Novell has just announced some “sneak peek” webinars to show off the upcoming GroupWise 2014. You can find out more about it here!
I think you’ll like what you see! Check it out.
We’ll be having some announcements soon regarding our GroupWise Mobility Service 2.0 book and our Upgrading to GroupWise 2014 book. Both are scheduled to ship the same day these products become “public”, whether that be as a tech preview or shipping, depending on Novell’s finally launch plans. Stay tuned!
I’ve actually been asked this question three times in as many weeks, so I decided it was time to write a little post about it.
First, many of us realize that GroupWise is extremely flexible when it comes to addressing. Not only can we utilize many addressing schemes such as first.last@domain.com, last.first@domain.com, userid@domain.com and even free-formed addressing, a single GroupWise system can support literally an unlimited number of internet domain names. So, for example, if my userid is monkey, and I have the domains danitaszoo.com, zanrezoo.com and gwisezoo.com, I can receive mail as “monkey” at all three of these domains. Add a few nicknames like gorilla, chimp, spider, and the number of possible addresses starts to multiply.
So, I hear from sites who usually have one of the following two problems, but occasionally (like in my own office), it is a mix of both.
The big dilemma here of course is that GroupWise only allows for one “sending” address. Whatever the administrator sets as the “default” email address for a user is how GroupWise sends. So, I might receive email for chimp@zanrezoo.com, but if my default email address is set as monkey@danitaszoo.com, all of my outbound mail will be from monkey@danitaszoo.com. So, how can we allow GroupWise users to “send” as multiple email addresses.
Some sites create resources or even dummy users to deal with this. But then users need to monitor more than one GroupWise account, and can either overlook mail or get tired of switching back and forth. Another option is to allow users to send through the GWIA directly via SMTP to accomplish this. First I’ll show you how to do this, and then I will explain some of the technical issues and downsides to this method.
So, down to business.
In order for this to work, you need to first turn on POP/IMAP access in the master mailbox. This is done in ConsoleOne by right-clicking a domain, post office or user (in other words you can turn it on for only one user if necessary). Then you go to GroupWise Utilities|Client Options and click on Environment. There on that first General tab, check the box in the bottom half that says “Allow use of POP and IMAP accounts in the Online Mailbox”.
After this is done you move to the GroupWise client to do the next steps.
After you enable the setting above, you should see an “Accounts” menu in the GroupWise client. If this menu is not available, restart the GroupWise client. Click on the Accounts menu and choose Account Options. Then click Add.
I generally like to make the account name the email address that I wish to send as. I also like to choose POP3, which I will explain after the setup instructions. Then click Next to see the account details screen.
There are some important things to note here. First, I always put in an INVALID incoming server. You really do not what to download any email, so if you put in an invalid server, you will never accidentally download mail that you do not intend. For the rest, put in your GWIA address, and a valid GroupWise user. If this is on Windows, you will be asked to choose your method of connection. This is a Windows dialog, and it will almost always be through the LAN.
Also, if you chose POP3 as your account type, you will next be shown your GroupWise folders, and asked where to place downloaded messages. We will never download messages (as guaranteed by putting in an invalid incoming mail server), so it really doesn’t matter what you choose here. Just leave the Mailbox selected.
After you click “finish”, you will see the account in your accounts list. Select this new account and choose Properties.
Click on the Server tab.
You can ignore the incoming server settings. But in the outgoing server settings, make sure the SMTP server is correct (either IP address or host name) for your GWIA. Make sure that the setting for requiring authentication is set, and uncheck the box that says to use the incoming server settings. Here put in your real GroupWise userid and password. Click OK.
Back in your GroupWise mailbox, when you are creating or replying to email, if you click on the From: dropdown you will have the option of using your GroupWise account or the new “POP” account. You will never actually do any POP access. You will simply authenticate your GWIA and send the mail as this new email address.
So, what are the gotchas here? There are a few:
So that’s that. Let me know how this works for you!
Happy GroupWising,
As most GroupWise admins know, GroupWise Nicknames, while created actually long before Internet email was even widely available, have become the defacto standard for allowing users to receive mail with email addresses not generally tied to their userids or names. As you know, out of the box GroupWise can support many different internet addressing methods such as:
These are only a few of the options, but all of these are available.
