Question of how VBO backs up the mailboxes.

[friopel]

Hi there,

We have recently started using VBO (recently as in today! ) and I have a couple of questions.

- When the mailbox is backed up, does every subsequent incremental backup becomes a sort of restore point? I know it's not the same thing as B&R, but can I go back to the state of the mailbox from 3 days ago, for instance?
- What's the logic behind a deleted mailbox. When I delete it from O365 and it stops being backed up, will I still have access to the old mail for the duration of the retention period? Or should I extract it and save it somewhere else?

Thanks!

F.

[Mike Resseler]

Hi Franc,

First, welcome to the forums!

- When the mailbox is backed up, does every subsequent incremental backup becomes a sort of restore point? I know it's not the same thing as B&R, but can I go back to the state of the mailbox from 3 days ago, for instance?

You can go to a specific "restore point" of 3 days ago and see what is in the mailbox (just select a specific date) but in reality, as you said, it is not like B&R, it is more of an archive with an applied retention on it. Note that the retention is taken from the exchange online item. So for example, imagine the retention is 3 years, but in your mailbox there is still a mail that is 5 years old, it won't be protected by VBO as it is older than the retention range.

- What's the logic behind a deleted mailbox. When I delete it from O365 and it stops being backed up, will I still have access to the old mail for the duration of the retention period? Or should I extract it and save it somewhere else?

You still will have access and it will remain there until the retention period is over.

Hope it helps
Mike

[friopel]

Note that the retention is taken from the exchange online item. So for example, imagine the retention is 3 years, but in your mailbox there is still a mail that is 5 years old, it won't be protected by VBO as it is older than the retention range.

So, to put it simple, every time the backup runs, it :

• downloads all the emails received since the last backup
• deletes email that are past the retention period from the backup

Is that correct?

[foggy]

Correct.

[friopel]

Thanks for the info, Mike and Foggy!