grommunio Groupware

Microsoft Outlook

grommunio accounts can be configured for Microsoft Outlook, as grommunio natively supports the protocols used by Microsoft Outlook (RPC-over-HTTP and MAPI-HTTP).

In this configuration setup, it is assumed no profiles have been set up so far. If MAPI profiles already exist on the system, new profiles and accounts can be added by executing outlook /profiles.

  1. Select a name for the new profile and confirm.

Outlook: New profile
  1. In the following dialog, the Outlook profile assistant will request your email address. It is recommended to check "Let me set up my account manually", to ensure the correct protocol is chosen, as some Outlook versions otherwise choose a non-native protocol like IMAP, which would incur feature limitations.

Outlook: Account email address
  1. The account type / protocol choice dialog. For grommunio, select "Exchange".

Outlook: Exchange account type
  1. The following progress dialog might take a few seconds, since Outlook is now attempting to contact the mailbox for the first time and populate the Outlook profile. In that process, it will ask for credentials. Select "Remember my credentials" to save the password for this user identity in the Windows system. Anytime Outlook requests access to the mailbox it can do so without prompting again.

Outlook: Account setup in progress / Entry of credentials
  1. As part of the manual setup, the wizard will display another page with Offline Settings. You can switch between Online Mode and Cached/Offline mode here. When offline mode is enabled, Outlook keeps a copy of the mailbox locally and uses forth-and-back synchronization. A slider is shown to specify the timeframe of messages to synchronize. Older versions of Outlook allow choosing from a handful of options for the timeframe, e.g. 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, ... 3 months and "All". Contemporary version of Outlook (circa 2019 and onwards) are somehow defective, and the slider is greyed out, leaving only full synchronizatino for the offline mode.

Outlook: Settings for offline mode
  1. The profile has now been set up and ready for use.

Outlook: Account setup complete

Note

By default, the account setup will show "Microsoft Exchange" account type. The setup procedure of Microsoft Outlook with grommunio Groupware does not differ from a setup with Microsoft Exchange. As with Microsoft Exchange, the default profile is set up for Offline/Cached Mode, which synchronizes the mailbox for offline usage. grommunio Groupware supports Offline/Cached Mode. However, this might not be preferred in some use cases and should be disabled, e.g. with most Remote Desktop Server environments.

Important

For the groupware features of grommunio, no separate software needs to be installed. However, the exact Microsoft Outlook setup procedure might differ from what is depicted above, depending on the version used. When setting up the Outlook account with grommunio Groupware in use, proceed with the client installation as if it were to be configured with Microsoft Exchange. For automation purposes, third-party software may be used for account and profile creation, so long as the compatibility of the third party software includes Microsoft Exchange.

Android

grommunio Accounts can be easily added to Android devices, as they natively support the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol.

  1. To add your grommunio account to your Android device, navigate to Settings -> Accounts page, and select Exchange

Android: Add Exchange account
  1. In the following setup dialog, enter your email address, select Next

Android: Configure account email address
  1. In the following setup dialog, enter your password, select Next

Android: Configure account password
  1. After finishing the account setup your data is being synchronized in the background.

Depending on the grommunio backend configuration, you might be requested to accept a corporate policy setting to finish and accept the configuration. Note that this (depending on your configuration) might allow system administrators (and yourself through grommunio web) to setup specific policies or handle the device through mobile device management. The rights you are to be granting by this so-called provisioning step are shown in the subsequent dialog. The possibilities of profile settings vary from Android versions and OEM configurations (brand of mobile device).

After having setup the device, your new account will show up at Settings -> Accounts, with the possibility to setup more configuration options with your profile (such as signatures, synchronization periods, and more). The possibilities of configuration settings vary by Android versions and OEM configurations (brand of mobile device).

With the configuration of your mobile device with an exchange account, your mobile device has access to the data of your account through the personal information manager (PIM) interface. This allows you to use your grommunio mailbox with a variety of applications of your choice, such as a mail or calendar application of your preference.

