Veritas Alta™ SaaS Protection Administrator's Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Veritas Alta SaaS Protection (1.0)
  1. Introduction to Veritas Alta™ SaaS Protection
    1.  
      About Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection
    2.  
      Features of Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection
    3.  
      Architecture of Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection
    4.  
      Operational workflow
    5.  
      Extra Data Backup (EDB)
  2. API permissions
    1.  
      API permissions for Microsoft 365 workloads
    2.  
      API permissions for Gmail and Google Drive
    3.  
      System and API permissions for Salesforce
    4.  
      API permissions for Entra ID
    5.  
      App permissions of Web App
  3. Administrator portal (Web UI)
    1.  
      About the Administration portal
    2.  
      Configure the Administration portal
    3.  
      View upgrade history
  4. Manage users and roles
    1.  
      Role-based access control
    2. Permissions tab
      1.  
        Users and groups page
      2.  
        Roles page
      3.  
        Unrecognized users page
      4.  
        Settings page
  5. What is a connector?
    1.  
      What is a connector?
    2.  
      Supported SaaS workloads and backup capabilities
    3.  
      Workflow to protect data using Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection
    4.  
      Know your subscription details
    5.  
      About transient errors
    6.  
      Overview of adding connectors
    7.  
      Configure General settings
    8.  
      Configure Capture scope
    9.  
      Configure User filter
    10.  
      Configure Group filter
    11.  
      Configure Folder filter
    12. Configure credentials
      1.  
        Assign Microsoft 365 apps registration
      2.  
        Microsoft 365 apps registration status
      3.  
        Manually approve Microsoft 365 apps registration
      4.  
        Approve Microsoft 365 apps using the App Consent Grant utility
      5.  
        Microsoft 365 apps recovery
    13.  
      Configure Custom backup policy and guidelines
    14.  
      Configure Delete policy for SharePoint Online and guidelines
    15.  
      Configure Stubbing policy
    16.  
      Guidelines to configure Stubbing policy for SharePoint Online
    17.  
      Schedule a backup
    18.  
      Configure email addresses to get notifications
    19.  
      Review configuration and edit/save/initiate backup
    20.  
      Connectors page
    21.  
      Connector status
    22.  
      Edit connector configuration
    23.  
      Delete connectors
  6. Pre-requisites for Microsoft 365 connectors
    1.  
      Pre-requisites for Microsoft 365 connectors
  7. Protect Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo tenant
    1.  
      Considerations for adding SharePoint/Teams Sites/OneDrive connectors for Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo tenant
  8. Protect Exchange Online data
    1.  
      Add Exchange Online connectors
    2.  
      Configure capture scope for Exchange connectors
  9. Protect SharePoint sites and data
    1.  
      Add SharePoint connectors
    2.  
      Supported and unsupported SharePoint Settings and Types for backup and restore
    3.  
      Supported Sites and List templates for backup and restore
    4.  
      Supported SharePoint permission objects for backup and restore
    5.  
      Configuring capture scope for SharePoint connectors
    6.  
      End-user SharePoint data access in Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection
    7.  
      Run Delete and Stubbing policies to the SharePoint Online environment
    8.  
      Limitations of SharePoint connector
  10. Protect Teams sites
    1.  
      Add Teams site collections connectors
    2.  
      Configure capture scope for Team site collections connectors
    3.  
      Limitations of Teams site collections connector
