GAM Unknown Error on Forwarding Change

[Marcus]

Hi there,

I am attempting to use GAM with our Google Apps for Education account
and have been experiencing difficulty. Specifically, I am looking to
update the forwarding address of some user accounts to forward to
addresses outside of our domain. However, I have run into the
following error on numerous occasions, severely limiting the
functionality of this application:

"Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/marcus/gam/gam.py", line 2104, in <module>
doForward(users)
File "/home/marcus/gam/gam.py", line 540, in doForward
emailsettings.UpdateForwarding(username=user, enable=enable,
action=action, forward_to=forward_to)
File "/home/marcus/gam/gdata/apps/emailsettings/service.py", line
150, in UpdateForwarding
return self._PutProperties(uri, properties)
File "/home/marcus/gam/gdata/apps/service.py", line 540, in
_PutProperties
raise gdata.apps.service.AppsForYourDomainException(e.args[0])
gdata.apps.service.AppsForYourDomainException: {'status': 500, 'body':
'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\r\n<AppsForYourDomainErrors>\r
\n <error errorCode="1000" invalidInput="" reason="UnknownError" />\r
\n</AppsForYourDomainErrors>\r\n\r\n', 'reason': 'Internal Server
Error'}"

As you can see, in the heart of this issue there is an internal server
error at Google. From my testing it seems that this error is raised
only when attempting to forward to an account outside of our domain.
For example, setting the forward to an @gmail.com or any other URL
results in the error, but setting it to an @conncoll.edu works fine,
as does disabling forwarding. Please note that the error occurs with
different action options and both with and without noconfirm.

I am aware of the restrictions placed on setting Gmail forwards to
emails outside of the domain (as mentioned in the blog post you linked
http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2010/05/gmail-now-requires-verification-of.html).
However, in said blog post they mentioned that "If you are forwarding
email to an address that does not come under the three categories
above, then you will need to verify that address and a verification
email will be sent to that address." My issue is that the GAM doesn't
even get to that stage, rather it fails before the desired
verification email is sent.

Is there a solution to this bug? GAM seemed like the ideal solution
for what we need to accomplish (setting the forwarding for a number of
Gmail accounts), but this issue is a roadblock.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer, and please let me
know if you need any more information.

Alex Marcus
Connecticut College Information Services

P.S. Here is our [altered] domain information, if needed:
$ gam info domain
Google Apps Domain: conncoll.edu
Default Language: en
Organization Name: Connecticut College
Maximum Users: 4500
Current Users: 4173
Domain is Verified: True
Domain Edition: education
Domain Creation Time: 20080207T170635.707-0800
Domain Country Code: US
CNAME Verification Record Name: googleffffffffd482322d
CNAME Verification Verified: true
CNAME Verification Method: cname
MX Verification Verified: false
MX Verification Method: mx
SSO Enabled: true
SSO Signon Page: https://cas.conncoll.edu/cas/login
SSO Logout Page: https://cas.conncoll.edu/cas/logout
SSO Password Page: http://password.conncoll.edu
SSO Whitelist IPs: None
SSO Use Domain Specific Issuer: false
SSO Key Algorithm: RSA
SSO Key Format: X.509

[Jay Lee]

Hi Marcus,

  The blog article says:

-Email Settings API: This API also allows forwarding to be configured. If the address being forwarded to does not need verification as outlined in the categories above, then this will work as expected. If the address requires verification and has not been verified, this setting will fail.

There's no way around this, the verification email is only sent if the user is making the forwarding changes themself via the web page.

One possible workaround (untested):

1. Create a group named: username-autoforward
2. Add username to group as owner
3. Add forward address to group
4. Configure username account to forward all mail to username-autoforward group.

Jay

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