GMS came to be as a happy accident. An anything-to-anything synchronizer could also be used to sync Activesync devices to GroupWise using a hub database and adding a GroupWise connector and a Mobility (Activesync) connector.
However, the days of "hey look! I have mail on my phone!" have given way to "I need mail on my phone!" and so many of the ideas in this portal can be solved by taking the current GMS code, strippiing out the database part and going straight from GW to Activesync, much like the WebAccess application talks directly to SOAP.
This would eliminate database maintenance, storage limitations, sync limitations and every device would see the live GW mailbox at all times.
Exchange does it like this -- it's a connector you switch on and off, like MAPI, Outlook Web Access and so on.
When moving users into GroupWise or doing large-volume operations on a mailbox, the current GMS design causes an immense slowdown to the whole GMS server.
Implementing GMS as a connector, much like WebAccess is now would solve many problems.
It would enable easy Disaster Recovery (just turn it on in the DR post office)
It would allow synchronization on a per user basis - any amount of the PO.
It would allow searches of the live mailbox.
It would allow sync of any address books.
It could even allow for proxy access.
PLUS
It can enable Outlook as a client.
It can enable Mac based Activesync client.
This should be the next thrust of effort in GMS, IMO.
by: Willem B. | over a year ago | Mobility Services
Comments
Couldn't agree more, but design mistakes like this (and duplicating data is virtually always a design mistake) tend to live forever.
Today, we were bitten yet again by the design. A network outage yesterday caused a flood of e-mail which overwhelmed the GMS sync. Consequently, we lost 6 hours of production time while GMS raced to process a flooded queue. With a connector-based system, this would simply not occur.
It is becoming a very major issue here and it's because of WHO the users of mobility are within the organization (the top execs) that this is so highly visible and why the pain point is especially severe.
Exchange has Activesync as a connector. This is causing a very strong push to move off of GroupWise.
For me this is the most important idea for gms. In 2016 our users simply won't put up with not having access to all the features of our mail system on their phones and tablets. This includes not just ALL their mail but full search too.
This needs to be done, as well the ability all webservices for Groupwise on a single server if required, and also a gwclient over http protocol to allow for Groupwise clients to connect over http/https, as many networks do not have common Groupwise clients ports opened.
I have mentioned this a number of times and is something that should be made NUMBER 1 priority. I appreciate existing existing mobility code exists and may be difficult to do but Mobility should be a Groupwise agent.
Put GMS in GW. I like the Idea of SOAP like Webacc.
+1 absolutely necessary...
This is a MAJOR requirement and should be in GW 2017
We (700 GMS users0 would be very happy if this happens. GMS is working, but still have problems with missing appointments, people wich have missing contacts, etc. So a direct connection like webaccess with soap can things bring more reliable.
Idea sounds good. But I still like to have an ability to place the connector--service on a different machine into the DMZ (appliance would be nice like the ones Mobile Iron is using). And I would like to have control which accounts are reachable through the connector and which not.
I fully agree that the current architecture isn't very admin friendly, and a waste of resources.
Good idea, sure I voted for!
+1 on Markus D's idea.
New GMS 2014.2.1 is not usable with shares enabled, it makes PO consume all the RAM and than crash, with disabled shares all works properly. GMS must be integrated within GW just as it is with Calendar Server.
Always inconsistent sync between iOS devices and GW. All systems up to date, but always problems. There is no day where I didnt have to solve problems because calendar entries which are edited or deleted on gw are not synced to iOS devices.
GMS is absolutely not reliable. Please solve this problem or implement it on another way.
We have/had the same issue for the last 2 years Davud O. I haven't had any feedback yet since we upgraded to 14.2.1_hp2 last week on both POA and GMS side. I'm not sure whether this has solved the issues or not. Support has told me, most of these calendar issues actually originate on POA/client side and not GMS. Yet it is/was truly unreliable.
We were bitten yet again. The main issue is the fact that GMS was built as a synchronizer, and as such, it works perfectly as designed. The problem is that proper mobile support requires a CONDUIT.
