Google Rooms and Resources Coexistence
Enable room booking and availability visibility between Google Workspace and Office 365/Exchange environments.
Overview
During migration or in hybrid environments, organizations need to maintain visibility into room and resource availability across Google Workspace and Microsoft platforms. This guide explains how to configure coexistence for Google Rooms and Resources.
Google Booking Limitation
Important Limitation
Google Rooms and Resources cannot be booked from outside a Google client calendar. While you can query availability from external systems like Outlook, you cannot book Google rooms directly from non-Google calendar clients.
This is a limitation of Google's resource booking system, not a Cloudiway limitation. However, there are workarounds depending on your needs.
Understanding the Options
- • View Google room availability from Outlook
- • Query Free/Busy information
- • Book rooms from Google Calendar
- • Migrate rooms to Office 365
- • Book Google rooms from Outlook
- • Reserve Google resources from Exchange
- • Direct booking from non-Google clients
Option 1: Full Booking Capability (Recommended)
For organizations that need full booking capability from both Google and Microsoft platforms, the recommended approach is to migrate rooms and resources to Office 365.
Why Migrate Rooms to Office 365?
- No booking restrictions: Office 365 room mailboxes can be booked from both Google Calendar and Outlook
- Cross-platform compatibility: Users on both platforms can schedule meeting rooms
- Simplified management: Single platform for all room resources
Migration Steps
- 1 Create room mailboxes in Office 365 for each Google resource
- 2 Configure room settings (capacity, equipment, scheduling policies)
- 3 Migrate existing calendar events from Google resources
- 4 Update room lists and address book entries
- 5 Decommission Google resources after validation
Option 2: Free/Busy Queries Only
If you only need to view Google room availability from Office 365 (without booking), you can configure Free/Busy queries.
About Google Resources Domain
All Google Rooms and Resources reside under the domain resource.calendar.google.com. This is a standardized domain used by Google across all organizations.
Free/Busy Configuration Requirements
- AvailabilityAddressSpace: Add an entry for
resource.calendar.google.com - Resource CSV: Upload a CSV file containing all resource definitions for your organization
- Cloudiway Platform: Configure Free/Busy coexistence settings in the Cloudiway portal
Configuration Steps
Step 1: Add AvailabilityAddressSpace
Configure Exchange Online to query Google's resource calendar domain:
Add-AvailabilityAddressSpace ` -ForestName resource.calendar.google.com ` -AccessMethod OrgWideFB ` -Credentials $credentials
Step 2: Prepare Resource CSV
Create a CSV file with your Google resources:
| ResourceEmail | ResourceName | ResourceType |
|---|---|---|
| conf-room-a@resource.calendar.google.com | Conference Room A | Room |
| projector-1@resource.calendar.google.com | Projector - Floor 1 | Equipment |
Step 3: Upload to Cloudiway
- 1. Log in to the Cloudiway portal
- 2. Navigate to Free/Busy → Configuration
- 3. Upload your resource CSV file
- 4. Enable Google resources coexistence
- 5. Test Free/Busy queries from Outlook
Standardized Domain
The resource.calendar.google.com domain is used by all Cloudiway customers. This simplifies the setup process as the same configuration works for all Google Workspace organizations.