Simultaneous GAFE and Office 365

[dry]

Trying to use MIT's App Inventor which apparently requires a Google account to use, so have been discussing with SLT about signing up for GAFE who have instructed me to do so.

 

We use Office 365 already and I'm getting a bit nervous. GAFE is asking about whether I have administrative access to our web domain and I'm concerned GAFE and Office 365 are going to conflict. I'm perfectly happy with people using username@ourdomain to log into GAFE, but I don't want Office 365's email provision to be affected.

 

Anyone know what's going on here or been in a similar O365 and GAFE situation like me? Have started to read this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16pGWXaoxC6CtVV1kZ0I9PgtSntZP80_2gWmaxKSLB18/view but feels like a lot of it is irrelevant.

 

Thanks

[howartp]

Trying to use MIT's App Inventor which apparently requires a Google account to use, so have been discussing with SLT about signing up for GAFE who have instructed me to do so.

 

We use Office 365 already and I'm getting a bit nervous. GAFE is asking about whether I have administrative access to our web domain and I'm concerned GAFE and Office 365 are going to conflict. I'm perfectly happy with people using username@ourdomain to log into GAFE, but I don't want Office 365's email provision to be affected.

 

Anyone know what's going on here or been in a similar O365 and GAFE situation like me? Have started to read this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16pGWXaoxC6CtVV1kZ0I9PgtSntZP80_2gWmaxKSLB18/view but feels like a lot of it is irrelevant.

 

Thanks

 

Another user asked this in a private subforum yesterday.

 

Here's my reply to him:

 

Hello,

 

We currently have Office 365 for the schools's domain and are staying with it.

 

One teacher want to use Google Apps for Education for his teaching.

 

As part of signing up, I have to verify that the domain belongs to us.

 

The question is: does verifying the domain take over the MX record for the domain and divert all our mail to GMail? Would registering the domain with Google Apps affect the domain already registered with Office 365?

 

I need to be absolutely sure (that it won't affect it) before proceeding.

 

Thanks.

 

Lee.

 

The question is: does verifying the domain take over the MX record for the domain and divert all our mail to GMail?

No.

 

Verifying it just proves you own it - usually by adding a TXT record to the domain something like "Google=abdcef123456" that Google can test exists. Only the authorised owner will have been able to create that record. (If your domain is still with NYCC then you need the Cirrus team to do it for you)

 

Would registering the domain with Google Apps affect the domain already registered with Office 365?

I can't definitively answer this.

 

I wouldn't think so, as long as you're not intending using drive.schooldomain.com as your domain for GAFE; if you stay with drive.google.com/a/schooldomain.com and disable the mail app for your GAFE users you *should* be ok. But I don't use Office 365 so I don't know if that has any impact on the matter.

 

Peter

[theeggmaster]

We use GAFE, but I've also got Office 365 set up to use the same domain (mainly to give staff and students access to download Office) with identical looking email addresses. Email delivery will be down to where your MX records on your domain direct your emails to. Ours only send mail to GAFE, meaning nothing is ever sent to Office 365. I imagine if you set up a GAFE account but didn't change your MX records, then nothing would be affected.

[dry]

Thanks, both great answers and reassuring.

[fiza]

We use GAFE, but I've also got Office 365 set up to use the same domain (mainly to give staff and students access to download Office) with identical looking email addresses. Email delivery will be down to where your MX records on your domain direct your emails to. Ours only send mail to GAFE, meaning nothing is ever sent to Office 365. I imagine if you set up a GAFE account but didn't change your MX records, then nothing would be affected.

 

Thats interesting. We wanted to get access to Office for students to use at home but are a GAFE school. I didnt realise I could register the same domain with both Google and Office365.

[Michael]

It's a good question - but ultimately you're still in full control of your MX record, either pointing to Google's or Microsoft's mail services.

 

You can have multiple MX records, but normally it's for redundancy or backup purposes. I probably wouldn't recommend permanently having two MX records pointing at two mail providers.

 

The theory (sounds great) meaning you could view your mail using two methods, but the reality is it will most likely cause problems with DNS and other routing issues.

[psydii]

We have on prem email, O365 and GAfE.

 

See my post in this thread:

http://www.edugeek.net/showpost.php?p=1406340

 

Validating your domain to Google does nothing to mail, it only confirms you have the authority to ask for these things.

 

To Office365 GAfE is simply an app to be authorised.

[witch]

We have both working fine. NB I used @AXE's App inventor software to get it running properly

[theeggmaster]

Thats interesting. We wanted to get access to Office for students to use at home but are a GAFE school. I didnt realise I could register the same domain with both Google and Office365.

 

Office 365 will only need you to verify that you own the domain. I have O365 Directory Sync pulling the users from AD up to O365 through a one-way sync. Passwords are their AD passwords, so I don't have to manage that either. I did have to do a bulk update of email addresses, but I just used BulkADUsers from WiseSoft to do that (free).

[maark]

We have been using GAFE for ages which is very good.

Looking at office proplus 365 for education which seems to be included as part of our schools agreement so students can install office.

I got it all setup and azure to sync active directory so have got users in - but it shows one order of 170 units and one order of 143 units - guessing this may be related to number of full time staff. I thought all students were entitled to one or more copies of office? We have a lot more students than this - how does it work?

[theeggmaster]

We have been using GAFE for ages which is very good.

Looking at office proplus 365 for education which seems to be included as part of our schools agreement so students can install office.

I got it all setup and azure to sync active directory so have got users in - but it shows one order of 170 units and one order of 143 units - guessing this may be related to number of full time staff. I thought all students were entitled to one or more copies of office? We have a lot more students than this - how does it work?

 

Speak to the supplier of your Microsoft Agreement. We had to place an order with ours with an approximate number of students and FTE staff. The order was for £0, but we still had to do it. You then assign them a licence in the O365 portal and they can then log on and download it.

[dry]

Has been a bit of a learning curve for me. Went ahead and signed up for GAfE and indeed there was no touching of the MX records involved. As our domain is in the format schoolname.countyname.gov.uk, the domain name is administered (via the LEA) by RM who insist on change requests for things like this. Google allow you one of three options: Add a META tag, add a TXT or CNAME record, or upload an HTML file.

 

Currently in the process of getting RM to complete the change request (not helped by the fact that for some reason the 'right' to log a call with RM Support has mysteriously vanished from my account!) but fingers crossed it will be actioned soon and our domain will be verified!

[maark]

OK have got licences and synced AD. Got round stupid limitation to only be able to select 20 users at a time in 365 admin by using powershell to allocate licences.

With a test student account - logged in to 365 portal and installed office 2013 from prompt.

It installed ok but Word says activation needed -I selected sign in with an active account instead and successfully signed in but still get prompt for activation when I launch word.

Surely I do not need to give out keys to students? How does this work - I thought students were allowed to install up to 5 copies of office?

Microsoft are such hard work when it comes to licensing - tempted to rip everything out and install chromeboxes :-)

[jslate1980]

What licence have you assigned to students? Office 365 education for students is the one I assign.

[maark]

Have got Office 365 proplus - tried again on a totally fresh install win 7 laptop and it is ok - does not ask for activation and links to the student account. There must have been some office licence info left on the other laptop even though it was off the domain and office had been uninstalled.