3.1 Planning a Mobility System

GroupWise Administration Agent

The GroupWise Administration Agent is used to connect to the primary domain of the GroupWise system. You need to know the DNS name of the primary domain server, the port the admin service uses, and the credentials of a user that has admin privileges in GroupWise.

GroupWise Trusted Application

A GroupWise trusted application can log in to a GroupWise Post Office Agent (POA) in order to access GroupWise mailboxes without needing personal user passwords. The GroupWise Sync Agent requires such mailbox access in order to synchronize GroupWise data with mobile devices. In addition, the Device Sync Agent uses trusted application ION through the GroupWise Sync Agent in order to access the GroupWise Address Book. This provides contact lookup beyond the contacts that are downloaded to users’ devices from personal address books.

Before you install the Mobility Service, you must set up the GroupWise Sync Agent as a GroupWise trusted application. You might name the trusted application MobilityService or GroupWiseSyncAgent.

A trusted application uses a key that consists of a long string of letters and numbers to provide ION for the GroupWise POA. The key file is initially created in a location that is accessible to GroupWise. You must transfer the key file to a location that is accessible to the Mobility Service Installation program.

When you set up the GroupWise Sync Agent as a trusted application, you must fill in only these three fields in the New Trusted App Key dialog box in the GroupWise Administration console (or in the Create Trusted Application dialog box in ConsoleOne in older GroupWise systems):

For more information, see Creating a Trusted Application and Key in the GroupWise Administration Guide.

Copy the key file to a convenient location on the Mobility server. The Installation program automatically transfers the trusted application key from the key file into the configuration of the GroupWise Sync Agent.

You need to create only one trusted application key for the GroupWise Sync Agent, regardless of the number of servers where you install the Mobility Service, and regardless of the number of domains and post offices in your GroupWise system.

GroupWise Post Office Agent SOAP URL

The GroupWise Sync Agent accesses your GroupWise system by communicating with a Post Office Agent (POA). The selected POA must be configured for SOAP.

The Mobility Service Installation program and the GroupWise Sync Agent need the IP address or DNS hostname of the server where the POA is running. In addition, they need the POA SOAP port. The default POA SOAP port is 7191.

Typically, the same port number is used regardless of whether the POA is configured for a secure SSL SOAP connection. The Mobility Service Installation program and the GroupWise Sync Agent need to know whether the connection is secure because they use one of the following URLs to communicate with the POA:

GroupWise Address Book User

The Device Sync Agent needs to be able to access the GroupWise Address Book to obtain user information. The Device Sync Agent establishes this access through the GroupWise Sync Agent.

The Device Sync Agent needs Address Book access that is equivalent to a typical user. You control what users see in the GroupWise Address Book by controlling object visibility. You want the Device Sync Agent to access the GroupWise Address Book with the same visibility that a typical GroupWise user has when viewing the GroupWise Address Book. For more information, see Controlling Object Visibility in the GroupWise Administration Guide.

You need to select a user whose view of the GroupWise Address Book matches what you want the Device Sync Agent to be able to access. You do not need to provide the password for the GroupWise user because the Device Sync Agent accesses the GroupWise Address Book through the GroupWise Sync Agent, which has trusted application status.

As an example, you might have a group of mobile device users who need access to Address Book information about upper-level management in your company and another group of mobile device users who should not have this Address Book information. To meet such needs, you would set up two Mobility servers, one with Address Book visibility that includes upper-level management, and a second one where such Address Book visibility is not provided. You would achieve this by setting up each Mobility server with an Address Book user whose Address Book visibility provides the visibility appropriate for all users on that Mobility server.

Device Connection Port

By default, the Device Sync Agent uses all available IP addresses on the Mobility server. You can bind the Device Sync Agent to a specific IP address after installation. For setup information, see Binding to a Specific IP Address in the GroupWise Mobility Service Administration Guide.

Typically, the Device Sync Agent uses port 443 for secure SSL HTTP connections with mobile devices and port 80 for non-secure HTTP connections. If mobile devices connect directly to the Device Sync Agent, a secure HTTP connection is strongly recommended. If mobile devices connect to the Device Sync Agent through a security application such as OpenText Access Manager or OpenText ZENworks Mobile Management, the Device Sync Agent can appropriately be configured with a non-secure HTTP connection. For more information, see Integrating with Mobile Device Management Applications.

Server Certificate

In order to use a secure SSL HTTP connection between the Device Sync Agent and mobile devices, a CA-signed server certificate is required. If you do not already have a certificate signed by a certificate authority (CA) for the Mobility server, the Mobility Service Installation program can generate a self-signed certificate for you. However, you must obtain and install a commercially signed certificate in order for iOS 13 and later devices to connect to the Mobility Service.

For more information about certificates, see Securing Communication between the Device Sync Agent and Mobile Devices in the GroupWise Mobility Service Administration Guide.