Note: If you plan to back up your Google Workspace data to Windows network storage, we strongly recommend storing the data index on an SSD on your local server, and be sure to keep a stable network connection with the NAS to avoid interrupting the backup process, which might result in corrupted files in your backup repository. This storage type is not as stable as cloud storage, please use at your own risk.

Storage type: Select "Windows network location" from the dropdown list.

Data index path: For performance reasons, CubeBackup needs to keep some metadata on a local disk when backing up Google Workspace data.

Note: Data index is the metadata for the backups, and its accessing speed is crucially important for the performance of the backups. We strongly recommend that you store the data index on a local SSD. See What is the data index for more information.

Network storage path: If CubeBackup is installed on a Windows operating system using network storage, the network storage path and access credentials are required in this step.

Manually enter the UNC path for the remote storage, e.g., \\NAS-HOSTNAME\gsuite_backup, or \\192.168.1.123\gsuite_backup. Generally, the hostname is preferred over IP addresses, especially in an Active Directory domain environment.

Notes:

1. Network resource drive letter mapping is not currently supported. Please use UNC paths (\\NAS-HOSTNAME\backup\gsuite) instead of mapped paths (Z:\gsuite).
   
2. Please ensure the backup location has enough available space to store all employee data in your Google Workspace domain, including any future backups. Because Google does not always report the size of all files stored and does not even count some files when totaling storage, and since CubeBackup itself keeps a revision history of files, a good rule of thumb is reserve 2x the estimated data size for your domain. For example, if there are 100 users in your Google Workspace domain and each user has 10GB of data on average, there should be at least 100 * 10GB * 2 = 2TB of space available for the backup.

User and password: The username and password to access the network storage are required.

• For Windows networks using Active Directory, the preferred user name format is <DomainName>\<UserName>. For example: cubebackup\smith ( [email protected] is not supported).
• For Windows networks organized by workgroup, or if the network storage is located outside of your active directory, the format should be <NASHostName>\<UserName>. For example: backup_nas\smith.

Why are a username and password required?
CubeBackup runs as a service using the system default local service account, which does not have rights to access network resources. This is by design in Windows. In order for CubeBackup to access network storage, a username and password must be supplied.

Encrypt backups: If you want your backups to be stored encrypted, make sure the "Encrypt backups" option is checked.

Tips:
1. This option cannot be changed after the initial configuration.
2. Data transfer between the Google Cloud and your storage is always HTTPS/SSL encrypted, whether this option is selected or not.
3. Encryption may slow down the backup process by around 10%, and cost more CPU.

When all information has been entered, click the Next button.

After clicking the Next button, we strongly recommend that you make a copy of the key file <installation directory>/db/keys.json and store it in a separate safe location. If the key file is lost, your encrypted backup data will be completely unrecoverable. CubeBackup Inc. does not have access to any key files and will be unable to help you!

Note: If you plan to back up your Google Workspace data to Amazon AWS S3 storage, we strongly recommend running CubeBackup on an AWS EC2 instance (e.g. t3.large instance) instead of a local server. Hosting both the backup server and storage on AWS will avoid the bottleneck of all data moving through your local server and greatly improve backup speeds.

Storage type: Select "Amazon S3" from the dropdown list.

Data index path: For performance reasons, CubeBackup needs to keep some metadata on a local disk when backing up Google Workspace data.

Note: Data index is the metadata for the backups, and its accessing speed is crucially important for the performance of the backups. We strongly recommend that you store the data index on a local SSD. See What is the data index for more information.

S3 Bucket: Before you can backup Google Drive, Shared drives, Contacts, Calendar and Sites data to Amazon S3, you will first need to create and configure an private Amazon S3 bucket following the instructions below or watching the demo:

1. Create an Amazon AWS account

   If your company has never used an Amazon AWS service, like Amazon EC2 or Amazon S3, you will need to create an Amazon AWS account. Please visit Amazon AWS, click the Create an AWS Account button, and follow the instructions.

   If you already have an AWS account, you can sign in directly using your account.

2. Create Amazon S3 bucket

   Amazon S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) is one of the most-widely used cloud storage services in the world. It has been proven to be secure, cost-effective, and reliable. Amazon S3 stores data as objects within buckets. Each object consists of a file and attached metadata. Buckets are configurable containers for any data objects, at specific geographic regions, with controlled access and detailed access logs.

   To create your S3 bucket for Google Workspace backup data, please follow Amazon's official instructions at: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/gsg/CreatingABucket.html

   After the bucket has been successfully created, you can change the default configuration on the "Properties" page. You may wish to enable "Server access logging" or "Default encryption", depending on your company policies, but these options are not necessary for the operation of CubeBackup.

