Backup
Store backups in more than one bucket
Why this changed
Backup used to support one storage bucket per customer. You could choose its region, but all your backed up data had to live in that one place. Organisations with users in several regions could not keep each region's data separate.
What has changed
You can now connect several storage buckets, each in the region you choose. Your existing bucket stays as the default, so nothing changes until you set up another one in Storage configuration. Each user and shared drive policy says which bucket its backups go to. For example, an EU policy can send EU users' backups to an EU bucket, and a US policy can send US users' backups to a US bucket.
- Test the connection for one bucket or for all of them. If a connection fails, an alert tells you which bucket.
- Edit or remove a bucket from Storage configuration.
- Restoration and purge read the bucket from the backup itself, so you do not need to know where an item is stored.
Before: storage configuration
Before: backup rules
Before: policy
After: storage configuration with several buckets
After: backup rules for each bucket
After: choosing the bucket on a policy
Assign policies, now in the new interface
Assigning Backup policies to organisational units, Smart Teams and shared drives has moved into the modern Automate interface. It works the same as before.
Before: assign and remove policies
After: assign policies
Clearer error messages
Backup errors now tell you what happened in plain language.
- Items that were deleted before the backup ran, or could no longer be found, are no longer counted as failures. They were never errors.
- The errors we see most often now have a message explaining what went wrong.
- Anything else shows a general message with a link to support, never a blank or raw error.
Know how current your figures are
The Backup dashboard now shows when its figures were last updated. We have also fixed an issue that could leave some customers' figures out of a refresh, which made them older than they should be.
Before: Backup dashboard
After: Backup dashboard with last updated time
Other improvements and fixes
- The Backup status filter now includes Queued.
- After a Chat restoration, the side panel shows the right number of restored direct messages.
- Saving a storage bucket now shows the saved bucket, rather than opening a blank form.
Archive
The Archive interface has been rebuilt to match the rest of Automate, as Backup was in the previous release. Your archives, retention and settings are unchanged. This is a change to the interface, not to your configuration.
Before: Archive menu
After: Archive menu
Restoration is now one journey
Item and full restoration are now a single journey. You choose what to restore and where it goes on the same screens, whether you are restoring one email or a whole user.
Before: item restoration
Before: full restoration
After: choose a user
After: restore items
After: full restoration
Archive status and restoration status
Both status pages have been rebuilt with the same tables and filters as Backup.
Before: restoration status
After: restoration status
Before: Archive status
After: Archive status
Storage configuration
Storage configuration sits on one page. From there you can:
- Connect a bucket with a service account key, and give it a friendly name.
- Test the connection, edit the configuration, disconnect, or set a bucket as the default.
- Set retention periods for email, Drive and Chat.
Before: storage configuration
After: storage configuration
Vault configuration
Add or remove your Google Vault configuration from the new screen.
Before: Vault configuration
After: Vault configuration
Purge
Purging archives uses the same confirmation step as Backup. Purging cannot be undone, so check the selection before you continue.
Before: purge
After: purge
Import from CloudM Migrate
The import page shows the users ready to import from CloudM Migrate. You can refresh the list, import everyone at once, and view the history of past imports.
Before: import
Before: view import
Before: import all
After: import
Fixes
- Archived users with no organisational unit recorded no longer open to a blank page, so you can now view and restore them.
Drive Management
Weekly summary email
A new weekly email summarises the health of your shared drives, so you know when something needs your attention without opening Drive Management. It arrives on Monday mornings.
- Membership: drives with no active manager, with external managers, or with inactive members.
- Data quality: drives that failed to sync.
- Totals and capacity: your true shared drive count, total storage and items, and drives approaching Google's 500,000 item limit.
To switch it on, go to Settings, then Customise notifications.
Before: Customise notifications
After: Customise notifications
After: example summary email
Automate platform
Fixes in this release
- Optional emails, such as Domain Insights, now stop when you switch them off in Settings.
- Addresses saved over several lines no longer come back with stray markup.