How To Configure And Manage A Google Apps Domain

April 28, 2016 — By Chris Brunau

When setting up a Google Apps Domain, configuration is key. In the previous post, we suggested the simplest, easiest, most straightforward choices with the Google Apps Setup Wizard to get your domain up and running. Now comes the part where you customize your Google Apps setup to meet your precise needs. Bear in mind, there are no “wrong” choices here; every setting is a tradeoff between convenience and control, and it’s up to you to determine where that balance lies for you and your organization.

Regarding user creation, you can create users manually, in bulk, or via invitation, but it’s usually a best practice to configure all services and security on your domain before adding or inviting users. This way, users can’t take actions you intend to restrict later, or bump up against security controls you intend to relax as you configure your domain settings. Finish building out your domain before you let anyone move in. Once you’ve added your full roster of users to your Google Apps domain, you have a number of options to help manage these accounts. This video gives a brief overview of a Google Apps domain administrator’s basic user management controls.

Every proceeding step in this process (and nearly every tutorial to which this guide offers links) will ask how you’d like to configure both your overall Google Apps domain and any component organizational units. Google Apps organizational units are ways to subdivide your domain and activate different services or options for each unit. For example, a Google Apps for Education administrator would likely divide her domain into Faculty, Staff and Student organizational units and grant each unit different security permissions. A Google Apps for Work admin might divide his domain into Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance and IT, and activate different Marketplace apps for each unit.

Setting up organizational units is an optional task that is best left for future configurations. When you’re ready, Datto has a useful guide for setting up Google Apps organizational units on your domain.

We’ve only taken a simple walk through of the basic process of setting up a Google Apps domain. For even more information and a deeper dive, download our eBook: How To Set Up A Google Apps Domain.