Multi-Geo Support

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IBM® Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft™ 365 supports protecting your Microsoft 365 tenant that has the Multi-Geo capability.

For details on how it should be configured through the IBM Storage Protect for Cloud platform and how it is protected in the IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 app, refer to Does IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Support Microsoft 365 Tenants with Multi-Geo Capabilities?.

To leverage Multi-Geo capabilities, you must navigate to Manage Data Center Mappings in IBM Storage Protect for Cloud to map the list of geo locations to the supporting data centers.

Once you turn Multi-Geo on in your tenant, we’re going to start routing your data to different regions according to your configurations in Manage Data Center Mappings. To run backup and restore for a specific region, you must have the service administrator role or have access to manage that corresponding region.

Users assigned with multiple regions will be asked to select a region when accessing the IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 interface. Users with only one region will be automatically redirected to the regional IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 instance.

Note the following:
  • Mailboxes – The first time you start the Multi-Geo service, user mailboxes will be moved to the new region automatically, but the backup data previously generated by IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 will still be managed in either the central tenant or the region where it was moved from. The mailbox will be registered as new through IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Auto Discovery and get protected by IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365. This means, in the IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 instance for the new region, the new backup data is isolated exclusively to this region, and the previous backup data cannot be used for the data recovery in the new region. However, you can still use the previous backup data in the following ways:
    • Run an export job through the Restore wizard
    • Restore to your own storage location (BYOS subscription)
    • Restore to another mailbox in its original region
    • Run an in-place restore to restore backup data to the original region
      Note: To in-place restore the backup data to its original region, ensure there is a service account or app profile configured with proper permissions for the same Microsoft 365 tenant as the original data.
  • OneDrive/SharePoint sites – If the OneDrive library or SharePoint site existed before your tenant enabled Multi-Geo, the OneDrive library/SharePoint site data will not be automatically moved to the preferred data location. Your SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator can respond to the move. As stated in the Microsoft article: Move a SharePoint site to a different geo location, there is a read-only window during the OneDrive/SharePoint site geo move of approximately 4-6 hours, depending on site contents. During the move, the OneDrive library/SharePoint site will continue being protected in the IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 instance for the former region. After the move is completed and the site is registered as new through IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Auto Discovery, the site will be protected in the IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 instance for the destination region. The previous backup data is not available for the data recovery in the new instance.
  • Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams – If you are using a multi-geo tenant, ensure the app profile has an Exchange Administrator role. The role is required to restore the region information for Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams. Otherwise, your group or team backed up from a specific region will be restored to the default region. For details on how to assign the role to an app, refer to How to Assign the Exchange Administrator Role to an App.
  • Power Platform – For subscriptions with Multi-Geo enabled, Power BI data can be protected in multiple geo locations. For Power Automate and Power Apps, flows and apps can only be protected in the IBM Central Location due to API limitations.
  • We isolate the backup data sets for each region. Therefore, you cannot restore across different regions. For example, from France to the US.
  • If you are using default IBM Storage Protect for Cloud storage with a Multi-Geo subscription, IBM Storage Protect for Cloud Microsoft 365 allows you to change the storage to your own storage device for specific regions, and the other regions can still use the default IBM Storage Protect for Cloud storage.
  • The subscription consumption report in Subscriptions is only available to the IBM Storage Protect for Cloud administrator.
  • The System Auditor report and Job Analytics report only show the jobs and activities that are operated in the current region.
  • The Remove Unprotected Data feature is not applicable to subscriptions with the Multi-Geo enabled. Your backup data cannot be automatically detected to determine if it is in or out of the protection scope.
  • The retention configuration for multi-geo tenants is the same as the others. If you want to configure custom retention settings, such as setting up different retention years for specific regions, service types, or containers, refer to Configure Retention Policy.