Google Apps

[swiftysw1]

Hi,

We use the education Google apps here and and import users via a CSV!

 

Is there anyone who uses the 'Google Apps directory sync'.

 

We are using W2008 Srv - Vanilla..

 

Thanks

SI

[jumpinjamez]

We also started using Google apps but were unsure how much it would be used so just started with .csv files and now would like to start using "Google Apps directory sync" so ill be watching this thread.

 

Our main concern is that we have people using accounts now and will importing new ones using the sync tool over right them?

[swiftysw1]

Yes.. We are in the same boat... Fingers crossed for some positive responses..

[maark]

Using it ok here although never got passwords syncing though there are supposed to be ways to get it going.

Best thing is there is a simulate sync option - try this and look at the logs before doing an actual sync.

Also in the settings set it so that its suspends users that are not present rather than deleting them - that way you won't lose any accounts and can manually delete accounts later if need be.

Always found google support to be really good if you need them.

[swiftysw1]

There are so many different options etc... What are the base settings I need?

[maark]

I have got it to sync OU, user accounts, Groups ,user profiles.

depends on whether you want to use groups for distribution lists.

I have set it up pretty basic - each user and group in active directory has an emaill address and I sync that field to mail in google appps. Used mainly default settings in google apps sync.

[midweek]

We use Google Apps Directory Sync to sync our users with AD and put them in Groups etc.

Works OK but takes a bit of setting up. Fortunately Google support is really quite good and they talked me through a lot of the setup and some of it's more interesting foibles. We originally used a csv but GADS is better once you've got it configured.

Still has a tendency to suspend the odd user randomly though.

There is a Google Apps Password Sync now. I haven't tried it yet but as we are looking at SSO we'll have to move to it sooner rather than later. You need to install it and then have every user change their password for it to work though.

 

Oh and using Groups as distribution lists is really hit or miss. If you share a doc from your drive the groups appear but if you try and find them in contacts, for example, they aren't there. Google are aware of this.

Plus when you share resources to groups it doesn't show up in the "shared with me" section of users' drives as it would if you shared with an individual user. Really frustrating. Again google is aware.

[jklight]

As an option to either the csv import or GADS i have used GAM (google-apps-manager) see here https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-manager/

examples https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-manager/wiki/ExamplesProvisioning

works especially well with powershell https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-manager/wiki/BulkOperations