2. Preparation

To achieve the optimal performance when AhsayOBM is running on your machine, refer to the following article for the list of hardware requirements.
FAQ: Ahsay Hardware Requirement List (HRL) for version 8.1 or above

Make sure the operating system where you have the Office 365 installed is compatible with the AhsayOBM. Refer to the following article for the list of compatible operating systems and application versions.
FAQ: Ahsay Software Compatibility List (SCL) for version 8.1 or above

For agent-based backup and restore, make sure that the latest version of AhsayOBM is installed on your computer with Internet access for connection to your Office 365 account.

User should also stay up-to-date when newer version of AhsayOBM is released. To get our latest product and company news through email, please subscribe to our mailing list.

To optimize performance of AhsayOBM on Windows, and to avoid conflict with your antivirus software, refer to the following Wiki article the list of processes and directory paths that should be added to all antivirus software white-list / exclusion list:
FAQ: Suggestion on antivirus exclusions to improve performance of Ahsay software on Windows

To avoid unexpected java crash, if the Windows machine is a guest VM hosted on a VMware Host then it is highly recommended that the VMware tools version installed on the guest VM must be 10.0.5 or above.

Below is the warning message that will be displayed if the version of the VMware Tools is less than 10.0.5.

AhsayOBM licenses are calculated on a per device basis:

Make sure that the Office 365 Backup feature has been enabled as an add-on module in your AhsayOBM user account and there is enough Office 365 Backup license quota to cover the backup of your users.

Please contact your backup service provider for more details. Below is a sample screen shot of an AhsayOBM User with an add-on module of Office 365 with 20 licenses.

The licenses for the Office 365 module are calculated by the number of unique Office 365 accounts. If same Office 365 account is backed up on multiple backup sets with an OBM user account would be counted a one Office 365 license.

If you are trying to backup SharePoint Sites under the Site Collections and/or files or folders under Public Folder, only one Office 365 license module is required.

However, if you are trying to backup Items from Outlook, Items from OneDrive, Personal Sites under Users, the Office 365 license count will be calculated based on the number of the user account selected.

For more detailed examples about the Office 365 license requirement and usage, refer to Appendix A: Example Scenarios for Office 365 License Requirement and Usage.

It is now possible to perform agentless backup and restore, which can be done via the AhsayCBS User Web Console without using the AhsayOBM client agent. In order to access the User Web Console, make sure you have Internet connection and a web browser installed on your computer or mobile device.

Please contact your backup service provider for more details.

Make sure that your AhsayOBM user account has sufficient quota assigned to accommodate the storage of the Office 365 users for the new backup set and retention policy.

Please contact your backup service provider for more details.

The Continuous backup add-on module is required if would like to enable the continuous backup feature.

Please contact your backup service provider for more details.

A licensed Exchange Administrator or a licensed user with Public Folder permission is required otherwise you will not be able to access the public folder to select items and for backup or restore.

An Office 365 backup set will require at least 2048MB of Java heap size.

To avoid any inconveniences and ensure smooth operation when performing Office 365 backup, it is highly recommended to allot extra memory.

Below is the table for the memory requirement:

Note: The memory requirement is dependent on the number of OneDrive or SharePoint Site Collections selected for backup.

For more detailed examples about the Office 365 license requirement and usage, refer to Appendix B: Example Setting for Java Heap Size.

For more detailed information on how to change the Java heap size, please refer to this link: FAQ: How to modify the Java heap size setting of AhsayOBM?

The following subscription plans with Office 365 email services are supported to run backup and restore on AhsayOBM or AhsayCBS User Web Console.

Make sure your Office 365 subscription with Microsoft is active in order to enjoy all privileges that come along with our backup services. If your account has expired, renew it with Microsoft as soon as possible so that you can continue enjoy the Office 365 backup services provided by Ahsay.

