Tag Archives: Google Cloud Directory Sync

Sync users and groups from an Azure Active Directory using Directory Sync

What’s changing 

Google Workspace Admins can now use Directory Sync to sync users and groups from Azure Active Directory. Directory Sync is an alternative to Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS), which admins can use to synchronize user and group data with their Google Cloud directory without the need to manage on-prem hardware and deployments. 




Directory Sync is available in open beta, which means no beta sign-up or registration is required. Please read more about Directory Sync and its features to determine if it best suits your needs.


Additional details 

Admins can add up-to one Azure Directory connection to sync users and groups information to the Google Cloud Directory. On your Microsoft Azure Active Directory side, Global Administrator privileges are required for using this feature — this is so that full user profiles, groups, and group memberships can be “read” through in order to sync these objects into the Cloud Directory. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • To use the Directory Sync beta, go to Admin console > Home > Directory > Directory Sync. No beta sign up or registration is required. 
    • You can delegate the ability to manage Active Directory with the new Directory Sync admin user role. Use our Help Center to learn more about using the new Directory Sync. 
  • End users: No end user impact 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and Cloud Identity customers

Resources

Sync users and groups from an Azure Active Directory using Directory Sync

What’s changing 

Google Workspace Admins can now use Directory Sync to sync users and groups from Azure Active Directory. Directory Sync is an alternative to Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS), which admins can use to synchronize user and group data with their Google Cloud directory without the need to manage on-prem hardware and deployments. 




Directory Sync is available in open beta, which means no beta sign-up or registration is required. Please read more about Directory Sync and its features to determine if it best suits your needs.


Additional details 

Admins can add up-to one Azure Directory connection to sync users and groups information to the Google Cloud Directory. On your Microsoft Azure Active Directory side, Global Administrator privileges are required for using this feature — this is so that full user profiles, groups, and group memberships can be “read” through in order to sync these objects into the Cloud Directory. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • To use the Directory Sync beta, go to Admin console > Home > Directory > Directory Sync. No beta sign up or registration is required. 
    • You can delegate the ability to manage Active Directory with the new Directory Sync admin user role. Use our Help Center to learn more about using the new Directory Sync. 
  • End users: No end user impact 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and Cloud Identity customers

Resources

View richer information about your coworkers directly in the sidebar for Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, and more.

Quick launch summary 

You can now find and view additional information about people within your organization, your Contacts, and more across additional Google Workspace products. This information includes: 

  • Contact information, such as phone number and email address,  
  • Team and manager, 
  • Office and desk location, 
  • Whether you’ve received email from them before, and more. 

This feature is already available for Gmail, and will now be available from the following products: Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Getting started 

  • Admins: To maximize this feature, it’s helpful to have user data fully populated across Google Workspace apps. Workspace admins can populate this data in a few locations: 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Click “Open Detailed View” while hovering over a user’s information card, or select the Contacts icon in the side panel. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google products side by side. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

View richer information about your coworkers directly in the sidebar for Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, and more.

Quick launch summary 

You can now find and view additional information about people within your organization, your Contacts, and more across additional Google Workspace products. This information includes: 

  • Contact information, such as phone number and email address,  
  • Team and manager, 
  • Office and desk location, 
  • Whether you’ve received email from them before, and more. 

This feature is already available for Gmail, and will now be available from the following products: Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Getting started 

  • Admins: To maximize this feature, it’s helpful to have user data fully populated across Google Workspace apps. Workspace admins can populate this data in a few locations: 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Click “Open Detailed View” while hovering over a user’s information card, or select the Contacts icon in the side panel. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google products side by side. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

View richer information about your coworkers directly in the sidebar for Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, and more.

Quick launch summary 

You can now find and view additional information about people within your organization, your Contacts, and more across additional Google Workspace products. This information includes: 

  • Contact information, such as phone number and email address,  
  • Team and manager, 
  • Office and desk location, 
  • Whether you’ve received email from them before, and more. 

