Mimecast for Outlook - Group Policy

This article contains information on deploying Mimecast for Outlook using Group Policy, including prerequisites, step-by-step installation instructions, and troubleshooting tips for resolving errors like %%1274 caused by network connectivity issues.

The Mimecast for Outlook installer will automatically upgrade over previous versions. No uninstall is required.

Also see Installing Standalone.

Prerequisites

• You have reviewed Mimecast for Outlook - Prerequisites.
• You have sorted your users into 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Outlook groups. This ensures the correct version of Mimecast for Outlook is installed.
• You have disabled Allow Automatic Failover option in the Continuity section of Application Settings for the groups your End Users are in.
• You have copied the Mimecast Services for Outlook.x.msi to your shared network location for software installation, ensuring the location has sufficient permissions.

Windows Server

1. Start the Group Policy Management snap-in:

• • Click Start.
  • Point to Administrative Tools.
  • Click Group Policy Management.

2. Select Group Policy Objects in the console tree.
3. Right-click the left side window pane.
4. Click New.
5. Name the Group Policy relevant to the installation.
6. Click OK.
7. Expand Group Policy Objects and locate your new policy.
8. Right click your Group Policy object.
9. Click Edit.
10. Expand the Computer Configuration | Policies | Software settings.
11. Select Software installation.
12. Right click Software installation.
13. Point to New.
14. Click Package. 
15. Type the full Universal Naming Convention (UNC) Path of the shared installer package (e.g. \\file server\share\Mimecast Services for Outlook.x.msi).
    • Do not use the Browse button to access the location. Make sure you use the UNC path to the shared installer package.
    • The file share must be accessible from the End Users' machines. Check that the security and sharing settings are correct.

• Select Open.
• Select Assigned.
• Click OK. The package is listed in the right pane of the Group Policy window.
• Close the Group Policy snap-in.
• Click OK.
• Exit the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.
• Close the Group Policy Management Editor.

When the client computer starts, the Mimecast for Outlook software is automatically installed. To download the user settings as defined in the Application Settings definition and start using Mimecast for Outlook, the client needs to authenticate with Mimecast.

Mimecast for Outlook troubleshooting

If you receive a %%1274 error in the system event log when deploying Mimecast for Outlook, the issue could be due to the computer not having network connectivity (or full connectivity) while trying to process the package installation.

You can resolve this, by using the following steps:

1. Edit the GPO that is applied to the computer using Group Policy Management Editor.
2. Expand Computer Settings | Policies | Administrative Templates | System | Login.
3. Set Always wait for the network at computer startup and log on to Enabled.

4. Enable Startup policy processing wait time, and set it to 90 seconds.
5. Edit the GPO that applied to the computer using Group Policy Management Editor.
6. Expand Computer Settings | Policies | Administrative Templates | System | Group Policy.
7. Set Specify startup policy processing wait time to Enabled and set it to 90 seconds.