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User Guide for Microsoft Exchange Online

User Guide for Microsoft Exchange Online#

Overview#

This guide introduces how to install and configure the ADPS agent and how to properly use ADPS to back up and restore Exchange Online.

The backup and restore features supported by ADPS include:

  • Backup sources

    Mailbox (single or multiple)

  • Backup types

    EWS mailbox backup

  • Backup targets

    Standard storage pool, deduplication storage pool, local storage pool, tape library pool, object storage service pool, and LAN-Free pool

  • Backup schedules

    Immediate, one-time, hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly

  • Data processing

    Data compression, reconnection, and speed limit

  • Restore types

    EWS mailbox recovery

  • Restore targets

    Original host

Planning and preparation#

Before you install the agent, check the following prerequisites:

  1. You have already installed and configured other backup components, including the backup server and the storage server.

  2. You have created a user with roles of operator and administrator on the ADPS console. Log in to the console with this user to back up and restore the resource.

Note

The administrator role can install and configure agents, activate licenses, and authorize users. The operator role can create backup/restore jobs and conduct copy data management (CDM).

Install and configure the agent#

To back up and restore Exchange Online, first install the ADPS agent on the host where Exchange Online resides.

Install the agent#

ADPS agent can be installed on Windows. You can select the installation method according to your environment.

Windows#

To install the agent, do the following:

  1. Log in to the ADPS console.

  2. From the menu, click Resource > Resource. The Resource page appears.

  3. From the toolbar, click the Install agent icon. The Install agent window appears.

  4. In the Install agent window, do the following:

    (1) From the Select system list, select Windows.

    (2) From the Select file list, select the package that you want to install.

    (3) Click Download.

  5. Upload the package to the Windows host.

  6. Log in to the Windows host as a user with administrative privileges. Double-click the package and open the installation wizard. Click Next.

  7. At the Select components step, select Microsoft Exchange Online from the component list. Click Next.

  8. At the Configure Aurreum Data Protection Suite agent step, enter the following:

    (1) In the Backup server address field, enter the IP or domain name of the backup server.

    (2) In the Backup server port field, enter the port number. The default value is 50305. If you enable the Use SSL secure connection option, enter 60305 in the Backup server port field.

    (3) The Access key field is optional and blank by default. If your backup server adopts multi-tenancy, you must enter the access key of the tenant for the agent.

    (4) Click Next.

    Note

    To get the access key of the user/tenant:

    1. Log in to the ADPS console.

    2. On the upper right corner, click your avatar, and go to Personal settings > Account settings.

    3. On the Preference tab, click View to get the access key of the current user/tenant.

  9. Confirm the Destination folder or specify another folder. Click Next.

  10. Wait for the installation to complete.

Activate licenses and authorize users#

After the agent installation, go back to the Resource page. The host with the agent installed appears on the page. Before you back up and restore Exchange Online, register the host, activate the backup license, and authorize users.

To activate licenses and authorize users, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Resource > Resource. The Resource page appears.

  2. On the Resource page, select the host where Exchange Online resides. Click the Register icon. Then the Activate window appears.

  3. In the Activate window, select the Exchange Online Proxy backup license, and click Submit. After the activation, the Authorize window appears.

    Note

    If you are prompted with “No enough licenses”, contact the administrator to add licenses.

  4. In the Authorize window, select user groups to authorize access to the resource. Click Submit.

Note

With many agents, install them first, then batch register, batch activate, and batch authorize the agents and resources for convenience. For details, see Batch register/Batch activate/Batch authorize in Aurreum Data Protection Suite Administrator’s Guide.

Add Office 365 host and authorize users#

Before backing up Exchange Online, you need to first add and activate the Office 365 host and authorize users.

Create Exchange Online backup account#

To create an Exchange Online account for backup, do the following:

  1. Register the backup application in Azure AD.

    (1) Use your Microsoft 365 administrative user to log in to the Azure AD.

    (2) Click App registrations > New registration. The Register an application page appears.

    (3) Enter a name for the backup application in the Name field. Use the default options for the remaining fields. Click Register.

  2. Add permissions for the application.

    (1) On the application Overview page, click API permissions > Add a permission.

    (2) On the Request API permissions page, click the APIs my organization uses tab, search Office 365 Exchange Online in the search box, and then select it from the results.

