1. What are Teams in your environment?
Microsoft Teams is a persistent chat-based collaboration platform complete with document sharing, online meetings, and many more extremely useful features for business communications.
In Microsoft Teams, teams are groups of people brought together for work, projects, or common interests.
Teams are made up of two types of channels — standard (available and visible to everyone) and private (focused, private conversations with a specific audience). Each channel is built around a topic like "Team Events," a department name, or just for fun. Channels are where you hold meetings, have conversations, and work on files together.
inSync Cloud administrator can avail of the following benefits while protecting the Teams and SharePoint Online data:
2. What is Single App Backup Integration?
Druva has introduced a Single App configuration aimed at streamlining workload management for Microsoft 365 environments by leveraging a parent-child model.
This new approach couples workloads such as MS Groups, Teams, and SharePoint Online (SPO) sites under a single configuration umbrella, significantly simplifying administration.
3. How does the Configuration and discovery process work in Single App?
The Single App consolidates settings and operations, reducing the need to configure each workload individually.
• Parent-Level Configuration: In this model, the parent workload (e.g., MS Group) controls the configuration and management of all its associated child workloads (e.g., Teams and SPO sites).
• Unified Operations: Any action that needs to be performed, such as adjusting the backup frequency or changing retention policies, should be executed at the parent level (MS Group/Teams) rather than at the individual workload level.
Example:
If you need to change the backup frequency for a SharePoint Online site that is linked to an MS Group, you now only need to change the backup frequency of the parent MS Group. This change will automatically propagate down to its associated child entities, i.e., the Teams and SPO sites.
4. What are the enhancements in the Team Discovery process?
The MS Group discovery will handle the linking process,
• MS Group Discovery: The discovery of an MS Group will now automatically handle the discovery of all its children, such as associated Teams and SharePoint Online sites.
• MS Teams Discovery: Similarly, the discovery of an individual MS Team will manage the discovery of its associated child entities, specifically SharePoint Online sites.
For customers with non-M365 MS Group-related Teams and SPO sites, individual discovery will continue to run as before. However, when these entities are linked to an MS Group, the discovery process will defer to the MS Group discovery, which will handle the association of all children.
5. What are the Benefits of Backup Teams Online?
inSync Cloud administrator can avail of the following benefits while protecting the Teams data:
Customizable backup frequency: Discover SharePoint Online sites and protect data as per their organization's Recovery Point objectives.
Flexible recovery location: Restore SharePoint Online data to the original site or as a copy within the site or simply download it.
On-demand restore: Restore SharePoint Online data on demand.
Granular restore capability: An option to do a full site restore or an object-level restore, making restores more efficient.
6. Why is it essential to perform regular backups of Teams?
Performing regular backups of Microsoft Teams is crucial to ensure data protection and disaster recovery. Backups help safeguard against accidental deletions, data corruption, cyberattacks, and other potential issues resulting in data loss. It provides the ability to restore individual emails, mailboxes, or entire tenants.
7. What data and components does Druva backup from Teams?
Data backed up by inSync for Teams
Let's take a look at the Teams data that can be backed up using inSync:
Teams:
Team Unique ID
Name of the Team
Creation date time and stamp
Permissions assigned to all Team members
Permissions assigned to all guests
Count of Team Members
Count of external guests
Count of Team Channels
All Teams Settings
Teams Site Collection
Site Collection details
Data and metadata parameters for a site collection
2. Teams content:
Team Standard channels and Team Private channels:
Data in Team Standard channels:
Files
OneNote Files - One Note files are backed up as a folder (with the name of the OneNote file) under Files.
Wiki data which includes pages and parameters within the wiki
3. Conversations in channel
Channel Email address(Alias) - All the mails sent and received in a channel with all attachments and properties (including user details) provided by the Microsoft APIs.
All messages sent and received with their attachments with other properties (including user details) provided by Microsoft APIs.
4. Default tabs
5. Data in Team Private channels:
Conversations in channel
Channel Email address(Alias)-All the mails sent and received in a channel with all attachments and properties (including user details) provided by the Microsoft APIs.
All messages sent and received with their attachments with other properties (including user details) provided by Microsoft APIs.
Due to Microsoft API limitation, there is no mapping for Private Channels within Teams and the SharePoint site. Consequently, FIles and Wiki data within the Private Channels cannot be backed up and restored in Teams. You can restore Files and Wiki data within the Private Channels from the corresponding associated SharePoint site.