   It is strongly recommended that you create a separate bucket only for CubeBackup.

3. Create an IAM account

   AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) is a web service that helps you securely control access to AWS resources. The IAM account will be used to control access to the S3 bucket.

   Instead of defining permissions for the IAM account directly, it is more convenient to create a group with predefined policies and then assign the IAM user to that group.

   Here are a few brief instructions for creating an IAM for CubeBackup:

   1. Open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/
   2. In the navigation pane, choose "Users" and then choose Add user.
   3. Enter a User name for the new user. (e.g. CubeBackupS3), and click Next.
   4. On the Set permissions page, click Create group.
   5. On the Create user group dialog, enter a User group name (e.g. S3Access) and check AmazonS3FullAccess policy, then click Create user group.

      Tip: If you want to create an IAM account which only has permissions on the newly created S3 bucket (not the "AmazonS3FullAccess" policy), please refer to this doc.

   6. Back on the Set permissions page, make sure the newly created group is checked, then click Next.
   7. Click Create user, and choose the name of the intended user in the user list.
   8. Choose the Security credentials tab on the user detail page. In the Access keys section, choose Create access key.
   9. On the Access key best practices & alternatives page, choose Application running outside AWS, then choose Next.
   10. Set a description tag value for the access key if you wish. Then choose Create access key.
   11. On the Retrieve access keys page, choose either Show to reveal the value of your user's secret access key, or Download .csv file. This is your only opportunity to save your secret access key. You will need the Access key and Secret access key values for the next step.

In step 2 of the CubeBackup wizard, you can now enter the name of your Amazon S3 bucket and copy the Access key ID and Secret access key values into the corresponding textboxes.

For detailed information about creating IAM accounts, please visit: AWS IAM account Guide

Storage class: Select an Amazon S3 storage class for the backup data. Standard-IA or One Zone-IA is recommended.

For more information about Amazon S3 storage classes, please visit AWS Storage classes. You can find the pricing details for the different S3 storage classes at S3 pricing.

Encrypt backups: If you want your backups to be stored encrypted, make sure the "Encrypt backups" option is checked.

Tips:
1. This option cannot be changed after the initial configuration.
2. Data transfer between the Google Cloud and your storage is always HTTPS/SSL encrypted, whether this option is selected or not.
3. Encryption may slow down the backup process by around 10%, and cost more CPU.

When all information has been entered, click the Next button.

After clicking the Next button, we strongly recommend that you make a copy of the key file <installation directory>/db/keys.json and store it in a separate safe location. If the key file is lost, your encrypted backup data will be completely unrecoverable. CubeBackup Inc. does not have access to any key files and will be unable to help you!

Note: If you plan to back up your Google Workspace data to Google Cloud storage, we strongly recommend running CubeBackup on a Google Compute Engine VM (e.g. e2-standard-2 VM) instead of a local server. Hosting both the backup server and storage on Google Cloud will avoid the bottleneck of all data moving through your local server and greatly improve backup speeds.

Storage type: Select "Google Cloud storage" from the dropdown list.

Data index path: For performance reasons, CubeBackup needs to keep some metadata on a local disk when backing up Google Workspace data.

Note: Data index is the metadata for the backups, and its accessing speed is crucially important for the performance of the backups. We strongly recommend that you store the data index on a local SSD. See What is the data index for more information.

Bucket: Before you can backup data to Google Cloud storage, you will first need to create and configure a private Google Cloud Storage bucket.

CubeBackup requires that the Google Cloud storage bucket and the service account (required in step 3) are placed in the same Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project.

We recommend that you use the CubeBackup Service Account Generator to create the GCP project and associated service account directly. Then in the new project, you can create a Google Cloud storage bucket for your backups. Alternatively, you may create the project and bucket by hand in Google Cloud Platform, and manually generate the service account in the same project later in Step 3.

Either way, you can follow the detailed instructions below to create your Google Cloud storage bucket.

1. Log in to Google Cloud Platform. For users who have run the CubeBackup Service Account Generator, please use the same Google account you entered before.

2. Switch to the "CubeBackup project" created by the CubeBackup Service Account Generator or the new project you created manually.

3. Create a Google Cloud Storage bucket.

   • Select STORAGE > Cloud Storage > Buckets from the navigation menu.

     Tip: The navigation menu slides out from the left of the screen when you click the icon in the upper left corner of the page.

