#Multi-Geo Support

AvePoint Cloud Backup for Microsoft 365 supports protecting your Microsoft 365 tenant that has the . For details on how it should be configured through the AvePoint Online Services platform and how it is protected in the AvePoint Cloud Backup for Microsoft 365 app, refer to in the AvePoint Online Services User Guide. To take advantage of our global network, you will need to purchase a subscription from AvePoint to leverage our multi-geo infrastructure.

To leverage Multi-Geo capabilities, you must navigate to in AvePoint Online Services 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 . 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 AvePoint Cloud Backup for Microsoft 365 interface. Users with only one region will be automatically redirected to the regional Cloud Backup 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 AvePoint Cloud Backup 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 AOS Auto Discovery and get protected by AvePoint Cloud Backup. This means, in the AvePoint Cloud Backup instance for the new region, the new backup data is isolated exclusively to this region, and the previous backup data cannot be used for 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 a storage (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: , 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 AvePoint Cloud Backup instance for the former region. After the move is completed and the site is registered as new through AOS Auto Discovery, the site will be protected in the AvePoint Cloud Backup instance for the destination region. The previous backup data is not available for 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. This 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 .

• 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 Central AOS 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 AvePoint storage with multi-Geo enabled, Cloud Backup for 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 AvePoint storage.

• The subscription consumption report in Subscriptions is only available to the AOS Service 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.