Decommissioning and Destroying a VM

The following procedure describes how to remove a VM from the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption when you intend to destroy the VM without accessing any of the encrypted data. After you remove the VM from the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption, the VM no longer appears in the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption webGUI and no longer counts against the Cloud VM Limit defined in your license.

If you want to remove the VM from the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryptionbut retain the data on the VM, see Removing a VM from the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption.

  1. Log into the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption using an account with Cloud Admin privileges.
  2. In the top menu bar, click Workloads.
  3. Click the VMs tab, then select the VM that you want to decommission.
  4. Click Actions > Revoke Authentication.

  5. Confirm the action at the prompt.

    The Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption revokes access to the VM and automatically displays the Unauthenticated VMs tab.

    Note: At this point, all of the encryption keys are still stored in the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption, and you can restore the VM by selecting it and clicking Actions > Rescue Authentication. If you continue with this procedure, all access to any encrypted data on the VM will be lost when the VM is removed from the Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption.

  6. Select the VM and click Actions > Remove.

    The Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption removes the VM from its inventory, returns the associated Cryptographic Security Platform Vault for VM Encryption license to the license pool, and destroys all encryption keys associated with that VM.

  7. Use your hypervisor to delete the VM.