Your experience running the Microsoft Outlook client against a GroupWise backend should be roughly equivalent to running Outlook against an Outlook.com or Hotmail account. Known limitations are caused by several factors, including Outlook, the ActiveSync protocol, GroupWise Mobility Service, and general differences between GroupWise and Outlook features.
Microsoft Outlook 2013 and 2016 clients for Windows are the only supported Outlook clients.
The Mail metro app included with Windows 8 and newer versions includes ActiveSync. Micro Focus has not tested or documented support for this configuration.
The Outlook app for iOS and Android includes ActiveSync. Micro Focus has not tested or documented support for this configuration. To explicitly enable or disable Outlook app access to your Mobility servers, see Microsoft Outlook Support in GroupWise Mobility Service.
NitroDesk TouchDown supports ActiveSync on iOS and Android. Micro Focus has not tested or documented support for this configuration.
SyncEvolution claims support for ActiveSync. Micro Focus has not tested or documented support for this configuration.
The following configurations will not work:
Hotmail Connector for Microsoft Outlook 2010
Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac
Microsoft Outlook 2013 for Mac
Native Mac OS Mail, Contact and Calendar applications
Ximian Evolution
We expect user response times to be good for operations such as accessing item lists, performing queries, and reading attachments because GroupWise data synchronizes to a local Outlook cache (OST) file.
If any scale issues exist, they will most likely be related to additional load on GroupWise Mobility Service and will likely result in synchronization delays with the cache.
GroupWise Mobility Service can be configured to allow, to exclusively allow, or to prevent Outlook connections to give administrators control if Outlook impacts overall performance. See Section 8.1.1, Microsoft Outlook Support in GroupWise Mobility Service.
The initial synchronization of data is limited by the GroupWise Mobility Service configuration set by the administrator. For instance, if you choose to keep all data offline but GroupWise Mobility Service is configured to allow 60 days worth of data, the initial sync will only synchronize the most recent 60 days of data.
Personal groups do not synchronize to Outlook.
Outlook does provide search capabilities against LDAP. To configure LDAP address lookups, see Section 8.2.3, (Optional) Configuring GroupWise Address Lookup in the Microsoft Outlook Client.
When using LDAP address lookups, ensure that the display name is populated for users. If it is not, quick lookups do not work and advanced search must be used.
If an LDAP Address Book is not added to the Mobility Outlook email client, the Address Book drop down selection is empty. In this case, Outlook creates name completion for personal contacts and recipients from sent items.
Outlook supports contacts but does not support Personal Address Books (PAB). GroupWise Mobility Service improves this experience by aggregating contacts from all sync-configured PABs when syncing to Outlook.
Contacts created in Outlook are created in the default PAB as specified in the GroupWise settings section of the GroupWise Mobility configuration for each user.
Outlook does not create server-side drafts. They are stored locally and are not available even from other workstations running Outlook.
Name completion data is not synchronized to GroupWise or between clients using GroupWise Mobility Service.
ActiveSync 14.x does not support Outlook/GroupWise %Complete.
ActiveSync 14.x does not support GroupWise Priority. It does map the priority settings on the Send Options tab to Outlook’s High/Standard/Low priorities.
On an Outlook task, the details view has many fields that do not sync to GroupWise. They are:
Date Completed
Total/Actual Work
Milage
Billing Information
Company
On a GroupWise task, only High, Standard, and Low priority settings sync to Outlook. All other settings are GroupWise only settings.
ActiveSync does not support recipients on tasks. Tasks are personal items when synced to Outlook.
GroupWise distributed tasks sync the Subject, Start Date, Due Date, Message Body, Priority (High, Standard, Low), Complete, Alarm, and Recurrences as a personal task in Outlook. If you modify the distributed task in Outlook, only a Subject change is applied by GroupWise and when GroupWise syncs with Outlook again, any other changes in Outlook are overwritten by the GroupWise settings.
Distributed tasks created in Outlook sync as a distributed in GroupWise 2014 R2 or higher only. Outlook tasks with embedded items or attachments do not sync to GroupWise.
Outlook has not implemented the Exchange ActiveSync 14.x ability to look up contact availability (Free/Busy information). Users must configure Outlook to use a global Internet Free/Busy path to check attendee Free/Busy status.
An administrator must also configure and enable the GroupWise Calendar Publishing Server for users to publish Internet Free/Busy information. The administrator can choose to publish all Free/Busy information, or the administrator can enable publishing but leave the decision to publish Free/Busy information to individual users.
For instructions, see Section 8.2.4, (Optional) Configuring GroupWise Free/Busy Search in the Microsoft Outlook Client.
