Backup Microsoft Planner

[PKaufmann]

Hi,

For Test Cases I have created a new Project Plan in MS Planner in O365...
I added some tasks, comments, etc ..

Then I did a backup of it. In the backend it is a sharepoint site so it was easy to find and the backup was successful.
Afterwards I deleted the Plan from O365 and restored it with veeam..

Good: The Plan is back in the MS Planner overview
Bad: No Tasks or comments are in it, it's just blank..


did anyone else made this experience?
Is this a known bug/issue/limitation of O365?

thanks for help,
regards,
Philipp

[Polina]

Hi Philipp,

This is an expected behavior, as VBO doesn't support MS Planner API yet.

[PKaufmann]

oh ok, any plans for the future about this?

[Mike Resseler]

Hi Phillip,

2 days ago I had a meeting with MSFT around this. I explained them the situation (you are not the first one that asks about this). They (MSFT planner team) have no plans at this moment but promised me to think about it and see what they could do. I will keep following-up but I am afraid it will take some time

[PKaufmann]

Hi Mike,
thanks for your answer.

Since we are doing almost all project plans with MS Planner, this would be a nice feature
There is no archive function for planner in O365, so we have to deal with lots of them.

[bg.ranken]

Hi Mike,

Just wondering if there has been any progress on Microsoft's end regarding planner backups? We are starting to do more with planner so the need for backups is increasing.

[Mike Resseler]

No progress at this moment I'm afraid.

[aporter]

I would also be interested in backup for Planner.

In the mean time Microsoft now has an "Export plan to Excel" option if you click the three dots near the middle of the Plan screen, although it looks like task comments and attachments are not included in the export. This way you can at least get a copy of the task list out of the cloud.

[Polina]

Hi Andrew,

Attachments to Planner tasks are stored within SPO and thus can be easily backed up and restored (or exported) with VBO.

[jaberg]

I would also be interested in backup for Planner.

In the mean time Microsoft now has an "Export plan to Excel" option if you click the three dots near the middle of the Plan screen, although it looks like task comments and attachments are not included in the export. This way you can at least get a copy of the task list out of the cloud.

Sorry but I cannot find the "Export plan to Excel" options...?

[FTaylorYoung]

If it helps, a colleague recently scripted a full export and import of every plan, bucket, and task. (We had the unenviable task of migrating the entire company from one MS tenant to another.)
The script is available on GitHub: https://github.com/smbm/PlannerMigration-GraphAPI
The export functions of the script might be a useful starting point to create your own backup script, until the O365 backup product can do it.

[nielsengelen]

Thanks for sharing Fred!

[jacobpalm]

Any news regarding Planner support for Office 365 backup?

[nielsengelen]

No update for now but it would be good to know how you leverage planner and what you would like to see as restore options.

[jacobpalm]

We leverage planner as a project management tool, to keep track of all the open activities we have with our customers. We also use it for internal tasks.
As such, this data is very important to us. If we lose it, we won't know the status of our activities, or even what activities we have.

I would love the option the restore an entire planner, or individual tasks, in the same way files or mails can be restored from each revision.

I have also heard from others that during tenant migrations, it would be super helpful to be able to backup up Planner content, and restore it to another tenant as a form of migration tool. I haven't worked with this myself, so I haven't researched at all if there are any other tools for this - so just take it as a suggestion.

[Polina]

Jacob,

Are you using Planner within the Teams app interface, or as a web app?

[jacobpalm]

Polina, we are doing both, actually.

[dasfliege]

Any news? I haven't completely watched VeeamON session of VBO365 v5 yet. But as there is a dedicated explorer for teams, i thought that it may also be possible to backup and restore anything from teams?

[Polina]

Hi @dasfliege,

That's right, Explorer for Teams is coming and there was a nice demo in the VeeamON keynote session to give an idea of what to expect from this support.
But what are you looking to protect - Teams or Planner?

[dasfliege]

Planner App inside Teams

[Mike Resseler]

@dasfliege Unfortunately that won't be possible. Planner "inside" teams is also not entirely correct, it is more links to outside planner.microsoft.com in reality.

We cannot protect it besides working with the legacy authentication methods, the graph API's don't support it yet, and we don't believe it is a good thing to support it, and change it entirely in less then a year when the legacy authentication methods are going to go away. So we are waiting till the graph API's are updated to investigate and support it

Mike

[dasfliege]

Thanks for the feedback Mike.
Actually we're using legacy auth for each of our customer environements that we backup right now, but i'm unable to find any planner related content in our backups. Also messages / conversations is something i'm unable to find. I guess that it should be backed up somehow, as it isn't listed as a limitation in the following article: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbo36 ... tml?ver=40

Maybe someone can help me find that content? I'm aware that it's not possible to restore messages directly into teams currently, but i wan't to be sure that i didn't lie to out customer when i told them that everything is beeing backed up "somehow".

[Polina]

For group mailboxes, Teams posts are displayed under the Conversation History folder/Team Chat in Explorer for Exchange.

Planner plans and attachments added to tasks should be visible in Explorer for SharePoint.

[dasfliege]

Planner plans and attachments added to tasks should be visible in Explorer for SharePoint.

May you tell me where exactly i can find them when the planner has been created by "Add a Tab" -> "Planner" -> "Create new Plan"?. Should i find it inside the Subtree of the Team itself in Sharepoint Explorer? Does the element has a name that i should be able associate with the plan i'm searching for?

[Fatboy40]

To add a voice to those above a robust ability to backup Planner / To Do (and therefore also the newer Tasks app) is something I'd welcome, and I understand how without the appropriate API's Veeam are being expected to perform miracles.

Personally I'm coming from the angle that if I cannot backup and restore items etc., as used in MS Teams, then Planner / To Do / Tasks is not ready to be actually used in a business.

[Mike Resseler]

@Fatboy40 I have the same angle. And I can only hope that everyone continues to push with Microsoft so they understand the need for those API's

[Fatboy40]

Can someone from Veeam please confirm if the new v5 of Veeam Backup for Office 365, now there's an explicit Teams option, backs up any of the Tasks / To-Do / Planner data or if this is still not available due to a lack of API's

Thanks.

[jacobpalm]

Given that Planner is separate from Teams, and since the v5 documentation doesn't mention Planner, I would say no.
But I, too, would like to hear from Veeam regarding this - if nothing else, just to hear if Microsoft has made any developments towards API support.

[Polina]

Jacob is right, Planner is separate from Teams, it's a different application, and the issue with it remains the same - APIs are not ready yet.

[sumeet]

Hi all,

Want to know if there are any plans for VBO to support MS Planner backup.
If yes, any timelines on when this support will be available.
Few of our clients are keen to have this support.

And from what I could check, MS does not have any provision to backup Planner.
So due to this it is critical for users to be able to backup Planner.

Thanks,
-Sumeet.