Overview
CrashPlan administrators can use block, deauthorize, and deactivate actions to control access to data and manage accounts. This article explains the impact each of these actions has on organizations, users, and devices in your CrashPlan environment.
Considerations
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You must have administrative role permissions to perform block, deauthorize, and deactivate actions from the CrashPlan console.
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You should understand the basic information hierarchy of the CrashPlan platform, including the definitions below:
Device
A single computer within your CrashPlan environment, identified by its GUID. May be used interchangeably with endpoint.
User
A single account in your CrashPlan environment. A user account has a single set of sign-in credentials (username and password) and a single encryption key for all backups. A user always belongs to one (and only one) organization.
Organization
The hierarchical level in the CrashPlan environment for users and their devices. Each user can belong to only one organization. You can define many settings at the organization level; different organizations can have different settings. An organization can contain child organizations, and an organization can exist without containing any users.
Blocking, deauthorizing, and deactivating at a glance
- Blocking is a non-destructive action that prevents user access to your CrashPlan environment.
- Deauthorizing signs a user out of a specific device. The user can sign in again at any time.
- Deactivating is a destructive action that stops all activity for a device, user, or organization.
The following table provides additional details about each action:
| Backup activity | Possible Backup Data Loss | Applies to devices | Applies to users | Applies to organizations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block | Continues | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deauthorize | Stops | No | Yes | No | No |
| Deactivate | Stops | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Block
Blocking prevents user access to the CrashPlan environment but is not destructive to existing data. Device backups continue without interruption. Specific implications for devices, users, and organizations are detailed below.
Device
When you block a device:
- Users are signed out of the CrashPlan app on the blocked device and cannot sign in again on that device.
- Users cannot access the CrashPlan app on the device to restore data or change settings.
- Users can continue to use other devices.
- Existing backups are not affected.
- The CrashPlan service continues backing up new data on the device without interruption.
User
When you block a user:
- Users cannot sign in to any part of your CrashPlan environment:
- Users cannot sign in to the CrashPlan app on any device.
- Users cannot sign in to the web-based CrashPlan console.
- Users cannot register or sign in from a new device.
- Users cannot restore data or change settings.
- Existing backups are not affected.
- The CrashPlan service continues backing up new data on the device without interruption.
- The Audit Log records a user's events for the last 90 days. To maintain Audit Log output for longer than 90 days, export the results to your own systems for storage.
Organization
When you block an organization, all users in the organization are blocked, as well as all users in child organizations.
Blocks and licenses
Blocked devices still use a license.
Use case examples
- Theft or loss: you may want backups to continue while searching for the device, but want to prevent unauthorized access to backup archives.
- Licensing: if you are managing backups for a third party, you may need to block a user for billing purposes.
- Legal: in legal proceedings, you may need to restrict access to data due to a legal hold. Users on legal hold cannot be deactivated, but they can be blocked.
Unblock
When you unblock a device, user, or organization, normal access to the CrashPlan app is restored.
Deauthorize
Deauthorization only applies to devices. Users and organizations cannot be deauthorized.
When you deauthorize a device:
- The current user is signed out of the CrashPlan app. Users can sign in again at any time.
- No data is deleted. However, backup activity stops until the user signs in again.
- Users cannot access the CrashPlan app to restore data or change settings without signing in again.
- The Audit Log records a user's events for the last 90 days. To maintain Audit Log output for longer than 90 days, export the results to your own systems for storage.
Deauthorizations and licenses
Deauthorized devices still use a license.
Use case examples
- Troubleshooting: deauthorization is sometimes requested by our technical support engineers.
- Testing: deauthorizing a device can be used to test a user's credentials or other behavior.
- Theft or loss: the device will be unable to back up or restore files until the user has signed back in to the device.
Deactivate
Deactivation is a destructive action that prevents access to the CrashPlan environment and removes user data from devices. Specific implications for devices, users, and organizations are detailed below.
Permanent Data Loss Warning
Deactivation can destroy data, unlike blocking or deauthorizing.
- Deactivated archives on a CrashPlan cloud destination are placed into cold storage for the configured cold storage period. Once the cold storage period has passed, the archive is permanently deleted.
- Archives backed up to a local folder or other account device are immediately deleted upon deactivation. Cold storage is only available for CrashPlan cloud destinations.
Deactivation
For deactivation instructions, see Deactivate and reactivate users and devices in CrashPlan.
Device
When you deactivate a device:
- Device backups stop.
- The user is signed out of the CrashPlan app on that device.
- The user can sign in again at any time, but backup archives previously associated with the device will no longer be present.
- Restores are not available for files backed up from that device.
- Backup archives are removed from all backup destinations. The device's backup archive is sent to cold storage. Archives in cold storage do not continue to back up and do not undergo regular archive maintenance. By default, archives are permanently deleted from cold storage after 14 days. To change the default, update the Move deactivated archives to cold storage for quota value.
- In CrashPlan environments that use customized CrashPlan app installers configured to auto-register users, block the device before deactivating. Without first blocking the device, it may reactivate automatically.
User
When you deactivate a user:
- Device backups stop for the user.
- Users are signed out of all devices and online sessions and cannot sign in to any part of your CrashPlan environment:
- Users cannot sign in to the CrashPlan app on any device.
- Users cannot sign in to the web-based CrashPlan console.
- Users cannot sign in until being reactivated.
- Backup archives are removed from all backup destinations. All of the user's backup archives are sent to cold storage. Archives in cold storage do not continue to back up and do not undergo regular archive maintenance. By default, archives are permanently deleted from cold storage after 14 days. To change the default, update the Move deactivated archives to cold storage for quota value.
- Audit Log activity is retained for the duration of your Event data retention period. To maintain Audit Log output for longer than this period, export the results to your own systems for storage.
Users on legal hold cannot be deactivated
If users who are custodians under a legal hold are subsequently selected for deactivation (for example, from the CrashPlan console, a provisioning provider, or API), they are not deactivated immediately because their data must be retained for legal hold purposes. Instead, they are blocked. Once these blocked users are released from legal hold, they are deactivated automatically.
Organization
When you deactivate an organization, all users in the organization are deactivated, as well as all users in child organizations.
Deactivation and licenses
A deactivated user still uses a license as long as the user's archive exists in cold storage. Once the archive is purged from cold storage, the user no longer consumes a license.
Use case examples
- Reclaiming licenses: deactivation is the only action that can free licenses that are being used.
- Offboarding: deactivate a user account when an employee leaves the company.
- Device recycling: deactivate a device when permanently removing it from service.
Reactivation
Reactivation restores access to the CrashPlan environment, and makes deactivated backup archives available for use once again by affected users, devices, and the CrashPlan cloud. For step-by-step instructions on reactivating a deactivated user or device, see Deactivate and reactivate users and devices in CrashPlan.
Limited time to recover deactivated archives
Archives must be reactivated before the end of the cold storage period.
Device
When you reactivate a device:
- Backups resume.
- The deactivated backup archives are made available for use once again by the device if the device is reactivated before the end of the cold storage period.
User
When you reactivate a user:
- Backups resume.
- The deactivated user's backup archives are made available for use once again by each device associated with the user, and all devices associated with this user account are reactivated immediately if the user is reactivated before the end of the cold storage period.
Organization
When you reactivate an organization, all users in the organization are reactivated, as well as all users in child organizations.