Configuring Google Workspace (GSuite) for Proofpoint Essentials

What Is Google Workspace?

Google Workspace (also known as Gsuite) is a cloud-based solution from Google which offers email, messaging, security, archiving and other capabilities delivered from Google’s worldwide network of cloud data centers.

For more information please see: https://workspace.google.com/

Before You Start

Before continuing with the provisioning and configuration of the Proofpoint Essentials service, it is recommended that you have the information listed below.

INFORMATION NEEDED FOR CONFIGURING PROOFPOINT ESSENTIALS

MX record(s) for domain(s) you are configuring

INFORMATION NEEDED FOR CONFIGURING G SUITE

Proofpoint Essentials IPs, Smart Host and SPF
Google admin account

Setup Inbound Mail Flow

Proofpoint Essentials is deployed between the customer’s Google Workspace environment and the Internet. Inbound mail is routed to Proofpoint Essentials by changing the customer’s MX records. After email is processed by Proofpoint Essentials it is routed to Google Workspace.

Configure Proofpoint Essentials

LOCATE YOUR MX RECORD FOR THE DOMAIN IN G SUITE

Sign-In to the Google Admin console.
From the dashboard go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Setup.
Under Setup, scroll down to MX records and make note of all the Points to values (you can also enter MX records in the search field).

These values will be necessary when you add your domains to Proofpoint Essentials.

ADDING DOMAIN(S) TO PROOFPOINT ESSENTIALS

Sign-in to the Proofpoint Essentials user interface.
Navigate to Administration > Account Management > Domains > New Domain.
Enter the domain name you wish to configure.
Ensure Relay is selected for domain purpose.
For Delivery Destination, put the MX record from Google that you copied earlier (Generally is ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM).
For the subsequent Failovers, put the additional MX Records there (i.e. SMTP Failover 1: ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM).

You can verify your domain at this stage or you can verify at a later time. However, the domain must be verified before it can be enabled.

Under Verification Method, select Verify by TXT Record, and then press Verify Later.
Repeat if you are adding more than 1 domain.

The delivery and failover destinations refers to the points to values captured in the previous section.

Configure Google Workspace

CONFIGURE INBOUND MAIL GATEWAY

Skipping Inbound Mail Gateway Configuration

Skipping this step has been verified to cause bounce errors if the original sender side has a valid SPF or DMARC configuration in place. Please ensure to set this in order to ensure mail delivery.

Sign-In to the Google Admin console.
From the dashboard go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Advanced Settings.

If you do not see Advanced Settings, Please Scroll Down to "New Google Workspace Configuration" as you have Googles new layout
On the General Settings tab, scroll down to the Spam, phishing, and malware > Inbound Gateway
Hover the cursor to the right of Inbound gateway. To create a new inbound gateway setting, click Configure.

Under Gateway IPs, enter the IP addresses, as well as these Google IP addresses:

· 35.190.247.0/24

· 64.233.160.0/19

· 66.102.0.0/20

· 66.249.80.0/20

· 72.14.192.0/18

· 74.125.0.0/16

· 108.177.8.0/21

· 173.194.0.0/16

· 209.85.128.0/17

· 216.58.192.0/19

· 216.239.32.0/19

· 172.217.0.0/19

· 172.217.32.0/20

· 172.217.128.0/19

· 172.217.160.0/20

· 172.217.192.0/19

· 172.253.56.0/21

· 172.253.112.0/20

· 108.177.96.0/19

· 35.191.0.0/16

· 130.211.0.0/22

· 2001:4860:4000::/36

· 2404:6800:4000::/36

· 2607:f8b0:4000::/36

· 2800:3f0:4000::/36

· 2a00:1450:4000::/36

· 2c0f:fb50:4000::/36

Check Automatically detect external IP.

When this setting is enabled, Gmail scans the message header to locate the first occurrence of an IP address that is not listed in the Gateway IPs. This is referred to as the “external IP.” Gmail considers the “external IP” as the sending IP and uses this IP for SPF checks and spam evaluation.

Check Reject all mail not coming from gateway IPs.
Check Require TLS for connection from the email gateways listed above.
Click Save and then Enable the Inbound Gateway.

UPDATE SAFETY SETTINGS

G Suite's safety settings allow organizations to enable or disable policies related to viewing and accessing email. If you have enabled some or all of these settings you may experience some delivery issues. Please review the following steps to ensure your settings are supported.

While signed into the Google Admin console, go to Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail.
Click Safety to expand options.

No changes to Attachments settings or Links and external images are required. You can leave these settings as they are.

If you have Spoofing and authentication settings enabled (either all or customized) consider the following setting:
- Protect against any unauthenticated emails
  - Proofpoint Essentials has already scanned incoming emails for SPF and/or DKIM issues. Emails with issues are scored accordingly and quarantined if they exceed your spam threshold.
  - This setting needs to be disabled. If it is enabled it may cause unexpected delivery issues for incoming email.
  - Uncheck "Apply future recommended settings automatically" as this may cause the "Protect against any unauthenticated emails" to be checked again causing the error

DMARC Errors

Not disabling this feature has also been known to cause bounce back errors indicating a DMARC issue. Please ensure you disable this as instructed.

The error message would be: Unauthenticated email from proofpoint.com is not accepted due to domain's DMARC policy

Setup Inbound And Outbound Mail Flow

Proofpoint Essentials is deployed between the customer’s Google Workspace environment and the Internet. Outbound mail is routed to Proofpoint Essentials by configuring an outbound mail gateway. This will route all outbound mail to Proofpoint Essentials.