Multiple Domain Management with G Suite

Introduction

G Suite platform offers a number of options/approaches to managing multiple Internet domains for your Organisation. This document will help one to understand the key elements related to this topic, and detail the considerations for each option/approach. After reading this document one can have sufficient information to make a decision on how Organisations should manage their Internet domains on the G Suite Platform.

 

Key Terms

Deciding the best approach to managing your Organisation’s domains is a critical activity for both your G Suite deployment and business operations. The key elements/terms that form the basis of this decision are listed below along with a full description. The following terminologies will be referenced throughout this document:

 

Primary Domain

 

The domain we use when we sign up for G Suite account is known as your Primary Domain. A Primary Domain is a prerequisite for every G Suite account, only one Primary Domain can be defined within a G Suite account.

 

Non-Primary Domain

 

Any additional domains that you register to your G Suite account as separate domains rather than Domain Aliases are known as Non-Primary domains. User Accounts can be provisioned in Non-Primary Domains, and a user can have email aliases in any of the Non-Primary Domains. There is a maximum of 600 domains, per G Suite account (1 Primary Domain + 599 Non-Primary Domains).

Domain Alias

 

A Domain Alias is an alternate name for an Internet domain registered within your G Suite account. A Domain Alias can only be applied to the Primary Domain. If you create a Domain Alias for your Primary Domain, every User Account provisioned in the Primary Domain (user@company.com) automatically inherits an Email Alias address in the alias domain (user@company.co.uk). Domain Alias addresses are also applied to all User Nicknames and Groups. The maximum number of Domain Aliases per Google Apps Account is 20.

 

Nickname/Email Alias

 

A Nickname is an alternative email address that points to an existing User Account. For example, the user abc@company.com might also want to receive email addressed to xyz@company.com. If we create xyz@company.com as a Nickname for abc@company.com, G suite will deliver email for both of these addresses to the same Gmail inbox. The (default) maximum number of Nicknames per User Account is 30 (can be increased by submitting a support case if required).

 

G Suite account (Defaults)

• Maximum Domain Aliases = 20

• Maximum Email Aliases per User Account = 30

20 x 30 = 600 (Maximum number of email addresses per User Account)

 

Some example quota distributions are given below:

 

• 20 Domain Aliases and 30 Email Aliases per User Account (default)

• 30 Domain Aliases and 20 Email Aliases per User Account

• 60 Domain Aliases and 10 Email Aliases per User Account

• 100 Domain Aliases and 6 Email Aliases per User Account

• 15 Domain Aliases and 40 Email Aliases per User Account

• 12 Domain Aliases and 50 Email Aliases per User Account

• 10 Domain Aliases and 60 Email Aliases per User Account

Provisioning G Suite  Domains

We recommend that you follow these key steps before provisioning your G-Suite domain(s):

 

• Before provisioning, ensure your primary domain name is correct.

• Run an audit (including trial accounts) on all domain(s) to see if any are already using Google Suite. This can be carried out by visiting: www.google.com/a/[domainaddress] (e.g www.google.com/a/domain.com).

 

• If the page presented is a Google login page then it is considered a conflict account which requires the following action:

• Decide if any existing data needs to be migrated/extracted

• Delete the G Suite domain (involves 5 days wait for deletion to complete)

• Provision domain(s) into the G Suite  Admin Console

• Verify domain(s):

• You can verify your primary domain by adding TXT or CNAME record.

 

Single or Multiple Google Apps Accounts?

When deciding how to manage your Organisation’s Internet domains on the G Suite platform, the decision needs to be made whether to manage your domains within a single Account, or multiple G Suite  Accounts. This decision will be heavily influenced by how you plan to manage your User Accounts.

 

Single G Suite  Account

Description

 

Domain Management (Single-domain)

• Primary Domain - company.com

 

User Accounts

• All User Accounts provisioned in the Primary Domain ‘company.com’

 

This is the default G Suite account configuration. The domain name submitted when registering your G Suite account will be provisioned as the Primary Domain for the Account.

 

Considerations

 

No specific technical considerations or limitations apply.

