Microsoft Office 365
Safeguard your cloud data with local backups:
Protect your Office 365 data: Zmanda Pro empowers you to create local backups of your essential Office 365 information, ensuring an extra layer of security beyond Microsoft's built-in measures.
Supported services: Back up data from:
Exchange Online: Mailbox (Email), calendar, contacts
Sites: SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, Teams Files
Space-efficient storage: Zmanda Pro optimizes storage with client-side encryption, compression, and deduplication, minimizing backup footprint.
NOTE: Working in harmony with Microsoft
Shared responsibility for data protection: While Microsoft Online Services ensure the availability of Office 365 and meet their SLAs, Zmanda Pro complements their efforts by offering independent backups for enhanced protection.
Layered protection for comprehensive safety: Consider combining Zmanda Pro's local backups with Microsoft's first-party features like Retention Policies and Litigation Hold for even more robust data safeguarding.
Benefits of a multi-layered approach: These features provide:
Data redundancy and resilience against loss or tampering
Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
Streamlined reporting across backup sources
Simplified restoration of individual items
Overview - Office 365 Services
When opting for mailbox selection during backup, you have the flexibility to choose from options like ALL users, Individual users, or specific Azure AD groups.
Services | Backup | Restore to Local | Restore to Cloud | Supported | Not Supported |
Exchange Online |
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Mailbox (Email) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Active users, shared mailboxes | Guest users, Deleted users, Discovery mailbox, Archive mailbox, Journal mailbox, Outlook group mailboxes |
Calendar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Restore to local:JSON format |
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Contacts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Restore to local:JSON format |
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Tasks | No | No | No |
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SharePoint Online |
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Sites | Yes | Yes | No | Restore lists, documents and pages individually |
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Lists | Yes | Yes | Yes |
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Pages | Yes | Yes | No |
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OneDrive for Business |
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Document Library (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Displayed under "Documents" in associated SharePoint site |
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Teams |
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Files | Yes | Yes | Yes | Displayed under "Documents" in associated SharePoint site |
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Chat | No | No | No |
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Calendar | No | No | No |
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Meetings | No | No | No |
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Call | No | No | No |
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Authentication
Authorization for backups
Zmanda Pro requires authorization to access your Office 365 data for backup.
This authorization is granted through an "Application" in Azure AD.
Exercise caution with credentials due to extensive access to your Office 365 organization.
Creating the Protected Item
Creating the application
Choose one of two methods:
1. Automatic application registration
Click the Azure Active Directory button within Zmanda Pro.
Follow the wizard-guided process.
Requires top-level administrator access on Azure.
2. Manual application registration
Register the application in Azure AD
Visit Microsoft Entra admin center .
Proceed to the Azure Active Directory and access the App registrations section. Create a new registration by entering a distinct name, such as "My Branded Office 365 Backup Product."
Click Register.
Copy Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID into Zmanda Pro's corresponding fields.
Register an authentication secret
In Azure AD, go to Certificates & secrets > Client secrets > New client secret.
Create a new secret with a name and expiry.
Copy the Value into Zmanda Pro's Application Secret field.
Grant permissions
In Azure AD, go to API permissions > Add a permission.
Add the following permissions:
full_access_as_app
(Office 365 Exchange Online)Application.Read.All
,Calendars.ReadWrite
,Contacts.ReadWrite
,Directory.Read.All
,Files.ReadWrite.All
,GroupMember.Read.All
,Mail.ReadWrite
,Notes.Read.All
,Sites.FullControl.All
,TeamMember.ReadWrite.All
,User.Read.All
(Microsoft Graph)Grant admin consent.
Configuring Selections
Zmanda Pro allows you to customize which Office 365 mailboxes and sites to back up.
Use the pencil button in the desktop app to select items.
Choose mailboxes and sites independently using the dropdown arrow next to the + button.
Backup options:
Back up all: Includes all mailboxes/sites.
Back up only selected: Includes only specifically chosen mailboxes/sites.
Back up all excluding selected: Includes all mailboxes/sites except those you've excluded.
Selecting users and sites:
Click the pencil button.
Click the + button to open a dialog box for selection.
Search for specific users or sites.
Choose individual users, sites, or Azure AD groups of user accounts.
Zmanda Pro currently does not support Outlook groups.
Supported mailbox types:
Active Users' mailboxes (as displayed in the Office 365 Admin Center)
Shared Mailboxes generated through an Exchange E5 license plan or a higher tier. Shared mailboxes are counted as distinct mailboxes for billing purposes.
Remote configuration:
Access Protected Item configuration remotely through the Zmanda Pro console when the device is online and connected to the server.
Performance Considerations
Data transfer and storage:
Backup jobs use Microsoft Office 365 APIs to read data from the cloud and store it in the Storage Vault.
Local devices download a significant amount of data.
Incremental backups:
Zmanda Pro leverages server-side delta change APIs for efficient incremental backups of:
Mailbox (Email)
Calendars
Contacts
OneDrive files
Teams files
Deleting files from a backup job snapshot can impact subsequent incremental backup times.
SharePoint lists are currently excluded from server-side delta change APIs, potentially slowing down their backup.
Rate limiting:
The Office 365 API imposes rate limits, potentially affecting overall backup job performance.
Rate limits are applied per mailbox account.
Zmanda Pro backs up multiple mailboxes in parallel to balance performance.
In environments with mailboxes of varying sizes, the largest mailbox can impact overall performance.
Latency and performance:
Hosting the Zmanda Pro device within Microsoft Azure can significantly reduce latency to Office 365 servers, improving performance.
Recommendations:
Monitor backup job performance and adjust schedules or selections as needed.
Consider network optimization strategies for large-scale Office 365 environments.
Restore
Preview emails before restoring to view content and attachments.
Restore to either local PC or back to the cloud.
Different file formats and processing for different items:
Emails: MIME format (
*.eml
)Calendar appointments: vCalendar format (
*.vcf
)Contacts and calendars: JSON format (requires conversion to
*.vcf
)SharePoint file attachments, OneDrive items, Teams files: Found within associated SharePoint site
Restoring Office 365 items to the local PC
Emails:
Open with Microsoft Outlook or other email programs.
Import bulk
*.eml
files by dragging and dropping into Outlook.
Calendar appointments:
Rename *.eml attachments to
*.vcf
and open in Outlook.
Contacts and calendars:
Convert JSON files to standard
*.vcf
format before opening in Outlook.
SharePoint file attachments, OneDrive items, Teams files:
Recover as standard files and folders from the associated SharePoint site's Documents subdirectory.
Restoring Office 365 items back to the cloud
Choose original or custom cloud location.
Items restored with default retention policy.
Existing emails not overwritten, restored as duplicates
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