  11. Protect OneDrive data
    1.  
      Add OneDrive connectors
    2.  
      Configure capture scope for OneDrive connectors
  12. Protect Teams chats
    1.  
      Add Teams chat connectors
    2.  
      Configure capture scope for Teams chat connectors
    3.  
      Limitations of Teams chat connector
  13. Protect GoogleDrive data
    1.  
      Prerequisites to add Google Drive connectors
    2.  
      Add Google Drive connectors
    3.  
      Configure capture scope for Google Drive connectors
    4.  
      Limitations of Google Drive connector
  14. Protect Gmail data
    1.  
      Prerequisites to add Gmail connectors
    2.  
      Add Gmail connectors
    3.  
      Configure capture scope for Gmail connectors
  15. Protect Audit logs
    1.  
      Add Audit log connectors
    2.  
      Audit log connector limitations
  16. Protect Salesforce data and metada
    1.  
      About Salesforce protection
    2.  
      Key considerations and prerequisites for adding Salesforce connectors
    3.  
      Add Salesforce connectors
    4.  
      Limitations of Salesforce connectors
    5.  
      Salesforce Objects not supported for backup
  17. Protect Entra ID objects
    1.  
      Add Entra ID (Azure AD) connectors
    2.  
      Limitations for Entra ID connector
  18. Protect Box data
    1.  
      Prerequisites for Box connectors configuration
    2.  
      Add Box connectors
    3.  
      Configure capture scope for Box connector
    4.  
      Limitations of Box connector
  19. Protect Slack data
    1.  
      Add Slack connectors
  20. Protect Email/Message data
    1.  
      Prerequisite for Email/message connector
    2.  
      Add Email/Messages file
  21. Configure Retention policies
    1.  
      About WORM policies
    2.  
      Ingestion WORM policies page
    3.  
      Add/edit Ingestion WORM retention policies and guidelines
    4.  
      Add/edit At-Rest WORM retention policies
    5.  
      Add/edit Deletion policies
    6.  
      View deletion history
    7.  
      How to edit the policy evaluation interval?
    8.  
      How to add a Location filter?
    9.  
      How to add a filter?
  22. Perform backups
    1.  
      Perform on-demand/ad-hoc backup
    2.  
      Backup dashboard
    3.  
      Video tutorial for connector troubleshooting
    4. View backup events
      1.  
        About Event suppression
      2.  
        Create event suppression rules
    5.  
      Viewing backup tasks details
  23. View and share backed-up data
    1.  
      Browse backed-up data
    2.  
      Share data
    3.  
      Remove data sharing
  24. Analytics
    1.  
      About analytics
    2.  
      Gain insights into storage utilization
    3.  
      Gain insights into storage utilization for Entra ID and Salesforce connectors
    4.  
      Gain insights into blocked activities, most active users, and more
    5.  
      Gain insights into data volume (size and item count) on legal hold
    6.  
      Gain insights into data volume (size and item count) saved in different Enhanced cases
    7.  
      Gain insights into data volume (size and count) under different policies
    8.  
      Gain insights into data volume (size and item count) under different Tags
    9.  
      Gain insights into data volume (size and item count) under different Tags behaviors
    10.  
      Gain insights into storage savings after deduplication and compression
    11.  
      Gain insights into data ingestion trends
  25. Perform restores using Administration portal
    1.  
      About restore
    2.  
      Prerequisites for restore
    3.  
      Restore Exchange Online mailboxes
    4. Restore SharePoint/OneDrive/Teams Sites and data
      1.  
        Restore of OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Group, and Microsoft Teams sites
      2.  
        Limitations of SharePoint sites and data restore
    5. Restore Teams chat messages and Teams channel conversations