    (3) On the Request API permissions page, click Application permissions, search full_access_as_app in the Select permissions search box, and then select it from the results.

    (4) Return to the step (1), then click Microsoft APIs > Microsoft Graph > Application permissions. Add the following permissions for the application.

    • Directory: Directory.Read.All

    • Group: Group.Read.All

    • MailboxSettings: MailboxSettings.ReadWrite

    • User: User.Read.All

    (5) Back on the application API permissions page to verify the permission list for the backup application. Click Grant admin consent for > Yes to grant permission for backup application.

  3. Create a secret for backup application.

    (1) On the backup application page, click Certificates & secrets > Client secrets > New client secret.

    (2) In the Add a client secret pane, enter the secret description in the Description field. Select 24 months from the Expires list. Click Add.

    (3) Return to Certificates & secrets page. Note that before refreshing the page, copy and save the password, otherwise the password will be masked and you will have to recreate it.

    (4) Return to backup application Overview page. Save Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID. These two ID and client secrets will be involved when the backup application is used.

Add Office 365 host#

To add the Office 365 host, do the following:

  1. Log in to the ADPS console using a user with administrator privileges.

  2. From the menu, click Resource. The Resource page appears.

  3. From the toolbar, click the Add icon and click Office 365. The Add Office 365 window appears.

  4. In the Add Office 365 window, do the following:

    (1) From the Type list, select Exchange Online.

    (2) In the Tenant email field, enter the tenant email address for the Exchange Online.

    (3) In the Tenant ID field, enter the Directory (tenant) ID for the tenant mailbox.

    (4) In the Client ID field, enter the Application (client) ID for the tenant mailbox.

    (5) In the Client password field, enter the client secret for the tenant mailbox.

    (6) From the Region list, select the region of Exchange Online.

    (7) In the Alias field, set a name for Exchange Online.

    (8) From the Backup host list, select the Exchange Online Proxy host, which is used to list backup source and as the default host for backup and restore.

    (9) Click Submit.

  5. When the Resource list shows the host, the adding of the Office 365 host is successful.

Backup#

Backup types#

ADPS provides EWS mailbox backup for Exchange Online.

  • EWS mailbox backup

    Backs up one or more mailboxes.

    Note

    Authentication using Basic Auth is not supported. The supported authentication method is OAuth2.

Backup policies#

ADPS provides six backup schedule types: immediate, one-time, hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.

  • Immediate: ADPS will immediately start the job after it is created.

  • One-time: ADPS will perform the job at the specified time once only.

  • Hourly: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified hour/minute intervals within the time range according to the setting.

  • Daily: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified time and day intervals.

  • Weekly: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified time and week intervals.

  • Monthly: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified dates and times.

You can set an appropriate backup policy based on your situation and requirements. Usually, we recommend the following common backup policy:

  1. Perform an EWS mailbox backup once a week when the application traffic is relatively small (Example: on the weekend) to ensure that you have a recoverable point in time every week.

Before you begin#

Before you back up and restore Exchange Online, check the following:

  1. Check the Exchange Online instance status.

  2. Check storage pools.

    (1) From the menu, click Storage > Storage pool. The Storage pool page appears.

    (2) Check whether the display area has any storage pools. If there is no storage pool, create a storage pool and authorize it for the current user. For details, see Add a storage pool in Aurreum Data Protection Suite Administrator’s Guide.

Create a backup job#

To create a backup job, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Backup. The backup job wizard appears.

  2. At the Hosts and resources step, select the host where Exchange Online resides and select the resource. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  3. At the Backup source step, do the following:

    (1) From the Backup type list, select a backup type.

    (2) In the Backup source section, select the mailboxes that you want to back up.

  4. At the Backup target step, select a storage pool. Click Next.

  5. At the Backup schedule step, set the job schedule. For details, see Backup policies. Click Next.

    • Select Immediate. ADPS performs the job immediately after it is created.

    • Select One time and set the start time for the job.

    • Select Hourly. Set the start time, end time, and time interval for job execution. The unit can be hour(s) or minute(s).

    • Select Daily. Set the start time and enter the time interval for job execution. The unit is day(s).

