Recover Groups

After you protect the Groups in your domain, you can recover whole Groups from Cohesity DataProtect as a Service to:

  • The same Microsoft 365 Group.

  • A different Microsoft 365 Group in the same Microsoft 365 domain.

  • A new Microsoft 365 Group in the same Microsoft 365 domain.

Points to note:

  • If you're restoring a Group that does not exist in the Microsoft 365 domain, Cohesity creates a new Group with the metadata and data from the backup snapshot.

  • If you restore to an existing Group, the group resources in the existing Microsoft 365 Group are overwritten or appended with the restored data. The following table details the group resources that are overwritten or appended:

    Restore Behavior Group Resource Type
    Appended members
    owners
    mails (data)
    Overwritten hideFromAddressLists
    hideFromOutlookClients
    displayName visibility
    securityEnabled
    description
    theme

Recover a Group

To recover protected Microsoft 365 Group:

  1. In DataProtect as a Service, go to Sources to set up your recovery task.

  2. Click on the Source name and select the Group tab.

  3. Above the tree, select Show All > Protected.

  4. Find the Group you need and click the Recover button on that row to open the New Recovery form with the Latest snapshot (protection run).

  5. In the New Recovery form, if you need to add more Groups and/or recover from an earlier backup, click the Edit icon in the top right of the form.

    1. To add Groups, enter a Search term on the left, locate the other Groups, and select them.

    2. To use a different Recovery Point for a Group, click the Edit icon on the tile for that Group. Find the recovery point you need and click Select Recovery Point.

  6. Click Next: Recover Options to return to the form.

  7. Under Recover To, select Original Location or New Location.

    If you choose New Location, specify the Group Name and the Group SMTP.

  8. Select your Recovery Options:

    1. Continue on Error. Enable to recover even if errors occur when recovering Groups. For example, if one of the Groups cannot be recovered, Cohesity will still attempt to recover the other selected Groups.

    2. Task Name. Change the default name of the recovery task.

  9. Click Start Recovery.

Recover Groups Items

Before you can recover a Group’s items, you need to set up Microsoft 365 Groups protection with Indexing enabled.

You can recover the following Group items:

  • Group Mailbox items, such as Group emails, mailbox folders, and calendar items.

  • Group Site items, such as, document libraries.

Recover Group’s Mailbox Items

To recover a Group’s Mailbox items:

  1. In DataProtect as a Service, go to Sources to set up your recovery task.

  2. Click on the Source name and select the Group tab.

  3. Above the tree, select Show All > Protected.

  4. Find the Group you need and click the Recover Groups Items button on that row to open the New Recovery form.

  5. On the New Recovery Microsoft 365 - Groups page, in the Recovery Type, select Search Group’s Mailbox Items.

  6. From the Item Type drop-down, do the following:

    • Select Emails & Folders and use the global search to find the emails and folders that needs to be restored.

    • Select Calendars and use the global search to find the calendar item that needs to be restored.

    Click Next: Recover Options to return to the form.

  7. Under Recover To, select Original Location or New Location.

    • If you choose New Location, select a Registered Source and the Target MS Group.

    • Click Download as PST to export the backed-up email(s), mailbox folder(s), or calendar items as a PST file. To enhance security, enable Password Protection under Recovery Options and set a password for the exported PST file.

      A new recovery task is created to download the PST file. When the task is completed, from the Activity page, click the task name and then click Download Files to download the generated zip file.

  8. Select your Recovery Options:

    • Continue on Error. Enable to recover even if errors occur when recovering Groups. For example, if one of the Groups cannot be recovered, Cohesity will still attempt to recover the other selected Groups.

    • Task Name. Change the default name of the recovery task.

    • Password Protection. Enable to add a password for the exported PST file.

  9. Click Start Recovery.

Options

Description

Original Location

To restore the Group mailbox to the same Group from which it was backed up.

New Location

To restore the Group mailbox to a different Group on the original Microsoft 365 domain or a different Microsoft 365 domain. Select a Registered Source and the Target MS Group, or click Create New Group to create a new Group.

Download as PST

To export the backed-up email(s), mailbox folder(s), or calendar items as a PST file. Also, you can provide a password for the exported PST file.

A new recovery task is created to download the PST file. When the task is completed, from the Activity page, click the task name and then click Download Files to download the generated zip file.

Select your Recovery Options:

Continue on Error. Enable to recover even if errors occur when recovering Groups. For example, if one of the Groups cannot be recovered, Cohesity will still attempt to recover the other selected Groups.

Task Name. Change the default name of the recovery task.

Password Protection. Enable to add a password for the exported PST file.

Click Start Recovery.

Recover Group’s Site Items

To recover a Group’s Site items:

In DataProtect as a Service, go to Sources to set up your recovery task.

Click on the Source name and select the Group tab.

Above the tree, select Show All > Protected.

Find the Group you need and click the Recover Groups Items button on that row to open the New Recovery form.

On the New Recovery Microsoft 365 - Groups page, in the Recovery Type, select Search Group’s Site Items.

Search and select the Group Site items you need, and click Next:Recover Options.

Under Recover To, select any one of the following options:

Options

Description

Original Location

To restore the Group Site items to the same Group from which it was backed up.

New Location

To restore the Group Site items to a different Group on the original Microsoft 365 domain or a different Microsoft 365 domain. Select a Registered Source and the Target MS Group, or click Create New Group to create a new Group. Then, enter the name of the Document Library.

Download

To download the Group Site item.

A new recovery task is created to download the Group Site item(s). When the task is completed, from the Activity page, click the task name and then click Download Files to download the generated zip file.

Select your Recovery Options:

Continue on Error. Enable to recover even if errors occur when recovering Groups. For example, if one of the Groups cannot be recovered, Cohesity will still attempt to recover the other selected Groups.

Restore Original Owner Member. Enable to restore the original owner member as part of the recovery.

Additional Group Owner. Enable to add additional group owners to the recovered Group.

Task Name. Change the default name of the recovery task.

Click Start Recovery.

 

Next > Protect your Microsoft 365 Mailboxes, OneDrives, SharePoint Online Sites, and Teams so you can recover them easily when you need to, as well!