This feature is already available for Gmail, and will now be available from the following products: Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Getting started 

  • Admins: To maximize this feature, it’s helpful to have user data fully populated across Google Workspace apps. Workspace admins can populate this data in a few locations: 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Click “Open Detailed View” while hovering over a user’s information card, or select the Contacts icon in the side panel. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google products side by side. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

View richer information about your coworkers directly in the sidebar for Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, and more.

Quick launch summary 

You can now find and view additional information about people within your organization, your Contacts, and more across additional Google Workspace products. This information includes: 

  • Contact information, such as phone number and email address,  
  • Team and manager, 
  • Office and desk location, 
  • Whether you’ve received email from them before, and more. 

This feature is already available for Gmail, and will now be available from the following products: Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Getting started 

  • Admins: To maximize this feature, it’s helpful to have user data fully populated across Google Workspace apps. Workspace admins can populate this data in a few locations: 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Click “Open Detailed View” while hovering over a user’s information card, or select the Contacts icon in the side panel. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google products side by side. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

View richer information about your coworkers directly in the sidebar for Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, and more.

Quick launch summary 

You can now find and view additional information about people within your organization, your Contacts, and more across additional Google Workspace products. This information includes: 

  • Contact information, such as phone number and email address,  
  • Team and manager, 
  • Office and desk location, 
  • Whether you’ve received email from them before, and more. 

This feature is already available for Gmail, and will now be available from the following products: Google Chat, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Getting started 

  • Admins: To maximize this feature, it’s helpful to have user data fully populated across Google Workspace apps. Workspace admins can populate this data in a few locations: 
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Click “Open Detailed View” while hovering over a user’s information card, or select the Contacts icon in the side panel. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Google products side by side. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

Resources 

Set group membership deletion limits in Google Cloud Directory Sync

Quick launch summary

You can now set group membership deletion limits in Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS). By adding these limits, you can prevent accidental removal of memberships from groups, as those errors can inadvertently cause users to lose access to things like Drive files and Google Cloud Platform resources.

Limits are not required and can be anywhere from 0-100% or any number greater than 0. Once a limit is set, if a sync attempts to delete more than that percentage or amount of members in any group, the sync will abort.



Please make sure you are using the most up-to-date version of GCDS to access this feature.

Availability

Rollout details
G Suite editions
  • Available to all G Suite editions
On/off by default?
  • This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the GCDS group level.
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Google Cloud Directory Sync v4.4.19: A new name and other updates

In September, we introduced Google Cloud, a portfolio of products, technologies, and services designed for enterprises. Following that announcement, we’re rebranding our Google Apps Directory Sync tool to better reflect the wide variety of products and services it supports. Going forward, Google Apps Directory Sync will be known as Google Cloud Directory Sync. In addition to this change, the latest version of Google Cloud Directory Sync will include the features and fixes described below.

What’s new

  • The GCDS interface now shows only those sync features supported by your domain type. 
  • The tool uses the latest Java JRE v1.8, which by default uses TLS v1.2 for HTTPS connections. 
  • The GCDS EULA has been updated to include customers who may use a domain covered the Managed Google Domain Terms.


What’s fixed

  • “Force new users to change password” is now properly set on account creation. 
  • Group memberships are now added properly on initial sync with group creation. 
  • Instead of displaying “Connected failed - null” when there is a connection error testing SMTP notifications, GCDS now displays a proper error message. 
  • Random passwords for accounts are no longer synced on the first and subsequent syncs; they are now set on the first sync only. 
  • Users are now properly provisioned with the defined default password. 
  • You can now re-authorize GCDS using a different account, even if GCDS has a valid auth token. 
  • You can now perform a sync in GCDS, even if you haven’t configured email notification settings.
  • Instead of displaying the raw HTML EULA when installing from the command line, the installer now displays the plain text EULA. 

Check out the Help Center for more details, and download the latest version of GCDS.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
Admins only

Action:
Admin action required

More Information
Help Center: About Google Cloud Directory Sync
Help Center: What’s New in Google Cloud Directory Sync


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