   • In the Buckets page, click + CREATE.
   • In the Create a bucket page, input a name for the bucket, and click CONTINUE.
   • Choose a location type for the bucket (Region or Multi-region is recommended), then select a location for the bucket, and then click CONTINUE.

     Tips:
     1.Please select the location based on the security & privacy policy of your organizations. For example, for EU organizations, you may need to select Europe to be in accordance with GDPR.
     2.Select a location the same as or near to the location of your Google Compute Engine VM.

   • Choose a default storage class for the backup data, Coldline is recommended, then click CONTINUE.
   • Select Uniform as the Access control type, and click CONTINUE.
   • Additional options should be left as default. Then click CREATE.

     Note: Since CubeBackup constantly overwrites the SQLite files during each backup, enabling the Object versioning or Retention policy would lead to unnecessary files duplication and extra costs.

Storage class: The storage class for the backup data. Coldline is recommended. For more information about Google Cloud storage classes, please visit Storage classes. You can find the pricing details for the different Google Cloud storage classes at Cloud Storage Pricing.

Encrypt backups: If you want your backups to be stored encrypted, make sure the "Encrypt backups" option is checked.

Tips:
1. This option cannot be changed after the initial configuration.
2. Data transfer between the Google Cloud and your storage is always HTTPS/SSL encrypted, whether this option is selected or not.
3. Encryption may slow down the backup process by around 10%, and cost more CPU.

When all information has been entered, click the Next button.

After clicking the Next button, we strongly recommend that you make a copy of the key file <installation directory>/db/keys.json and store it in a separate safe location. If the key file is lost, your encrypted backup data will be completely unrecoverable. CubeBackup Inc. does not have access to any key files and will be unable to help you!

Note: If you plan to back up Google Workspace data to Microsoft Azure Blob storage, we strongly recommend running CubeBackup on a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine instead of a local server. Hosting both the backup server and storage on Azure Cloud will avoid the bottleneck of all data moving through your local server and greatly improve backup speeds.

Storage type: Select "Azure Blob storage" from the dropdown list.

Data index path: For performance reasons, CubeBackup needs to keep some metadata on a local disk when backing up Google Workspace data.

Note: Data index is the metadata for the backups, and its accessing speed is crucially important for the performance of the backups. We strongly recommend that you store the data index on a local SSD. See What is the data index for more information.

Storage account: Your Azure Storage Account.

Access key: The Access Key to your Storage Account.

Container: The container created in your Azure Storage Account.

For more information about the Azure Blob storage, the storage account, and the container, please visit Introduction to Azure Blob storage.

Access tier: The Access Tier for Azure Blob Storage. Cool is recommended.

For more information about Azure Blob Storage Access tiers, see this. You can find the pricing details for the different Azure Storage Cloud access tiers classes from here.

If you are an experienced Azure user, you may skip the instructions below. If you are new to Azure storage, please follow the instructions below or watch the demo to create a Storage account and a Container for Azure Blob Storage.

• Create a storage account

  1. Log into the Microsoft Azure Portal using an Azure account with an active subscription. If you do not have an Azure account, sign up to get a new account.
  2. Select Storage Accounts from the left panel and click + Create.
  3. On the Basics tab, select the Subscription and Resource group in which you'd like to create the storage account.
  4. Next, enter a valid and unique name for your storage account.

  5. Select a Region for your storage account or simply use the default one.

     Note: Please select the location based on the security & privacy policy of your organizations. For example, for EU organizations, you may need to select Europe to be in accordance with GDPR.

  6. Select the Performance tier. Standard is recommended.

  7. Choose a Redundancy policy to specify how the data in your Azure Storage account is replicated. Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) is recommended. For more information about replication strategies, see Azure Storage redundancy.

  8. On the Data protection tab, uncheck Enable soft delete for blobs. Since CubeBackup constantly overwrites the SQLite files during each backup, enabling this option would lead to unnecessary file duplication and extra costs.

  9. Additional options are available under Advanced, Networking, Data protection and Tags, but these can be left as default.

  10. Select the Review + create tab, review your storage account settings, and then click Create. The deployment should only take a few moments to complete.

• Get Access key
  To authenticate CubeBackup's requests to your storage account, an Access key is required.

  1. In the detail page of your newly created storage account, select Access keys under Security + networking from the left panel.
  2. On the Access keys page, click Show keys.
  3. Copy the access key from the Key text box of either key1 or key2 and paste it into the Access key textbox on the CubeBackup configuration wizard.
     
