This article explains how to install Afi Office 365 Backup application in your Microsoft 365 domain. Once the application is installed, you can learn more about Afi backup and recovery features here or watch a few demo videos here.
You need to be a Microsoft 365 Global Admin to install Afi application for your domain.
Installation Steps:
Step 1 - Login and create account
Go to Afi sign-up page and login with your Microsoft 365 admin credentials (this account will be selected as Afi admin account).
Grant the Afi application permissions to access the admin account profile for authentication purposes:
Create an Afi account:
Step 2 - Add a Microsoft 365 domain and install the application
After creating an Afi account, the next step is to add your Microsoft 365 domain and authorize the Afi application to access it. Click on the Sign in with Microsoft button and then select a Microsoft 365 Global admin account on the next screen to proceed with the application permissions consent grant.
The Global admin account selected at this step is used to initiate and grant the application permissions consent to access the domain. Please note that this account is used only once to perform the consent grant, after that the Afi application will work with the domain on its own behalf and will not need to impersonate under any specific admin account.
After selecting an admin account, the service will initiate the application permissions consent required by the Afi application to discover the domain resources and perform data backup and recovery. Please click on the Accept button below the permissions list to grant the consent.
Step 3 - Select a region
After the consent is granted, you will need to select a region where to store backups for a newly added Microsoft 365 domain and a time zone. The following backup regions are available - the United States, Europe(Netherlands), the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Time zone settings will affect time interval when regular backups are running.
The region where backup data is stored can not be changed after the domain is added.
Step 4 - Wait for Microsoft 365 resources synchronisation
After domain onboarding, Afi discovers domain resources which may take up to several minutes for large domains. When it is done, the service will forward you to the backup panel and send an email notification that your account is ready.
If anything goes wrong during this step, please contact us or check the following Afi knowledge base article on installation troubleshooting - Troubleshooting problems with Afi application installation.
Step 5 - Protect your data
To start backing up your data, please configure protection for the whole domain, for specific AAD groups, or for a set of selected users, shared mailboxes, rooms, sites, groups, or teams.
a. To configure protection for the whole domain you need to select a top-level checkbox near the Resources label, then click on the Assign SLA button and select an SLA that will be applied to all domain resources. To manage auto-protecting settings or to assign SLA to specific AAD group(s), please go to the AAD Groups tab.
b. User can also protect only a selected subset of Users, Shared Mailboxes, Rooms, SharePoint sites, Microsoft 365 Groups/Teams by assigning SLA directly to specific resources.
You can monitor backup statuses on Service -> Overview dashboard which provides a high-level status of backup operations in a domain or via Activity -> Tasks section in Afi control panel.
