Backup and restore mail from the cloud using Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365

  • Tutorial
An increasing number of users are switching to Microsoft Office 365, and, of course, wants to be sure of the safety of data when working with a cloud solution. At first glance it seems that if the letters are in the cloud, then they are automatically reliably protected from crashes and losses, but in fact this is not so. In fact, you are provided with the fault tolerance of the mail server, but not the backup of letters. After all, if, for example, a virus launched on the user's side encrypts letters in the cloud, then it just won’t be able to recover them. Therefore, we decided to create a product that would allow storing backup copies of letters locally. A tool to restore the contents of mailboxes was already available - this is Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange, which has successfully passed the test of time.

So, today I present to you the new Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365, which is scheduled for release in the 4th quarter of this year.
UPD: The release took place on November 29, to read the description in Russian and download the trial version here .

For details, welcome to cat.



What is being done in the cloud for data security Office 365 Exchange Online


Of course, the administrator monitors the policies on the Exchange side - in particular, the retention policy for remote objects. If the storage period for the letter in the Deleted Items store has not yet expired , then it can be retrieved from there and restored. By default, the retention period is 30 days, the remote mailbox will be stored the same amount (it has its own policy, with the same default value). You can change this value in the Exchange Admin Center. Read more about MRM (messaging records management) policy settings here .



Microsoft also uses the Exchange Data Availability Group (DAG) to protect data. Well, of course, for internal use on the manufacturer’s side, the traditional backup tools are quite applicable - backups should help in case of disaster recovery. We have to admit, however, that accidents happen on the user's side, and what to do in this case, how to protect and restore data is not entirely obvious. It turns out that service level agreements on the side of the user organization depend on the manufacturer’s policies, but they do not guarantee data recovery. This is where the new tool offered by Veeam can help - with its help, you can ensure the creation of backups on your side, as well as flexible recovery options.

How Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 Works


As you can see from the picture below, the operation scheme is quite simple:



1. Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 collects hierarchy information and mailbox data from Exchange Online using Exchange Web Services and PowerShell. Data is stored in the repository (local folder) in a structure identical to the Exchange database. It is convenient to start this process automatically on a schedule, for which the administrator creates a backup task. Each successful pass of such a task creates a recovery point that contains the structure and data of the Exchange database at the corresponding point in time.

2, 3.In the Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 console, you can select a recovery point according to what state you need to restore the object (s) from the mail database - this can be the last of the created points, or the one that was created at a specified point in time. The database — in the state it was in when this point was created — is automatically opened for viewing (directly from the repository) using Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange.

4. Now you can take advantage of the search, export, and restore capabilities of mailbox, folder, and mailbox objects in Exchange Online.

Installation and setup


Everything is quite transparent with this: we download the ZIP archive, there are two installers in it, one of which is actually the new Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365, the second is the familiar Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange, slightly modified to support the new tool.

You can install them together or separately, both on a physical and on a virtual machine.

Important! Supports Windows 2008 R2 and higher (64-bit). If you put on different machines, make sure that the one where Veeam Explorer for Exchange is installed has an OS version no lower than the one where Veeam Backup for Office 365 will be installed. Also, you need local administrator rights to install.

After installation, two freshly deployed applications will appear in the application list. We launch Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365. Its console immediately after installation will look like this:



Perform the initial setup:

  1. We open the main menu by clicking on its icon in the upper left, next to the Home tab , and from the list of commands, select Options :



  2. In the dialog that opens, we first need to set the repository settings, so we work with the Repository tab :



    • Location –– indicate the path to the local folder where the data from the cloud will be backed up. By default, this is C: \ VeeamRepository .
    • Retain backups for - indicate how long we want to store this data in the repository. Minimum is 1 month, maximum is 7 years, by default it will be 3 years ( 3 years ).
    • Apply retention - when to check for expired data. You can set the desired frequency. The storage period will be counted from the date of verification. Expired items will be deleted.

  3. Then we go to the Folders tab and specify the exceptions - that is, which folders we will not back up.



  4. Click Apply , saving the settings, and then OK , closing the dialog.

Important! The settings made will be global, i.e. valid for all backup jobs!

Everything is with the settings. We turn to the main window water procedures - here we need to specify the organization Office 365, whose mail we will back up.

  1. In the menu, select the Add Org command , after which the corresponding wizard (Add Organization wizard) will start.

  2. Specify the username and password that will be used to access the Office 365 organization.



  3. The Grant impersonation to this user option is selected by default. By clicking Next , a check is made to see if the user has the necessary roles. If not, they will be assigned using PowerShell. These roles are Role Management , View-Only Configuration and View-Only Recipients .




Note: In principle, no one bothers you to manually assign these roles using the same PowerShell cmdlets - in this case, Veeam just checks for their presence, and if everything is in order, then you can continue to work.

Backup


Now you need to create a backup task:

  1. We select our organization in the tree and click on the Backup command , launching the wizard.
  2. In the first step, enter the name of the task and, if necessary, a brief description.
  3. Then we choose what we will backup. It can be either all mailboxes from this organization ( Backup all mailboxes ), or only selected mailboxes ( Backup the following mailboxes ) - in the latter case, click Select and select the ones you need from the loaded list.



    Note: Remember that the exclusion folders (Junk e-mail, Deleted Items, etc.) that we configured in the global options will not be backed up by any task.

  4. Finally, we set up the schedule - everything is clear: periodically with the indicated frequency, automatic termination in case of too long work (by default 4 hours), restarting in case of failure (by default 3 restarts, after waiting 10 minutes).

    If you want the task to start immediately after the wizard finishes, select the option Run the job when I click Finish .




A few important points:

  • If you want to edit or completely delete a task, you must first deactivate it, for which you need to select the Disable command in the menu .
  • You should not include the same mailbox in the processing of different tasks.
  • In the beta version, the limits on the number of processed mailboxes comply with the Microsoft limits for SMB (small companies) - that is, up to 300 mailboxes; own licensing scheme for this product will be prepared for the release version.

Object recovery


For recovery, we need Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange. You can run it, for example, like this:

  1. From the Veeam Backup menu for Microsoft Office 365, select the Explore latest state as of command(view the last saved state from <date_time>) or Explore point-in time state (view the state at a time)



  2. If you need a specific moment, then in the Explore Backup dialog that opens, select the appropriate recovery point and, if necessary, enable the options:

    • Show items that have been deleted by user - show objects deleted by the user (by the time the selected recovery point was created)
    • Show all versions of items that have been modified by user - show all versions (history) of objects deleted by the user



  3. After clicking Finish, the mail storage hierarchy will be “hooked” to Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange directly from the backup and displayed in the Veeam Explorer window, which will start automatically:



Now you can use the familiar features of Veeam Explorer to export, transfer or restore an object to the desired location:



Perhaps this is all for today. You can get a trial version for self-examination at the link below.
UPD: NFR keys for 10 user boxes are now available; the conditions for their receipt are the same as always (you can read about it here ). A license request can be sent from here .

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