❗IMPORTANT
The Smart Backup feature is enabled by default for all customers on June 29, 2024. If you have any questions or do not want this setting enabled by default, contact Support.
Overview
The Smart Backup feature for SharePoint Online sites leverages an intelligent site change detection algorithm to selectively backup sites whose content has been modified, thereby skipping redundant backups of sites without content changes and optimizing resource utilization.
Smart Backup Workflow
This section explains how Smart Backup works.
Step 1 - Identify Backup Type
Manual or Full Scan Requested?
Yes: Launch a normal or full scan backup.
No: Proceed to check for site modification time (mtime) changes.
Step 2 - Check if mtime is updated
Changes Detected?
Yes: Initiate a normal Backup for the containers that have been modified.
No: The last restore point is committed as the current restore point and backup process is completed.
📝NOTE
Smart Backups rely on site modification time (mtime) to determine whether a backup is necessary.
Any changes to file permissions, settings, change in views or UI language, user alerts alone won't trigger a backup, since these changes typically don't alter the mtime. However, Smart Backups still capture these changes during mandatory backups, which are scheduled at user-defined intervals (2-90 days, default: 7 days)
To learn more about the parameters that influence mtime, refer to the Factors Triggering SharePoint Site Backups below.
Benefits of enabling Smart Backup
Implementing Smart Backup can help;
Mitigate API throttling issues.
Improve service level agreement (SLA) compliance for SharePoint sites undergoing content changes.
📝NOTE
Smart Backup exclusively supports Graph API backups. If Smart Scan is enabled for sites utilizing REST API backup, regular backups will be performed for them.
Enable or Disable Smart Backup
Smart settings can be enabled or disabled through Default Backup Settings for SharePoint Online site collections, as well as for SharePoint sites associated with Teams and groups.
Procedure
To enable or disable Smart Backup at workload, follow these steps:
Navigate to Groups/SharePoint/Teams on your Druva console.
Go to Settings.
Click on Edit (Default Backup settings).
Check or uncheck "Enable Smart Backup"
Choose the Mandatory Backup interval between 2 to 90 days.
Click Save.
Enable or Disable at Site Level
Smart settings can be enabled or disabled for a specific SharePoint Online site collection. However, for Teams and Groups, they can only be enabled or disabled at the parent site level; it is not possible to modify them directly from SharePoint Online.
Procedure
To enable or disable Smart Backup at workload, follow these steps:
Navigate to Groups/SharePoint/Teams on your Druva console.
Go to All Groups/All Sites/All Teams.
Select the Group/Site/Team and then select Configure for Backup.
Click on Custom under backup settings.
Check or uncheck Enable Smart Backup.
Choose the Mandatory Backup interval between 2 to 90 days.
Click Save.
Factors Triggering SharePoint Site Backups
The backup process is initiated when the following actions are performed on a SharePoint site:
Content Management
Creating attachments, content types, distribution lists, folders, lists, list items, subsites, and views
Uploading documents
Adding columns, site columns, and quick launch items
Updating columns, distribution lists settings, and views
Deleting content and columns
Restoring from the recycle bin
Changing file metadata
User Management
Adding admins from the admin center site
File Sharing
Sharing files
Factors Not Triggering SharePoint Site Backups
The backup process is bypassed when the following actions are performed on a SharePoint site:
Adding or updating a site column
Modifying Supported UI Languages
Adding or updating a Quick Launch Node
Modifying List / Document Library Views
Changing role assignments at any level
Modifying site user alerts
Audit Trail
When an administrator enables or disables this feature, an audit trail will be automatically recorded for the respective workload.