Configuring Google Workspace Shared Drive Backups

Configuring Google Workspace Shared Drive Backups

Configuring Google Workspace Backup includes the backup of Shared Drives, ensuring that all files, documents, and other important data within the Shared Drives are securely protected. This enables easy recovery of Shared Drive data in case of accidental deletion, data corruption, or other unforeseen issues.
Check the 'Configuring Google Workspace Shared Drive Backup' video.

You can follow the below steps to configure Google Workspace Shared Drive Backup:
To configure Backup schedules for your Google Workspace domain, in the SaaS Application main menu navigate to Backup -> Configure Backup -> Google Workspace -> Shared Drive.

Step 1: Basic Job Details

Backup Job Name: Provide any proper name for your backup job.
Backup Repository: Select the backup repository type. You can choose either Block Storage or Object Storage.
Repository Name: Once selecting the repository type, use the drop-down list to select the repository for your backup job.
Immutable Backups (Only for Object Storage)
  1. You have the option to enable this feature by checking the box, which will secure your backups as immutable for a specific duration. The duration can be specified and you do it for up to 999 day(s). The duration set will be applied to this backup job, which you’ll configure in subsequent steps. When configuring other backup jobs, ensure to adjust the duration according to your needs.
  2. Immutable backup in the BDRSuite Backup Server is a backup strategy or system you can use where once the data is backed up, it cannot be edited, deleted, or tampered with until a predefined time period expires that can be set up as shown below in the image representation. This approach adds an extra layer of protection to the backup data, making it resistant to ransomware attacks, accidental or malicious changes
Job Description: Provide a job description for future reference.

Step 2: Organization and Backup Object Selection

On this page, we will select the organization.
Choose Organization for backup: Using the drop-down list options, choose the Google Workspace organization you wish to configure backup for.

Step 3: Google Workspace Shared Drive Backup Configuration

Shared Drive

Shared Drive Selection
All the Shared Drive/s or just the specific Shared Drive can be selected which you want to add to the backup job.
Notes
Note: Make sure that the Shared Drive is supported in you current Google Workspace Edition and that you have set up Shared Drives for your organization.
Shared Drive Exclusion
This Shared Drive exclusion options lets you perform exclusion.
  1. Enter the Shared Drive Folders you wish to exclude from the backup in the ‘Excluded Shared Drive Folders’ field.
  2. The Shared Drive Files Filter option lets you further filter the files based on inclusion and exclusion. In addition, you have the ability to filter based on file name or file size using the option placed alongside the other filter options. This allows for more precise control over the data you wish to exclude from the backup.

Step 4: Scheduling

Configure scheduling lets you select schedule options for the backup job.
 Incremental scheduling
After the initial backup, the BDRSuite Backup Server backs up only the added and modified items for each schedule.
Backup Frequency: From the drop-down list, select the backup frequency you wish to choose for your backup schedule. The options are as follows
  1. Manually
  2. Every Few hours
  3. Daily
  4. Weekly
Backup start time: Select the time for the backup to start from the drop-down list.
Advanced Scheduling Settings
You can choose from the advanced scheduling settings.
Retry Attempts: If the backup is interrupted due to some reason, the BDRSuite Backup Server retries the backup for the specified number of retry attempts. The wait time between each retry attempt can also be configured.
  1. Retry attempts on backup failure: Select the number of retry attempts from the drop-down list.
  2. Wait time before each retry attempt: Select the wait time for each retry attempt from the drop-down list.

Step 5: Backup Job Settings

The Settings option lets up to configure the compression and retention for the backup schedule.

Compression: 

By default, all the backup data is compressed while storing in the backup repository. If disabled the original size of the backup data will be stored.

Retention

Enabling this option lets you specify the number of restore points you want to retain. If disabled, all restore points will be retained.
User Mailbox (Mail, Calendar & Contacts): From the drop-down list select the time to retain. You can choose either days, months, or years.
User Mailbox (Google Drive): You can select both the number of versions and number of days to retain the Google Drive items. The minimum retention is 5.
Retention policy defines how long the backed up data to be kept in the backup repository. This allows you to specify the Time period or No. of versions of the item should be retained in the backup repository. If the retention is disabled then all the backed up items will be retained.
Time based retention
This retention option is applicable for Mails, Calendar and Contacts. This option will work based on the time period of the Mail / Calendar / Contact items.
For Example, If you have selected “Time period to retain” as 12 Months then the Mails, Calendar events and Contacts created/modified/sent/received in the last 12 months will be retained. Mails / Calendar events/ contacts older than 12 months will be marked for deletion and vacuum will happen on the storage and those items will not be listed in the restore page.
The default retention value is 12 Months. The maximum time period to retain is 10 years.
Version based retention
This type of retention option is applicable for Google Drive files. This option will work based on file versions count. File version means, if any changes have been done to the file with respect to its previous backed up file.
For Example, If you have selected “No. of versions to retain” as 5, then the latest 5 versions of the file will be retained. When the sixth version of the file got backed up then the first version of that file will be marked for deletion and vacuum will happen on the storage. Only the latest 5 versions of the files will be listed in the restore page.
This retention type default value is set to ‘5’. Version count runs from ’01’ to ‘100’.
Time + Version based retention
This type of retention option is applicable for Google Drive files. This option will work based on both file versions and time period. File versions will be retained for a specified time period.
For Example, If you have selected “No. of days to retain” as 30 days and “Minimum version” count as 5. When the sixth version of the file got backed up, here the retention condition will be applied only if the first version of the file modified time is older than 30 days then the first version will be marked for deletion and vacuum will happen on the storage.
By default ‘No. of days to retain’ value is set to 30 and Minimum version count is set to 5. The maximum ‘No. of days to retain’ can be set to ‘365’ and the version count runs from ’01’ to ‘100’

Advance Settings

E-Discovery
When this option is enabled, the item data of the selected entities will be indexed for e-Discovery. Disabling the option will prevent indexing.
Click the Toggle Button to enable indexing for the selected entities' data for e-Discovery.
Email Notification
The report email will be sent exclusively to the backup recipients. Backup-level email notifications prioritize these recipients over standard report email notifications.
Click the Toggle Button to enable backup job-level email notifications and enter the email recipients. You can also modify the global email notification settings if needed.​

Step 6: Review

Review the configurations chosen and enable the ‘Run Immediately’ option if you wish to initiate a backup schedule despite the scheduled time.
  1. Click on Save backup to proceed for the confirmation and click yes. Your backup is scheduled successfully.
  2. You can locate the backup jobs from Backup=> List Backup Jobs
  3. You can click on the Backup progress icon to view the progress details.


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