Protect Gmail Data

Before you configure Gmail backup, make sure that the following tasks are complete:

Choose a Protection Method

Cloud Protection Service supports two ways to apply protection to user data in your Google Workspace environment, auto-protection and manual protection.

Auto Protection

When auto-protection is enabled for a group, and users are added to or removed from that group in your Google Workspace environment, Cohesity Cloud Services automatically discovers the changes and applies protection to the new users. Auto Protection can be applied at the group level, not at the individual user level..

Manual Protection

If you choose manual protection, Cloud Protection Service still discovers when users are added to or removed from a group. However, you must manually select the new users for protection.

About the Sources Page

On the Sources page, each application has its own tab. For example, Gmail appears as a dedicated tab. For Google Drive, separate tabs are available for User Drives and Shared Drives. Under each tab, the discovered objectsare listed that can be backed up.

  • The Unprotected and Protected sections display the count of items in each category.
  • The Protection Status and Legal Hold filters help refine the grid view.

Icons above the grid help change how objects are displayed. You can list only groups, list all discovered objects, or list only auto protected objects.

Each object row displays details such as backup status, SLA status, and the latest snapshot timestamp. After the first successful backup, additional actions become available, including recovery, unprotect, editing protection settings, pausing future runs, and running protection on demand.

Protect User Mailboxes in Gmail

To protect user mailboxes in Gmail

  1. In Cloud Protection Service, navigate to Sources. Your registered Google Workspace source appears on the Sources page.
  2. Click the required Google Workspace source, and then click the Gmail tab.
  3. Choose how you want to apply protection:
    • Auto protection, to protect users based on a group and automatically include new users added later.
    • Manual protection, to select specific users or objects.
  4. Select objects to protect:
    • For auto protection, select the Users group level entry and enable auto protection.
    • For manual protection, select individual objects or select all child objects under Users.
  5. Click Protect.
  6. On the New Protection page:
    • Select the required policy to define backup frequency and retention. If needed, create a new policy.
    • Click More options and configure the following Settings and Additional Settings.
    • Start time: Available only when the selected policy is set to Backup Daily. The default time zone is the browser time zone.
    • SLA: Specify expected duration for full and incremental protection runs.
    • Cancel runs at Quiet Time start: Available only when Quiet Time is configured in the policy.
  7. Click Protect to save the configuration.

Backups start immediately, even if a start time is configured. After the first protection run completes successfully, recovery options become available for the protected mailboxes.

Run Ad Hoc Backups

You can schedule backups to auto run at a future time. This ensures that your data is protected on a regular basis without requiring manual action. Backup scheduling is configured through policy.

If you need to run a backup outside of the scheduled times, you can start one on an ad hoc basis. This allows you to back up your data immediately whenever needed.

To run an ad hoc backup:

  1. In Cloud Protection Service, navigate to Sources.

    Your registered Google Workspace source is listed on the Sources page.

  2. Click the required Google Workspace source.
  3. Click the Gmail tab.

    Select the checkboxes for the object you want to back up.

  4. Click Run Now.
  5. In the dialog box, select the required backup type, either Full Backup or Incremental Backup.

The backup is initiated. You can monitor the progress on the Activity page.