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Brief Description

GSuite is the enterprise service offered by Google. The service basically contains most of the offers known from private use, such as Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and much more. However, the offer has some important advantages over the private version:

The active users receive a VSETH Google Account, which means in particular that the active users do not have to use their private Google Account for work.
Data stored within the GSuite does not belong to individuals but to the organisation. This means that when a person leaves the organisation, this data is not lost.

VSETH provides one or more shared drives for cloud editing in the VSETH GSuite. A shared drive can be used for file exchange and collaborative document work. In addition, all files are available online regardless of the device. Every board member benefits from having all files easily available anywhere. All organs of VSETH can use the GSuite service free of charge.

Site map

Documentation for users

The GSuite service includes among other things:

Google account: Each Active receives a personal VSETH Google Account. The login to the Google Account is via the ETH Login. The Google Account is used to access the other services.
Personal drive: On the personal Google Account each user receives a personal area where files can be stored. These files are only accessible by the user, but can be shared via a link.
Shared drives: Shared drives are Google Drive files that are not assigned to an individual user, but to the organisation. In particular, all data within a shared drive belongs to the organisation and not to the individual user. When a user leaves the organisation, the data remains in the shared drive.
Templates: With a VSETH Google Account you can use document templates in VSETH CI
Jamboard: Google Jamboard is a whiteboard-like tool that enables collaborative work in real time online.
Tasks: Google Tasks is an online tool to manage personal to-do lists.
Keep: Google Keep is a simple online note-taking service where you can create and share notes.
File Stream: Google File Stream allows you to mount the GSuite as a drive in File Explorer/Finder on Windows and Mac.

Gmail and Google Calendar are explicitly disabled. These services are already covered by the ISG email service.
The individual points will be explained in more detail.

General

The GSuite service is administered by VSETH ISG. For support requests, the general support process of VSETH applies.

The ITA recommends all organisations not to use shared drives as an archive. Please use the Storage service to secure your data longterm.

Each Active receives a VSETH Google account. The username for this account is $nethzKürzel@gsuite.vseth.ch, for example for Lukas Reichart with the nethz abbreviation lukasre the username is lukasre@gsuite.vseth.ch.

There are two ways to log in to the Google account:

Direct link: Go to the direct login at drive.gsuite.vseth.ch. From this page, you will be redirected to the SWITCH login, where you can then log in with your ETH account.
Google account: On the normal Google login page, you can enter the user name $nethzKürzel@gsuite.vseth.ch, after which the user will be automatically redirected to the SWITCH login page.

Use of the VSETH Google account (including all services) is limited to association work. A private Google account must be used for private matters.

Notifications

Various Google services send notification emails to the user account, for example when another user adds a comment on a document. These notifications are forwarded to the user's student address: The user Lukas Reichart with the Google account lukasre@gsuite.vseth.ch receives the notifications on his student account lukasre@student.ethz.ch.

(2) Personal Drive

Access to the drive is via drive.gsuite.vseth.ch. There is a Personal Drive for each account, which can be used to store association documents. Please note:

This drive may only be used to store documents relating to the commitment to VSETH. Personal data may not be stored.
After leaving VSETH, the personal drive will be deleted. It is the responsibility of the user to copy their data to another location (for example, to a shared drive before they leave the organisation).

Google Tools

Desktop clients for Google Drive for Windows and OS X operating systems can be downloaded from the Google Drive page. These allow local and offline access to the data.

(3) Shared Drives

Shared drives are storage areas that are shared within a team. One of the great advantages of shared drives is that once a user leaves the organisation, all data stored in a shared drive is preserved.
After logging in at drive.gsuite.vseth.ch, there is an entry "Shared Drives" in the left side menu. Under this item, all shared drives to which the logged-in user has access are displayed.

Access

A shared drive is accessed via the groups of the VSETH group concept. All VSETH groups are synchronized in the GSuite and are used to manage the authorizations for the Team Drives.

For example: The VIS Management Board has a shared drive to work together on the protocols of their board meeting. The access to the Shared Drive will be linked by ISG to the group vseth-1116-vis-vs upon request of the OIV. This means that all users in this group get access to the Shared Drive.

If Max Muster is elected to the VIS Board, the group will be adjusted by ISG after notification and Max Muster will have access to the Shared Drive after a short synchronisation.

Authorisation level

On the shard drives there are different levels of permissions that can be assigned to groups:

	Read	Comment	Edit	Add	Move	Delete
Content Manager
Contributor
Commenter
Viewer

An example of how these permissions can be used: The ESF OK has a shared drive on which all documents used to organise the ESF are stored. All members of the OK have the Content Manager authorizations. The cadre assistants and bar managers are given the permissions Commenter so that they can view and comment on the documents, but they cannot edit files directly.

Link sharing on shared drives

Google folders within a shared drive cannot be shared by link. If someone needs access to an entire folder, either all files must be shared with the user individually or the user must be given access to the shared drive. This means that the user must be added to an appropriate group. If this is not an option, a new shared drive with customised permissions can also be created.

Example: ESF is not a subfolder of the Projects folder in the VSETH Executive Board's shared drive because not all ESF OKs should have access to the shared drive of the VSETH Executive Board. Instead, there is an extra shared drive only for the ESF OK.

(4) Templates

While creating a new document it is possible to use templates in VSETH CI. Also every organization can create their own templates. By using templates users do not have to copy, move and rename "template documtens" anymore.

