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  4. Disaster recovery of a CubeBackup for Microsoft 365 instance.

Disaster recovery of a CubeBackup for Microsoft 365 instance.

A server crash can be an unpredictable disaster that can happen at any time. In some unfortunate cases, your CubeBackup installation may be completely unrecoverable. For example:

  • Your CubeBackup instance is running on a local server and backing up to a NAS or your company's data center, but the disk on your local server becomes corrupted and all data is lost.
  • You deploy CubeBackup on a cloud VM and back up to private cloud storage. The cloud VM is accidentally deleted or terminated.

In both of these cases, it should still be possible to connect a new CubeBackup installation to your old backups, as long as you have a copy of the encryption key file.

Note: If you cannot access the original encryption key, or if the backup storage directory is unavailable, you will have to begin the backup from scratch.

Step-by-step instructions

CubeBackup for Microsoft 365 allows you to easily recover an instance based on your existing backups. Please follow the detailed instructions appropriate for your operating system.

  1. Install CubeBackup for Microsoft 365 on a new machine, or in a different directory on the original machine.

    Note: Please ensure both the old and new servers are running the same version of CubeBackup. If necessary, install the same old version on the new server to maintain compatiblity.

  2. Before going through the configuration wizard, copy the encryption key file to <installation directory>/data/keys.json.

    Tips:
    (1) If you did not choose to encrypt your backup data in your previous instance, this step is unnecessary.
    (2) On Windows, the installation directory is located at C:\Program Files\CubeBackup365 by default.

  3. In Step 2, choose the same Storage type and enter the storage location of your previous backup data.

    Tips:
    (1) It is not required to connect to the original data index. CubeBackup can automatically regenerate a new data index in an empty directory using your existing backup data.
    (2) If the backup data is stored in cloud storage, simply enter the same bucket name. For local storage, please ensure that the backup folder path points to your original backup folder (e.g.\\192.168.8.22\backups\cubebackup_data).
    (3) If your backups were originally encrypted, make sure that the Encrypt backups box is checked! If your backups were not encrypted, this box must be manually unchecked.

  1. Install CubeBackup for Microsoft 365 on a new machine, or in a different directory on the original machine.

    Note: Please ensure both the old and new servers are running the same version of CubeBackup. If necessary, install the same old version on the new server to maintain compatibility.

  2. Before going through the configuration wizard, copy the encryption key file to <installation directory>/data/keys.json.

    Tips:
    (1) If you did not choose to encrypt your backup data in your previous instance, this step is unnecessary.
    (2) On Linux, the installation directory is located at /opt/cubebackup365 by default.
    (3) For Linux users, please change the ownership of the encryption key file to cbuser.

    sudo chown cbuser:cbuser /opt/cubebackup365/data/keys.json

  3. In Step 2, choose the same Storage type and enter the storage location of your previous backup data.

    Tips:
    (1) It is not required to connect to the original data index. CubeBackup can automatically regenerate a new data index in an empty directory using your existing backup data.
    (2) If the backup data is stored in cloud storage, simply enter the same bucket name. For local storage, please ensure that the backup folder path points to your original backup folder (e.g. /mnt/backups/cubebackup_data).
    (3) If your backups were originally encrypted, make sure that the Encrypt backups box is checked! If your backups were not encrypted, this box must be manually unchecked.

  1. Start a new CubeBackup container .

    Note: Please ensure both the old and new containers are running the same version of CubeBackup. If necessary, pull the same version of the old image before starting a new CubeBackup container.

  2. Before going through the configuration wizard, copy the encryption key file to <installation directory>/data/keys.json. For example,

    docker cp ./keys.json <container_id>:/opt/cubebackup365/data/keys.json

    Tips:
    (1) If you did not choose to encrypt your backup data in your previous instance, this step is unnecessary.
    (2) The installation directory is located at /opt/cubebackup365 inside the container.
    (3) For Docker users, please change the ownership of the encryption key file to cbuser.

    docker exec -it <container-name> bash
sudo chown cbuser:cbuser /opt/cubebackup365/data/keys.json

  3. In Step 2, choose the same Storage type and enter the storage location of your previous backup data.

    Tips:
    (1) It is not required to connect to the original data index. CubeBackup can automatically regenerate a new data index in an empty directory using your existing backup data.
    (2) If the backup data is stored in cloud storage, simply enter the same bucket name. For local storage, please ensure that the backup folder path points to your original backup folder (e.g. /mnt/backups/cubebackup_data).
    (3) If your backups were originally encrypted, make sure that the Encrypt backups box is checked! If your backups were not encrypted, this box must be manually unchecked.

  1. In Step 3, you are required to register and authorize a new application in Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) on behalf of CubeBackup to access resources in your organization. Please follow the step-by-step instructions below:
    • CubeBackup will request an authentication code from Microsoft Azure. Copy the code displayed in the CubeBackup configuration wizard, and click the authentication portal link.
    • On the Sign in to your account webpage, paste the code and sign in to Microsoft Azure as a Global Administrator in your organization, and then follow the prompt to grant the necessary permissions for CubeBackup.
    • Return to the CubeBackup configuration wizard and wait a few moments while CubeBackup verifies the server readiness of your application.
      If an error message pops up, please wait a few minutes and try again. In some cases, the application registration and authentication need time to propagate through Microsoft's servers.
  2. In subsequent steps, CubeBackup will automatically select the original users and SharePoint sites into the backup list based on your previous backup data and configuration. Review the list and click Next if everything is correct.
  3. In the last step, assign a CubeBackup administrator.
  4. After logging in to the CubeBackup web console, all backup data and operation histories should be displayed in the web console exactly as before. We recommend restoring a test message or file to confirm that the system is functioning properly.
  5. Recover the original license and backup settings.
    • In the CubeBackup web console, activate your original CubeBackup license code in the OVERVIEW > License information section.
    • Then reconfigure the settings on the SETTINGS page.

If you need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].