Active Backup for Office 365 admin console
The centralized admin console allows IT admins to create backup tasks for Office 365 accounts and monitor the backup status from a single interface.
Create backup tasks
To create a backup task:
- Click Create to start the wizard from Task List.
- Select the endpoint for your Office 365 service. Read the instruction and click on Next. An Office 365 authorization window will pop up. Enter the Domain administrator email address and Password to complete the authorization process. A confirmation window will then pop up to confirm the location to store your authorization token, saving you the trouble of going through the authorization process every time before data backup.
- Enter your Task name, choose a shared folder from the Destination Shared Folder drop-down, select users and their services to be backed up from User List, and if needed, enable Account discovery for mail, contacts, calendar, and drive services as well as Active Backup for Office 365 Portal.
- Account discovery: newly-created accounts with their mail, contacts, calendar, or drive services enabled in Office 365 will be automatically selected to be backed up.
- Active Backup for Office 365 Portal: IT admins can control whether to give users access to run restore tasks by themselves.
- Configure your backup and retention policies:
- Backup policy
- Continuous backup: data will be backed up continuously in an infinite cycle.
- Manual backup: data will be backed up immediately once the backup function is manually enabled.
- Scheduled backup: data will be backed up based on the schedule you set.
- File version retention policy
- Preserve all versions: all file versions will be preserved.
- Number of days for historical file versions to be preserved: when a backed up file is updated to a new version, the previous version will be preserved for the period of time you set for file retention, which has to be between 1 and 3650 days.
- Check your task summary and click Apply to finish creating your backup task.
Manage backup tasks
In the Task list tab, you can see a list of all backup tasks that have been created. You can also manage them with the buttons at the top of the tab.
To manage a backup task:
- Select the backup task you want to edit and click Edit.
- On the General tab, you can
- View the endpoint of your Office 365 backup and the domain administrator email address.
- Modify the task name.
- Enable and disable Account discovery for each service as well as Active Backup for Office 365 Portal.
- On the Version tab, you can configure backup and retention policies.
To manage users to be backed up:
- Select a backup task, click Edit, and go to the User tab. You can then check the backup users' information such as license status, backup setting of each service, and storage consumption. Office 365 mail, contact, and calendar require license for backup, while Office 365 shared mailbox and OneDrive for Business don't. Below are the license status you might see and their corresponding meaning:
- Activated: user in "Activated" status occupies a license
- Will be activated: user in "Will be activated" status will occupy a license in the next backup run
- Not required: user in "Not required" status doesn't occupy a license as the service selected for backup doesn't require license for backup
- Exceeded: user in "Exceeded" status occupies a license temporarily during grace period
- If you have enabled Account discovery for any of the four services, all new users added to the domain with that service enabled will be automatically backed up. You can include or exclude specific users' services by manually selecting or deselecting them.
- Active Backup for Office 365 updates the status of Office 365 user list from Office 365 from time to time. If you would like to see the latest user list of Office 365, please click Update Office 365 user list.
To delete backup user data:
- Select a backup task, click Edit, and go to the User tab.
- Select a user and click Storage management to delete his backup data for any of the four services. Your service will be deselected for backup once your backup data is deleted.
To release license:
- Select a backup task, click Edit, and go to the User tab.
- Select a user in "activated" status and click Storage management to delete his backup data of mail, contact, and calendar. After backup data is successfully deleted, the user's license will be released.
View task information
Overview
In the Overview tab, you can monitor the following information from a single interface.
- Protected service: the number of users protected in each service.
- Backup summary: the summary of all backup activities in the past 35 days, including the backup status and number of backup activities for each day. When clicking on the icon of each day, you can check the log for that day. Below are all the icons you might see and their corresponding meaning:
- No backup history
- Upcoming backup
- Success
- Warning
- Error
- Activities: current backup and restoration activities. When clicking on the arrow icon in the top right hand corner, you will be redirected to the Activities tab.
- Log: the most recent logs. When clicking on the arrow icon in the top right hand corner, you will be redirected to the Log tab to view more logs.
- Service usage: total storage space consumed by each service.
- User usage: the amount of storage space consumed by users who have used the most capacity.
- Transferred size: the transferred size of each task displayed by Day/Hour.
