Setting up domain name aliases on Google Apps

Google Apps support the use of domain name aliases, a feature which saved me hours of otherwise painstaking work of having to migrate my users from one domain to another. It does have a number of limitations, which are documented in detail here.

A number of things to keep in mind:

1. You cannot set different policies or configuration settings for different domains.
Think of the domain alias (or non-primary domain name) as a secondary route to Google Apps. It is essentially bound up with the primary name and pretty much inherits all features of the primary.

2. Custom URLs for accessing Google Apps are available only for the primary domain.
What this means is if you have a domain alias called myDomainAlias.org and a custom start page called start.myPrimaryDomain.org, then start.myDomainAlias.org is not going to work.

This extends to the Google Aps Control Panel whereby you must use your primary domain name in order to access it, as follows:

http://www.google.com/a/myPrimaryDomain.org

3. If you are getting a "Activate Domain Alias" state despite having had the new name verified, go to "Domain Settings -> General -> New Services and Pre-release Features".
where it says "Next generation (US English only)", change it to "Current version".

4. Once the MX records are in place for your domain alias and activiated on Google Apps, the new domain alias will automatically show up an additional email "Nickname" for all your users. However, for them to able to send (receival is already taken care of) messages using the new email nickname would require custom changes to your Gmail account setting, as detailed here.

At the time of this writing, Google Apps does not allow changing of primary domain name. The use of domain alias should address the majority of day-to-day requirements and there is no serious downside to having a non-primary domain name aka domain alias functioning as a primary one. If you must migrate to a new domain, consider using GAM which can help to automate part of your process.