Using an existing template to create a new document:

Click "New" on the top of the page/on the left side and after hovering over the desired document type click "From a template". This opens the VSETH template gallery.
Now you can see all VSETH templates sorted according to the corresponding organization. Click on the desired template.

Create a template for your own organization:

Create the document you would like to use as a template in a shared drive of the corresponding organization. The original document should not be in a "private" drive of the creator. Remember, that every document needs to be in VSETH CI.
Click "New" on the top of the page/on the left side and after hovering over the desired document type click "From a template". This opens the VSETH template gallery.
Click "Submit template" on the top of the page/on the right side.
A pop-up opens. Choose the desired document.
You can choose "Submit a copy of this file instead of the orginal". If you choose this, you cannot change the template anymore, without resubmitting it. If you do not choose this, you can change the template later (for example to change the board members in a protocol template).
Attention: If you do not choose "Submit a copy of this file instead of the orginal" you remove the template from the template gallery by deleting the original document or changing its sharing settings. Every template always needs to be shared VSETH-wide - by submitting the template this is done automatically.
Choose your own organization as template category.
After submitting the template, it still needs to be accepted by the VSETH board for communication.

Change a template of your own organization:

Click "New" on the top of the page/on the left side and after hovering over the desired document type click "From a template". This opens the VSETH template gallery.
Click "Edit" in the menu of the desired template. Please contact your OIV if you do not have this option.

(5) Jamboard

Google Jamboard is a service where a digital whiteboard may be shared with other users.

(6) Tasks

Google Tasks may be used to managed personal tasks.

(7) Keep

Google Keep may be used to store notes. Notes and lists may be shared with other users/ groups.

(8) File Stream

With Google File Stream, you can mount the GSuite as one drive in File Explorer/Finder on Windows and Mac. Therefore, you don't have to click through the folder structure in your web browser anymore. Uploading and downloading files is also simplified.

Concerning users of a board laptop: The installation was commissioned and should be ready for use. If it can't be found, try turning on the VPN and see what installations are pending. For home laptops, the software can be downloaded here. You can also find more information about the service under this link. After installation you will need to login with your GSuite account nethz@gsuite.vseth.ch. If this does not work, there is a link at the bottom of the login screen to authenticate in your web browser.

Google File Stream is only possible with the VSETH Google account, as the account must belong to an organisation. Google File Stream is not possible for private Google accounts.

This installation could be especially beneficial for intensive Google Drive users. We are happy to receive any feedback, whether the Google File Stream proves to be rather positive or rather negative. It helps us to decide whether we will recommend or advise against it in the future.

FAQ

Here you will find the most important answers to frequently asked questions. If your question is not answered here, please send an e-mail to vseth-it-support@ethz.ch.

There are various reasons for this:

To protect the user: after leaving VSETH, the VSETH Google account is deleted.
VSETH provides IT services for working in VSETH and not for private use.

In principle, the GSuite Service is available to VSETH bodies and student associations. Recognised and associated organisations cannot currently use this service.

You may only move files from an existing drive to a shared drive if you are the owner of the drive. In drives that have been in existence for some time, the owners of some files are no longer available. The ISG can migrate all files for you, but all links will be regenerated. So files/folders shared by link are no longer available under the original link. To do this, you write directly to vseth-it-support@ethz.ch.

Access rights are handled based on the VSETH group concept. The user groups determine which groups have access to a specific shared drive.

To do this, you write directly to vseth-it-support@ethz.ch. Only the OIV of your organisation should do this. Remember to give the nethz abbreviations of the newly authorized users or groups. Permissions on shared drives are only granted via groups.

Authorisations are linked to groups or functions in VSETH IT. For example, the board of a commission is a group, or the person responsible for IT is a function. This has the advantage that the authorisations are independent of the current composition of the group or the current person in a function. In the event of fluctuations, the authorizations are automatically transferred to the new persons.

Each Active receives a VSETH Google account. The username for this account is $nethzKuerzel@gsuite.vseth.ch, for example for Lukas Reichart with the nethz abbreviation lukasre the username is lukasre@gsuite.vseth.ch. The login is done via SWITCH and the ETH account via drive.gsuite.vseth.ch.

You cannot unsubscribe from the mails on Google. However, you can create an inbox rule in your student account that will redirect or delete all GSuite mails. You can find a HowTo here.

We only enable your VSETH GSuite account for the Google services that are described in this documentation.
If you have problems with Google services that you can use without a Google account like Google Pay, you can open this service in your browsers incognito mode or log out.
How to work with multiple Google accounts is documented here. Your primary account is normally the one you log in first with.

For any questions you may have, contact us at vseth-it-support@ethz.ch.

Documentation for OIV

Note

This section is only relevant for Organisational IT Managers (OIVs)

Customer benefits

It offers a possibility for cloud storage and cloud editing.
Every board member/user receives a Google Account, which can be used for association work.
Permissions are linked to functions and groups. This minimizes the effort for fluctuations.
VSETH ISG can help with questions and problems

Customer groups and pricing

The GSuite service is available free of charge to all VSETH organs and student associations.

Dependencies

User administration: Login to GSutie is via the ETH user administration, i.e. all users must have an ETH account. If necessary, VSETH ISG will create an ETH guest account for non ETH members.

Configuration and order

Via email to vseth-it-support@ethz.ch

Support

The basis for the support process is the general VSETH support process according to the User Documentation: Support Process. This means in particular that all support requests are managed via the ticketing system OTRs. Questions and problems may always be reported to vseth-it-support@ethz.ch. VSETH's IT support group will then deal with them in accordance with its response times for queries (SLAs).