      1.  
        Limitations of Teams chat data restore
    6.  
      Restore O365 audit logs
    7. Restore Box data
      1.  
        Limitations of Box data restore
    8. Restore Google Drive data
      1.  
        About the overwrite restore behavior for Box/Google Drive data
    9.  
      Restore Gmail data
    10. About Salesforce Data, Metadata, and CRM Content restore and Sandbox seeding
      1.  
        Guidelines for Schema changes in Salesforce organization to prevent restore failures
      2.  
        Restore Standard and Custom objects (Structured data restore)
      3.  
        Custom Object restore - post processing steps
      4.  
        Restore specific Records (Structured data) using Query filters
      5.  
        Restore Salesforce CRM Content (Unstructured data restore)
      6.  
        Restore Salesforce files/documents in Public/Shared libraries (Unstructured data restore)
      7.  
        Limitations of Salesforce Data restore
      8.  
        Salesforce Objects not supported for restore
      9.  
        Key considerations for Salesforce Metadata restore
      10.  
        Restore Salesforce Metadata
      11.  
        Limitations of Salesforce Metadata backup and restore
    11. About Entra ID (Azure AD) objects and records restore
      1.  
        Permissions requirement
      2.  
        Best practices to restore Entra ID objects
      3.  
        Restore an Entra ID object
      4.  
        Restore specific records within Entra ID objects
    12.  
      Restore Slack data
    13.  
      Restore data to File server
    14.  
      Set default restore point
    15.  
      Configure Restore all, Restore all versions, Point-in-time, and Specific range restore options
    16.  
      Configure email addresses for notifications
    17.  
      Downloading an item
  26. Restore dashboard
    1.  
      About Restore dashboard
    2.  
      Restore job statuses
    3.  
      How to cancel a restore job?
    4.  
      View the restore events
  27. Install services and utilities
    1.  
      About services and utilities
    2.  
      Pre-requisites to download and install services and utilities
    3.  
      Downloading services and utilities
    4.  
      Where to install the services and utilities
    5.  
      Installing or upgrading services and utilities
    6.  
      Configuring service accounts for services and utilities
    7. About the Apps Consent Grant Utility
      1.  
        Downloading the Apps Consent Grant Utility
      2.  
        Installing or upgrading the Apps Consent Grant Utility
      3.  
        Post-installation activities for the Apps Consent Grant Utility
  28. Discovery
    1.  
      About eDiscovery/searches
    2.  
      Add search templates
    3.  
      Add Discovery cases
    4.  
      Perform ad hoc search and add data to Discovery cases
    5.  
      View data in Discovery cases
    6.  
      Edit Discovery cases
    7.  
      DeleteDiscovery cases
    8.  
      Assign Discovery cases to users
  29. Configure Tagging polices
    1.  
      About the Tagging policy
    2.  
      Add Tags
    3.  
      Add/edit Tagging policies
    4. Adding regular expressions
      1.  
        RegEx and query examples for PII detection
  30. Configure Tiering policy
    1. About the Tiering policy
      1.  
        Storage tiering and full-text search
      2.  
        User experience on storage tiering
      3.  
        Priority for storage Tiering
    2.  
      Add/edit Tiering policies
  31. Auditing
    1.  
      Auditing
  32. Manage Stors (Storages)
    1.  
      Viewing Stors (Storages)
    2.  
      Requesting a new Stor
    3.  
      General tab
    4.  
      Version control settings
    5.  
      Metadata tab
    6.  
      Statistical policies tab
    7.  
      Location-Mapping tab
    8.  
      Backup tab
    9.  
      Custodian Groups tab
    10.  
      Advanced tab
    11.  
      Analytics tab

