Step 6: Delete a Vault in S3 Glacier - Amazon S3 Glacier

This page is only for existing customers of the S3 Glacier service using Vaults and the original REST API from 2012.

If you're looking for archival storage solutions we suggest using the S3 Glacier storage classes in Amazon S3, S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive. To learn more about these storage options, see S3 Glacier storage classes and Long-term data storage using S3 Glacier storage classes in the Amazon S3 User Guide. These storage classes use the Amazon S3 API, are available in all regions, and can be managed within the Amazon S3 console. They offer features like Storage Cost Analysis, Storage Lens, advanced optional encryption features, and more.

Step 6: Delete a Vault in S3 Glacier

A vault is a container for storing archives. To delete an Amazon S3 Glacier vault, you must first delete all existing archives in the vault as of the last inventory that S3 Glacier computed.

You can delete a vault programmatically or by using the S3 Glacier console. For information about deleting a vault programmatically, see Deleting a Vault in Amazon S3 Glacier.

Important

If you upload an archive to a vault or delete an archive from a vault within the recent 24 hours, you must wait until the last vault inventory is updated to reflect the latest information. S3 Glacier prepares an inventory for each vault periodically, every 24 hours.

To delete an empty vault

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the S3 Glacier console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/glacier/home.

  2. From the Select a Region menu, choose the AWS Region for the vault that you want to delete.

    In this getting started exercise, your example vault is in the US West (Oregon) Region.

  3. Select the option button next to the empty vault that you want to delete. If the vault is not empty, you must delete all archives before deleting the vault. For more information, see Deleting an Archive in Amazon S3 Glacier.

    Important

    Deleting a vault can't be undone.

  4. Choose Delete.

  5. The Delete vault dialog box appears. Choose Delete.

To delete a nonempty vault

  1. If you're deleting a nonempty vault, you must first delete all existing archives before deleting the vault. You can do this by writing code to make a delete archive request by using either the REST API, the AWS SDK for Java, the AWS SDK for .NET or the AWS CLI. For information about deleting archives, see Step 5: Delete an Archive from a Vault in S3 Glacier.

  2. After the vault is empty, follow the steps to delete an empty vault in the preceding procedure.