So for today's latest edition: One user decided to clear 13 gig of mail from his 52 gig mailbox. Over 300,000 items deleted. If GMS was a CONDUIT and not a SYNCHRONIZER, this would be no issue. However, here is what happened:
The POA generated SOAP events for each of these deletions.
The GMS GroupWise agent dutifully responded to each one and queued it up.
GMS is built to handle a thousand or so events at once, not 300 thousand.
So the whole system got backlogged.
By the time the database processed these items, then compared the data range and then discareded them, processing delays on EVERYBODY's mobile device was past 3 hours.
I had to forcibly (dsapp) remove the affected user's account from GMS and wait for the system to quiet down. That took an hour. Then I had to restart GMS. Then I had to re-add the user and re synchronize the whole thing.
If this was a CONDUIT (like perhaps another protocol of the POA), this would not have happened.
Please -- for the sake of GroupWise users, cut out the hub and put this code in the POA.
6 month and not response from Micro Focus on that issue! That a major problem.
You don't get it, do you?
MF don't have the
We are moving 1250 users to in house Exchange (not Cloud)
I started with GW5.2 but MF have no vision, no ability & do desire to Improve the software...
I made the decision after very careful consideration
we have 120 Mac Users who are over the moon with the demo install
This is not the place to crap all over MF or their team. This is the place for suggestions and use-cases or arguments to support the suggestions. if you've lost faith in MF, that is a sad and unfortunate turn of events but this is not the forum for that.
hey, this is an idea portal, not a complain portal..
but anyway, so you have to put aside at least 100K US$ each year for additional labour costs and several 10K for migration, depending whether you have archiving already installed..
just my thoughts...
take care
OK. That wasn't me 🙁
Password changed.
GMS has become the single and only Groupwise killer in my customer base due it's unreliability *by design*. The first time a CXO misses an appointment due to a "glitch" in the synchronization causes raised eyebrows and a demand to stop that from happening. The second time, it's the end of Groupwise at this customer.
And please, no telling to open SRs, to resynchronize devices or some such. It happens, it will happen again, and you know it. It's *by design* due to the fact that the data get's synchronized instead of being accessed directly.
Would be great if GMS was re-built this way, get rid of duplication and make a direct connection.
100% ACK !
Our Management have missed some appointmens because of sync problems. Appointments which exist in GW were not on the mobile devices and vice versa ! And this happens a lot of times !
Resync User is not the solution ! Because we have to configure the mobile devices after resync (standard calendar, standard mail client and so on).
Everytime this happens, I hear: "Why dont we migrate to exchange ! I know other people who use exchange and never miss an appointment because of sync. problems" !
We have round about 1100 Mailboxes, and I really dont know if we can stay on GroupWise anynmore ! I hear too often "Lets migrate to exchange" !
Microfocus/Novell: Solve this problem, otherwise you will loose more and more GroupWise customers !
I even dont know if Microfocus reads our comments here. But they should ! And we need a comment from MicroFocus about this issue !
And no, I dont want to open an SR ! Microfocus knows about this problem and an SR would not solve this problem.
I'm really sick of hearing "Lets migrate to exchange....".
What Micro Focus don't seem to realise is when people migrate off GroupWise they go to Microsoft 365 not just Exchange.
Once they have Microsoft 365 they don't just use Email. They start using OneDrive - that's Filr gone. They start using SharePoint - that's OES gone. They start using Intune - that's ZENworks gone.
This is happening where I work once you jump into Microsoft 365 there's no point carrying on paying Micro Focus for licenses for duplicate products - especially at the prices MF charge.
It only takes once crack and the dam is burst
I think is too late for MF. We have move to O365 because of that. I miss some feature of GW (fgor one :proxy and folder sharing easily, what a pain in Outlook to do the same thing) but I gain peace in mind for the stability. Sorry MF.
I agree. GroupWise is dead. MF would have had to create a cloud offering to stay in the game today. Also, they would have had to continue to innovate. That hasn't happened since Novell was sold. It was a great run. It has ended. I used to be a platinum partner. It saddens me to see what has happened.