Apple iOS

grommunio Accounts can be easily added to iOS devices (such as iPhone or iPad), as they natively support the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol.

  1. To add your grommunio account to your iOS device, navigate to Settings page, and select Mail

iOS: Navigate to Mail
  1. In the Mail settings, select Add Account

iOS: Add Account
  1. In the following setup dialog, select Microsoft Exchange as account type

iOS: Select Microsoft Exchange
  1. In the following setup dialog, enter your email address, choose an account description, and select Next

iOS: Enter account information
  1. After confirming your account information, you will be requested whether you want to sign-in by using Microsoft, or manually want to configure your account information. Since grommunio is equipped with AutoDiscover technology, both possibilities are available.

iOS: Sign in via Microsoft
  1. With the following dialog, your credentials (which you are requested to enter) could be verified correctly, and you can select which information should be synchronized with your iOS device, namely Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders and Notes. After hitting Save your account setup has finished and your data is being synchronized in the background.

iOS: Available synchronization data
  1. After finishing the account setup your data is being synchronized in the background.

Depending on the grommunio backend configuration, you might be requested to accept a corporate policy setting to finish and accept the configuration. Note that this (depending on your configuration) might allow system administrators (and yourself through grommunio web) to setup specific policies or handle the device through mobile device management. The possibilities of profile settings vary by different iOS versions.

With the configuration of your mobile device with an exchange account, your mobile device has access to the data of your account through the personal information manager (PIM) interface. This allows you to use your grommunio mailbox with a variety of applications of your choice, such as a mail or calendar application of your preference.

Apple macOS

Microsoft Mail

grommunio Accounts can be easily added to Microsoft Mail, as grommunio natively supports the protocols used by Microsoft Mail.

  1. To add your grommunio account to Microsoft Mail, open Microsoft Mail and select Accounts in the left menu and after that Add account on the account management pane on the right side.

Microsoft Mail: New account
  1. In the following dialog the Microsoft Mail account assistant select Office 365 account type from the list.

Microsoft Mail: Select Office 365 account type
  1. The following dialog requests the entry of the email address, which should be entered here, select Next to continue.

Microsoft Mail: Account email setup
  1. After a few seconds, the next dialog requests the password of the account, select Logon after entry.

Microsoft Mail: Account password setup
  1. After entering the credentials, Microsoft Mail will automatically (based on AutoDiscover technology) detect your settings after a few seconds.

Microsoft Mail: Account discovery
  1. After completed setup of the account, Microsoft Mail will confirm the successful account creation and synchronize all information with your Microsoft Windows device.

Microsoft Mail: Account setup complete Microsoft Mail: Account available for use

Note

Microsoft Mail will automatically store the credentials without the option to deselect this feature. The password hereby is stored in the Microsoft Windows user profile used for the account creation.

Important

With the account creation in Microsoft Mail, the Windows default Apps People and Calendar automatically have access to the same account information and automatically synchronize your grommunio account with the Microsoft Windows device.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla is a free and open-source cross-platform email and personal information manager. grommunio fully supports Mozilla Thunderbird with its primary protocols, IMAP(s), POP3(s), SMTP(s) as well as CalDAV(s). Additionally, with full support for CardDAV(s) by grommunio, the official Mozilla Thunderbird plugin named "CardBook" can be used for synchronization of contacts.

Thunderbird: E-Mail

  1. To setup an email account with Mozilla Thunderbird, choose File -> New -> Existing Mail Account... and fill in your personal mail account settings:

Thunderbird: Set Up your existing Email Address

If you want your authentication information to be stored on your system, use the Remember password option, so it will not prompt you the next times you open Mozilla Thunderbird.

Press Continue when you have your confirmed your information to be correct.

