1222 - How to backup and recover Exchange Mail

 

Page contents

Introduction

What is supported?

How to add a backup set

How to modify a backup set

How to add Calendar and Contacts to a backup set

How to configure the backup schedule for a backup set

How to recover a backup set

How to delete a backup set

How to change a backup set's name

 

Introduction

Backup and recovery of Exchange Mail forms part of our Microsoft 365 service offering. Watch our video below to learn more.

To add a backup set and do a first recovery, you need to be both a RedApp company administrator, and a Microsoft 365 global administrator for your tenant organisation. To do subsequent recoveries, you only need to be a RedApp company administrator and a Microsoft 365 Exchange admin. Read more about Microsoft's admin roles in this article on their knowledge base.

 

What is supported?

Redstor currently supports the following:

• Recover back to Exchange (new folder)
• Single item recovery (Mail, Contacts, Calendar)
• Multiple mailbox recovery
• Shared mailbox backup and recovery
• Archive mailbox backup and recovery
• Calendar backup and recovery
• Contacts backup and recovery
• Export to PST
• Search (by recipient/s, sender, or subject)

The following is not supported:

• Just-in-time (JIT) or "viral" tenants
• Guest users
• Public contacts
• Public folders
• Private events in Calendar
• Individual EML or MSG files

Please note the following limitations:

• It is not possible to exclude specific file types from backups.
• Data with fidelity is only available via Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS).
• Large backups and archive mailbox backups may experience throttling, which results in long backup durations.
• Poor performance is seen on Linux.
• With PST restores, there is a known limitation relating to certain contact fields, including email address. Read more in Article 1574.

 

Guides

Use the guides below to manage your Exchange backups.

 

How to add a backup set

1. On the RedApp home page, go to My Company or to the relevant customer company.

2. To add a new backup set, go to Microsoft 365 in the sidebar on the left.

3. Click Add at the top right.

4. Select Exchange and click Sign in.

5. You will now need to sign into Microsoft 365 and provide Redstor with permission to access your data. Click Accept.

Note: If you encounter an "Access denied" error, click here.

6. You can now make your backup selection based on your organisational structure.

Note: If you are looking to switch from user-based to group-based backup selection, click here.

 

For group-based backup selection:

Note: These groups refer to Microsoft Entra groups (previously known as Azure Active Directory security groups), and not to Redstor backup groups.

Watch our video or follow the steps below.

Select Groups and click Next.

By default, all groups will be selected for backup. To retain this selection and proceed, click Add.

You can deselect the groups you do not wish to back up, or deselect all and select only the groups you want to back up. Note that it may take a few moments for all groups to load. 

You can also drill down into groups to select specific subgroups for backup.

Once you are satisfied with your selection, click Add to proceed.

 

For user-based backup selection:

Note: If you intend to select a large number of users and regularly make changes to the selection, it is easier to use this workaround.

Watch our video or follow the steps below.

 

Select Users and click Next.

By default, all mailboxes (users) will be selected for backup. To retain this selection and proceed, click Add. You can also enable Include new accounts added to ensure that future additions to this tenant are automatically added to the backup selection.

You can deselect the mailboxes you do not wish to back up, or deselect all and select only the mailboxes you want to back up. Note that it may take a few moments for all mailboxes to load. Once you are satisfied with your selection, click Add to proceed.

7. You will now see the home page for your new backup set, and its name will appear in the sidebar. To queue a backup immediately, click on the menu icon and select Backup.

You can view an audit trail of key actions and which users performed them by clicking on the inspect icon at the top right of the page. 

You can customise which columns you see on the backup set home page by going to Customise display.

8. To make changes to this backup set, go to Backup selection > Edit.

Make your changes and click Save, or click Backup to backup your new selection immediately. The backup selection page will also show you which licence/s each account is using.

Note: If you need to back up an archive mailbox, read more here.

 

How to modify a backup set

Note: If you are seeing unlicensed mailboxes being backed up, Article 1586 explains why.

1. On the home page for the relevant backup set, click on Backup selection > Edit.

2. Select/deselect the groups/mailboxes you want to add/remove. (You can also use the Search field to find a specific group/mailbox.) Click Save to save your changes or Backup to back up the new selection immediately. To discard your changes, click Cancel.