Restore SharePoint/OneDrive/Teams Sites and data

With Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection, you can restore various components, including site collections, sub-sites, lists, folders, items, and different versions of items. These components can be restored to either the original location or an alternative location.

See Supported and unsupported SharePoint Settings and Types for backup and restore.

Key features:
  • Customizations restore:

    Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection restores customizations made within site collections, sub-sites, list settings, columns, and content types, ensuring that your unique configurations are preserved.

  • Permissions restore:

    Permissions associated with the restored components are also reinstated, maintaining access controls and security settings.

  • Auto-creation of structure:

    If a sub-site or list is missing at the destination for the restore, the structure of the missing sub-site or list will be created automatically, allowing data to be restored within it.

  • Site collection restore:

    You can restore an entire site collection to a new URL if needed, which is particularly useful for migrating or recovering data to a different location.

  • Download option:

    Additionally, you can download the items to the required location for easy access and management. See Downloading an item.

Recovery process:

When you start the recovery process for a specific backup, the item you selected and the associated child objects, including their configurations and metadata, are restored.

  • If the objects being restored, such as sites, sub-sites, lists, and files, are not currently available, Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection generates them again during restore.

  • If sites, sub-sites, lists, and files, are not available, they are generated during restore.

  • To determine the existence of these objects, their names are verified. For example, the names of sites, sub-sites, lists, and files are matched to see if they exist. Site collections are verified for their existence using the site collection URL.

Restore behavior based on the component selected for restore and the restore location:

The following table outlines the restore behavior for each restore location and its corresponding backup component.

Handling errors during the restore of Site Collection, Sites, and List

The restore process for Site Collections, Sites, and Lists is designed to proceed even if an error occurs. Therefore, you should continue with the restore process even if an error is occurred while restore.

Table: Supported restore locations

Backup component

Supported restore locations

Folders/Items

  • It can be the same or a different site collection.

  • If an existing parent list at the destination is selected, the columns are merged into the destination list, and the selected items are restored.

  • If a parent list is absent at the destination, the parent site/sub-site must be selected for the restore to recreate the parent list. Then the selected items are restored.

  • If a folder is selected, the item gets restored under that folder.

List

  • It can be the same or a different site collection.

  • If an existing list at the destination is selected, the export merges the columns into the destination list.

  • If a list is not available at the destination, the parent site/sub-site needs to be selected, and the list is recreated.

Sub-site

  • It can be the same or a different site collection.

  • The parent site/sub-site needs to be selected at the destination. The restore process creates a new sub-site if there is no child sub-site with the same name; otherwise, it merges with the existing sub-site.

  • A sub-site from a source can only be restored as a sub-site of the destination selection.

Site Collection

Site Collection availability:

  • The site collection can be restored to the same or a different site collection.

  • If the site collection is not available at the specified URL, it will be recreated from scratch.

Restore limitations:

  • Site collections cannot be restored as sub-sites of other destination sites.

  • A site with the same URL should not be present in the Recycle Bin before initiating the restore.

Restore failures:

  • If the restore process fails, you can recover the site collection from the recycle bin, delete it, and then attempt the restore again.

Administration portal restores:

  • Site creation and updates to certain site-level properties are only supported through the Administration portal.

End-User portal restores:

  • Restores performed through the End-User portal can create sub-sites and lists within a site.

Restrictions for SharePoint Online restore:

The restrictions of restore the SharePoint Online data and sites are described in the following table.

Table:

Restrictions of restore

Description

The parent site availability requirement.

If you select an individual item, folder, list, or sub-site for restore from a backup, the destination parent site collection and sub-site must be available.

To restore an individual item, folder, list, or sub-site from a backup, you must ensure that the destination parent site collection and sub-site are already available.

The template type matching requirement.

To initiate the restore process for an object and its child objects, the source and the destination template types for lists, sub-sites, or site collections must match.

For sites or sub-sites, you have the option to selectively choose individual child objects for restore.

The System lists restoration.

To recreate system lists from scratch, SharePoint restores site collections or sub-sites. If you need to restore a missing system list individually, it should already exist at the destination.

The column matching requirement.

To restore a list or site, the destination list or site must not have a column with the same ID or name but a different column type.

The Teams Wiki lists creation requirements.

To automatically recreate missing Teams Wiki lists, you must manually create a blank Teams Wiki list within Teams, and then restore the data to it.

The Role assignment behavior.

To assign permissions to existing roles for existing Microsoft Infra ID users and groups or SharePoint groups, when restoring role assignments at a destination other than the site level.

The existing list or site title.

To prevent a change in the title of a list or site that already exists at the destination.

To restore SharePoint/OneDrive/Teams Sites and data

  1. Access the Administration portal.
  2. On the left, click Content.
  3. On the Content page, do the following:
    • From the upper-left dropdown list, select the Stor that holds the data that you want to restore.

    • From the dropdown list next to the selected Stor, do any of the following:

      • To display all data in the selected Stor, select All content.

      • To view specific data within the Discovery cases, select the required Discovery case.

      The names of the connectors are displayed on the left pane. You can enter the name of a connector in the Filter by name field to search for a specific connector.

    • On the left pane, click the connector.

    • On the right pane, do any of the following:

      If you select...

      Restore behavior

      Site collection

      A site collection along with any customizations and its child items is restored.

