When managing Power Platform environments, safeguarding your data through regular backups is crucial. Microsoft provides robust tools for both automated and manual backups, ensuring your environments can be restored to their previous state if needed.
Understanding Backup Types
1. Automated System Backups
The Power Platform automatically conducts system backups for production and sandbox environments, providing a fail-safe for your data. These backups do not impact your storage limits and are retained for seven days by default, extending to 28 days for production environments with Dynamics 365 applications enabled.
2. Manual Backups
Before significant updates or customizations, manual backups are recommended. To perform a manual backup:
- Access the Power Platform admin center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft com) with administrator credentials.
- Navigate to ‘Environments‘, select the environment you would like to backup.
- Click ‘Backup & Restore’ > ‘Create manual backup’.
- Add a descriptive Label for the backup and click Create.
Once completed, you’ll receive a confirmation message. Manual backups are kept for up to seven days for sandbox environments, with a 28-day retention for certain production environments.
Restoring from Backups
Restoring a system backup is straightforward:
- Access the Power Platform admin center (https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft com) with administrator credentials.
- Go to ‘Environments‘ within the admin center, select an environment.
- Click ‘Backup & Restore’ > ‘Restore or Manage’.
- In the ‘Backup & Restore’ page, there are separate tabs for to restore System and Manual backups.
- To Restore a System Backup:
- Go to the ‘System‘ tab.
- Select a Date and Time, and click the Continue button.
- A tab will appear on the right hand side.
- If you would like to restore Audit Logs as well, ensure you click on the “click here” hyperlink.
- Select the Security Group to be applied to the Restored Environment.
- Select the Environment you want to Restore the backup in. This can be the same as the environment you have selected i.e. the environment you are restoring a backup of.
- To Restore a Manual Backup:
- Go to the ‘Manual‘ tab.
- Select the Manual backup you would like to restore, and click the Restore button.
Best Practices and Considerations
- Always verify backup expiration dates to ensure availability.
- Note that backups must be restored to the same region they were created in.
- Consider using less privileged roles for administrative tasks to enhance security.
- Transitioning a production environment to a sandbox will reduce backup retention to seven days.
By following these steps and regularly monitoring your backups, you can maintain the integrity and availability of your Power Platform environments.
Until next time, Happy PowerX-ing!