Note: If you are looking to switch from user-based to group-based backup selection, click here.

3. The new number of groups/mailboxes selected will now be shown under Backup selection on the backup set's home page.

Note: Accounts that have been removed from the backup selection are still retained on the Storage Platform until you request that they be permanently deleted. Read more here.

 

How to add Calendar and Contacts to a backup set

1. On the home page for the relevant backup set, click on Overview > Edit.

2. Tick the boxes for Calendar and Contacts and click on the check mark.

3. Click on the menu icon at the top right to expand more options, then click Backup.

 

How to configure the backup schedule for a backup set

1. On the home page for the relevant backup set, click on Backup schedule > Edit.

2. Select the days on which you would like backups to run, as well as a backup time. You can choose between daily and custom backups.

• For daily backups, select the number of backups per day (1 or 3). In the case of 3 backups per day, the backups will run at the specified backup time, as well as 8 hours after and 16 hours after the specified time. For example, if the specified time is 08:00, backups will run at 08:00, 16:00, and 00:00. Running multiple daily backups instead of a single daily backup will not incur additional costs.
  
   
  
  Note: Multiple daily backups is only available as part of our M365 Premium edition. If you do not see the option to schedule multiple daily backups, you are on a legacy pricing plan. If you would like to enable multiple daily backups, please speak to your account manager about upgrading.
  
  
• For custom backups, select the days and time that you want your backups to run.
  
   
  
  

3. Click the check mark at the top right to save your settings.

 

How to recover a backup set

Watch our video for an overview of your recovery options, or follow the steps below.

1. On the home page for the relevant backup set, locate the mailbox you want to recover. Click on the menu icon and select Recover. You will see three recovery options, which are discussed below.

You can also select multiple mailboxes to recover.

Note: If you need to recover multiple mailboxes, it is advised to recover them in bulk and not in sequence. It is not possible to queue a recovery while another recovery for the same backup set is in progress. 

To recover an individual item (such as an email, calendar event or contact), click on the relevant mailbox name (or on the menu icon and then on Open) to expand the mailbox.

Then drill down and make your selection. Click Recover when you are ready. For more on recovering Calendar events and Contacts, see Article 1590.

You can also select a specific backup date to recover, and then select All to recover everything from that backup.

Use the Search field to find a specific item to recover.

2. When recovering, you can choose between recovering to a different account, recovering to a new folder, or exporting to PST format. 

After selecting any recovery option, you will need to authenticate with your RedApp credentials as well as with your Microsoft 365 administrator credentials. You will then see a notification at the bottom of the page to indicate that the recovery has started. 

To start recovering, proceed based on your choice of recovery method.

• If you select Different account, follow the steps below:

Scroll down or search and select an account to recover to, then click Continue. Note that the target account must be in the same backup set as the source account.

Check the details and click Confirm & Restore. 

The selected items will be recovered to a new folder named Redstor Restores in the target mailbox, which you can find in Outlook by expanding the Folder Pane on the left. The structure will be Redstor Restores > (timestamp folder) > Mailbox > (source folder of recovered item).

 

• If you select New folder, follow the steps in this video:

Your selected items will be recovered to a new folder named Redstor Restores in the original mailbox, which you can find in Outlook by expanding the Folder Pane on the left. The structure will be Redstor Restores > (timestamp folder) > Mailbox > (source folder of recovered item).

 

• If you select Export to .pst, follow the steps in this video:

In the case of a PST export, the RedApp admin user who initiated the restore will receive an email containing a download link to the exported Outlook Data File. This file can then be downloaded and imported into the relevant Outlook instance by going to File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File. Note that downloaded PST files will be smaller in size than the corresponding backups reported in the RedApp. Read more in Article 1547.

The selected mailbox/es will receive a notification email to say they are being restored.

For more on PST imports, see this Microsoft article.

Note: Mail, Contacts and Calendar items are recovered with all the original metadata.

 

How to delete a backup set

1. On the home page for the relevant backup set, click on the menu icon to expand more options, then click Remove.

2. Confirm the deletion by clicking Remove.

 

How to change a backup set's name

1. On the home page for the relevant backup set, click on the menu icon to expand more options, then click Rename.

2. Enter the new name for the backup set and click Update.