), the instance is not available in the Recycle Bin. This process can take time, depending on the amount of data and the instance's configuration. Wait for the status to change to Deleted.

  • The rebuild and destroy features are not available on the reseller portal.

  • On the reseller portal, locked subscription instances are permanently released after 7 days and cannot be recovered.

Example

If your subscription RDS instance is locked due to expiration, you can take the following actions to recover your data:

  • Within 7 days after the instance is locked, you can renew and unlock it from the Recycle Bin.

  • After 7 days, the instance is released and cannot be renewed. However, its backups are retained for 8 more days. During this period, you can rebuild the instance to restore its data to a new RDS instance.

  • On the 9th day after the instance is released, its backups are deleted, and the data becomes unrecoverable.

Note

You can go to the Recycle Bin page in the RDS console to view the Last Recoverable Time for the instance.

Features

Category

Description

Scenarios where an instance is moved to the Recycle Bin

  • Manual release of a pay-as-you-go primary instance.

  • Automatic release of a pay-as-you-go primary instance due to an overdue payment.

  • Manual cancellation of a subscription for a primary instance.

  • Automatic release of a subscription primary instance upon expiration.

Scenarios where an instance is not moved to the Recycle Bin

  • Read-only instances are not moved to the Recycle Bin.

  • Serverless instances are not moved to the Recycle Bin.

  • Although RDS SQL Server 2008 R2 instances appear in the Recycle Bin after release, they cannot be rebuilt directly from the console.

Important

After an instance is moved to the Recycle Bin, its database accounts are released. If you later renew and unlock the instance, you must re-create the database accounts after the instance is restored.

Limitations

Add funds to unlock

If a pay-as-you-go RDS instance is locked due to an overdue payment, you can add funds to your Alibaba Cloud account to unlock the instance.

For more information, see Overdue payments.

Renew and unlock

If a subscription RDS instance is locked due to expiration, you can renew and unlock it from the Recycle Bin within 7 days. After this period, the instance is released.

  1. Log on to the ApsaraDB RDS console.

  2. In the navigation pane on the left, click Recycle Bin. Then, select a region at the top of the page.

  3. Find the locked instance and click Unlock.

The instance returns to a normal state immediately after renewal.

Rebuild instance

After an instance is released, either automatically upon expiration or manually, its backups are retained for 8 days. During this period, you can use the rebuild feature to restore the backups to a new instance.

Important
  • Your Alibaba Cloud account must have a balance of at least CNY 100. Otherwise, the rebuild operation will fail.

  • On the 9th day after the instance is released, the backups are deleted, and the data becomes unrecoverable.

  • This deletion does not affect data from the cross-region backup, which is retained separately.

  • Rebuilding an instance restores its data to a new instance. By default, the new instance has the same instance type and is in the same zone as the original. You can also select a different zone and instance type. However, the new instance is assigned a new instance ID and endpoint. To avoid updating your applications, you can change the new instance's endpoint to match the original. For more information about how to change an endpoint, see Modify the internal and public endpoints and port numbers.

  • Rebuilding an instance from the Recycle Bin does not restore its jobs.

  1. Log on to the ApsaraDB RDS console.

  2. In the navigation pane on the left, click Recycle Bin. Then, select a region at the top of the page.

  3. Find the target instance and click Rebuild.

Destroy instance

Warning

Warning: Destroying an instance also permanently deletes all of its backups. Proceed with caution.

You can permanently destroy any RDS instance that is in the Recycle Bin.

Note

Due to cache update latency, you must wait about 10 minutes after an instance is moved to the Recycle Bin before you can destroy it. Billing for the instance stops as soon as it enters the Recycle Bin.

  1. Go to the RDS instance list.

  2. In the navigation pane on the left, click Recycle Bin. Then, select the instance's region.

  3. Find the target instance, click Destroy, and then click OK in the confirmation dialog box.

FAQ

I released my RDS SQL Server 2008 R2 instance. Why do I receive the error Insufficient resources. Contact the resource administrator to increase the inventory. or The module you purchased is invalid. Please purchase again. when I try to rebuild it?

RDS SQL Server 2008 R2 instances are no longer available for purchase and therefore cannot be rebuilt.

If an instance of this version is already released, you can submit a ticket within 8 days of its release to contact technical support. They will attempt to retrieve the last backup file created before the instance was released. You can then restore this backup to one of the following destination RDS SQL Server instances to recover your data:

On the Recycle Bin page, the instance status is Locked (Manually triggered), and the Rebuild and Destroy options are available in the Actions column.

Related operations