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Backup Office 365 with Veeam Backup for Office 365

  • January 14, 2021
  • 8 min read
IT and Virtualization Consultant. Romain is specializing in Microsoft technologies such as Hyper-V, System Center, storage, networking, and MS Azure. He is a Microsoft MVP and MCSE in Server Infrastructure and Private Cloud.
IT and Virtualization Consultant. Romain is specializing in Microsoft technologies such as Hyper-V, System Center, storage, networking, and MS Azure. He is a Microsoft MVP and MCSE in Server Infrastructure and Private Cloud.


In a previous topic, I talked about Veritas for Office 365 to backup Office 365. Today I’d like to show you another solution based on Veeam Backup for Office 365. Compared to Veritas, Veeam Backup for Office 365 is not SaaS. That means that you have to deploy your own infrastructure: the server (physical, virtual or Azure VM) that will host Veeam Backup for Office 365 and the repositories. The repository can be the server itself and/or an object storage such as a storage account in Microsoft Azure.

When I talk about Veeam Backup for Office 365 with customers, I introduce always two architectures:

  • One where the Veeam server is located On-Premises and the repository can be On-Premises or in Microsoft Azure.
  • One where the Veeam server is a VM located in Microsoft Azure and the repository is a storage account in Microsoft Azure.

For this topic, I installed Veeam Backup for Office 365 v5 in the VM that already hosts Veeam Backup & Replication. The repository is a storage account in Microsoft Azure. This topic presents the configuration to backup Office 365 (Sharepoint, Teams, Exchange Online and Onedrive). I’ll write another one to show how to restore data.

Connect the Office 365 tenant to Veeam Backup for Office 365

To add the tenant to Veeam, open the console and navigate in Organizations. Then click on Add Org.

Open the console and navigate in Organizations

Select Microsoft Office 365 and the service you want to protect.

Select Microsoft Office 365 and the service you want to protect

Next choose the region and the authentication method:

  • If you choose Basic authentication, you have to create an account in Azure AD and give him permissions such as impersonate in Exchange Online. So this service account is sensitive because it has many permissions in your O365 tenant
  • If you choose Modern authentication, an Azure AD application is registered, and the authentication is based on a certificate. I prefer this one that is more secure than the first one.

Сhoose the region and the authentication method

Then choose Register a new Azure AD application automatically.

Azure AD application automatically

Specify an Azure AD application name and then click on Install to choose a certificate.

Specify an Azure AD application name

Select the certificate type you want. You can generate a self-signed certificate or use your own certificate. I have a wildcard certificate provided by DigiCert. I have a PFX file so I choose this option

Select the certificate type

Then specify the certificate path and the PFX file password.

Specify the certificate path

Now the certificate thumbprint appears and you can click on Next.

Now the certificate thumbprint appears

Veeam asks you to authenticate to Office 365 tenant with permissions to register Azure AD applications.

Veeam asks you to authenticate to Office 365

When the Azure AD application is registered, Veeam should be able to connect to each product in Microsoft Office 365.

Veeam should be able to connect to each product in Microsoft Office 365

Add an object storage to Veeam for Office365

P.S: In this section I add a Microsoft Azure storage account. However you need to have enough free space in the Veeam Backup for O365 server before data are destaged in the storage account.

Now navigate to Backup Infrastructure and select Object Storage Repositories. Then click on Add Object Storage.

Add Object Storage

Specify a name for the object storage repository.

Specify a name for the object storage repository

I choose Microsoft Azure Blob Storage.

Object storage type

Then specify the account credentials to connect to the storage account. The login is the name of the storage account and the password is one of the access keys.

Specify the account credentials

Select the container where you want to store backup data and the folder.

Select the container

Create a backup job

In Veeam Backup for Office 365, navigate in Organizations, select your O365 tenant and click on Backup.

Create a backup job

Specify the name of the backup job and click on next.

Specify the name of the backup job

Now you have two options: backup the organization entirely or select the object you want to backup.

Select objects to back up

New backup job

You can exclude some objects to the backup job. You can for example backup entirely your organization and exclude Sharepoint if you don’t use it (for example).

Exclude some objects to the backup job

Then select your backup repository. First backup will be written in backup repository and then they will be destaged in the object storage.

Select your backup repository

Finally, specify the backup scheduling and click on Create.

Finally specify the backup scheduling

In the next topic, I’ll show you how to restore data from Veeam Backup for Office365.

Hey! Found Romain’s insights useful? Looking for a cost-effective, high-performance, and easy-to-use hyperconverged platform?
Taras Shved
Taras Shved StarWind HCI Appliance Product Manager
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