Overview
Using the web-based management console, it is possible to backup Office 365 data such as mail, OneDrive and Sharepoint. This backup method does not require an OBM client installation, and the agentless backup solution performs backups and restores directly on our backup server.
About This Guide
This guide aims to provide all the necessary information for you to get started with setting up a new agentless Office 365 backup, manage and maintain the backup and restore data from the backup. There is also additional information such as limitations, required permissions and how to get additional help if you need it.
The guide assumes you already have your customers backup account login details, which would have been provided by our sales team.
Preparing for Backup and Restore
Before going ahead and configuring your new agentless backup, it is advised to first read through the information below.
Licensing
The licenses for the Office 365 module are calculated by the number of unique licensed or unlicensed Office 365 user accounts. If same Office 365 account is backed up on multiple backup sets with an OBM user account, it would be counted as one Office 365 license.
Each licensed or unlicensed Office 365 user account selected for backup requires one Office 365 license.
Each Equipment Mailbox, Room Mailbox, or Shared Mailbox selected for backup requires one Office 365 license.
If just only SharePoint Sites under the Site Collections and/or files of folders under Public Folder are selected for backup, this requires zero Office 365 license but a minimum of one Office 365 license is needed to perform a backup. The Office 365 license is only needed to start the backup but it will not be counted as used license.
However, if any items from either Outlook, Items from OneDrive, or Personal Sites under Users are selected for backup, the Office 365 license count will be calculated based on the number of user account selected.
Office 365 License Requirements
The following subscription plans with Office 365 email services are supported to run backup and restore on the Web Console.
Office 365 Business | Office 365 Business Essentials |
Office 365 Business Premium | Office 365 Enterprise E1 |
Office 365 Enterprise E3 | Office 365 Enterprise E4 |
Office 365 Enterprise E5 | Office 365 Education |
NOTE: Make sure your Office 365 subscription with Microsoft is active as expired licenses will cause the backup to fail. The restore destination also required a valid active license.
Permissions
The basic permissions required by an Office user account for authentication of an OBM Office 365 backup set is as follows:
Global Admin Role - The Office 365 account used for authentication must have Global Admin Role, since Modern Authentication will be used.
Term Store Administrator Role - The Term Store Administrator Role may be required for backup and restore of SharePoint items.
Discovery Management Membership – The user must be a member of the security group, which should also be assigned the roles below:
ApplicationImpersonation
Legal Hold
Mailbox Import Export
Mailbox Search
Public Folders
If you require any assistance assigning the above roles to a user account in your tenant, then please contact support for further guidance.
Authentication
To comply with Microsoft’s product roadmap for Office 365, Basic Authentication (Authentication using Office 365 login credentials) will no longer be utilized. Instead, all new Office 365 backup sets created will use Modern Authentication (A more secure user authentication method, using an app token for authentication).
Supported Services
The Office 365 Backup currently supports the backup of:
Outlook Mailboxes
OneDrive
Sharepoint Personal Sites
Sharepoint Site Collections.
Below are the supported items for each of the above services.
Outlook Mailbox Items
NOTE: For Public Folder backups, a licensed Exchange Administrator or a licensed user with Public Folder permissions is required.
Outlook Mailbox Folder Level Items
OneDrive Items
Site Collections/Personal Site Items
Maximum File Size
The below table shows the maximum supported file size per item for backup and restore of each service.
Limitations
Below is a list of limitations that should be acknowledged.
Modern Authentication
Modern Authentication is only supported for Office 365 account that is registered in Global region and the Office 365 backup is configured to use Global region.
Due to limitations in Microsoft API, when using Modern Authentication, backup and restore of SharePoint Web Parts and Metadata are not fully supported.
Restore to Local Machine
Restore to Local Machine is not supported using the User Web Console. It is only available using the backup client. Only restore back to a cloud destination is possible.
Creating an Agentless Office 365 Backup
Before configuring the backup, ensure the account used to authenticate the backup, using modern authentication, has all the required permissions.
Firstly, log in to the user web console.
Click the User icon on the User Web Console landing page.
Select Backup Set from the left panel, then create a Cloud File backup set by clicking the circular “+” icon under Manage Backup Set.
Select the type as Office 365 Backup, then name the backup set. Ensure the option Run on Server is selected.
To create a backup set using Modern Authentication, leave the Username and Account password blank and click Test. Click I understand the limitation and confirm to proceed.
Click Authorize to start the authentication process.
A new tab will open at the Microsoft login page. Input your user credentials for the users with the administrative credentials previously configured and carry out the 2FA steps if required.
