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GroupWise: Windermere Administration

MigrationDeletedUser
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One of the cornerstone features to GroupWise in the upcoming release of Windermere is a completely new Administration Console. I thought I would share a few details and screen shots of how this experience is going to change.

First of all, there are a few components that help explain the architecture of the new Administration service. There is the GroupWise Admin Service which is installed when you install the GroupWise Server components. These components now include the Admin Service, the MTA, and the POA. After the installation is complete, usually on the same machine where the Primary Domain resides, the Admin service automatically starts. On Windows, the Admin Service is installed in C:\Program Files\Novell\GroupWise Server. With the Admin Service running, you can now launch the Admin Console. This is where you configure your new or existing GroupWise system. You will navigate your browser to the correct URL and accept the self-signed certificate that is automatically provided and the GroupWise Configuration wizard will start: See screen shot….

Configuraton Wizard

 



Click to view.


After you have created your new system, added a new domain or post office, you can then launch the GroupWise Administration Console to configure a new or existing GroupWise system. Here is what it might look like:

Administration Console

 



Click to view.


You can see from this view , launch points for all of the general tasks that an Administrator needs to complete. This blog will discuss a few of these, but will spend more time highlighting some of the advantages and new capabilities with the new Administration Console.

Recent/Favorites/Search


You will notice a few of menus/buttons/controls near the top of the console that allows you to customize and simplify your administration tasks. Easily trace your movements around the console using the ‘Recent’ menu. Effortlessly bookmark and return to common areas or settings or possibly deeply embedded functionality through the ‘Favorites’ menu. This mechanism allows you to easily surface and personalize locations for each administrator. Then there is ‘Search’. The ability to easily find/filter lists of domains, post offices, users, resources, etc. Personally, those features alone make the Administration experience so much better!

New User


Creating new users, domains, post offices or other entities is fairly simple and somewhat routine. You will notice many familiar tasks and screens. This familiarity seamlessly integrated with a new look and feel, easier navigation, and more intuitive interactions makes the transition from ConsoleOne to the GroupWise Administration Console natural and expected.



Click to view.


I hope you enjoyed this brief view of the Administration Console. Let me know if you have questions or want to know how a particular scenario will work with the Windermere software.

Dean

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  • in reply to MigrationDeletedUser
    This is a great question and I went back through my recent posts on Windermere because I thought that we had discussed this at one point...but I can't find anywhere that we did....so here is as good a place as any!

    The basic process: Create the user in the directory (eDir or AD), log in to the GroupWise Admin Console, create the user in GroupWise and associate that user with the directory user.

    There are some tools to make this a bit easier. We will deliver both a plug-in for iManager, if you are using OES and have iManager and we will also provide an MMC plug-in for Active Directory. These tools will help facilitate user creation.

    Once the associate is made, LDAP will be leveraged to keep things in sync.

    Questions?

    Dean

  • in reply to MigrationDeletedUser
    Dean,

    A lot of us prefer to use IDM to automate as much of this as possible. In a previous post you mentioned that a new IDM driver would be coming for Windermere (and maybe for GW2012?). Now that all of the admin functionality seems to have firmed up, I would assume that the IDM driver functionality has likely been largely defined as well. Can you comment on the IDM driver in the context of eDirectory/GroupWise user creation/linking and management? Will it largely be the same as it is currently or are there lots of changes?

    Thanks,
    Johnnie
  • in reply to MigrationDeletedUser
    Good follow up question....

    Automating user creation is an important step for many organizations. I wanted to cover the most basic method first. Using IDM to do this will continue to be a supported option - along with probably several other automated options.

    If you have not heard...the GroupWise IDM driver that supports GroupWise 2012 was released last year when IDM 4.0.2 was released. That driver is part of this bundle.

    download.novell.com/Download

    For Windermere, the IDM driver will need to be rewritten to take advantage of the new ReST API and move away from the unsupported and discontinued Admin Object API. This work is currently under way., The plan is to release the Windermere GroupWise IDM driver around the same time as Windermere - however, this could push closer to SP1 of Windermere...code named Cornell. We recommend that organizations that are using the IDM driver wait until the new Windermere IDM driver is released before they upgrade to Windermere.

    The process and functionality of the new Windermere IDM driver will be largely the same exact capability and functionality of the current IDM driver. The work is to simply retrofit the driver for the new ReST API.

    Dean
  • in reply to MigrationDeletedUser
    When we create new GroupWise users we automatically assign them to GroupWise distribution lists. This process currently requires the use of templates.

    I'm hoping that:
    a) this process won't get broken in Windermere
    b) the process will get better/easier

    thanks

  • in reply to MigrationDeletedUser
    We may need to exchange a few messages on this topic so that I make sure you get a complete answer....

    Templates are an eDir concept, not really a GroupWise administration concept. Therefore, templates will only work on objects in eDir. Let me ask, do you think that maybe a better solution would be to setup eDir Groups to use as GroupWise Dist Lists then assign users to those Groups with templates?

    What do you think?

    Dean
  • in reply to MigrationDeletedUser
    Dean,

    I hadn't realized that 4.0.2 had a new GW driver (that's not my side of the house) so I'm glad to know that it is deployed (and we're probably using it ...)

    Is SP1 expected to ship around 8 months after Windermere? I seem to remember that as the general time frame.

    Thanks,
    Johnnie
  • in reply to MigrationDeletedUser
    Dean,

    Some time ago, we had an IDM process that would use eDir groups to create distribution lists. What we found was that it led to tree-walking as a lot of users who would otherwise interact only with their local partition had to walk the eDirectory tree to be part of some large and diverse distribution lists that were kept in central partitions.

    What might be useful is if a distribution list could be made up of the users from multiple eDirectory groups (i.e. act as a pseudo-nested group). That would provide a lot of flexibility on the eDir and GW sides of the house to properly structure the respective systems. However, in such a case the context of the objects should be preserved (i.e. if you have several eDirectory groups named "staff" in different containers).

    Johnnie
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