Active Backup for Microsoft 365 Admin Console

Create backup tasks for Microsoft 365 accounts and monitor the backup status via the admin console of Active Backup for Microsoft 365.

Before You Start

To install Active Backup for Microsoft 365, make sure that your Synology NAS is compatible with the package and that it is running on DSM 6.2 or above.

Create Backup Tasks

To authorize tasks:

Backup tasks require an Azure AD application and a certificate to authorize the access to Microsoft 365 data. Enter the required information to generate your application and certificate.

  1. Go to the Task List page and click Create to launch the Task Creation Wizard.
  2. Select Create a backup task.
  3. Select your Microsoft 365 endpoint type. Enter a strong and memorable password to protect your certificate.
  4. Sign in to Microsoft 365 as a global admin. Click Accept if you agree to the permission request.
  5. Download and keep your certificate in a secure place.
  6. Continue to the next section to customize the task settings.

To customize task settings:

  1. Configure the following settings:
  2. Specify the account types and the backup scope for auto-discovery, which will automatically include new objects into the backup task. This also applies to users updated to an applicable account type. (Learn more)
  3. Set up backup and retention policies:
  4. Check the task summary and click Apply to finish the task creation.

About auto-discovery:

Relink Backup Tasks

To relink a backup task:

  1. Go to the Task List and click Create to launch the Task Creation Wizard.
  2. Select Relink an existing backup task and click Next.
  3. Select the task you wish to relink and click Apply.
  4. Once the task is relinked, it will appear on the Task List.

Note:

Manage Backup Tasks

On the Task List, you can manage all the tasks using the upper toolbar.

To manage a backup task:

  1. Select the backup task you wish to edit and click Edit.
  2. At the General tab, you can perform the following:
  3. At the Auto-Discovery Service tab, you can specify the applicable account types or edit the target services.
  4. At the Policy tab, you can configure backup and retention policies.

To edit users to back up:

  1. Select a backup task and click Edit > User.
  2. You can click Update Microsoft 365 User List to load the latest list.
  3. Use the magnifying glass icon in the search bar to specify the target account types. You can click Reset to clear the criteria.
  4. Tick the checkboxes of the users or services you wish to back up.

To edit groups to back up:

  1. Select a backup task and click Edit > Group.
  2. You can click Update Group List to load the latest list.
  3. Filter different group types using the drop-down menu.
  4. Tick the checkboxes of the groups or services you wish to back up.
    Limitation: Private groups without any owners and members cannot be backed up.

To edit sites to back up:

  1. Select a backup task and click Edit > Site.
  2. You can click Update Site List to load the latest list.
  3. Select Site or Personal Site from the drop-down menu.
  4. Tick the checkboxes of the sites to back up.

To edit teams to back up:

Important: Team data belongs to sensitive data, which needs additional validation. For the first-time backup of teams, you will be required to apply for data access to Microsoft Teams.

  1. Select a backup task and click Edit > Team.
  2. You can click Update Team List to load the latest list.
  3. Tick the checkboxes of the teams to back up.

To delete a task:

  1. Select a backup task and click More > Delete task.
  2. Click Delete.

To free up space using Storage Management:

  1. Select a backup task and click More > Storage Management.
  2. Switch to the corresponding tabs. Select the target users, groups, sites, or teams and click Delete.
  3. Do the following according to the object type:
  4. Click Delete to start the deletion. Deleted data will be removed from the backup list.

Configure general settings

Settings

On the Settings page, you can edit the general settings that will be applied to all tasks.

To specify the maximum number of accounts or files for concurrent backups:

You can restrict the bandwidth consumption of backup jobs by setting a limit to concurrent backups. The actual maximum number depends on the RAM capacity of your Synology NAS.

  1. Go to the Settings page.
  2. Enter the maximum number of accounts or files to back up simultaneously. The allowed value ranges from 5 to 50.
    The maximum values based on the RAM capacity are: Keep in mind that a higher value may affect backup performance due to Microsoft throttling limits.
  3. Click Apply to save the settings.

View Task Information

Overview

On the Overview page, you can monitor the following information:

Task List

On the Task List page, you can see a list of all the backup tasks along with the following statuses:

You can expand a task to find the following information:

On the menu of each backup task, you may see the following icons:

Activities

You can perform the following on the Activities page:

Log

The Log page helps you keep track of backup tasks. You can view all the logs or use filters to search for the logs of a certain task.

To search through log records with a filter:

  1. Click the magnifying glass icon in the search bar on the upper right.
  2. From the drop-down menu, filter events by:
  3. Click Reset to reset the filter.

To view log details:

Select a log and click the arrow icon on the right-hand side to view the detailed logs.

Detailed Task Information

To view the statuses and logs of a task:

  1. Select a backup task from the Task List and click Details.
  2. In the Details window, you can view the following information:

Note:

Manage Notification Services

To enable notification services:

Go to DSM > Control Panel > Notification to configure the settings for the selected method: emails, SMS, or push services.

To manage events for notification:

Go to DSM > Control Panel > Notification > Advanced to configure the settings for the events you wish to be notified of.

By default, you will receive desktop notifications whenever a backup completes, fails, or is canceled. The only exception is that you won't receive notifications when a continuous backup completes, in case constant notifications might distract you from important issues.

Limitations

Some objects are not backup-compatible or will not be backed up under certain circumstances. The following lists the Microsoft 365 objects that cannot be backed up:

Drive

Mail

Contacts

Calendar

Site

Team

Note: