Skip to content
vJAL.nl
  • Partners
    • BDRSuite by Vembu
  • About me
  • Home
  • Search Icon
Vembu BDRSuite Backup for Microsoft 365 v5.1 hands-on experience [sponsored]

Vembu BDRSuite Backup for Microsoft 365 v5.1 hands-on experience [sponsored]

21 March 2022 Jesper Alberts Comments 0 Comment

After recently having partnered with Vembu, they reached out if I wanted to check out and review their BDR suite for Microsoft 365. I have several mailboxes present in Exchange Online, and seeing as I regularly tinker in AzureAD as part of my Workspace ONE lab, a back-up or two of those mailboxes won’t hurt.

Table of Contents

  • Let’s start with the why
  • Enter the what: Vembu BDRSuite Backup for Microsoft 365
  • And move on to the how
  • Testing the restore process
  • In closing

Let’s start with the why

Many organizations think that moving to a cloud-based solution puts all the responsibilities at the service provider. While this often is the case for many responsibilities, creating back-ups for your organization is often not one, as service providers tend to protect the data on their platform on a much larger scale. 

This might also put you in a tough spot regarding compliance and local regulations.

Enter the what: Vembu BDRSuite Backup for Microsoft 365

Vembu offers two solutions to back-up your Microsoft 365 data, depending on your preferences:

  • Vembu Cloud Backup for Microsoft 365 – which is a SaaS offering by Vembu that stores the data in their cloud (hosted on AWS)
  • Vembu Backup for Microsoft 365  – which is an on-premises solution that organizations can install and run from their datacenter

I think it’s a great thing that Vembu offers their solution in two different flavors. Depending on your organization’s requirements, you can follow a cloud-only model or host the solution yourself if you still have an on-premises datacenter.

As I’ll be running Vembu Backup for Microsoft 365 (version 5.1) from my lab, I’ll be focussing on the key features of their on-premises solution:

  • Back-up Microsoft 365 Mails, Contacts, Calendars, OneDrive, Group mailbox, SharePoint Online, and Teams data
  • Back-up data for the entire domain or selected user data
  • Store back-up data on-premises storage repository or S3 storage
  • Restore selected user mailbox or individual mails
  • Export to multiple formats like .PST, .EML, .VCF, .ICF 

And move on to the how

As this is the first time I’ll be working with any Vembu product, I was curious to see how my experience would be. I won’t cover the entire installation in great detail, as it’s pretty self-explaining, but I will highlight specific steps where I deem it valuable.

In a nutshell, the steps to configure Vembu Backup for Microsoft 365 are as follows:

  • Install Vembu Backup for Microsoft 365
  • Configure a repository – either block or object-based storage
  • Configure a data source – which means setting up the connection between your back-up server and your Microsoft 365 environment
  • Configure the back-up job – selecting what to include (or not to include) and an appropriate schedule and retention policy
  • Start your back-up and watch the data flow!

Where the software installation might take the longest, the remaining steps could take you less than 15 minutes.

Configuring the data source can be done manually or by downloading and running a PowerShell script. Under most circumstances, customers will configure it manually unless you have multiple data sources to configure, where the PowerShell script and a CSV file might be the faster route to take.

A huge compliment to Vembu is that configuring the data source manually is really straightforward and well documented, on the same page as where you configure it. So no looking at a different browser tab or a PDF guide! The steps were precise and left no room misinterpreting their instructions.

Configuring the back-up job itself is just as simple. First, you must select what you would like to back-up in terms of Microsoft products, and then you can select which users and what data you would like to include.

All that is left is to specify a schedule and configure a retention policy, and you can start creating that back-up.

I took a back-up of a single test mailbox with only a few items in it, and it reported run time was less than a minute, 53 seconds to be precise!

All I can say is that I’m impressed, especially if you keep in mind that the back-up engine has to spin up, the software has to create a connection to Exchange Online, and the actual back-up has to run in that time.

Testing the restore process

Having a back-up is one thing, but being able to restore it successfully is something else. So I took the same mailbox that I used earlier, deleted a few items, and used Vembu to restore it.

Following a wizard similar to the one when creating the back-up job, I could easily browse the contents of my previously made back-up and select the items that I wanted to restore.

Now, Vembu doesn’t restore the items to their original location. Instead, it creates a folder called “Vembu Recovery (Microsoft 365)”, which contains a subfolder with the timestamp of the restore operation. You’ll find the items in their original folders, ready to be dragged to their original location.

Speaking performance, the restore took under a minute, which I find pretty impressive, especially since my lab isn’t running on enterprise-grade hardware.

In closing

As this was my first time working with any product of Vembu, I was afraid I would spend the afternoon reading up on the documentation and having to make certain decisions in terms of topology or infrastructure, which could bite me at a later stage.

In the end, it was the exact opposite. Vembu Backup for Microsoft 365 was easy and fast to set up. The steps needed to set it up were intuitive, and I wasn’t bothered with options that weren’t needed or that someone might find complex.

They say first impressions always last, and this was a good one. I’ll be exploring their back-up and replication solutions for VMware soon.

If you like to try out Vembu BDR Suite for yourself, you can download their software here.

Please follow and like us:
Tweet

BCDR, Partners
Back-up, BCDR, Microsoft 365, Replication, Vembu

Post navigation

PREVIOUS
Deploying and configuring the NVIDIA DLS licensing appliance
NEXT
Using BDRSuite to restore your on-premises virtual machines to Azure [sponsored]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let’s stay in touch!

Twitter
LinkedIn

Blog sponsors

Recent Posts

  • Introducing BDRSuite v5.5.0 [sponsored]
  • Vembu Backup for Endpoints [sponsored]
  • Renewing your NVIDIA licenses on the DLS appliance
Avatar Jesper Alberts @jesperalberts ·
20h

De volgende editie van de #vEUCTechCon komt snel dichterbij! De CfP is de gehele maand april geopend, zodat je tijdig weet of je op dit te gekke event mag presenteren. Zo heb je voldoende tijd om een kickass sessie voor te bereiden! 😉

vEUC TechCon @vEUCtechcon

Nu we een nieuwe look hebben, zijn we ook op zoek naar nieuwe content voor de volgende editie van de #vEUCTechCon! De CfP is geopend en we hopen ook dit jaar weer te gekke content te ontvangen. Jouw sessie indienen? Dat kan hier: https://www.papercall.io/veuctechcon2023 #vExpert #EUC

Reply on Twitter 1641015191725912064 Retweet on Twitter 1641015191725912064 Like on Twitter 1641015191725912064 3 Twitter 1641015191725912064
Avatar Jesper Alberts @jesperalberts ·
27 Mar

My website was being nuked with sign in attempts for the past couple of days. Time to up its security posture and move everything to @Cloudflare. Thanks to @technicalvguy for the help! #vExpert

Reply on Twitter 1640416061680959500 Retweet on Twitter 1640416061680959500 Like on Twitter 1640416061680959500 6 Twitter 1640416061680959500
Avatar Jesper Alberts @jesperalberts ·
24 Mar

I hate the feeling of going into the weekend without having solved an issue on which I’ve spent the last two days.

Reply on Twitter 1639317298669404193 Retweet on Twitter 1639317298669404193 Like on Twitter 1639317298669404193 4 Twitter 1639317298669404193
Avatar Jesper Alberts @jesperalberts ·
11 Mar

This nightly #VCDX thing isn't my thing. I had only one cup of coffee, and my eyes finally adapted to the brightness. My mind hasn't, if I type branch officers instead of offices one more time, I swear I'll start screaming. #OneNightofVCDX

Reply on Twitter 1634425824358150144 Retweet on Twitter 1634425824358150144 Like on Twitter 1634425824358150144 14 Twitter 1634425824358150144
Avatar Jesper Alberts @jesperalberts ·
11 Mar

I was planning on upping my #VCDX game to a whole new level for the coming weeks. Though I wasn't sure this meant sitting behind my computer at 4:30 in the night.

Reply on Twitter 1634401730396815361 Retweet on Twitter 1634401730396815361 Like on Twitter 1634401730396815361 7 Twitter 1634401730396815361
Load More

Archives

  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • March 2022
  • August 2021
  • January 2021
  • October 2020
  • August 2020

Categories

  • BCDR
  • Certification
  • Dynamic Environment Manager
  • Horizon
  • NVIDIA vGPU
  • Partners
  • Personal
  • PowerCLI
  • Secure Email Gateway
  • UAG
  • Uncategorized

Tags

Back-up BCDR Certificates Certification DEM Dynamic Environment Manager Horizon Identity Manager ITQ Job Licensing Microsoft 365 NVIDIA Personal PowerCLI Replication SEG SEGv2 SSL SSLLABS Troubleshooting True SSO UAG Upgrading VCAP VCIX Vembu vGPU VMware Tools VMware vSphere Workspace One Access
© 2023   All Rights Reserved.
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}