6. Archived Teams: Backup and download support.
Doc Link: Backup Microsoft Teams
8. Can you explain the backup workflow for Teams?
Step 1. Select the Microsoft 365 App: As a first step, you need to select the Druva app:
Advanced - Backs up the data for SharePoint Online, Groups, OneDrive, Public folder, SharePoint, Teams
Basic - Backs up the data for SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Public folder, SharePoint, and Teams(Use the Basic app when you want to protect this data without providing the Directory.ReadWrite.All permission.)
OneDrive & SharePoint - Backs up the data for OneDrive and SharePoint
Step 2. To ensure that the Microsoft 365 data that is backed up is secure, you must configure inSync to get the data encryption key (ekey).
Step 3. Configure Teams for backup and restore using the below settings:
9. What are the prerequisites before configuring Druva for Teams backups?
Before configuring Druva for Teams Online backups, ensure the following prerequisites:
A valid subscription to Druva inSync and appropriate licensing for SharePoint Online.
Check the Supported Microsoft 365 Edition
An account with Global Administrator privileges for initial configuration.
Cloud Key Management to store the encryption key.
10. What steps are involved in configuring the Druva for Teams backups?
Log in to the Druva inSync console.
Navigate to the Teams backup configuration section.
Go to the Settings tab. From the Auto Configuration section, click Edit.
Teams associated with Groups will have default settings.
Doc link: Configure Teams Backup
11. How do I configure backup settings for Teams in Druva?
You can configure Teams for backup and restore in the following ways:
The new parent-child model has custom configurations so settings at the individual child workload level will no longer be relevant.
12. How do I run a backup for Teams using Druva?
On-demand or manual backup of Teams data
Perform the following steps to initiate a manual backup for specific Teams using the Summary, Backups, or Activity Stream tab.
Sign in to Druva Cloud Platform Console and navigate to Microsoft 365 > Teams.
To initiate a backup of the required Teams, click the Team name and click Backup Now.
A confirmation message appears if the backup is initiated successfully.
13. How do I restore a backup for Teams using Druva?
Here's a basic workflow of Teams data restore.
Data excluded from backups for Teams
Exclusion of Teams Meeting Recordings (Configurable)
SharePoint backups will exclude all files from the default folder path of Teams Meeting Recordings (TMR) to ensure optimized backup speed.
Restore Options
In-Place Restore: To restore and update the existing data with the data selected for restore.
Note: For a successful In-Place Restore, ensure that the hierarchy of files/folder data within the inSync snapshot is exactly similar to the hierarchy of data within the existing Teams' Channel.
Restore as a Copy: For Standard Channel: Restore to a new channel with name
<channel_name>-INS-<count> at the root level.
For Files or folders (Standard Channel): Restore to a new folder with name <inSync Restore datetimestamp> inside the channel.
Points to consider while selecting Restore Location
a. Restore to the same team: Restore data to the same team from which it was backed up.
If the same team does not exist in the Microsoft Teams app, a possible scenario wherein, the team was deleted after the backup, inSync creates a new team with the same Team name (along with its Settings and Channel data) within Microsoft Teams.
In inSync, both the deleted team and the new team with the same name co-exist and are listed on the inSync Management Console after discovery.
Both of these Teams listed have their own respective backup snapshots which may differ.
For example, Team XYZ is deleted from Microsoft Teams app after it was backed up by inSync, you can restore this team with the same name (Team XYZ) from inSync. After the restored team is discovered in inSync Management Console, two Teams with similar names Team XYZ co-exist. Each of these Team XYZ has its own different snapshots based on the backups initiated for them.
Restore to a different team:
You can restore the data using any one of the following ways:
Restore to another existing team: Restore one team's data to another existing team.
Restore to a new team: Create a new team in your Microsoft 365 tenant and restore data to this new Team
14. What are Microsoft’s limitations to restore the Teams data?
The Restore to a different team option is available only for the following scenarios:
Because of Microsoft API limitations, Team Private Channel restore (for Private Channel folder) is limited to ‘In-Place’ restore only.
You cannot restore the Private Channel folder to another existing or new Team.
Full team restore (Settings and all Standard Channels)
Only Standard Channels (without Team Settings) restore
Only Team Settings (without Standard Channels) restore
Restore of a Private Channel Site which is either permanently deleted or moved to Microsoft 365 tenant recycle bin is not supported.
Apart from this, please consider following Microsoft API limitations
Native restore of Conversations (within Standard and Private Channels) is not supported. Instead, the Channel Conversations are restored as HTML files at the Channel file locations at underlying Teams or Private Channel site.
