Public Cloud > Backup > Backup for Microsoft 365 > The Backup for Microsoft 365 Service

01 The Backup for Microsoft 365 Service

Prerequisite

To use Backup for Microsoft 365, you must have an active Microsoft 365 service with a Business, Education or Government account and a profile with one of the following roles:
  • Global Administrator;
  • Owner.
For more information about the required permissions, see the official Veeam documentation.

What is Backup for Microsoft 365

The Backup for Microsoft 365 service allows you to protect the services of your Microsoft 365 organization through backups:
  • Exchange Online;
  • SharePoint Online;
  • OneDrive for Business;
  • Microsoft Teams [1].
1. Microsoft Teams includes the Teams chat service, which may or may not be included in the data to be protected. Backing up Teams chats involves additional costs payable to Microsoft and therefore requires a separate agreement directly with Microsoft.
Backing up Microsoft 365 application data is part of the customer's responsibilities.

Pricing plans

Shared solution

Backup users
The minimum package includes 10 users and can be increased in multiples of 10. At renewal, you are charged for the number of backup users actually used, in packages of 10.

Storage
The storage package for backups is 50 GB. If storage runs out, you can choose between:
  • automatically adding the required storage: any additional storage used is calculated by adding 50 GB packages;
  • suspending backup jobs: when the purchased storage limit is reached, backup jobs are suspended and access to Veeam Service Provider Console is blocked.

Dedicated solution

Backup users
The package is initially set to 1,000 users and can be increased in multiples of 10 up to 5,000 or reduced to a minimum of 10. The configured number of users is billed for the first month, regardless of actual usage. At renewal, you are charged for the number of backup users actually used, in packages of 10.

Storage
The minimum storage package for backups is 8 TB. Packages of 8 TB, 16 TB, 24 TB, 32 TB, 48 TB and 64 TB are available. If storage runs out, you can choose between:
  • adding the required storage: the necessary packages are added to cover the storage used;
  • suspending backup jobs: when the purchased storage limit is reached, backup jobs are suspended and access to Veeam Service Provider Console is blocked.
The option for managing storage exhaustion is selected when creating the Backup for Microsoft 365 account and can be changed later.

Shared and dedicated solutions

Backup for Microsoft 365 is available as a shared or dedicated solution. The table below shows the main features of the available configurations.
 
Solution shared shared with
second copy
dedicated dedicated with
second copy
Microsoft 365 user accounts
to be backed up
up to 1,000 [1] up to 1,000 [1] from 1,000 [2]
to 5,000 [3]
from 1,000 [2]
to 5,000 [3]
service delivery platform multi-tenant multi-tenant single-tenant single-tenant
resources shared shared dedicated dedicated
∟ resource separation logical logical physical physical
first-copy storage shared shared shared [4] shared [4]
∟ second-copy storage - shared - shared
∟ backup immutability - optional - optional
backup encryption service optional optional optional optional
1. The 1,000-user limit is mandatory. If you need to back up more users, you must select the dedicated solution.
2. The 1,000-user limit is recommended but not mandatory: you can activate the dedicated solution even for fewer users.
3. If you need to back up more than 5,000 users, please contact us.
4. If you need dedicated S3 storage, please contact us.

Retention, policy and time slots

Backups are performed daily during the time slot selected when creating the account. The first backup is always a full backup.

Retention period

Specify how many days backups should be retained. You can choose from:
 
7 14 30 60 90 180 365 730

Retention policy

You can choose between:
  • Snapshot-based: an incremental backup of all data is performed and retained for the configured retention period;
  • Item-level: the creation or last modification date of individual items, such as folders and files, is checked. Only items created or modified within the configured retention period are backed up. This option is generally used for long retention periods.
The retention policy cannot be changed after creating the Backup for Microsoft 365 account.

Time slot

Specify the time slot during which backups are performed:
 
00:00 - 05:59 06:00 - 11:59 12:00 - 17:59 18:00 - 23:59

The retention period and time slot can be changed after creating the Backup for Microsoft 365 account.

Login details for managing the service

Two types of credentials are used to manage Backup for Microsoft 365:
  • Backup for Microsoft 365 account credentials, consisting of company, username and password;
  • Microsoft 365 credentials, used to access and authorize operations on your Microsoft 365 organization.
Operation Credentials to use
Accessing Veeam Service Provider Console company\username_company and the corresponding password
Configuring Microsoft 365 in Veeam Service Provider Console Backup for Microsoft 365 account credentials and Microsoft 365 administrator credentials
Subsequent access to Veeam Service Provider Console company\username_company and the corresponding password
Accessing Veeam Restore Portal Microsoft 365 credentials

Brief overview of service configuration

  • Cloud Control Panel
    • create a Backup for Microsoft 365 account;
    • choose the shared or dedicated solution;
    • set the account credentials;
    • choose the number of users to protect and the available storage, with an optional second copy;
    • configure the retention period, policy and time slot.
  • Veeam Service Provider Console
    • access Veeam Service Provider Console using your Backup for Microsoft 365 account credentials;
    • connect your Microsoft 365 organization to the service;
    • authorize Veeam to access Microsoft 365 services;
    • choose the Microsoft 365 services to protect;
    • create backup jobs, specifying the users or groups and items to include in the backup.
  • Veeam Restore Portal
    • create a trust between your Microsoft 365 organization and Veeam Restore Portal;
    • if necessary, assign the restore operator role to groups or users.