 

Primary Domain with Domain Alias(s)

Description

 

Domain Management (Domain Aliasing)

• Primary Domain - company.com

• Domain Alias - company.co.uk

User Accounts

• All User Accounts provisioned in the Primary Domain ‘company.com’

• All User Accounts automatically inherit an Email Alias from the Domain Alias ‘company.co.uk’

 

Groups for Business Service

• Google Groups provisioned in the Primary Domain automatically inherit an Email Alias from the Domain Alias ‘company.co.uk’. It is not possible to explicitly add an email alias to a group.

Considerations

 

If we manage a single domain and all of your other domains have been added to your Google Apps Account as domain aliases, the following topic areas and limitations should be considered:

• Limit of 20 Domain Aliases per Google Apps Account (Default)

• Limit of 30 Email Aliases per User Account (Default)

• All Users login with their primary email address

• All users automatically inherit an email alias address from each verified Domain Alias

• Domain Aliases enable every User Account to receive e-mail addressed to the alias address(es)

 

Multi-Domain with Non-Primary Domain(s)

 

Description

 

Domain Management (Multi-Domain)

• Primary Domain - company.com

• Non-Primary Domain - subsidiary.com

 

User Accounts

• User Accounts provisioned in the Primary Domain and Non-Primary Domain

• User Account ‘userB@company.com’ has an Email Alias in the Primary Domain (optional)

 

Considerations

 

When adding additional domains to your G Suite account as Non-Primary domains rather than Domain Aliases were leveraging the Multi-Domain management functionality within G Suite. With this approach, you have the flexibility of provisioning User Accounts in either the Primary Domain or any of the verified Non-Primary Domains.

Multi-Domain with Non-Primary Domain(s) & Domain Alias(s)

 

Description

 

Domain Management (Multi-domain)

• Primary Domain - company.com

• Domain Alias - company.co.uk

• Non-Primary Domain - subsidiary.com

 

User Accounts

• User Accounts provisioned in the Primary Domain

• User Accounts automatically inherit an Email Alias from the Domain Alias ‘company.co.uk’

• User A has an Email Alias in the Non-Primary Domain (optional)

 

Groups for Business Service

• Google Groups provisioned in the Primary Domain automatically inherit an Email Alias from the Domain Alias ‘company.co.uk’. It is not possible to explicitly add an email alias to a group.

 

Considerations

This configuration combines the use of Domain Aliases and Non-Primary Domains in a full Multi-domain G Suite environment. As per the Multi-domain Limitations Domain Aliases are only available for the Primary Domain.

 

Example of Customer Deployments

Media

A Media Company Asianet Satellite Communications managing more than 5 domains, managed within one G Suite account. All User Accounts provisioned in the Primary Domain, all remaining domains registered as Non-Primary Domains. This approach provided the flexibility of being able to provision email aliases for User Accounts in the Non-Primary Domains as required - not all Users needed alias addresses in the Non-Primary Domains.

Business Services

A Global Business Services Group company RP-SG Group managing numerous domains for its subsidiary companies in multiple G Suite  Accounts. This approach enabled a distributed administration model and independent branding for each of the subsidiary companies.

Recommendations

When possible it is our recommendation to utilise the benefits of managing multiple-domains within a Single G Suite account. If there are situations where the current multi-domain limitations affect the implementation of G Suite multi-domain management, provisioning all User Accounts in the Primary Domain should be considered as an alternative solution.

 

Managing domains in multiple G Suite accounts should only be considered for Organisations with specific business requirements, in relation to specific Branding/Collaboration or Administration needs.

 

Answering the following questions will help towards understanding your Organisation's requirements, and to assist you in identifying the most suitable Google Apps domain management approach:

 

• How many business units exist within your Organisation?

• What are the collaboration requirements between the business units?

• How many Internet domains does your Organisation currently own/manage?

• How do you manage User identity within each domain (Login ID)?

• Which domains do your employees need to send/receive mail from?

• Are there internal or external branding requirements for each business unit/domain?

• What is your current domain administration model?

 

Evaluating this information and a clear understanding of how you would like to address the key areas of Administration, Productivity, Collaboration and Support for each of your Domains you will be able to move forward with a successful G Suite Deployment.