      • Destination options

        The site collection can be restored to the same or a different site collection.

      • Auto-creation

        If the site collection is not available at the specified URL, it will be recreated from scratch.

      • Restore limitations

        Site collections cannot be restored as sub-sites of other destination sites.

        A site collection with the same URL should not be present in the Recycle bin before initiating the restore.

      • Restore failures

        If the restore process fails, recover the site collection from the Recycle bin, delete it, and then attempt the restore again.

      • Restores through the Administration portal:

        Site creation and updates to a few site-level properties are only supported through the Administration portal.

      • Restores through the End-User portal

        Restores performed through the End-User portal can create sub-sites and lists within a site.

      Sub-site

      A sub-site, along with all customizations and nested objects, can be fully restored.

      • Destination options

        The sub-site can be restored to the same or a different site collection.

        The parent site or sub-site needs to be selected at the destination.

      • Auto-creation

        If there is no existing sub-site with the same name at the destination, the restore process will create a new sub-site.

        If a sub-site with the same name already exists, the restored sub-site will merge with the existing one.

      • Restore limitations

        A sub-site from the source can only be restored as a sub-site of the destination selection.

        Sub-sites cannot be restored as independent site collections.

      List

      A List along with its customizations and child objects is restored.

      • Destination options

        A list, along with its customizations and child objects, can be restored to the same or a different site collection.

        If an existing list at the destination is selected, the restore process merges the columns into the destination list.

      • Auto-creation

        If a list is not available at the destination, the parent site or sub-site needs to be selected, and the list will be recreated.

      Folder or item

      A specific folder or item, including its versions and associated metadata, can be restored to the same or a different site collection.

      • Destination option

        If an existing parent list is selected at the destination, the columns are merged into the destination list, and the selected items are restored.

      • Auto-creation

        If the parent list is absent at the destination, the parent site or sub-site must be selected to recreate the parent list. After the list is recreated, the selected items are restored.

        If a folder is selected at the destination, the item is restored under that folder.

    • Click Restore.

  4. On the Restore page, do the following:
    • From the Restore type dropdown list, select SharePoint/OneDrive.

    • From the Destination dropdown list, select the Export service that is configured for your tenant.

      For more details, contact Cohesity Support.

      The destination site is populated in the Site collection URL field based on the item you selected for restore. Alternatively, you can enter the required URL if you want to restore it to an alternate location.

      Important: To perform a restore using the End-User portal, the end user must be the Primary Admin of the site selected as the destination site for the restore.

      For a successful restore of SharePoint/OneDrive items to their original source location, the web templates for both the source and destination must be the same.

    • Click Browse and then select the location for restore.

    • Configure the following SharePoint settings:

      Settings

      Description

      Restore all versions

      This option determines which versions of items are restored from the backup.

      • If selected: All versions of items are restored.

      • If cleared: Only the latest version of items is restored.

      For example, if you have a library in SharePoint Online that contains a file called example.docx. Over time, the user has made several changes to the file, and each change has created a new version. The version history of the file will look like this: version 1: Initial upload, version 2: Edited by John, version 3: Edited by Jane, and version 4.

      You performed a backup of the document library.

      When you restore the document library from the backup and select this check box, all four versions of example.docx will be restored: version 1, version 2, version 3, and version 4. If you clear this check box, only the latest version that is version 4 will be restored.

      Reset the 'last modified time' of restored files to the time of restore.

      Selecting this checkbox will reset the 'last modified time' of the last restored version of files to the time of restore. Note that this option is only supported for Document and Page libraries. This change will affect policies based on the 'last modified time' configured in the connector.

      For example, if this checkbox is selected and a policy is in place to stub files based on the 'last modified date', the 'last modified time' of restored files will be updated to the restore time. This may result in delays in stubbing these files. If you choose not to select this checkbox, the 'last modified date' will remain unchanged and reflect the backed-up content, preventing delays in stubbing the files.

      Overwrite settings, columns, content types for site collections, sites, and lists

      This option determines how settings, columns, and content types are restored.