Sometimes sites need to allow an inbound name that has a dot in it. For example, let’s say that the organization users first.last addressing and a user changes her last name. The original email address might have been jane.doe@company.com, and now it is jane.smith@company.com.
Typically when a site is using userid@company.com, or even flast@company.com we just go and create a nickname of the previous name so that mail to the former id will not bounce. However, GroupWise will not allow you to create a nickname of jane.doe – the dot in the nickname is not allowed.
All is not lost. Simply create a nickname of jdoe, and give the nickname a first name of Jane and last name of Doe. As long as your site is allowing first.last addressing schemes, jane.doe@company.com will continue to be a valid ID!
Happy GroupWising.
Recently I’ve been asked quite a bit about a problem with ConsoleOne on Linux after a new GroupWise 2012 installation, or an upgrade from GroupWise 8. Sites are having trouble where ConsoleOne will not present the admin with a “pick window” when choosing Tools|GroupWise System Operations|Select Domain. No box pops up to allow a connection to the GroupWise domain.
I can only say mea culpa to part of this! Indeed our Upgrade Guide suggests that you install the GroupWise administration files manually rather than going through the install script, and this is what is causing the trouble. We HAVE documented this in the errata page for the book (check out http://wiki.caledonia.net) but I guess a lot of people don’t go and look at the wiki.
So here’s the deal. If you do not use the install script for installing or updating your ConsoleOne snapins, and if OpenMotif has not been properly configured on the server previously, you will have this problem. The quickest and easiest fix is to simply run the install script and choose to install (but not configure) GroupWise Administration.
Hope that helps!
Gert ter Burg has been in charge of one of the most comprehensive sites about GroupWise for 11 years – if you don’t know about http://gwcheck.com, then get over there and check it out!
One of Gert’s many contributions to the GroupWise communities over the years has been one-on-one interviews with influential names in the GroupWise world, ranging from Novell/Attachmate top dogs, product managers, engineers, third-party vendors, consultants and administrators. Here at Caledonia, we’ve helped Gert compile those interviews into a little book called Interviewing the GroupWise Community. Caledonia is selling this book on Gert’s behalf, with profits going directly to Gert himself. Go purchase this book here!
However, you have the opportunity than do more than read some interviews about GroupWise. You can also support a cause near and dear to Gert and those of us here at Caledonia. Gert manages to do all of the great things he does to support GroupWise, while dealing with Parkinson’s disease in his own life.
Here’s what Gert has to say about his condition:
“I found out to have Parkinson Disease / PD in february 2006. It is genetic in our family. There are great names to have PD as well, such as Michael J. Fox, the previous Pope, Maurice White – lead singer of Earth Wind and Fire, Janet Reno, Salvador Dali, Mao Zedong. If you have any Questions on PD, send them to gert@gwcheck.com, and perhaps I will put up a page with this info and your questions on the site as well. ”
So, we’re going to make you a deal! For every book we sell on Gert’s behalf, we will also donate $1.00 to the National Parkinson Foundation in Gert’s name through our charitable organization, Navitie House Foundation. We’ll even give you the opportunity during purchase to add additional funds to your donation if you so desire. If you simply wish to donate to the National Parkinson’s Foundation on Gert’s behalf, click here.
Thanks for your support.
We’ve updated the Caledonia Guide to the Novell Mobility Server to include the many changes that have happened through version 1.2.5. And there are a lot.
If you purchased this book in the past 6 months, you will receive this book for free. We will update our site by Friday, May 10 for you to log into your account and download the new version. If you experience any difficulties let us know. Again, this will be available on May 10 for purchasers of the Guide since November 1, 2012.
If it’s been more than 6 months since your purchase, you will receive a separate email with a coupon code for a special “upgrade” price for the book.
This book covers planning, installation, administration and tips and tricks for your Mobility Server.
Find out more about it here today.
Also, we’re starting a new wiki at wiki.caledonia.net. While we intend for this to eventually be a site where we share GroupWise information of all kinds, for now it is the home of our new book errata pages. If you find problems in any of our books, feel free to send us information about it, or even open an account on the wiki site and add your own information. In any event, you can find changes, additions and clarifications to our books in this wiki.