Thunderbird: Set Up your existing Email Address, detailed information automatically detected.
  1. The summary page will provide you with the functionality available for Mozilla Thunderbird. During configuration, the warning Configuration found, but no addons known to handle the config might show up. You can safely ignore this hint, since Mozilla Thunderbird does not understand all protocols available by grommunio, which is the reason for this warning to show up. Mozilla Thunderbird automatically detects the correct mail server information for you and sets the protocol encryption for you. With the choice of your favorite protocol, select Done and your account is setup.

Thunderbird: Calendar

  1. To setup a calendar account with Mozilla Thunderbird, choose File -> New -> Calendar... and select On the Network as the location of your calendar.

Thunderbird: Setup your remote calendar account (CalDAV)
  1. In the upcoming dialog choose CalDAV as Format, enter your Username and set the location appropriately. Per default, your personal Calendar is reachable under "https://<Server URL>/dav/calendars/<Username>/<Calendar Name>". If you do not have this information, contact your administrator to provide you with this information accordingly. In most cases, the server URL matches your grommunio Web URL. Checking the checkbox Offline Support will make sure you can access your calendar information also without an active connection to your provider.

Thunderbird: Setup remote calendar information

Note

Since grommunio support multiple calendars in a Mailbox, the <Calendar Name> is needed to be specified explicitly. Note that this URL is sensitive to correct spelling, which means a users mailbox' calendar is most likely to be named Kalender in german, for example.

  1. The next dialog in the CalDAV account setup will give you options to setup your Calendar account, such as giving it a specific name, color and activate reminders. It is recommended to choose the corresponding email account correctly - This ensures appointment handling is matching the correct calendar/mailbox pairing.

Thunderbird: Personal configuration of remote calendar
  1. As final dialog you will be presented to provide your credentials to be able to access your calendar. You can identify being connected to the correct server URL by seeing the prompt: The site says: "grommunio dav". Use the same credentials as with your email account to access your calendar information.

Thunderbird: Authentication for remote calendar

Thunderbird: Contacts

  1. To setup a contacts account with Mozilla Thunderbird, it is first required to install a plugin with Mozilla Thunderbird. The well-known plugin "CardBook" is fully tested and supported with grommunio, and available at the following location: https://addons.thunderbird.net/de/thunderbird/addon/cardbook/. Download the plugin and install it, to make your Mozilla Thunderbird installation to support contacts management based on the vCARD standard. To install it, you need to download and install the plugin (an XPI archive) or download it directly within Mozilla Thunderbird via File -> Add-Ons and search for the Add-on CardBook and select Add to Thunderbird. It will be automatically installed and with installation it will request you for the necessary permissions, which need to be accepted for proper operation of the plugin.

Thunderbird: Installation of CardBook plugin
  1. After installation, choose the CardBook Tab from Mozilla Thunderbird, and within CardBook, choose Addressbook -> New Adressbook and select Remote as address book location and select Next >.

Thunderbird: Selection of remote address book
  1. For setting up your grommunio Contacts folder, choose CardDAV as your remote address book type. Per default, your personal Calendar is reachable under "https://<Server URL>". In most cases, the server URL matches your grommunio Web URL. After entering your credentials (Username and Password) you can validate your correct configuration with the button Validate.

Thunderbird: Setup of remote address book (CardDAV)
  1. After successful validation, select Next > to continue your address book configuration.

Thunderbird: Validation of remote address book configuration
  1. The final dialog will give you options to setup your address book account, such as giving it a specific name and color. Checking the checkbox Work Offline will make sure you can access your calendar information also without an active connection to your provider.

Thunderbird: Personal configuration of remote address book

Evolution

grommunio Web

grommunio Web provides the primary web interface for accessing your mailbox and other communication tools with just a browser.

Important

For grommunio Web, we have crafted a dedicated standalone documentation, which you can find here: grommunio Web documentation

Note

This documentation is also referenced directly from grommunio Web, which allows your users to use the most recent version of the documentation online.