Microsoft Entra ID Backup¶
If your organization is backing up Microsoft Entra ID (Active Directory on Microsoft's cloud) data at Safespring, you will be using the AvePoint service to manage backups and restore data. The backups themselves are stored in the Safespring S3 storage.
To access the dashboard, sign in at AvePoint Cloud Backup for IaaS + PaaS.
Backup scope¶
You can decide what to back up from Microsoft Entra ID, how often, and what the retention time will be by visiting Backup:
Then Microsoft Entra ID:
Every Microsoft Entra tenant needs its own scope which defines what to back up, backup schedule and retention time. The scopes are listed on the table. To add a scope or edit an existing one, follow the instructions below.
What to protect¶
To configure what to protect from Microsoft Entra ID, click on Edit to edit the scope, or Create if it is a new scope.
You will be asked what to back up.
The types of data that can be backed up are:
- App registrations and enterprise applications
- Administrative units
- Roles and administrators
- Groups (specific ones or all)
- Users (specific ones or all)
- Device — BitLocker recovery keys
- Audit log
- Sign-in log
If you choose to select specific groups and/or users, then an additional step will be revealed where you can make these selections:
Name and description¶
After defining what to back up, the next step will be to set general settings.
You are asked to set the scope name and optionally a description.
Storage profile¶
The storage profile determines where the backups will be stored. When backing up with Safespring, it should be set to Safespring S3.
Schedule¶
The schedule determines how often incremental backups are made.
Retention time¶
The retention time determines how long the backups must be retained.
If the time unit is set to "years," a full backup frequency option will appear, which defaults to (every) 3 months.
Back up manually¶
Backup jobs run according to the schedule set in the backup scope. If you wish to run a backup job manually, click on Backup -> Microsoft Entra ID, then select the backup scope on the table. A Run backup now button should appear. Click it to run a new backup job.
Reports¶
Subscription consumption¶
A subscription has a limit on the number of user seats which depends on your contract. To see this number and how many of them are in use, visit Report center -> Subscription consumption.
If you wish to increase the limit, contact Support, and we will help you do so.
Backup analysis¶
To get an overview of how many objects of each category have been protected over the last week, visit Report -> Backup analysis.
Audit log¶
The AvePoint portal has an audit log where sign-ins and administrative operations are recorded. To see the audit log, visit Report center -> System auditor.
The log (up to 30 days back) can be exported by clicking the Export button.
Job monitoring¶
The status of backup and restore jobs can be monitored from Job monitor.
From the same page, you are also able to generate and download detailed reports about jobs.
E-mail notifications¶
A backup administrator can subscribe to a finished and/or failed jobs by visiting Settings -> Notification Settings. From there, select a notification profile and click on the revealed Edit button, or create a new profile.
Specify the email addresses of the subscribers to under Send notifications to the following email addresses. Then under Send an email notification for the jobs in the following statuses select which types of jobs the subscribers should receive notifications for, and which statuses.
For example, under Backup, you can select only the Failed and Finished with exception statuses. This will make it so that the subscribers will only receive notifications about jobs that have either failed entirely, or partially.
Restore¶
To restore objects from any point-in-time within your retention time, visit Restore -> Microsoft Entra ID -> Recovery Point.
Then click on the point-in-time you wish to restore from. This will take you to a table where you can view and select objects from that point-in-time for restoration.
On the top, there is a drop-down menu that is used to filter by data category. Once you have selected the objects you wish to restore, click on the Restore button above the table.