Atlas Online Archive pause, expiration and deletion lifecycle boundaries
Parent: MongoDB Atlas Online Archive · Published reference · snapshot 2026-10-29
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Source-anchored research for Atlas Online Archive pause, expiration and deletion lifecycle boundaries. Run status: COMPLETED.
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How it works
- A resume request fails when another archive for the same collection is active; the pause guide requires pausing or deleting the active archive first. (high confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- For automation, Pulumi documents deleteOnCreateTimeout=true as the default: a creation timeout triggers deletion and returns without waiting for deletion to finish. Retrying immediately can race that deletion. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
Problems, failure modes and limitations
- Manual archive deletion changes its state to Deleted; five days later Atlas purges all archive-storage files and metadata. Purged data cannot be restored. (high confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- Archive expiration is optional. Atlas documents a retention range of 7–9125 days; setting retention takes effect after 24 hours. Editing or clearing Deletion Age Limit also takes 24 hours, and clearing it disables expiration. (medium confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
Comparisons and alternatives
- Archive expiration is a separate clock from source-document age: Benjamin Flast’s April 19, 2023 forum reply says retention starts when data is archived and uses archive metadata rather than a document field. (medium confidence) (verified as of 2023-04-19) [source]
Facts and statements
- Pausing stops new archiving but leaves previously archived data queryable; storage and read charges continue. (high confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- Pausing an Online Archive or its Atlas cluster does not suspend archive expiration; Atlas still deletes expired data. Pause is therefore not a retention hold. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- A pause request enters Pausing while the current archiving operation finishes; Paused follows completion, so requesting a pause is not immediate confirmation that archiving has stopped. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- Dropping the source database or collection leaves archived data available and storage charges accruing. Deleting the source cluster instead deletes its configured archives and archived data. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- Deleting every Online Archive also deletes the associated federated database instance; creating an archive again creates a new instance. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- Data retention is optional and defaults to no automatic expiration; the standard-collection configuration guide says an expiration rule takes effect 24 hours after setting the retention period. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- Automation can pause an archive with PATCH and paused=true; OneUptime demonstrates this operation, while the official pause guide documents PATCH for pause/resume and Pulumi exposes a paused property. (medium confidence) (verified as of 2026-03-31) [source]
- Deleting an Atlas cluster deletes all archives configured for that cluster and their archived object-storage data. (low confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
- Pulumi models paused and dataExpirationRule as separate OnlineArchive inputs. Its documented separation matches Atlas's distinct pause and retention controls; setting paused alone is not documented as disabling expiration. (medium confidence) (verified as of 2026-10-14) [source]
Children
- No children recorded.