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I run a small college network with approximately 150 user accounts both in my Active Directory and in Google Apps. I'm looking to link AD with G-Apps. Currently my users are required to maintain separate passwords for each. Obviously this is not really the ideal situation. I know Google provides APIs for this type of thing, but not the actual software. I've looked at a few commercial products and seem to be leaning toward Crowd (atlassian.com). I'm also interested in the ability for users to reset there own passwords or receive randomly generated passwords via TXT message. Single Sign On would be nice, but not really necessary if I simply had a way for the passwords to be synchronized.

Optimally, when I create a user in AD, it will automatically show up in Google Apps, and when a user changes there password via Windows (or a web page if necessary) that change will be reflected in both AD and G-Apps.

I also use Moodle, Joomla and a few other products that have the ability to authenticate against LDAP.

I have Win2k3 DCs, and one Ubuntu webserver. I can add a server if necessary.

Has anyone else done this, or something similar? Are there any other products or technologies I should be looking at. I tend to gravitate towards something Windows based with a GUI due to my lack of experience with Linux/CLI. I'm not a programmer, so I need something that will work out of the box (or as close as possible).

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  • I answered this question with a detailed description of my final solution
    – Corey
    Apr 7, 2011 at 16:05

8 Answers 8

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Check out " Google Apps Directory Sync" from Google it is included in the educational version at no charge. This will only sync the acutual accounts and groups: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/04/sync-google-apps-user-accounts-with.html

You will need to work on something like google SSO to provided access to you LDAP server for authentication.

Google Apps Marketplace has several products available that snap into place and will provide what you are looking for. Here are some examples.

Intient GConnect - http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=4284199+8229018775854408052

SecureAuth - http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=3806839+12543887358898980350

Hope that helps!

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    Yes, I've already looked at that, and unfortunately it does not have the ability to read the passwords held in AD, and therefore can not be used to sync passwords.
    – Corey
    May 30, 2009 at 22:42
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    Google has released a password sync product called "Google Apps Password Sync (GAPS)" I put a link in my answer below.
    – Corey
    Jun 1, 2012 at 17:49
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Microsoft Active Directory (MAD) supports a function called password filters. Basically these are a DLL that runs on every domain controller, when a user/admin requests a password change the filter can capture the password before MAD encrypts and stores the password in the MAD database. Lucky for you someone has already written a filter for you that works perfectly (I use it on a Windows 2003 SP1 MAD domain controller). Have a look at http://code.google.com/p/sha1hexfltr/wiki/installation

It captures the users new password whiles its plain text, creates a sha1 hash of the password and stores that in the "division" attribute in MAD. Google Apps Directory Sync (GADS) can then sync the password to Google Apps. Works for user creation and every password change post.

Good luck

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Google just released a new password sync product called "Google Apps Password Sync (GAPS)"

http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2611859&topic=2611858&ctx=topic

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Here is a password filter that solves the synch problem. http://code.google.com/p/sha1hexfltr/

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We have been using simpleSAML to enable single sign on. The problem is that SSO only works for web-based access. If you want to all pop3, imap, or instant messaging from a client you have to synchronize accounts. Getting simpleSAML working does take a moderate amount of tweaking.

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You can use Google Apps Directory Sync and Sun's OpenSSO. This will give your users a portal to login to using their AD credentials. There is a way to pass the credentials automatically, but I haven't gotten there yet. You can run OpenSSO on Glassfish, which will run on either windows or linux. I have an example of my setup on my site. http://edwinlandy.squarespace.com/ll/2009/7/13/active-directory-google-apps-and-sso-about-time.html

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My final solution was two part…

Part one, Use "Google Apps Directory Sync" to sync users from AD to Google Apps

Part two, Use "NetWrix Password Manager" with some custom development they provided to create a web based portal for my users to change there passwords with.

The portal resets their AD password as well as their Google password at the same time.

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  • They have now added the Google Apps feature to the stock product.
    – Corey
    Aug 31, 2011 at 0:22
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This is an old question that now has easier solutions.

Products like OneLogin and Okta can sync to your AD and allow your users to log into Google (via SAML) with their AD passwords. These products are increasing their provisioning capabilities, so that when you add a user to AD they are automatically given a Google Apps account (and accounts on other cloud-based services they need).

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