The entered email address must match exactly the email address for which the .ifb is published on GroupWise CalPub. For instance, if the name is published as user@novell.com, then only this email address will return Free/Busy information to Outlook even though the user might also be addressable via other iDomains or address formats (for example, user@gw.novell.com, user@attachmate.com, and first.last@novell.com).
Outlook does not allow configuration of multiple global internet Free/Busy search paths, so Outlook users on a mixed system can only configure availability searches against GroupWise users or against Exchange users.
Outlook Internet Free/Busy (IFB) lookups will not work with self-signed certificates. The IFB server must be configured for HTTP or the certificate chain must include a trusted root CA. With a self-signed certificate, Outlook does not prompt the user as is the case in normal browsers, and allows him or her to continue even though the IFB server isn't trusted. As a result, Outlook eventually presents a generic error message stating that there is a problem with the Free/Busy URL.
Outlook does not auto-add the organizer as an attendee for meeting requests. The organizer needs to manually add himself in order to show on the GroupWise calendar and to block out Free/Busy time in GroupWise.
No support for online meeting requests.
No support for Lunar calendar.
If you have Outlook users who are running against an Exchange back end, you can use the GroupWise Free/Busy Service to allow GroupWise and Outlook users to perform Free/Busy searches on each others’ calendars. For more information, see GroupWise Free/Busy Service
in the GroupWise/Exchange Coexistence Guide.
Online email search is not available in Outlook or GroupWise Mobility Service.
Outlook does not have a Notes folder/application. Notes created in GroupWise or on devices such as the iPhone will not be available within Outlook.
No ActiveSync support for shared folders, calendars, or address books.
Folder permissions are grayed out in Outlook.
No support for Always Move Messages in a Conversation or From a Particular Sender.
Outlook does not allow posting of an item to a folder (New Items > More Items > Post in this Folder).
Outlook does not allow moving an item from another store (for example, PST, Hotmail, or IMAP) to ActiveSync folders.
Outlook does not allow using ActiveSync folders for POP3 mailboxes.
Outlook search folders are not synchronized.
In Outlook, you cannot create rules that will execute on the server (for example, vacation, auto-reply, auto-forward). Client-side rules are available, but the Outlook client must be running in order for the rule to execute.
Creating rules in an Outlook/GroupWise configuration is more difficult than creating those same rules in an Outlook/Exchange configuration. For example, creating a client-side vacation rule requires the user to browse to and select a previously saved message template rather than giving the user the ability to edit the rule directly during rule creation. For more information, see http://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/2014/02/20/create-email-templates-outlook/.
Junk mail handling does not synchronize.
Outlook does not provide a way to import external data into a store.
No support for SharePoint file links proxied through ActiveSync.
Proxy: Outlook cannot proxy GroupWise user mailboxes.
Sent Item Properties: Outlook does not provide properties for sent items.
Calendar Publishing Host: Outlook cannot publish user availability through the Calendar Publishing Host for others to consume.
Reminder Notes/Personal Reminder Notes: Outlook displays GroupWise reminder notes and personal reminder notes as all-day events.
Phone Messages: Outlook displays GroupWise Phone messages as email.
Editors: Outlook does not support OpenOffice/LibreOffice as an editor.
Send Options: Outlook does not support GroupWise Send options such as concealed subject, recipient notification, and reply requested. Delayed message delivery, expiration, and redirected replies do not work.
Security Classifications: Outlook maps the GroupWise Security classifications (proprietary, secret, top secret, and for your eyes only) to the Outlook sensitivities of personal, private, or confidential.
Resources: Outlook cannot manage GroupWise resources.
Meeting Requests: Outlook filters out meeting requests from mail folders, including the Sent Items folder. These are only accessible through the calendar.
Categories: Categories do not sync between Outlook and GroupWise. Categories will sync between Outlook and other GroupWise Mobility connected devices.
Message Retraction: Message recall (retraction) is not available over Exchange ActiveSync.
Self-Signed Certificates: If your server is using self-signed certificates (not signed by a trusted CA), users might experience frequent warning messages. If you have enabled your GroupWise Mobility server to support the Microsoft Outlook app (see Section 8.1.1, Microsoft Outlook Support in GroupWise Mobility Service), the server must be configured to use a trusted certificate. If you use the self-signed certificate that GroupWise Mobility Service generates, the Outlook app will not be able to connect.
Voting Buttons: Voting buttons do not work.
Remote Wipe: Outlook does not honor remote wipe requests from GroupWise Mobility Service.