      • If selected: The restore operation overwrites the existing settings, columns, and content types for an existing site or list with those from the backup.

      • If cleared: The restore operation only restores missing settings, columns, and content types without affecting the existing ones.

      Example:

      Suppose you have a SharePoint Online site collection with a custom list named Project Tasks. Over time, you have added custom columns like Priority and Status, and you have also created a custom content type called Project Milestone.

      You performed a backup of the site collection.

      If you restore the site collection and select this checkbox, the existing custom columns (Priority and Status) and content types (Project Milestone) in the Project Tasks list will be overwritten with the versions from the backup.

      If you clear this checkbox, only any missing columns or content types will be restored. The existing Priority and Status columns, as well as the Project Milestone content type, will remain unchanged.

      By default, this check box is not selected.

      Restore permissions

      This option determines whether permissions should be restored during the restoration process.

      • If selected:

        • Permissions are restored only on SharePoint/OneDrive sites, lists, folders, and items that are newly created during the restore process.

        • Role definitions and site administrators are restored for the root site if it is created during the restore.

        • SharePoint Groups are restored on any sites and sub-sites that are created during the restore process.

        • Role assignments are restored for sites, sub-sites, lists, folders, and items, except for stubs.

      • If cleared:

        • Permissions are not restored.

        • All objects inherit permissions from their parent.

        • Site administrators are not restored.

        • The site is created with default permission objects.

      By default, this check box is not selected.

      Suppress 'Removed from source' content

      This option determines whether to restore content that is removed from the source.

      • If selected: Content that was deleted from the source will not be restored. This setting is enabled by default.

        If you need to change this configuration, please contact the Cohesity Support team.

        If any data gets deleted from the source SharePoint, after backup, it gets marked as 'Removed from the source' at the next backup. However, during the restore, the marked data can cause some issues. Hence, you can select this check box to skip the restore of such data.

      Exclude Destination System Lists

      This option determines whether system lists should be excluded from the restore process.

      When restoring system lists, like the master page, theme gallery, and taxonomy hidden lists, and so on, an Access denied error can occur if the destination site requires the Add and Customize Pages permission.

      • If selected: Items from hidden lists or catalogs (except the Teams wiki list) are excluded from the restore operation. Any skipped items are recorded in the diagnostic logs.

        If a system list or a folder within a system list is chosen as the destination and this check box is selected, the restore operation will fail with an error, indicating that restoration to the selected system list is not allowed.

      • If cleared: The system lists, such as the master page gallery and theme gallery, will be included in the restore operation.

      Restore only stubbed items

      This option determines whether only stubbed items should be restored during the restore process.

      • If selected: Only the items that are stubbed are restored.

        Stubbed items are placeholders for original content that has been offloaded or archived.

        The stubbed item must be available at the original location during the restore.

      Stub restore behavior

      When a stub is rehydrated to restore, the name and permission of the original file are preserved.

      It differs from cases where a missing document is restored or replaced with permission restoration, where sharing links are neither retained nor restored.

      Overwrite items

      If you choose the Overwrite items check box, you need to select one of the following restore behaviors:

      • Recycle existing items before restoring: This option removes the existing items and replaces them with a file from the backup.

      • Restore to existing item (recycle existing versions): This option retains the existing items. File versions restored from the backup copy are maintained.

      • Restore to existing item (keep existing versions): This option retains the existing items. Both file versions at the destination and those restored from the backup copy are maintained.

      Restore all, Point-in-time, Specific range

      See Configure Restore all, Restore all versions, Point-in-time, and Specific range restore options.

      Send notification to

      Enter the email addresses of the users to send a notification on restore completion. Use a semicolon to add multiple email addresses. After all the configurations are completed, click Restore.

  5. Navigate to the destination to confirm that the restore is completed successfully.

    You can go to the Restore dashboard to see the status of the restore.

Important: If an error occurs while restoring the settings of a Site, SubSite, or List, the restore job does not fail; it will log the error and continue to restore the remaining items.