Backup of public folder mailbox fails

[Shaser]

Same issue here. Any updates?

[nielsengelen]

@Shaser please contact support if you are still facing the issue after using the workaround provided by Mike in this thread and let us know the support case ID.

[Mike Resseler]

Update: We released a KB around the issue: https://www.veeam.com/kb4033

[Renaud]

This fix is not viable in an MSP environment.
Any ETA on a real solution ?

[Mike Resseler]

Renaud,

I'm afraid that Microsoft won't return that change they have made. The only real solution would be graph API's for public folders, but I have not seen anything on the roadmap from MSFT side.

[VNR-LF]

You can avoid additional licensing cost by assigning a temp license, changing the mailbox to a shared mailbox and then unassigning the license again. Just a headache logging into every tenant to update owner permissions. Also not happy with disabling PF impersonation on a proxy level...

i would like to confirm this. implementing the workaround and afterwards converting the backup user's mailbox to a shared one and subsequently removing the office 365 license from the backup user does not interfere with the workaround. my public folders are once again being backed up without consuming an additional office 365 license.

[DaStivi]

and what about new public folders? is it enough to add the "user" to the top of the publicfolder?

[Polina]

@VNR-LF,

While this workaround may work in the meantime (who knows for how long), we still wouldn't recommend using a shared mailbox as a service account. In their documentation, Microsoft says that "A shared mailbox is not intended for direct sign-in by its associated user account. You should always block sign-in for the shared mailbox account and keep it blocked".

With that, I'd strongly suggest sticking to the way described in our KB4033 (even if it's not as perfect as we would love it to be).

Thanks!

[VNR-LF]

and what about new public folders? is it enough to add the "user" to the top of the publicfolder?

i edited the public folder permissions in exchange admin center (web interface) by editing the root permissions and applying the changes to all subfolders as well. every public folder created after this change has inherited the backup user as owner.

[VNR-LF]

@VNR-LF,

While this workaround may work in the meantime (who knows for how long), we still wouldn't recommend using a shared mailbox as a service account. In their documentation, Microsoft says that "A shared mailbox is not intended for direct sign-in by its associated user account. You should always block sign-in for the shared mailbox account and keep it blocked".

With that, I'd strongly suggest sticking to the way described in our KB4033 (even if it's not as perfect as we would love it to be).

Thanks!

thanks for the warning! i'm checking the backup results each day, anyway. i swear i will license the backup user and convert his mailbox back to "RecipientTypeDetails = UserMailbox" as soon as my pub folder backups stop working and save on licensing costs in the meantime.

[DaStivi]

Hello there, dear Veeam Support!
the Workaround is apparently a big issue, i've tested this now... and after changing the proxy to the "non-impersonate" mode, the error changes sligthly... it says it can't find any public folder servers...
03.12.2020 17:12:14 :: Processing mailbox xyz_e6174206@abc.onmicrosoft.com failed with error: Failed to access public folders.. There are no public folder servers available. :: 0:00:50

i've to admit in this example i hadn't the backupuser mail enabled... but just show the full log of what i've discovered...

the user can't be added to the public folder permission without an mailbox... ok giving theuser now a license and enable the exchange online feature, at least i suggest to login once to portal.office.com because this triggers the mailbox creation (when not dooing this, it could still be theissue that the user isnot displayed in the publicfolder permission window in ecp-online)

now after that, without any adding of permissions to public folders, when running the job, the publicfolder backup went to green! so no more issues looks like to be found!
so isn't it even needed to add permissions? or is there simply no backup right now? i'm not entierly sure i do have checked this with a couple of vcsp tenants in my environment now and i see that without adding the permissions to the publicroot and recursivly to all folders the jobs is green but nothing is really in backup!

of course veeam suggest in the KB that the permission add has to be done with ex-online powershell and "-recurse" BUT this is what i stated weeks ago, when a user creates a new public folder (and changes the permissions) there is no check anymore if this could be backedup...so there is potentially the possibility that we don't have everthing in backup!

ps: having the backup user as a sharedmailbox, i don't even see it the permission window anymore... i have to double check, when changing a normal backup-user-mailbox to a shared mailbox, new content is even in backup (-> for all the shared mailbox workaround-nolicense-users here...)


edit: ok, i've checked this... after changing the user from normal mailbox to shared mailbox the user vanished in publicfolder permissions, so basically the warning does disappear assoon impersonisation is not used anymore and backup user have some sort of mailbox, but maybe the items still can't be backedup correctly!

[eashdown@ksp.ca]

So it appears now with v5, we cannot backup PF's if we want Teams backups. Like at all. The two require opposing tenant setups that explicitly state the other cannot be backed up using this method. Can someone at Veeam confirm this is the case?

[Polina]

Hi Evan,

I'm not sure that I understand your concern correctly. What exactly do you see as the opposing setups?

[johannesk]

Hi.

I was reading through the release notes for VBO 5a. It says there that 'To back up public folder mailboxes, the Veeam service account must have a valid Exchange Online license
and an active mailbox within the Office 365 organization.'

Thats as described in https://www.veeam.com/kb3093

Is this going to be a permanent solution to the public folder backup or is it scheduled to be changed so that the backup user does not need a O365 license?

Regards,
Jóhannes

[Mildur]

For Public Folder Access, you will need a mailbox. This is also true if your are using Outlook to access the public Folder (Onpremise and Exchange Online). Without a mailbox, you cannot access the public folder.
It's a software limitation from Microsoft