Overview

 

Using the OBM client, it is possible to backup Office 365 data such as mail, OneDrive and Sharepoint.

 

About This Guide

 

This guide aims to provide all the necessary information for you to get started with setting up a new 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. It also assumes the OBM client has already been installed, following the quick start guide.

 

Preparing for Backup and Restore

 

Before going ahead and configuring your new Office 365 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:
    1. ApplicationImpersonation
    2. Legal Hold
    3. Mailbox Import Export
    4. Mailbox Search
    5. 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 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.
  •  

Network Bandwidth

 

A 10Mbps or above network speed is recommended.

 

Best Practices and Recommendations

 

Below is a list of best practices we suggest are followed, but are not requirements:

  • Configure at least one local destination as well as the default cloud location. This allows for reduced risk of data loss and faster recovery.
  • Set the temporary directory to a local folder/drive
  • Schedule the backup to run at a time of low system activity.
  • Perform test restores periodically to assure performance and integrity of backups.

 

Creating an Office 365 Backup

 

The following instructions assume you have followed the quick start guide to install the OBM client and login.

  • Log in to the OBM client and then select the Backup Sets icon.

 

  • Create a new backup set by clicking Add new backup set.

 

  • Select the type as Office 365 Backup, then name the backup set.

 

  • 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”.

 

  • Click Next to proceed.
  • 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:
    1. Users: include Outlook, OneDrive, and Personal Sites
    2. Public Folders: include public folder
    3. 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 Existing Schedules to add a new backup schedule.

 

  • Configure the backup schedule settings. It is possible to configure multiple schedules for a single backup:
    1. Name – The name of the schedule
    2. Type – Leave as daily unless a different schedule is required.
    3. Start backup – The time the backup will run.
    4. 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).

 

  • Click OK to confirm the schedule. Once you are happy with the schedule configuration, click Next at the bottom right.

 

  • The destination menu can be configured to add a local storage destination. To only backup to the cloud, leave the setting as default, otherwise:
    1. Click Add to add a new local storage destination.

 

  1. Under Destination storage, select Local... Give the storage destination a descriptive name and then supply the storage path. The storage path can be a local folder or a network share.
  2. Once you are happy with the configuration, click test to validate the settings.

  1. Click OK.

 

  • Once the destinations are configured, select a backup mode:
    1. Sequential – Backs up to each destination one at a time.
    2. Concurrent – Backs up to all destinations at the same time.

 

  • Click Next to finish the destination configuration.

 

  • Encryption should remain as the default setting (toggled on) and the encryption type should also be left as default. When clicking Next a popup window will be displayed giving you the encryption key. This key should be copied and securely stored in multiple locations.

NOTE: We do not store copies of encryption keys. This is to ensure we can not access customer data. Failure to keep a copy of this key securely could result in data becoming unrecoverable.

 

  • Click Confirm once you have copied the key.

 

  • The backup set is now configured, and you can select Backup now to immediately start a backup, or Close to leave the backup to run as defined by its schedule.

 

Running an Office 365 Backup

 

To manually run a cloud file backup:

  • In the main OBM menu, click the Backup menu.

 

  • Select the Backup.

 

  • Click show advancedto display all options:
    1. In-File Delta:
      • Full – runs a full backup
      • Differential – All data that has changed since the last full backup
      • Incremental – only backs up data that has changed (recommended)
    2. Destinations – leave all destinations selected
    3. Retention Policy – Run the retention policy after backup

 

  • Once configured, click Backup to start the backup.

 

  • The backup progress will the display and confirm once completed.

 

Modifying an Office 365 Backup Set

 

The below outlines how to modify a cloud file backup in the OBM client.

  • After logging in to the OBM client, select the Backup Sets menu.

 

  • Select the backup you wish to modify.

 

  • You can now modify the settings described below:
    1. General – Update the name of the backup or the user used to authenticate on the host.
    2. Source – Modify the files/folders selected to be backed up.
    3. Backup Schedule - Alter when the backup is scheduled to run.
    4. Continuous Backup – Enable backup to run whenever a change is made.
    5. Destination – Modify the backup destinations (Includes local backup destinations).
    6. Deduplication – Leave as default.
    7. Retention Policy – Increase the period deleted files are kept (default is 14 days). 
    8. Command Line Tool – Add pre/post backup commands to run in the command line tool.
    9. Reminder – configure backup reminders.
    10. Bandwidth Control – Throttle the OBM upload/download speed to limit network disruption.
    11. Others – Leave as default.

 

  • Click Save to save any changes to the backup.

 

 

 

Restoring Data from an Office 365 Backup

 

The below outlines how to restore data from a cloud file backup from the OBM client.

  • After logging in to the OBM client, select the Restore menu.

 

  • Select the backup you would like to restore from.

 

  • Select the location to restore from. If you have a local destination, it is recommended to choose this option.

 

 

  • Select to restore from Users or Site Collections. Click Next to continue.
  • Select the item(s) you would like to restore. You can also choose to restore backed up items from a specific backup job of your choice using the Select what to restore dropdown menu at the top.
    1. For Users, this will be the screen displayed.
    2. For Site Collections, this will be the screen displayed.
  • Tick Restore to local computer if you want to restore the backup data to the local drive.

 

  • If you want to search for directories, files, folders, and mails to be restored, click Search to use the restore filter.
    1. For Office 365, these items can be searched from Users and Site Collections.
    2. For Users, you can search for Files, Folders, and Mails.
    3. For Site Collections, you can search for Directories and Files.

 

  • Click Next to proceed when you are done with the selection.

 

  • Select where items will be restored to:
    1. Local Computer – If restore to local computer was selected, specify where to restore to.
    2. Original location – Restore back to the item(s) original location(s)
    3. Alternate location – Restore to an alternate location or to another Office 365 account on the same domain.
    4. Alternate Office 365 account – restore to an Office 365 account on a different domain.
  • Click next to proceed.

 

  • For restore to original location, select the temporary directory and then click Restore to restore the item(s).

 

  • The restore status will then be displayed showing the restores progress. Once completed, click close to finalise. Click Cancel to then exit the restore or select additional files to carry out another restore if required.

 

 

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: [email protected]

Phone: 0345 258 1500