Note:
Regarding the category, Backup summary, there are three types of status, Error, Warning, and Successful. The status for a day will be displayed as Error/Warning as long as any single activity in that day shows error/warning, while the status will only be shown as Successful if all task results of that day are success.
Task List
In the Task List tab, you can see a list of all backup tasks that have been created. In the menu of each backup task, you will find the following information for the task, whether it is being executed or has been fully executed.
- Tasks that are being executed: the current number of protected users in each service and the users' backup status.
- Tasks that have been fully executed: the backup result, last backup time, and the number of protected users in each service and their backup status.
Below are all the icons you might see in the menu of each backup task and their corresponding meaning:
- Success
- Warning
- Error
- No user selected for backup
- Preparing for backup
- Ready for backup
Note:
Regarding the definition of each task status, below you can find detailed information:
- Error: If the data of a task fails to be backed up or restored, the task status will be shown as Error.
- Warning: If the data of a task is successfully backed up or restored, but the corresponding metadata fails to go through the execution, the task status will be shown as Warning (only applicable to Drive tasks).
- Successful: If both the data and metadata of a task are successfully backed up or restored, the task status will be shown as Successful.
Activities
- Admins can easily monitor current backup and restoration activities on the Activities tab.
- Backup: the backup policy, elapsed time, and backup progress of each running backup task.
- Restoration: the elapsed time and restoration progress of each running restoration task as well as the users who executed them.
- Admins can also click on Cancel to stop a running activity. Please note that a task where the continuous backup policy is applied comes with an infinite backup cycle. Therefore, users cannot cancel such tasks directly using the Cancel button.
Log
The Log allows you to keep track of the backup tasks that have been performed. You can view the log in its entirety or use filters to search for certain tasks.
To search through log records with a specific filter:
- Go to the Log tab.
- Click the arrow next to the magnifying glass icon in the search bar on the top right hand corner.
- In the drop-down menu, you can filter events by:
- Keyword: enter the keyword you wish to search for.
- Log type: select the type of log you want to view in the drop-down menu.
- Date: enter a start and end date to find logs created within a specific period of time.
- To reset your filter, click the Reset button and start searching again.
To view log details:
- Select a log and click the arrow icon on the right end of the entry to view detailed logs for an event.
- For backup activities, you can view the following information in the pop-up window:
- Users: the duration, used space, and status of each backup user.
- Drive: the backup account, item, size, time, and status of each task.
- Mail, Contacts, and Calendar: the type, backup time, and detailed log of each backup activity.
- For restoration activities, you can view the following information in the pop-up window:
- Drive: the source and destination account, item, size, time, and status of each restoration task.
- Mail, Contacts, and Calendar: the type, restoration time, and detailed log of each restoration activity.
Detailed task information
To view the status and logs of a task:
- Select the backup task on the Task List tab and click on Details.
- In the Details window you can view the following information:
- Users: the last backup time, used space, and status of each backup user. (Users with a blue dot on the left side of their emails are the ones who have been through the latest backup run.)
- Drive: the backup account, item, size, time, and status of each backup task.
- Mail, Contacts, and Calendar: the type, backup time, and detailed log of each backup activity.
Manage notification services
To enable noitification services:
To receive task-related notifications, go to DSM > Control Panel > Notification, and configure settings for your desired notification channel, i.e. SMS, email, or push service.
To manage events for notification:
To manage events for notification, go to DSM > Control Panel > Notification > Advanced, and configure settings for the events that you would like to be notified of.
License
In the License tab, you can view the number of available licenses and the information of license keys, or you can add and renew Active Backup for Office 365 licenses.
- Free license: Each Synology NAS that supports Active Backup for Office 365 comes with 10 free licenses.
- Add licenses : Click Add and follow the wizard to add Active Backup for Office 365 license packs for increasing the number of licenses.
- Renew a subscription: Click Renew and follow the wizard to add Active Backup for Office 365 license packs for renewing an existing license key for another year.
- Migrate a subscription: Click Add and follow the wizard to add a license key which is permitted with a valid Active Backup for Office 365 subscription. Each license key can be applied to only one Synology NAS at a time; once migrated, the license will be instantly revoked from its original server.
