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Backup FAQ.
Backup Office 365, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Groups to local file server
The Layer2 Cloud Connector is typically used to keep local data and documents in sync with the Microsoft Cloud of Office 365, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Office 365 Groups two-way. But you have also options for one-way connections, e.g. for document migration (local to cloud) or backup (cloud to local).
Features and benefits of Office 365 backup to local files
- Using the Layer2 Cloud Connector for cloud-to-fileserver backup has the following features and benefits:
- Pull documents from the Microsoft Cloud to a local file server: Make it available for common file backup tools to create an archive, store it for compliance reasons, restore and recovery - or access by custom on-prem tools.Easy to setup: Just create your connections and enter connection strings in a well-known Microsoft Management Console interface.
- Secure Connections: Runs centrally as a Windows Service on a Windows server or client in the local network. No user login required to run. No 3rd party or cloud involved. Uses SSL for secure web services connections to Office 365.
- One client for any Microsoft cloud: Can be used to backup Microsoft SharePoint Online (department files), OneDrive for Business (user files), Office 365 Groups (team files).
- Support for large libraries: Libraries above the list view threshold (>5.000 / 20.000 items) are fully supported - but you can't make use of views or folders in this case.
- Low network utilization: Only new or changed files are transferred for backup. First backup can take a while, depending on amount of data. Next backups just pull changes.
- Flexible setup: Make use of multiple connections to backup several different libraries to different local folders. Pre-select your document sets by optionally using folders or views. Apply additional options like no-delete to keep files forever.
- PowerShell automation fully supported: You can run custom scripts to generate the connection files automatically for all your document libraries. Please find a sample script linked for download below.
- Integrates with your existing IT: Any file share / NAS can be used that is available under Windows. Make use of any existing backup tool to build an archive for restore and recovery.
- Flexible logging and alerts: You can log to files, databases, and Windows Event Log via NLOG. Several different log levels are offered to better trace possible issues.
- Lists are also supported: You can also backup SharePoint list items to any local SQL database, or even Microsoft Access.
- Cost effective: One-time fee for the license - no data-volume related costs. No user CALs required.
- Try before you buy: Free Shareware Edition supports a limited amount of files.
- As noted above, backup is just one feature of the tool. Please learn more here.
Office 365 backup specific settings
With the Layer2 Cloud Connector generally one connection per list or library is required. The connection files are XML-based. Examples can be found using the "Actions" menu in the Connection Manager (right hand side).
You can create your connections manually using pre-defined templates (in case of just a few connections).
You can generate your connection files as required using custom scripts, e.g. PowerShell. Scripts can crawl your site collections or sites for libraries to backup and using naming conventions to create local folders.
- You can execute the connections by command-line, directly in the script, if required (see User’s Guide).
- You can create custom scripts for backup, migration, or two-way synchronization of all your Office 365, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Office 365 Groups libraries. Please find a sample script for download linked below.
Next Steps with Office 365 backup
You can download an example SharePointDocumentLibrariesBackup. Please also register for the Layer2 Cloud Connector for download and trial.
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