    • Select Weekly. Set the start time, enter the time interval, and select the specific dates in a week for job execution. The unit is week.

    • Select Monthly. Set the start time and months for job execution. You can select the natural dates in one month or select the specific dates in one week.

  6. At the Backup options step, set the common and advanced options according to your needs. For details, see Backup options. Click Next.

  1. At the Finish step, set the job name and confirm the job information. Click Submit.

  2. After submission, you will be redirected to the Job page automatically. On this page, you can start, modify, and delete the job.

Backup options#

ADPS provides the following backup options for Exchange Online:

  • Common options

Backup common options#

Feature

Description

Limitations

Compression

Fast is enabled by default.
- None: No compression during the backup job.
- Tunable: Customizes the compression level. The Advanced Compression license is required.
- Fast: Uses the fast compression algorithms to compress data during the backup job.

  • Advanced options

Backup advanced options#

Feature

Description

Limitations

Reconnection time

The value ranges from 1 to 60 minutes. The job continues after the abnormal reset occurs in the network within the set time.

Resumption buffer size

Specifies the resumption buffer size. The default value is 10 MiB. The bigger the resumption buffer size is, the more physical storage will be consumed. However, a bigger resumption buffer size can prevent data loss when the throughput of the business system is high.

Speed limit

Limits data transfer speed or disk read/write speed for different time periods. The unit can be KiB/s, MiB/s, and GiB/s.

Precondition

Checked before the job starts. The job execution will be aborted and the job state will be idle when the precondition is invalid.

Pre-/Post-script

The pre-script is executed after the job starts and before the resource is backed up. The post-script is executed after the resource is backed up.

Restore#

Restore types#

ADPS provides EWS mailbox recovery for Exchange Online.

  • EWS mailbox recovery

    When a disaster occurs in an Exchange Online mailbox, you can create an EWS mailbox recovery job to restore the mailboxs or mails to the latest state of the newest backup set.

Create an EWS mailbox recovery job#

To create an EWS mailbox recovery job, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Restore. The restore job wizard appears.

  2. At the Hosts and resources step, select the host where Exchange Online resides and select the resource. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  1. At the Backup sets step, do the following:

    (1) From the Restore type list, select EWS mailbox recovery.

    (2) From the Mailbox list, select the mailboxes that you want to restore.

    (3) From the Restore point in time list, select a point in time for the restore job.

    (4) In the Backup sets section, the mailbox directory appears. Select the folders or records that need to be restored.

    (5) Click Next.

  2. At the Restore schedule step, set the job schedule. Click Next.

    • Select Immediate. ADPS will perform the job immediately after its creation.

    • Select One time and set the start time for the job.

  3. At the Restore options step, set the options according to your needs. See Restore options. Click Next.

  4. At the Finish step, set the job name and confirm the job information. Click Submit.

  5. After submission, you will be redirected to the Job page. You can start, modify, and delete the job.

Restore options#

ADPS provides the following restore options for Exchange Online:

  • Common options

Restore common options#

Feature

Description

Limitations

Backup host

Enter the backup host for the restore job or leave it blank to restore to the host where the backup set selected resides.

Target mailbox

Select a target mailbox for restore. The default target is the original mailbox.

Restore directory

Select a directory for restore. The default target is the original directory.

Channels

It can improve restore efficiency. The default value is 1. The value cannot exceed the maximum channel number of backup sets.

  • Advanced options:

Restore advanced options#

Feature

Description

Limitations

Reconnection time

The value ranges from 1 to 60 minutes. The job continues after the abnormal reset occurs in the network within the set time.

Resumption buffer size

Specifies the resumption buffer size. The default value is 10 MiB. The bigger the resumption buffer size is, the more physical storage will be consumed. However, a bigger resumption buffer size can prevent data loss when the throughput of the business system is high.

Speed limit

Limits data transfer speed or disk read/write speed for different time periods. The unit can be KiB/s, MiB/s, and GiB/s.

Precondition

Checked before the job starts. The job execution will be aborted and the job state will be idle when the precondition is invalid.

Pre-/Post-script

The pre-script is executed after the job starts and before the resource is restored. The post-script is executed after the resource is restored.

Glossary#

Glossary#

Term

Description

fast compression

A compression method that uses fast compression algorithms to compress data during the backup job.
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