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Backup of Deleted User but mailbox/OneDrive still exist (for 30 days)

  • 25 September 2023
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dloseke
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Just a quick question...I was tasked with restoring OneDrive data from an account for a client that apparently left and the user was deleted, but someone else was accessing the OneDrive data while the user account was still in the Deleted Users status/folder, but once the 30 days elapsed, that data was purged.  This client is currently being backed up by Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud backup (until I get those folks moved over to Veeam) but I noticed that the last backup of the data was before the user account was deleted.  Makes sense, but I hadn’t considered that their OneDrive would even be accessible by the other users during that time period if the user/mailbox had been marked as deleted.

So my question is, if a user account is marked deleted, does VB365 still backup the deleted mailbox/OneDrive (or can it even do so - assuming that you had that user explicitly specified or had the job set to backup the entire organization, etc) until Microsoft purges that data?  I imagine I can test this out, but I don’t have a ton of accounts to test this against right now to see how it works.

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Best answer by Mildur 26 September 2023, 15:55

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Derek M. Loseke, Senior Systems Engineer | Veeam Legend 2022-2023 | VMSP/VMTSP | VCP6-DCV | VSP/VTSP | CCNA | https://technotesanddadjokes.com | @dloseke

7 comments

Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

This will all be dependent on the type of backup and retention period you choose for the VB365 backups.  Item-Level backup or Snapshot-based backup and retention period.

Retention Policy - Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Guide

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2022 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 3* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
Iams3le
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Hi @dloseke, here is the answer to your first concern 

> Makes sense, but I hadn’t considered that their OneDrive would even be accessible by the other users during that time period if the user/mailbox had been marked as deleted“

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/restore-deleted-onedrive”

[Microsoft MVP | Veeam Legend 5* | VMware vExpert 4* | Cisco Champion 3* | Object First Ace]
Iams3le
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

This will all be dependent on the type of backup and retention period you choose for the VB365 backups.  Item-Level backup or Snapshot-based backup and retention period.

Retention Policy - Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Guide

Seconded :-)

[Microsoft MVP | Veeam Legend 5* | VMware vExpert 4* | Cisco Champion 3* | Object First Ace]
Mildur
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

 Hi @dloseke 

Your request is unrelated to the retention policy. The retention type specifies if the current state of the source object (snapshot-based) or only items within a specific time period (item-level) are protected by a job. 

 

To answer your question:

We don’t retrieve deleted users when building the job list or when you edit the job. Additionally we can only protect Exchange user mailboxes, One Drive and Personal Sites if they have a user with a valid license attached. Deleted users do not have a license attached.

For example, Exchange Mailboxes with deleted users are in a disconnected state. They cannot be accessed by any protocol. There is no way we can access them over the API’s. Also I don’t think you can connect them to another M365 user (connect-mailbox only works in on-premise exchange). 

 

Considerations and Limitations - Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Guide

 

Best,

Fabian

Product Management Analyst @ Veeam Software
dloseke
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Thanks Fabian.  That’s along the lines of what I expected, but I was wondering if someone would know without me having to take the time to figure it out on my own since I’d need to spend a bit of time staging things to test this out.

Derek M. Loseke, Senior Systems Engineer | Veeam Legend 2022-2023 | VMSP/VMTSP | VCP6-DCV | VSP/VTSP | CCNA | https://technotesanddadjokes.com | @dloseke
dloseke
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

This will all be dependent on the type of backup and retention period you choose for the VB365 backups.  Item-Level backup or Snapshot-based backup and retention period.

Retention Policy - Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Guide

Seconded :-)

Oooh...this is super helpful.  Thanks for this info.  In my case, I just exported the data from backups and will place on their file server where they need it, but I didn’t know it hung out for a bit longer after the user object is deleted.

Derek M. Loseke, Senior Systems Engineer | Veeam Legend 2022-2023 | VMSP/VMTSP | VCP6-DCV | VSP/VTSP | CCNA | https://technotesanddadjokes.com | @dloseke
Mildur
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Just found the command for Exchange Online. If you recover the mailbox (within 30 days) with it, you can start protecting the mailbox content. It can also be used to recover the mailbox with a new AzureAD account.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/undo-softdeletedmailbox?view=exchange-ps

 

But if you still have the user under „deleted users“, I suggest to just recover the user from there and assign a license. Then run a backup and delete the user after.

 

Best,

Fabian

Product Management Analyst @ Veeam Software

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