Note:
- The Active Backup for Office 365 Portal needs to be enabled in the Active Backup for Office 365 package for users to restore data by themselves. To allow specific users the access to Active Backup for Office 365 Portal, go to Control Panel > Privileges, select Active Backup for Office 365 Portal, and click on Edit to give permissions.
- Only users with admin privilege can cancel other users' restoration tasks from Active Backup for Office 365 Console.
- Block-level deduplication is supported only on shared folders in Btrfs volumes, with the exception of encrypted shared folders; single instancing for mail and calendar attachments is only supported on shared folders in Btrfs volumes. For detailed information regarding support for the two features, please refer to the below table:
|
Single instancing |
Block-level deduplication |
Drive |
O |
O |
Mail |
Attachment only |
X |
Contacts |
X |
X |
Calendar |
Attachment only |
X |
- Data will not be backed up or skipped by Active Backup for Office 365 under the following circumstances:
- Drive
- The file/folder name or path contains "#SynoVersionRepo", "#SynoRepo", or "#SynoVersions".
- The file/folder path on DSM is longer than 4016 characters.
- The name of any file or folder in the destination shared folder exceeds 255 characters.
- The name of any file or folder in the encrypted destination shared folder exceeds 143 characters.
- Files and folders stored in Shared with me.
- Mail
- Reference attachment (A link to a folder or file on a OneDrive for Business cloud drive, or other supported storage locations, attached to an event, message, Outlook task, or post).
- Contacts
- All the contacts other than Your contacts (for example, folder structures, Groups, and Directory).
- Contacts in the Deleted folder.
- Calendar
- Calendar events earlier than 1970/01/01 or after 2070/01/01.
- Calendar folder structures (all calendars will be shown under the /All Calendar folder).
- Calendars in the Deleted folder.
- The following endpoints are supported: Office 365, Office 365 Germany, Office 365 operated by 21 Vianet
- The following plans are supported: Business, Enterprise, and Education, and Exchange Online
- The following file type are supported for content search:
- page/.key/.numbers
- .rtf
- Microsoft Office format (e.g. .docx/ .doc,.pptx/ .ppt,.xlsx/.xls)
- Text files (e.g. .cpp, .c, .txt)
- .epub
- .lit
- .mobi/.azw3/.pdb/.prc
- .pdf
- .rar
- .chm
- .slk/.gnumeric
- .eml/.msg
- .7z/.bz2/.gz/.zip/.tgz/.tbz/.tar
- The following variables are not support for content search:
- Stop words, regardless of case: "a", "an", "and", "are", "as", "at", "be", "but", "by", "for", "if", "in", "into", "is", "it", "no", "not", "of", "on", "or", "such", "that", "the", "their", "then", "there", "these", "they", "this", "to", "was", "will", and "with".
- Symbols: for example, "@", "#", "*", "/", and "\".
- Punctuation marks: for example, "!", "?", and ":".
- Emoji
- Dates such as Birthday and Anniversary in Contacts
- Synology Universal Search operators:
[X] and [Y]: Variables that may represent numbers, alphabetical letters, word segments, words, or phrases. |
Operator |
Example |
Description |
* |
[X]* |
- List matches that contain [X], and [X] is followed by zero to more random characters (represented as "*")
|
? |
?[X] [X]? |
- List matches that contain [X], and [X] is preceded or followed by one random character (represented as "?")
|
"" |
"[X][Y]" |
- List matches that contain exact, case-insensitive [X][Y]
|
&& |
[X] && [Y] |
- List matches that contain both [X] and [Y]
|
|| |
[X] || [Y] |
- List matches that contain [X], [Y], or both
- Matches that contain both [X] and [Y] will be listed on the top
|
+ |
+[X] |
- List matches that contain [X]
- Applicable to folders indexed at Preferences > File Indexing
|
- |
-[X] |
- List matches that do not contain [X]
- Applicable to folders indexed at Preferences > File Indexing
|
! |
![X] |
- List matches that do not contain [X]
- Applicable to folders indexed at Preferences > File Indexing
|
\ |
\[SpecialCharacter] |
- Special characters: + - && || ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \
- List matches that contain a targeted special character above
|