Archiving M365 Data into Vaultastic

Overview

Applications in Microsoft 365—such as Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint—generate large volumes of organizational data.

This data often needs to be preserved for:

• Business continuity and backup

• Regulatory compliance

• Legal hold and eDiscovery

• Supervision and audit requirements

Vaultastic enables organizations to ingest, store, and manage Microsoft 365 data using configurable ingestion pipelines. Data is archived into storage tiers optimized for access frequency, performance, and long-term retention.

Scope and Supported Workloads

Vaultastic supports archival of the following Microsoft 365 workloads:

Vaultastic Storage Tiers

Vaultastic organizes archived data into multiple storage tiers.

Data can be ingested into these stores automatically or manually, depending on the data source and business requirements.

Data Ingestion Overview

The following table summarizes how Microsoft 365 data can be archived into Vaultastic.

Email Archival

Vaultastic supports both live email capture and historical email ingestion.

Live Mail Flow

To capture all email transactions automatically:

1. Configure Microsoft 365 Journaling.

2. Route journaled copies to the Vaultastic Active Store.

3. Apply journaling to selected users or the entire tenant.

This is a one-time configuration and ensures that all future emails are archived automatically.

Operational Note:

• Ensure journaling rules exclude loops and duplicate routing
• Validate journaling mailbox throughput limits

Existing Mailbox Data

Email already present in user mailboxes can be archived using the Data Upload Application.

Data can be ingested into:

• Active Store for searchable supervision workflows

• Open Store for medium-term retention

• Deep Store for long-term archival

If mailboxes use Microsoft 365 In-Place Archive, the archived data can be:

1. Exported as PST files

2. Uploaded to Open Store or Deep Store

PST or EML Upload

If email data already exists in archive files:

• PST files

• EML files

These files can be uploaded directly to:

• Open Store

• Deep Store

If required, data stored in these tiers can later be activated into the Active Store for search and investigation workflows.

Microsoft Teams Chat Archival

Teams chat data can be archived for:

• Regulatory supervision

• Long-term retention

• Internal investigations

Using Data Upload App, administrators can archive:

• One-on-one chats

• Group chats

Archival can be filtered by:

• Date range

• Selected users

• All users in the tenant

Data Upload app converts Teams chat data into email-compatible format before uploading it to:

• Active Store

• Open Store

• Deep Store

Important Behavior:

• Chats are normalized into email format; threading behavior may differ from the native Teams UI
• Attachments are preserved where accessible via API

OneDrive and SharePoint Data

OneDrive

Files stored in OneDrive can be archived using Data Upload Application.

Supported destinations:

• Open Store

• Deep Store

Administrators can configure automated schedules to periodically archive OneDrive data.

SharePoint

Documents stored in SharePoint sites can also be archived using the Data Upload Application.

Supported destinations:

• Open Store

• Deep Store

Archival jobs can be scheduled to ensure continuous preservation of SharePoint documents.

Operational Note:

• Ensure API throttling limits are considered for large tenants
• Incremental sync should be enabled for efficiency

Initial Configuration

Follow these steps to configure Microsoft 365 archival in Vaultastic.

1. Define User Scope

Create one or more Distribution Lists in Microsoft 365 to define which users should be archived.

For tenant-wide coverage, configure a Dynamic Distribution List.

2. Configure Email Journaling

Enable journaling in Microsoft 365 and route journal copies to the Vaultastic Active Store.

This ensures that all new email transactions are archived automatically.

3. Configure API Access

Generate Microsoft Graph API credentials and register them with Vaultastic.

Required permissions typically include access to:

• Mailboxes

• Teams

• OneDrive

• SharePoint

Best Practice:

• Use a least-privilege access model
• Use application permissions with admin consent
• Store credentials securely (e.g., key vault)

4. Configure Automated Archival

Using the Data Upload Application, configure schedules to archive:

• Teams chats

• OneDrive files

• SharePoint documents

Schedules should align with organizational retention and compliance requirements.

5. Upload Historical Data

To ensure complete archival coverage:

• Upload historical mailbox data

• Upload historical Teams chat data

• Upload historical OneDrive and SharePoint data

This step prevents historical data gaps and ensures:

• Continuous data protection

• Full historical coverage

• Automated compliance workflows

• Optimized storage usage across Vaultastic tiers.

Security and Access Control

• All data ingestion occurs via authenticated APIs or journaling pipelines
• Access to archived data is controlled via role-based access control (RBAC)
• Audit logs should be enabled for:
  • Data access
  • Search activity
  • Export operations

Recommended Controls:

• Enable MFA for admin accounts
• Restrict API credentials
• Periodically review access permissions

Monitoring and Validation

After configuration, validate:

• Journaling flow is active and delivering emails
• API ingestion jobs are running successfully
• Data is searchable in Vaultastic
• No ingestion gaps exist

Suggested Checks:

• Sample user mailbox validation
• Teams chat sampling
• File count comparison (source vs archive)

Important Considerations

• Teams data is stored in email-compatible format (not native Teams structure)
• API throttling may impact large-scale ingestion jobs
• Historical ingestion duration depends on tenant size and API limits
• Journaling captures only email (not Teams/Files)