We start by explaining how to sign up for a Google Apps subscription and then how to activate it. In the next section, we review the principal administration tasks. Managing user accounts is certainly the most important one. We describe the key settings of a Google Apps domain and various advanced settings like those related to integration within an SSO domain or to Google Analytics. The settings specific to applications are covered in the last section.
Google Apps exists in three editions: The Standard Edition, the Premier Edition, and the Education Edition. Here is a short summary of the features available in each of the three versions:
- Standard Edition: This edition is free and is intended for those who will use Google Apps mostly for private and domestic purposes or for smaller, nonprofit organizations. It is limited to 50 users and does not include the Postini services (see Chapter 5, Security Tools). The Gmail inbox includes a contextual advertising zone that lists a number of commercial links.
- Premier Edition: This version is for companies. It costs $50 per user for a one year subscription. It has a 99.9% SLA and includes the Postini services. The archiving service from Postini must be subscribed separately. There is no advertisement.
- Education Edition: This is a free edition, intended for academics and schools, which has the same features as the Premier Edition.
The first table in the introduction to Part 2 of this book contains more information on the costs and the list of services in each edition.
Recall that it is perfectly possible to first subscribe to a Standard edition, to rate the quality of the services and then, later, upgrade to a Premier version.
Here are the basic steps to register for a Google App account and then to activate the services. The activation of specific services was covered in Part 2 and in the last section of this chapter.
Registering for Google Apps begins with choosing the name of a domain. This is the name of the primary domain, which will be used by Gmail. Other domains may be added later, once the Google Apps have been activated. If, for instance, the domain name is my-company.com, the Gmail addresses will all take the form [email protected].
Registering for Google Apps is done in three steps: 1. Choose a domain name 2. Provide contact information 3. Create the first user account.
During the registration process, it will be necessary to confirm that changing the DNS records is indeed possible, otherwise the Google Apps services won't be operational.
Once the registration process is completed, the Google Apps administration console will look as shown in the following screenshot:
The Google Apps admin console, once the registration process is complete. At this stage, the services are not yet operational.
To prevent any abusive use of the Google Apps, domain name ownership must first be confirmed. The domain name should be registered with a registrar in case this has not yet been done.
Asking for domain ownership confirmation in the console
There are two methods to confirm domain ownership. Both use a private key provided in the Google Apps administration console:
- The first possibility is to publish an HTML file that contains the key, directly at the root of the domain
- The second possibility is to change a CNAME record in the host's DNS page using the same key and pointing the record to
google.com
Checking domain ownership using a temporary CNAME record, which contains a key provided in the console
Before routing incoming mail to the Gmail servers, the administrator should create the user accounts that will match with the future recipients. There are actually several ways to do this (see the section dedicated to group and user creation that follows).
Creating the user accounts before redirecting mail
The exact procedure will depend on the situation:
- New accounts can be simply created from scratch (see paragraph 7.2 concerning the use of CSV files)
- A complete migration can be performed starting with existing accounts (see Chapter 14, Performing the Migration)
- A partial migration can be performed in order to set up a pilot project (see Chapter 13, The Pilot Project)
For incoming mail to be routed to Gmail's servers, it is necessary to modify the MX records in the DNS console of the host with which the domain is registered. The details of the procedure will vary slightly from one host to another. The procedure is described in detail on the configuration page that shows up when the link "activate email" is clicked in the dashboard (see the following screenshot):
Following the link "Activate email" in the dashboard opens a link with detailed instructions for MX records values
It is important to remember that an improper change of the MX records can have serious consequences when mail accounts preexist. Indeed, messages are simply lost in the case of an error.
This is the reason why the Google Apps console proposes using a temporary email address that is independent of the MX-records. It has the following form:
<username>@mycompany.test-google-a.com
Once the MX record has been modified, the final address, linked to the domain name will be used. It has the following form:
<username>@mycompany.com
When a pilot project is set up, there are still other solutions, which we shall describe in Chapter 13, The Pilot Project.
A wiza rd assists the user in the activation process. The automatic registration process starts once the terms of the contracts have been accepted by the administrator. The process can last up to one hour. The progress can be monitored directly in the Google Apps console.
The activation process of the Postini services in the Google Apps administration console. The status of the registration process can be checked.
The rest of the activation procedure for Postini services comes down to rerouting the incoming mail to the Postini services rather than directly to Gmail. Again, this is done by changing the MX-records. A wizard is available here as well. A delay of 24-48 hours may be necessary to ensure that the MX record changes propagate throughout the DNS tree.
Once th e Postini services have been activated, it's a good idea to check that mail indeed flows through them, and then to delete the now obsolete MX records.
A few more settings for Gmail need to be adjusted, in particular to ensure that no messages coming from Postini services will be considered as spam by the Google Apps filters. Details are provided by the activation wizard.
Recall that a detailed description of the features of Postini was given in Chapter 5, Security Tools.