Managed Backup for M365 FAQs
Can I mix of backup plans?
No, plans cannot be mixed. Only one plan can be tied to one Microsoft tenant.
How much storage do I need?
To find the exact storage requirement is very hard to achieve, however, using Microsoft 365 Admin Centre you can calculate the initial storage requirement Microsoft 365 Admin Centre>Reports>Usage (Add up Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint)
Once you have the approximate storage requirement then it depends on the retention coverage as you may require more storage as you go along.
Example:
Initial seeding data: 100GB Daily increment: 0.5%
Daily increment calculation: 0.5% x 100GB = 500MB Yearly increment calculation: 500MB x 365* days = 182GB Therefore, a 10-year retention coverage may require approximately 2TB of storage (182GB x 10).
Note
When adding a new M365 user is it backed up automatically?
By default, we configure the organisation to backup the entire Microsoft 365 tenant and therefore any new user(s) added to the M365 will consume a Backup for O365 license and will be backed up automatically. You as a customer will have the option to purchase additional Managed Backup for M365 license(s) or open a support request and specify which user(s) to exclude from the backup in order to comply with the purchased Managed Backup user licences.
Any discrepancies between the Backup for M365 consumed licenses and the Managed Backup for M365 licenses purchased will be highlighted in our reports and will be raised to you to purchase the necessary additional license(s) or exclude the user(s). Non-compliance will lead to either removal of license for the latest added users or service suspension until settled.
I have a shared mailbox do I need to purchase a backup license?
A shared mailbox does not consume a backup for M365 license. There is no limit on how much shared mailboxes you can have.
What is my storage quota?
Your storage quota is the total storage for your backup tenant. The quota is made of the total number of users times the plan's storage and any additional storage top-ups.
Note
Example: 25x Standard users 5x M365 Backup 200GB Storage Top-up Total= 3500GB
Is item restores or restore tests included in my plan?
Item restores and restore tests are not included in any of the available plans. These are available as part of the recovery services. Recovery Services are charged via support contract.
To enable self-restores an organisation can opt to implement a self-service portal at an additional charge or upgrade to the ADVANCED Plan.
Can a user restore files?
A user from the organisation will only be able to do self-restores on their O365 items if the organisation has purchased the self-service portal implementation (add-on) or have the ADVANCED Plan.
If the self-service portal is not implemented the user can submit a request to support@bmit.com.mt to recover the item. Details of the item must be provided with the location of where it is to be restored. Such request is part of the Recovery Services, and it is chargeable through a support contract.
Can a user restore other users files?
When implementing the self-service portal the organisation has the option to set an Admin user for the organisation. The Admin user will be able to see (with limited view) and restore O365 items for other users within the same organisation (Tenant).
What alerts will I receive?
Since this is a Managed Backup BMIT will be alerted and will raise the alert with your organisation's primary contact. Such alerts include: • Backup failures • Storage quota alerts • License discrepancies
Why should I perform a recovery test?
Recovery Tests are performed to strengthen your Disaster Recovery plan by understanding your backup solution and collect information from the test to enhance your DR plan or recovery time objective (RTO). As well as to ensure compliance with regulators and IT Standards is achieved.
The primary objective is to validate the backup solution making sure it is working as intended and the backup files themselves can be successfully restored not only on a normal day but in the event of a disaster. Note: There are instances where a backup job is successful but then fails to recover due to an unforeseen issue.
The backup contains your data and therefore the integrity falls within your responsibility, BMIT Technologies is not responsible to verify that the data within the backup job is working and/or correct. We strongly recommend that such verification is done at regular intervals.
Why recovery tests are available?
There are two types of recovery tests, Partial or Full. Partial is recommended to be done on regular intervals (monthly or quarterly) to validate backup jobs and integrity. The details of the test are to be agreed between BMIT support and customer. These can range from a single O365 item to an entire user or O365 item type (Exchange).
A full recovery of M365 is recommended to be performed at minimum once every year. This is usually done as part of the business continuity tests to gather recovery performance metrics with the aim to enhance the plan. The test requires you to simulate a disaster and it is recommended that a different location is provided to restore not to effect LIVE environment.
Recovery Tests are charged through a BMIT support contract, the competency level and the hours required to execute the test depends on the type of test, data and troubleshooting.