Hope you are having a fantastic Wednesday!
Willem Bagchus has just sent me the final PDF for the GroupWise 2012 Administrator’s Guide, and the print copies are being prepared for shipping now! Purchase your copy now here on our shopping cart. Whether or not you have purchased the book (or even intend to purchase it), I invite you to check out what I call Willem’s “Love Letter to GroupWise“. It’s a great little history about GroupWise, and reading it gives you a wonderful overview of how far GroupWise has come in the last 25 years! Enjoy.
The GroupWise 2012 Upgrade Guide
If you have purchased a PDF version of the book, you can download it by logging in at http://www.caledonia.net/download.html – if for some reason you do not see a download link there, please click the Contact Us link above. Some of the very first purchasers did not have this information included in the shopping cart, and we can manage it for you manually.
Please take particular note of the text file in the zip that contains the PDF password. Per Willem’s request, the PDF requires a password to open it.
Happy GroupWising!
Danita
There has been a lot of talk on the NGWList (and by the way, I recommend you subscribe to the list if you don’t already – it’s a great place for GroupWise Admins to congregate!) about the possibility of a rule replying “once a day”. Some sites swear that this was their normal behavior and it has stopped. Others swear that it just started in a “new build” and must be an enhancement. And then there are stubborn old dogs like me who swear that this is not expected behavior, and everyone needs to take a day off and have a beverage of their choosing (as long as it’s not skim milk, because as Ron Swanson says, “There’s only one thing I hate more than lying: skim milk, which is water that’s lying about being milk.”).
Anyway, I recently had a chat with a Novell developer regarding rule behavior, because I wanted to get to the bottom of this once and for all. The chap I discussed this with is considered the “authority on all things GroupWise” (although I know many of you think that’s me – but I have you all fooled!). After being assured there is no code in GroupWise rules that would account for a “once a day” reply rule, I wrote up this synopsis of the discussion.
First, a note on how rules work that have a reply action. When it was decided that there needed to be a way to stop a possible infinite loop in a rule, an addition was made to any rule that contains reply as an action to include the sender in a distribution list, and absent other criteria for the rule, or allowing looping rules in ConsoleOne, a rule with a reply action will only trigger once per distribution list match. That’s it. Sender. Not sender + subject. Not sender + date & time. Just sender.
I was assured by the developer, that there is NO date tracking of this list, and there is no mechanism in the code to reset the rule to send once per day. So here are some speculations as to how this and other rule oddities can happen.
Of all of these, the idea that nightly maintenance is finding a problem with the rule and resetting it is the most likely culprit. I’ve seen nightly maintenance logs, for example, that show the maintenance disabling and resetting rules that it says are invalid.
So, I can appreciate that some of you swear you have seen “once per day” triggers of rules, and I cannot dispute that you are seeing what you say you are seeing. That said, if it’s happening it’s an aberration and not how the function is programmed.
So, if you are indeed seeing “once a day” activity, a thorough check of the POA logs at nightly Maintenance is where I would start looking.
Happy GroupWising!
Danita
Up here in the Northern Hemisphere it’s (theoretically) Spring. Of course, we just had a nice Spring Storm in Colorado that dumped close to a foot of snow on us, but these are minor details! So it’s really time for Spring Cleaning, don’t you think?
By SundayMorning FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Back in January, we contacted Caledonia customers, offering our services for assisting to get your GroupWise systems up to GroupWise 2012 (and migrated off of NetWare if needed). We had a really great response, and our first quarter was filled with many, many migrations. We virtually toured through China, Australia, Canada, Finland, Denmark and the UK. Here in the US hearts were left in San Francisco, we got BIG in Texas, had Carolina (North) on our minds, and oddly spent a lot of remote “time” in Michigan! If you want to see some of the highlights, check out the Caledonia Facebook Page.
But I know there are a lot of sites out there that just weren’t ready yet, so here’s a reminder note to let you know that we are still here, ready and willing to prepare you for the next big move to Windermere down the road. I hope you are ready too! If so, just drop me a note, and we’ll get started!