Copy the authorization code that is displayed and paste it into the backup set configuration pop-up window.
Click OK to proceed. The connection will establish, and you will see “Test completed successfully”.
Select the Backup Source in this menu. Select from Outlook, OneDrive, Personal Site, Public Folders or Site Collections for backup. Checking the box will backup everything, i.e., checking the box of Outlook will back up the mailboxes of all the users.
Alternatively, click “I would like to choose the items to backup” to choose the detailed items to backup. For example, to only backup specific users. For those users, these are the following sources available:
Users: include Outlook, OneDrive, and Personal Sites
Public Folders: include public folder
Site Collections: include personal site and site collection
Once you have finished selecting the items to backup, click Continue.
In the Schedule menu, configure a backup schedule for the backup job to run automatically at your specified time interval. If the Run scheduled backup for this backup set is off, switch it On by clicking the toggle.
Click the + icon under Manage Schedule to add a new backup schedule.
Configure the backup schedule settings. It is possible to configure multiple schedules for a single backup:
Name – The name of the schedule
Type – Leave as daily unless a different schedule is required.
Start backup – The time the backup will run.
Run retention … - This option should be ticked if you would like deleted items to be removed as defined by your retention settings (Default is 14 days but is configurable later).
One you are happy with the settings, click the green + to add the new schedule and then click Next if you have finished creating your schedule(s).
Encryption will be enabled by default, and it is strongly advised NOT to disable it. The default option will automatically generate a strong random key for encryption. Click the green Save button at the bottom left to finalise the backup configuration.
Running an Office 365 Backup
The below outlines how to manually run an office 365 backup from the user web console.
After logging in to the console, select the User icon.
Select Backup Set from the left panel, then select Backup under Execute Job drop down menu and click Run.
Select the manual backup settings (default is recommended).
When a backup job is running, the status Backup is Running will be displayed. Click Stop to stop the backup job if necessary.
You can also check the status of your backup by going to the initial login screen and then select Live Activities.
Modifying an Office 365 Backup Set
After logging in to the console, select the User icon.
Under Backup Set select the cloud file backup you would like to modify.
You can now modify the settings described below:
General – Update the name of the backup or the user used to authenticate on the host.
Source – Modify the files/folders selected to be backed up.
Backup Schedule - Alter when the backup is scheduled to run.
Destination – Leave as default.
In-File Delta – Leave as default.
Retention Policy – Increase the period deleted files are kept (default is 14 days).
Others – Leave as default.
Click Save to save any changes to the backup.
Restoring Data from an Office 365 Backup Job
The below outlines how to restore data from an office backup from the user web console.
After logging in to the console, select the User icon.
Select Backup Set from the left panel, then select Restore under Execute Job drop down menu and click Run.
Select to restore items from either Users or Site Collections. Then click Next.
Select the item(s) you would like to restore. Selecting a folder allows you to view the contents and selecting ‘Show Filter’ will allow you to search for a specific item.
You can also choose to restore backed up files from a specific backup job of your choice using the “Select What To Restore” drop-down menu at the top.
Click Next to proceed when you are done with the selection.
Select where to restore the item(s) to.
Original Location – The original location where the item was backed up from.
Alternate Location – An alternate location in the backup source list.
Alternate Office 365 account – Restore to an alternate Office 365 account.
NOTE: It is only possible to restore back to Office 365. Restore back to a local destination is only possible using a client-based backup.
Click the Restore icon at the bottom right of the screen to initiate the restore. The data will then restore back to the specified location.
NOTE: You can view the restore status from the Live Activities. You will also receive a restore report summary email once the restore completes.
Backup Reports
A backup report is sent for each backup when a job is run. The job status is shown in the subject and body of the report email, which means you can quickly spot any issues. The email contains information such as if the backup is successful, the size of the backup and how much data the job is using. There is also an attached PDF which also contains a breakdown of all files backed up.
The backup job can report as a ‘missed backup’ and display with an ‘error’ or ‘warning.’ Unless the backup reports as successful or OK in the subject or body of the email, you should investigate this further and contact support if further assistance is required.
The backup and restore logs can also be found in the user web console in the User > Report section.
NOTE: The report is sent to the contact(s) set in the account. You can modify this under User > User Profile > Contact.
Support
Our friendly team is always on hand to help you with any aspect of setting up and maintaining your backups. Feel free to contact support if you have any questions using any of the below methods:
Support Portal: https://support.vitanium.com/
Email: support@vitanium.com
Phone: 0345 258 1500