Set up Microsoft 365 Backup

Permissions

You must be a SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator to be able to access the Microsoft 365 admin center and set up Microsoft 365 Backup.

Create an Azure subscription

If you already have an Azure subscription and have Owner or Contributor access on the subscription, you can proceed to set up pay-as-you-go billing. If you need to create an Azure subscription, follow the guidance in Create your Azure subscriptions or start creating a subscription on Azure.

1. Set up pay-as-you-go billing

To set up pay-as-you-go billing, you need to have this information:

Once you have the information on this list, you're ready to begin. As a first step, you should link an Azure subscription in pay-as-you-go, if you haven't already done so.

New Billing experience: New customers onboarding to Microsoft 365 Backup will now use the new pay-as-you-go set up experience under the Billing node in Microsoft Admin Center. Follow the instructions on this page for Pay-as-you-go Setup, to set up pay-as-you-go for Microsoft 365 Backup.

Existing Microsoft 365 Backup customers will continue to use the billing management experience under Setup option in Microsoft Admin Center. Existing customers can use the below steps to view or edit your existing billing setup.

1. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, select Setup, and then go to Billing and licenses section.

2. In the Billing and licenses section, select Activate pay-as-you-go services.

3. On the Pay-as-you-go services page, on the Settings tab, select Billing to view and edit your existing pay-as-you-go settings.

4. To turn off Backup, go to Settings tab, click on Backup and toggle Status to Off.

2. Create backup policies to protect your data

Now that Microsoft 365 Backup is enabled for your organization, follow through to create policies and start protecting your content.

1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.

2. Select Settings.

3. Select Microsoft 365 Backup from the list of products.

   

4. Create backup policies for OneDrive, SharePoint, or Exchange.

Enable email notifications

Email notifications help ensure that potentially harmful or important changes in Microsoft 365 Backup solution are brought to the attention of multiple people in your organization. This reduces the risk of critical actions going unnoticed.

When enabled, Microsoft 365 Backup sends email alerts to a Backup Notification List whenever an important backup event occurs. Global admins and Microsoft 365 Backup admins can turn on this feature and update the notification list at any time.

You can add up to 20 individual recipients to the list or include distribution lists and security groups. By default, recipients are notified only about potentially harmful events, but you can also opt in to receive notifications for routine events. Notifications are sent as a daily email digest when at least one relevant event occurs. If both notification types are enabled, you receive two separate emails—one for potentially harmful events and another for routine events.

Events that trigger notifications

Potentially harmful events

• Disabling Microsoft 365 Backup
• Pausing billing due to issues or admin action
• Removing protection units from backup policies
• Offboarding protection units (deletion of backups)
• Pausing a backup policy
• Transferring backup controllers between Microsoft and third-party providers
• Revoking the Controller app
• Changing membership in the Backup Notification List
• Enabling or disabling the notifications feature

Routine events

• Completing backup routine jobs
• Creating or modifying backup policies
• Initiating or completing restores

Set up multi-admin notifications

1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 admin center as a Global admin, Microsoft 365 Backup admin, SharePoint admin, or Exchange admin.

2. Go to the Email notifications option on the Microsoft 365 Backup home page.

   

3. Turn on notifications.

4. Add users, distribution lists, or security groups (only email enabled) to the Backup Notification List.

5. (Optional) Select the checkbox to also receive routine event notifications.

6. Save your changes.

Admin roles and backup management privileges

Only tenant-level admins can create and manage backups using Microsoft 365 Backup for their users. End users don't have the ability to enable backup or restores for their user account, distribution lists, mailboxes, or sites. It’s important to note that your admin role determines which products you can manage with Microsoft 365 Backup. We have also introduced a new dedicated role for this tool, the Microsoft 365 Backup Administrator, that can control the entire tool. For more information about this role, see Microsoft 365 Backup Administrator.

Glossary

• Protection units – SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, or Exchange Online mailboxes backed up by the Microsoft 365 Backup tool.

• Restore point – A prior point in time from which you can restore a version of your content and metadata. If the protection unit from a prior point in time is identical to the present state of your data, then a restore from that point has no effect on your current data.

• RPO – Recovery point objective, or how close in time the most recent restore point is to an impacting event.

• RTO – Recovery time objective, or how fast a restore to a prior point in time might complete.