This article guides you through the essential steps to prepare your environment for configuring backup and restore operations for SharePoint Online. It covers prerequisites, necessary permissions, and configuration settings to ensure a smooth setup process.
This section covers the following key topics:
1. What is SharePoint Online in your environment?
SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service, hosted by Microsoft, for businesses of all sizes. Any business can subscribe to a Microsoft 365 plan or to the standalone SharePoint Online service, Organizations use Microsoft SharePoint to create websites. You can use it as a secure place to store, organize, share, and access information from any device. All you need is a web browser, such as Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox.
2. What are the Benefits of Backing up SharePoint Online?
inSync Cloud administrator can avail of the following benefits while protecting the SharePoint Online 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.
3. Why is it essential to perform regular backups of SharePoint Online?
Performing regular backups of SharePoint Online 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.
4. What data and components does Druva backup from SharePoint Online And Groups?
The data for SharePoint online can also be managed by Groups configuration, for more information please go throughIntroduction to Druva inSync for Groups
Druva inSync backs up various data and components from SharePoint Online including SharePoint Data, and SharePoint Site Settings, with Automatic Site Discovery and supports for backup of the following site collection types:
A. Classic sites: The SharePoint site collection used for project collaboration, intranet portal pages, record storage, and so on.
B. Team sites (hidden sites for 365 Groups, Teams' Web App): A site collection used for Teams to work on projects, and share information and files from any device. A team site automatically creates Microsoft 365 group and any user that you add to the team site gets added to the Microsoft 365 group. These sites are not listed in the SharePoint sites list. Doc Link: Data Protected for SharePoint
5. Can you explain the backup workflow for SharePoint Online?
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 SharePoint for backup and restore using the below settings:
6. What are the prerequisites before configuring Druva for SharePoint Online backups?
Before configuring Druva for SharePoint 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.
7. What steps are involved in configuring the Druva for SharePoint Online backups?
Log in to the Druva inSync console.
Navigate to the SharePoint Online backup configuration section.
Register M365 tenant and Select the preferred app
Verify the connection and provide the required permissions
8. How do I configure backup settings for SharePoint Online in Druva?
Druva has introduced Simplified Onboarding for more information please click here
Additionally, Druva has Single App implementation for SharePoint sites, in which schedule and retention is now governed by Parent objects, i.e Groups and Teams.
Only classic sites which are not associated with Groups and Teams will controlled by Sharepoint
Manual SharePoint site Backup and custom retention setting can override Single App Settings.
Auto Configuration of SharePoint sites:
Sign in to Druva Cloud Platform Console and navigate to Microsoft 365 > SharePoint.
A page that lists all the discovered sites appears. The status of all the discovered sites by default is set as Not Configured.
Click Auto Configuration. Enter the following details in the Auto Configuration wizard and click Save
Custom configuration of SharePoint sites for backup
Sign in to Druva Cloud Platform Console and navigate to Microsoft 365 > SharePoint.
A page that lists all the discovered sites appears. The status of all the discovered sites by default is set as Not Configured.
Click the site collection that you want to configure for backup and restore. The Configure Site Backup page appears.
If you have selected the Custom option, enter the following details and click Save.
Doc Link: Configure SharePoint Online Backup
9. How do I run a backup for SharePoint Online using Druva?
Backup can be initiated manually or automatically
You can schedule an automatic discovery and backup of site collections while configuring SharePoint Online.
Manual backup of SharePoint Online data
As an inSync Cloud administrator, you can start an unscheduled backup of a site collection as and when necessary.
Go to the Druva dashboard and click on the "Microsoft 365" tab.
Click on the "SharePoint Online".
Select the users that you want to back up.
Click on the "Backup Now" button.
Druva will start backing up the selected site:
10. How do I restore a backup for SharePoint Online using Druva?
An administrator can restore SharePoint Online data using the inSync Management Console at the following locations based on the selection for restoration:
Restore to the same Site: Restore data to the same site from which it was backed up.
In-place Restore: To the same site collection from where the data was backed up.
Restore as a Copy: A new subsite is created within the same site collection and the data is restored in this new subsite. Doc Link: Restore SharePoint Online data
11. Based on your experience, what are the most common issues encountered when dealing with SharePoint Online backups?
When a particular SharePoint site is deleted from Microsoft 365, the App Status of that site changes to Disabled in inSync. ESITENOTFOUND error is displayed in Status Details when you initiate a backup for this site. The discovery and scheduled backups for these sites are excluded in the subsequent discovery and backup cycle. However, you can perform a restoration of these sites.
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.
12. What are the items in SharePoint Online not protected by Druva?
By default, SharePoint backups will exclude all files from the default folder path of Teams Meeting Recordings (TMR) to ensure optimized backup speed (Configurable)
Unpublished site pages will not be backed up.
Checked-out files and folders will not be backed up.
Contents in the recycle bin will not be backed up.
The forms folder is displayed by default in every folder for every backed-up site collection and will not be restored.
If the SharePoint Online sites, subsites, lists, and document libraries have a '/' (forward slash) character present in their title, the “/” is replaced with an “_” (underscore) character before backing up the data.
13. What are the best practices when protecting SharePoint online with the Druva backup solution (custom)?
Configure backup frequency: Ensure that you have set up an appropriate backup frequency for SharePoint Online to ensure regular data protection.
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.
Note: All settings in SPO are only applicable for Classic sites. For Group and Team sites its controlled from the Groups configuration page.
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.