ECS: How to Delete a S3 Bucket with Many Objects in it

• Objects under ECS retention cannot be deleted.
• Objects under Object Lock retention cannot be deleted.
• File system enabled buckets require version 3.8.1 or later. 

Recommended option: Version 3.8 or later:
In version 3.8 of ECS Software, Dell introduced the simplified bucket delete. Now objects and the bucket can be deleted using the REST API or an empty bucket S3 string using x-emc-headers. Dell Technologies recommends upgrading to 3.8. and using the simplified bucket delete over life cycle delete.

Using the "simplified bucket delete" using ECS UI (Requires 3.8.1.0 or later)
Version 3.8.1.x and later allows deletion of the bucket with content from the ECS UI with appropriate permissions. Browse to the bucket and select delete from the drop-down. Select Delete ENTIRE contents including the selected bucket and confirm. 

Using the simplified bucket delete using REST API.
Check the latest REST API Guide for reference.

Example for sending the rest API call using curl from ECS:

Command:

# curl -k -H "$token" -X POST https://<hostname-or-ip>:4443/object/bucket/<bucketname>/deactivate?namespace=<namespace>\&emptyBucket=true

Example:

curl -v -k -H "$token" -X POST https://10.60.x.xx:4443/object/bucket/ExampleBucketRest/deactivate?namespace=b_mathias_ns\&emptyBucket=true

To monitor:

Command:

# curl -k -H "$token" -X GET https://<hostname-or-ip>:4443/object/bucket/<bucketname>/empty-bucket-status?namespace=<namespace> |xmllint --format -

Example:

Started:
mathias@client:/usr/share/s3curl$ curl -k -H "$token" -X GET https://10.60.x.xx:4443/object/bucket/ExampleBucketRest/empty-bucket-status?namespace=b_mathias_ns |xmllint --format -
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<empty_bucket_status>
  <status>PENDING</status>
  <created>1707411798889</created>
  <last_updated>1707411798889</last_updated>
  <entries_deleted>0</entries_deleted>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_retention>0</failed_to_delete_due_to_retention>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_permission>0</failed_to_delete_due_to_permission>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_dangling xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:nil="true"/>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_other>0</failed_to_delete_due_to_other>
  <message xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:nil="true"/>
</empty_bucket_status>

Running:
mathias@client:/usr/share/s3curl$ curl -k -H "$token" -X GET https://10.60.x.xx:4443/object/bucket/ExampleBucketRest/empty-bucket-status?namespace=b_mathias_ns |xmllint --format -
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   629  100   629    0     0   2431      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  2437
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<empty_bucket_status>
  <status>IN_PROGRESS</status>
  <created>1707411798889</created>
  <last_updated>1707411828897</last_updated>
  <entries_deleted>1337</entries_deleted>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_retention>0</failed_to_delete_due_to_retention>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_permission>0</failed_to_delete_due_to_permission>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_dangling xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:nil="true"/>
  <failed_to_delete_due_to_other>0</failed_to_delete_due_to_other>
  <message xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:nil="true"/>
</empty_bucket_status>

Completed:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<error>
  <code>1004</code>
  <description>Request parameter cannot be found</description>
  <details>Unable to find entity with the given id ExampleBucketRest</details>
  <retryable>false</retryable>
</error>

The error above is expected as the bucket is no longer found.

Using the simplified bucket delete using S3:

1. Check the latest data access guide for more details.
2. See v3.8 Data Access Guide.

 

The fastest way to address a bucket with this option is by s3curl.
 

s3curl is available on GitHub for local installations. This version is used for including x-emc-headers https://github.com/EMCECS/s3curl/blob/master/s3curl.pl

3. Start a simplified bucket delete using s3curl:

./s3curl --id=<alias> --DELETE -- http://<hostname-or-ip>:9020/<bucketname> -H "x-emc-empty-bucket:true"

Example:

mathias@client:/usr/share/s3curl$ ./s3curl.pl --id=b_mathias_iam --DELETE -- http://10.60.x.xx:9020/ExampleBucket -H "x-emc-empty-bucket:true"

Monitor Bucket Delete:

./s3curl.pl --id=<alias> http://<hostname-or-ip>:9020/<bucketname>?empty-bucket-status |xmllint --format -

Example:

mathias@client:/usr/share/s3curl$ ./s3curl.pl --id=b_mathias_iam -- http://10.60.x.xx:9020/ExampleBucket?empty-bucket-status |xmllint --format -
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   474  100   474    0     0   3128      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  3139
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<EmptyBucketStatus xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/">
  <Status>PENDING</Status>
  <Created>2024-02-08T16:21:53.849Z</Created>
  <LastUpdated>2024-02-08T16:21:53.849Z</LastUpdated>
  <EntriesDeleted>0</EntriesDeleted>
  <FailedToDeleteDueToRetention>0</FailedToDeleteDueToRetention>
  <FailedToDeleteDueToPermission>0</FailedToDeleteDueToPermission>
  <FailedToDeleteDueToOther>0</FailedToDeleteDueToOther>

Running:
mathias@client:/usr/share/s3curl$ ./s3curl.pl --id=b_mathias_iam -- http://10.60.x.xx:9020/ExampleBucket?empty-bucket-status |xmllint --format -
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   478  100   478    0     0   3883      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  3886
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<EmptyBucketStatus xmlns="http://s3.amazonaws.com/doc/2006-03-01/">
  <Status>IN_PROGRESS</Status>
  <Created>2024-02-08T16:21:53.849Z</Created>
  <LastUpdated>2024-02-08T16:22:23.899Z</LastUpdated>
  <EntriesDeleted>1304</EntriesDeleted>
  <FailedToDeleteDueToRetention>0</FailedToDeleteDueToRetention>
  <FailedToDeleteDueToPermission>0</FailedToDeleteDueToPermission>
  <FailedToDeleteDueToOther>0</FailedToDeleteDueToOther>
</EmptyBucketStatus>

Completed:
mathias@client:/usr/share/s3curl$ ./s3curl.pl --id=b_mathias_iam -- http://10.60.x.xx:9020/ExampleBucket?empty-bucket-status |xmllint --format -
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
100   180    0   180    0     0   1300      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  1304
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Error>
  <Code>NoSuchBucket</Code>
  <Message>The specified bucket does not exist</Message>
  <Resource>ExampleBucket</Resource>
  <RequestId>0a3c0812:18d77e3a715:2d7:1f33</RequestId>
</Error>

For code versions before 3.8, upgrade for availability of the above options.