     

• Create a new container

  1. In the detail page of your newly created storage account, click Containers under Data storage from the left panel.
  2. On the containers page, click + Container.
  3. Enter a valid Name and ensure the Public access level is Private (no anonymous access). You can leave the other Advanced settings as default.
  4. Click Create.

Encrypt backups: If you want your backups to be stored encrypted, make sure the "Encrypt backups" option is checked.

Tips:
1. This option cannot be changed after the initial configuration.
2. Data transfer between the Google Cloud and your storage is always HTTPS/SSL encrypted, whether this option is selected or not.
3. Encryption may slow down the backup process by around 10%, and cost more CPU.

When all information has been entered in the configuration wizard, click the Next button.

After clicking the Next button, we strongly recommend that you make a copy of the key file <installation directory>/db/keys.json and store it in a separate safe location. If the key file is lost, your encrypted backup data will be completely unrecoverable. CubeBackup Inc. does not have access to any key files and will be unable to help you!

CubeBackup supports AWS S3 compatible storage, such as Wasabi and Backblaze B2.

• To create a storage bucket on Wasabi Cloud Storage, please refer to backup Google Workspace data to Wasabi.
  
• To create a storage bucket on Backblaze B2 storage, please refer to backup Google Workspace data to Backblaze B2.

Note: Usually, S3 compatible cloud storage is not as stable as AWS S3. Use at your own risk.

Storage type: Select Amazon S3 compatible storage from the dropdown list.

Data index path: For performance reasons, data index must be stored on a local disk. In most cases, there is no need to specify a new path for the data index.

Endpoint: The request URL for your storage bucket.

Bucket: Your S3 compatible storage bucket.

Access key ID: The key ID to access your S3 compatible storage.

Secret access key: The access key value to your S3 compatible storage.

Region: Certain very specific self-hosted S3 compatible storage may require you to manually enter the region. Wasabi and Backblaze users can ignore this section.

You can also manually create a service account in Google Cloud Platform and use it in the setup wizard. Please follow the instructions below or watch the demo:

1. Log in to Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

2. Create a new project. Google Cloud Console is a place to manage applications/projects based on Google APIs or Google Cloud Services. Begin by creating a new project.

   • Go to the Projects page in the Google Cloud Console.

     Tip: This page can be opened by either clicking the above link or selecting IAM & admin > Manage resources in the navigation menu. The navigation menu slides out from the left of the screen when you click the icon in the upper left corner of the page.

   • Click CREATE PROJECT.

   • In the New Project page, enter "CubeBackup" as the project name and click CREATE.

     You can leave the Location and Organisation fields unchanged. They have no effect on this project.

   • The creation of the project may take one or two minutes. After the project has been created, click the newly created project in the Notifications dialog to make it the active project in your dashboard (you can also select your newly created project in the project drop-down list at the top of the page to make it the active project).

     

     Note: Please make sure this project is the currently active project in your console before continuing!

3. Enable Google APIs.

   • Now open the API Library page by selecting APIs & services > Library from the navigation menu.
   • Search for Google Drive API, then on the Google Drive API page, click ENABLE (Any "Create Credentials" warning message can be ignored, because service account credentials will be created in the next step).
   • Next, go back to the API Library page and follow the same steps to enable Google Calendar API, Gmail API, Admin SDK API, and Google People API.
     > To check whether all necessary APIs have been enabled, please select APIs & Services > Dashboard from the navigation menu, and make sure Admin SDK API, Gmail API, Google Calendar API, Google Drive API and People API are all included in the API list.

4. Create a Service account.

   • Select IAM & Admin > Service Accounts in the navigation menu.
   • Click +CREATE SERVICE ACCOUNT.
   • In the Service account details step, enter a name for the service account (e.g., cubebackup) and click CREATE AND CONTINUE.
   • In the second step, select "Basic" > "Owner" (or "Project" > "Owner") as the Role, then click CONTINUE.
   • Click DONE directly in the Grant users access to this service account step.
   • On the Service accounts page, click directly on the service account you just created (Don't just check the box, click the email link). This should take you to the Service account details page.
   • Select the KEYS tab of the service account.
   • Click ADD KEY > Create new key.
   • Select JSON as the key type, then click CREATE.
   • Close the dialog that pops up and save the generated JSON key file locally (This file will be used as the service account key in CubeBackup's configuration wizard).

5. Return to the CubeBackup setup page. After the Service account key file has been generated and downloaded to your local computer, click the Choose File button to select the JSON key file generated in the last step. After the domain name, the Google Workspace administrator account, and the service account key file are all set, click Next.