Restore of Wiki data under the Wiki tab within Microsoft Teams is not supported. Wiki data is restored within the SharePoint Online site at this location: Site contents> Teams Wiki data - as .mht files><Channel Name>.
You can restore Private Channel data (Files and Wiki) only if the associated SharePoint site exists. Conversations are restored in HTML format under the Files tab.
Team Private Channel restore (for Private Channel folder) is limited to ‘In-Place’ restore only. You cannot restore the Private Channel folder to another existing or new Team.
15. Based on your experience, what are the most common issues encountered when dealing with Teams backups?
Below are the common issues encountered when in backups:
API throttling and cloud integration issue
Insufficient permissions to backup web files
The backup failed due to wrong credentials issue
Common Microsoft 365 errors.
InSync is unable to access the tenant.
16. What the ways to Recover Teams Conversations
Currently, native or in-place restore of Teams Conversations (or Posts) is not supported due to Microsoft API limitations.
As an option, inSync provides administrators an option to recover the Teams Conversations in HTML format. The HTML file (generated by Druva) can be recovered in the Standard Channel in Microsoft Teams.
This HTML file can then be used to recover Conversations by administrators.
Currently, administrators can recover Conversations only within the Standard Channels in Microsoft Teams.
The HTML file (Druva generated) is also not a complete set of Conversations due to Microsoft API limitations.
The HTML file supports the following information in a Conversation:
Plain text
Text with an attachment
Meeting Attachment
Reference File
Reference File Preview
Hero Card
Thumbnail Card
Connector Card
Location of the HTML file
The HTML file is by default downloaded at the following location in Microsoft Teams -
(Channel Name) > Files tab > inSync Post Restore > (Conversations in individual .html files)
Procedure
Sign in to Druva Cloud Platform Console and navigate to Microsoft 365 > Teams.
On the Teams page, click the Team name for which you want to restore conversations.
On the Team's Summary page, click the Backups tab.
From all the listed Teams' Settings and Channel list, browse.
Select the checkbox besides Name to select the entire Team's data (Team Settings and all Channels) for restore.
You can also select a conversation folder or a specific conversation.
Go to Standard Channel > Files tab.
2. Locate the <inSync Post Restore-> folder.
3. Click the <inSync Post Restore-> folder to view the individual conversations .HTML files.
4. Click on the specific HTML file to view the details of conversations.
📝 Note
If a channel has more than 10,000 conversations, then the HTML file is split into multiple files with a numeric sequential suffix (1,2, and so on). Each HTML file includes a maximum of 10,000 Conversations.
For Example: Channel ABC has 20,000 conversations. When you perform a restore of this ABC channel, there will be two HTML files created as follows:
inSyncPost_<ID>_1.html (First 10,000 conversations)
inSyncPost_<ID>_2.html (Subsequent 10,000 conversations)
17. What are the items in Teams not protected by Druva?
Due to a Microsoft limitation, Files and Wiki back up data are not displayed for Private Channel.
By default, SharePoint backups will exclude all files from the default folder path of Teams Meeting Recordings (TMR) to ensure optimized backup speed (Configurable)
18. What are the best practices when protecting Teams with the Druva backup solution?
Configure backup frequency: Ensure that you have set up an appropriate backup frequency for SharePoint Online to ensure regular data protection. Neglecting to configure back-ups regularly may lead to data loss or incomplete backups.
Review backup configuration settings: Review and verify the backup configuration settings in Druva Backup for SharePoint Online to ensure they align with your organization's requirements. Overlooking backup configuration settings may result in incomplete or incorrect backups.
Set proper retention policies: Set proper retention policies for SharePoint Online backups to comply with your organization's data retention requirements. Ignoring retention policies may lead to excessive storage consumption or retention of unnecessary data.
Ensure to validate backups: After running backups, it is crucial to validate them to ensure data integrity and accuracy. Neglecting to validate backups may result in issues when restoring data.
Monitor backup status regularly: Regularly monitor the status of SharePoint Online backups to identify any issues or errors promptly. Failing to monitor backups may result in undetected failures or gaps in data protection.
Test your restores: Perform periodic tests to ensure the backup data is recoverable and meets your recovery objectives. Skipping restore testing may lead to difficulties when restoring critical data during actual recovery scenarios.
Review backup reports regularly: Regularly review backup reports generated by Druva Backup for SharePoint Online. These reports provide insights into backup status, any errors encountered, and overall data protection health. Neglecting to review backup reports may result in missed information about backup issues or potential risks.