Back up Exchange

This guide explains how to back up mailboxes in an on-premise or cloud-hosted Exchange Server to a local or network destination.

To create an Exchange Server backup task:

1. Open BackupAssist 365.
2. Select Create new from the left menu.
3. Click the Exchange tile.



4. Name your task.

Provide the task's name and type as follows:

1. Enter a name into the field provided.
2. Click Multi-User or Single-User.
• Multi-User backs up mailboxes on an Exchange Server, using an Exchange Administrator account.
• Single-User backs up an individual's Exchange mailbox using their own account details.
3. Click the tick to save and proceed to the next step.



5. Login.

This step is used to provide details for the Exchange Server and the credentials that BackupAssist 365 will use to access it.

If you chose Multi-User, there will be two authentication options to choose from:

• Exchange administrator login - uses an Exchange account to give BackupAssist 365 access to all the mailboxes in the hosted server.

This account will need Exchange administrator access and should only be used for the backup task. For detailed guidance, see Setting up a Backup User for BackupAssist 365.

• CSV file containing user names and password - uses a CSV file with each email account and its password. BackupAssist 365 will use this list to determine what mailboxes it can back up, and use each mailbox's password to access and back up that mail box.

To configure the Exchange Server login:

1. Enter the Exchange Server's domain name into the Server URL field. The full URL will appear below this field.
2. Select the Exchange Server version from the Version field.
3. Provide authentication information as follows:
• If you selected Single-User, enter your mail account's user name and password.
• If you chose Multi-User using an Exchange administrator log in, provide the credentials in the field provided
• If you chose Multi-User using a CSV file, you will be asked to provide the details in the next step.
4. Click the tick to save and proceed to the next step.



6. Mailboxes.

This step is for Multi-User tasks. It is used to select the mailboxes to back up, and the options will depend on the type of authentication you are using.

Exchange administrator

All mailboxes on the hosted Exchange server will be listed.

Select the mailboxes to be backed up from the list, and click the tick to save and proceed to the next step.

User CSV file

The bulk / add update mailboxes tab is used to add users and passwords from the CSV file.

This can be done in three ways:

• Select Use a CSV file from the drop-down and use the fields provided to select and upload the CSV file with a list of email addresses and passwords.
• Select Use clipboard, then copy the mail addresses and passwords out of the CSV file and click the Update list button to paste them into the UI.
• Select Add a Mailbox tab if you want to manually enter the username and password from the CSV into the UI.

Select the mailboxes to be backed up from the list, and click the tick to save and proceed to the next step.



7. What to download.

By default, all mail items are backed up. This can result in a significant amount of data and impact the storage required and how long the backup takes to run. In this step, you can limit the mail items backed up to those that fall within a date range. For example, you can set it to only back up mail items that were created in the last year.

To limit the items backed up to a date range:

1. Use the Choose a preset range to select a time period or the Custom date range fields to enter your own date range.
2. Click the tick to save and proceed to the next step.



8. Save to...

Where you store your backups is an important consideration. The location should be secure and have room for the backups to grow as more data is backed up.

To set the backup destination:

1. Enter a Local folder or Network folder location into the fields provided.

Network folder allows you to use a network share or NAS device and may require the credentials of an account with access to that folder.

Note: While a network share is convenient, if it's not set up with adequate security measures it can pose a data breach risk. To create a best practice network destination, see Backing up your Office 365 to a Network Share

2. Click the tick to save and proceed to the next step.



9. Schedule.

It's best to run the backup task when users are not using their email, so by default the task will start at midnight. You can use the Maximum run time options to stop the backup task from running at a time when users are accessing their mailboxes.

To set up your backup schedule:

1. Choose a Schedule type to set how often the backup task will run.
2. Set a Start time for the task.
3. Click the tick to save and proceed to the next step.



10. Save and run.
1. Click Save and your task will run at the scheduled time.
2. Click Save and run to save the task and run it now.



Note: BackupAssist 365 backs up changes to the mailboxes since the last time the backup task ran. The first time it runs however, the task will back up all data and take longer to run. For this reason, you may want to run the first backup manually to ensure it runs as expected and to ensure that it does not impact the users.