Chapter 12. Administering the GroupWise Client

With GroupWise 7, you can also use several types of client software, either from Novell or from other parties. One example is Evolution, the most popular email client on almost any Linux distribution. With GroupWise 7, Evolution can now connect natively to the post office agent (POA) using the new SOAP/XML interface in your POA. Another example is the Cross-Platform client for Linux and Apple, which offers a set of features similar to those of the Windows client. And last but not least, Novell has added a completely redesigned GroupWise Connector for Outlook, offering the option for any ordinary Outlook 2003 user to connect to the robust GroupWise back end instead of the old Exchange environment.

All these new possibilities are of course very interesting, but this chapter mainly focuses on the platform that is still used most: In the near future most users will still use the GroupWise Windows 32-bit client to connect to the GroupWise information store. Novell has realized this, and GroupWise 7 introduces some very significant changes to the Windows client, in look-and-feel, but also in regard to installing and administering this client. The Windows client provides access to the user mailbox; documents in libraries; and archive, caching, and remote mailboxes. It offers the user tools for creating rules, sharing folders and address books, and of course doing all of those things normally associated with email.

The GroupWise client also offers some tools that can be considered administrative, especially where document libraries are concerned. These include mass-change operations on documents. For that matter, any operation that makes use of a user's administrator-assigned manage right to a library is going to be performed from the GroupWise client.

This chapter covers administration of the GroupWise 32-bit Windows client. Specifically, this chapter looks at deploying and updating the client, and administering logins and client options.