Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Quick Start Guide

What is Active Backup for Microsoft 365?

Active Backup for Microsoft 365 is designed to back up the data stored in your Microsoft 365 account to your Synology NAS. This backup package includes a centralized monitoring interface that allows IT administrators to keep track of all accounts' backup status and historical transmissions in one place. End users can restore and download backup data without the help of IT professionals using Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal.

Why use Active Backup for Microsoft 365?

Whether you have the Business, Enterprise, or Education plan, protect all of your sensitive data on OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Teams.
Since Active Backup for Microsoft 365 is a free add-on for Synology NAS, you can back up unlimited accounts, as long as your storage allows it.
Backups can be done whenever convenient to ensure your data security, and without disturbing business activities.
Single instancing and block-level deduplication save space and bandwidth by ensuring that identical things are only duplicated once.

Before you start

Activate the package

Create a backup task

Go to the Task List page and click Create to launch Task Creation Wizard.
Select Create a backup task and click Next.
Select the Microsoft 365 endpoint type and then set a certificate password.
Authorize the backup task (Certificate and application details).
Configure the Task name, Backup destination, and Backup list. Enable the Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal if needed.
Enable services for auto-discovery as needed. With this enabled, new sites, teams, and the selected services of new users/groups can be automatically included in the backup list.
Set up backup and retention policies:
- Backup policy:
  - Continuous backup: Based on the API request rate detected from the last backup, the system dynamically adjusts the backup intervals from one to ten minutes. Data are backed up continuously in an infinite cycle.
  - Manual backup: Data are backed up immediately once you manually run the task.
  - Scheduled backup: Data are backed up based on the schedule you set.
- Retention policy:
  - Keep all versions
  - Keep previous versions for specified number of days: When a backed-up file is updated to a new version, the previous version will be preserved for the retention period you set.
Check the task summary and click Done or Apply to finish the task creation.
For more details, refer to the respective help articles for DSM 7.0 and DSM 6.2

Manage backup tasks

On the Task List page, you will see a list of all the backup tasks. You can manage them using the upper toolbar.

Select a backup task and click Edit to do any of the following:

Enable the self-service portal
Change to another Azure AD application
Edit your backup target
Turn on auto-discovery for each service
Adjust the backup and retention policy

If you want to delete any of the user, group, site, or team backup data, select a backup task, click More and click Storage Management. Select the user, group, site, or team backup data you want to delete, then you can delete the backup data of the related service.

Log

The Log page allows you to keep track of the backup tasks that have been performed, as well as view error messages and track restoration activities started by end-users. You can view all logs or use filters to search for the logs of certain tasks.

To search through log records with a filter, on the Log page, click the magnifying glass icon in the search bar in the upper-right corner. There, you can filter your search by Keyword, Type, or Date.

You can also view log details by selecting a log and clicking on the arrow icon on the right-hand side. For backup activity, you can view the Status and Log, and for a restoration activity, you can view the Restore Information and Log.

For more details on logs in Active Backup for Microsoft 365, refer to the respective help articles for DSM 7.0 and DSM 6.2.

Restore using the Microsoft 365 Recovery Portal

Enable and access the Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal

To enable Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal:

Users with admin privileges can go to Control Panel > Login Portal > Applications > Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal. Click Edit to enable and customize the login portal.

To access Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal:

For users with admin privileges: Go to Control Panel > Login Portal > Applications > Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal and click the link in the Alias field.
For users with or without admin privileges: Click Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal on the DSM main menu.

Browse Data for Restoration

To find your information in Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Portal, you will need to first specify the View Role, Task, Services, and the Date of the data you want to view.

Change the view role

Select an account from the View Role/View Site drop-down menu. As an administrator, you can switch to any backup user's view to browse and restore their data.

Select a task

Select the task you wish to restore from the Task drop-down menu.

Select a service type

Active Backup for Microsoft 365 supports the backup of drives, emails, contacts, calendars, sites, and teams. Click on the Services icon and select the service you wish to restore. Archive mailboxes are included in the Mail category.

View data at any previous point in time

Go to the timeline at the bottom of the page.
To switch between backup versions, perform either of the following actions:
- Click the Calendar icon in the upper-left corner and select the date you wish to restore the backup version from.
- Click the right or left arrow to switch between versions.
Drag the timeline to view any backup at a previous point in time.

Restore and Export your data

You can restore your Service data (listed below) to the original tenant in Microsoft 365 and export the data to a local device. For detailed instructions on how to perform restores and exports for the following Service data, please refer to the respective help articles.

Drives (DSM 7.0 / DSM 6.2)
Mails (DSM 7.0 / DSM 6.2)
Contacts (DSM 7.0 / DSM 6.2)
Calendars (DSM 7.0 / DSM 6.2)
Sites (DSM 7.0 / DSM 6.2)
Teams (DSM 7.0 / DSM 6.2)

Back up and restore Microsoft Teams

Further reading

Was this article helpful?

Yes ／ No