When your account is expired, depending on your role, certain access restrictions will be applied to your account. Refer to this URL for more details: Microsoft Office 365 Subscription Status

Before the Office 365 account administrator or other accounts can create a backup set, the administrator has to grant permission to the account(s) which are going to create backup set. The account must be a member of the following security groups:

• Discovery Management
• Public Folder Management

Follow the steps below to grant permission to user account.

i. Open https://outlook.office365.com/ecp

ii. Login to the Office 365 admin center as an account administrator.

iii. Select the permissions menu on the left, then double click on Discovery Management or Public Folder Management on the right. Exchange admin center setting

iv. You can now add users to this group. Click the + icon under the Members section.

v. Look for the username(s) of the account that you would like to add permission for, then click add > OK to add the corresponding user(s) to the permission group.

vi. Click Save to confirm and exit the setting.

This permission allows users added under the Members section of the Discovery Management group (refer to the previous section for setup) to back up and/or restore user item(s) not only for their own account, but also the accounts of other users in the same Members section. To grant permission for this feature, you have to add the Application Impersonation & Mail Search role by following the steps below.

i. Open https://outlook.office365.com/ecp

ii. Login to the Office 365 admin center as an account administrator.

iii. Select the permissions menu on the left, then double click on Discovery Management on the right. Exchange admin center setting

iv. Click the + icon under the Role section.

v. Select the ApplicationImpersonation&MailSearch role, then click the add button. Click OK afterward.

vi. Click Save to confirm and exit the setting.

The Global Admin permission allow SharePoint account to list other account’s Personal Site and OneDrive in the backup source tree. So before using AhsayOBM to create backup set, please ensure the SharePoint account has already owned the permission in order to apply AhsayOBM to back up and/or restore user item(s) not only for their own account, but also the accounts of other users.

i. Open https://outlook.office365.com/owa to sign in Office 365 as a global admin or SharePoint admin.

ii. Click in the upper-left and choose Admin to open the Office 365 admin center.

iii. In the left pane, choose Admin Centers > SharePoint.

iv. Check the box of the site collection you want to grant Global Admin and click Owners to choose Manage Administrators.

v. Add Global Admin in the Site Collection Administrators box.

vi. Click OK to confirm.

When restoring data of Office 365 user, the account which the data will be restored to requires valid license(s):

Example: Exchange Online Plan and Office 365 E3 are required when restoring Outlook's / Public Folder's items.

Example: SharePoint Online Plan and Office 365 E3 are required when restoring OneDrive's / Personal Site's items.

See here for all the support services that Ahsay can backup.

The following are some best practices or recommendations we strongly recommend you follow before you start any Office 365 backup and restore.

Temporary directory folder is used by AhsayOBM for storing backup set index files and any incremental or differential backup files generated during a backup job. To ensure optimal backup/restoration performance, it is recommended that the temporary directory folder is set to a local drive with sufficient free disk space.

Consider the following best practices for optimized performance of the backup operations:

• Enable schedule backup jobs when system activity is low to achieve the best possible performance.

• Perform test restores periodically to ensure your backup is set up and performed properly. Performing recovery test can also help identify potential issues or gaps in your recovery plan. It is important that you do not try to make the test easier, as the objective of a successful test is not to demonstrate that everything is flawless. There might be flaws identified in the plan throughout the test and it is important to identify those flaws.

After creating the backup set-in Run-on Client mode on AhsayCBS user web console, please remember to login AhsayOBM to set the backup destination if you want the backup destination to be Local/ Mapped Drive/ Removable Drive.

To provide maximum data protection and flexible restore options for agent-based backup, it is recommended to configure:

• At least one offsite or cloud destination
• At least one local destination for fast recovery

However, for Agentless Cloud storage there may be an impact on the backup performance.

After modifying the backup schedule setting or Continuous Backup setting of the Run on Client backup set on AhsayCBS user web console, please remember to login to the AhsayOBM client once to synchronize the changes immediately.