Knowledge Base

SkyKick - Cloud Backup Discovery and Backups

Note:
The information contained in this article has been provided by Cloud Direct's partner, SkyKick.

When Cloud Backup performs a backup, it includes three processes; Discovery, Data Backup, and Data Indexing. This article contains sections describing these processes, and more.

  • Discovery
  • Data Backup
  • Data Indexing
  • Backup Types
  • Unsuccessful Backups
  • Backed Up Data

 

Discovery

Discovery is run against each Office 365 service included in the subscription (Exchange Online and/or SharePoint & OneDrive for Business). Discovery collects new and updated information about the subscription, including new users, new content, and email address changes. Discovery also ensures that there are a sufficient number of valid Global Admins created by Cloud Backup to streamline performance by checking the validity of current Global Admins and creating new Global Admins in response to increased number of objects or to replace any Global Admins discovered to be invalid.

 

Data Backup

Data Backups are performed against each individual Exchange object (e.g. mailbox), SharePoint site collection, and/or OneDrive for Business account. As data is being backed up, Cloud Backup indexes all the metadata associated with the entities and items, allowing for comprehensive search capability.

Note:
Cloud Backup currently does not back up the following three SharePoint site collections. (The first two do not hold files or other data currently supported by Cloud Backup, and the third has been deprecated, but some older sites might still have it.)
     MySiteHost (<tenantname>-my.sharepoint.com): A MySite Host controls the appearance and behaviour of the pages on all personal sites in your organization.
     Search Center (<tenantname>.sharepoint.com/search): A Search Center is where users enter search queries and view the search results. For more information, see, Manage the Search Center in SharePoint Online.
     Public sites (<tenantname>-public.sharepoint.com or <tenantname>-web.sharepoint.com): This feature has been deprecated, but some older sites might still have it. For more information, see, SharePoint Public Websites in Office 365.

 

Data Indexing

Data indexing is performed on the metadata associated with the items (e.g. email, contact, file) being backed up for Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business. This, in part, powers the comprehensive elastic search capability.

 

Backup Types

With SkyKick, there are two different types of backup; Initial Backup, and Daily Backup.

Initial Backup

When a Cloud Backup order is placed, Cloud Backup copies and indexes all data in the subscription. This can take several hours, depending on the amount of data in the subscription.

Daily Backup

Cloud Backup is designed to perform up to six backups per day.

Note:
If throttling or other issues delay or slow the speed of the backup, causing it to not complete before the start time of the next scheduled backup, there may be fewer than six backups during that 24-hour period.

Daily Backups include Full Backups and Incremental Backups:

  • Full Backups: These capture and index the entire list of items to identify and store any new or changed data. This full process is performed during the first Daily Backup, and ensures that every change is accounted for and backed up.
  • Incremental Backups: These query changes to data within Exchange Online, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business, accelerating the backup process. Every backup after the first Daily Backup is an Incremental Backup.

 

Unsuccessful Backups

Occasionally, the backup of a mailbox, SharePoint site, or OneDrive for Business account may be unsuccessful. This is often due to transient connection issues. Therefore, Cloud Backup will retry, picking up where the previous attempt left off. If the backup is unsuccessful after the second attempt, an alert will be generated, including the probable cause and troubleshooting steps.

Cloud Backup will continue to attempt a backup of the item during future scheduled backups. If the alert is marked as "Complete", and the backup on that item is unsuccessful during a future backup, then another alert will be generated. However, if the alert is not marked as "Complete", then no new alert will be generated for an unsuccessful backup of that item.

 

Backed Up Data

This section describes SkyKick backed up data for Exchange Online, and for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business. It also discusses OneDrive for Business limitations that may impact Cloud Backup.

Exchange Online

The following objects are backed up, and can be searched for and restored in a variety of ways.

  • Individual and Shared Mailboxes
    • Emails
    • Calendars
    • Contacts
    • Tasks
    • Notes
    • Journals
    • Office 365 Archive (This archive is automatic, and shows up in the Outlook client.) *See Note below.
  • Public Folders (At least one individual mail-enabled user must have access to the Public Folder.)

All details within each object are also backed up, and will be restored with the object (e.g. attachments, categories/colors, free/busy, etc.).

*Note:
Cloud Backup does not back up the following archives:
     Local PST Archive:  This archive is a local PST file on the user's machine. Users can add emails from many accounts to it. Cloud Backup does not access this archive, as it is local-only to that device and is accessed through the Outlook client.
     Online Archive: This archive is offered as an add-on to some licenses and included in others (e.g. E5). Cloud Backup does not access this archive, as it is a protected archive that is part of the Litigation Hold / e-Discovery service offered by Microsoft.

SharePoint and OneDrive for Business

  • Files (all file formats, including OneNote)
  • All metadata associated with the file(s) (e.g. who has modified the file)
  • All versions (if versioning is enabled in Office 365)

OneDrive for Business limitations that may impact Cloud Backup

Cloud Backup backs up data in Office 365. Due to restrictions and limitations when syncing SharePoint libraries to a computer through OneDrive for Business, there may be data that is not synced to Office 365, and therefore not backed up by Cloud Backup.

For more information, see, Restrictions and limitations when you sync SharePoint libraries to your computer through OneDrive for Business.