G Suite for Education Setup

[speakercon]

I am looking to sign up our school to G Suite for Education.

 

I have previously been a G Suite admin so am familiar on how it works / features / administration, however I have not set it up from scratch before so I'm looking for some advice on the setup procedure before I follow the sign up process.

 

I would like to have a google account created for every AD account we currently have and every future account.

 

We have a 100% windows environment at the moment and we use 365 for email. My understanding is that there is a sync tool to install on the DC which will create a google account for every windows account and sync any account/password changes.

 

We already own a domain name that is only used for our website and is not linked to the domain or 365 and I would like to use this as the Google Domain. I've partly followed the signup process through and it gives me the option to use an existing domain, but I'm unsure how I would link the domain to G Suite.

 

 

So my main concerns are:

 

How to link the domain to G Suite - I assume some DNS settings will need changing?

 

Is it possible to keep using this domain name for the website as well as G Suite?

 

Does 365 need to be involved in any way?

 

 

Many thanks in advance!

Edited August 31, 2019 by speakercon

[Steve21]

As part of the setup there's a wizard you go through and it'll help you setup most the bits.

 

If you want to continue using the domain for website, that's fine, you only need to point the mx records towards Google for mail etc

 

Have a nosy below as it'll answer most the question

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/6318998?

 

And in regards to the AD sync tool, yep it'll sync from AD to Google to setup accounts for them, and sync password/hashes etc:

 

https://support.google.com/a/answer/106368?hl=en

 

Steve

[3s-gtech]

You can also sync your Azure AD to G Suite so avoiding having a second sync from your DC. You add G Suite as an Azure Enterprise Application, authorise it, then sync users/groups.

[Ditto]

If you fancy a trial run, I recommend this Coursera specialisation.

[speakercon]

Ah that looks straight forward then. I'll follow it through one day next week and report back on how it goes!

@Ditto - That course looks good, looks like you can view the material for free but you need to pay to get certified?

[Ditto]

Ah that looks straight forward then. I'll follow it through one day next week and report back on how it goes!

@Ditto - That course looks good, looks like you can view the material for free but you need to pay to get certified?

I managed to certify within the 7 day Coursera trial period, but I did cram and was not at work at the time. Partly, the limiting factor to avoid costs is that if you build your own trial domain, the free G Suite license period is 14 days. As you can work on a real domain, that's not a big issue I guess. To get the certificate at no cost, I think you'd need to do so in the 7 days free trial. After the trial period, I believe you lose the ability to do the graded tests (they're pretty basic) and won't be able certify without paying. They estimate a month at 14 hours per week, so I guess about 50+ hours. I probably did less, but like you I had previous experience administering G Suite, but almost none with initial setup. The first sub-course is useful for this and then the ones on security and gmail setup were useful. Some of the topics they cover relate to the Enterprise version, which I've yet to find a school that uses it, but useful insight as over time, often some of those features filter down to the free G Suite for Education version. The course was in beta when I did it a few weeks back, but looks to be 'official; now. It was light on video instruction but I didn't find that a problem. The predecessor to this course called GSuite Admin Fundamentals, but it's clear they have deprecated as that no longer appears on Coursera.

Good luck and have fun!

[speakercon]

I managed to certify within the 7 day Coursera trial period, but I did cram and was not at work at the time. Partly, the limiting factor to avoid costs is that if you build your own trial domain, the free G Suite license period is 14 days. As you can work on a real domain, that's not a big issue I guess. To get the certificate at no cost, I think you'd need to do so in the 7 days free trial. After the trial period, I believe you lose the ability to do the graded tests (they're pretty basic) and won't be able certify without paying. They estimate a month at 14 hours per week, so I guess about 50+ hours. I probably did less, but like you I had previous experience administering G Suite, but almost none with initial setup. The first sub-course is useful for this and then the ones on security and gmail setup were useful. Some of the topics they cover relate to the Enterprise version, which I've yet to find a school that uses it, but useful insight as over time, often some of those features filter down to the free G Suite for Education version. The course was in beta when I did it a few weeks back, but looks to be 'official; now. It was light on video instruction but I didn't find that a problem. The predecessor to this course called GSuite Admin Fundamentals, but it's clear they have deprecated as that no longer appears on Coursera.

Good luck and have fun!

Looks good, I'd definitely like to give that a go. I'm not against paying if needed to be honest (price depending!). 7 days seems a stretch unless I lock myself in the server room for a week.

[Ditto]

It's surprisingly difficult to find the cost! To save you the trouble, after the free 7 day period, it is £40 per month.