Cloud Identity Free and Domain Ownership

[yozu-dave]

I have several GCP projects in production, and I'm looking to add an Organisation for them, with Cloud Identity Free. When I try to set this up, I enter my domain and get a message that the domain is already associated with a Google product, and I will need to prove I own the domain.

Through a lot of messing around, I've verified myself as an owner of the domain via TXT records in Search Console. This had no effect. I also tried to promote my Google account in the domain, but as we are not a Workspace account it isn't actually in the domain

I seem to be stuck in a chicken-and-egg situation where I can't start the process because my domain is already associated with Google products, but I can't continue the process or get support (even automated) because my domain isn't associated with the right Google products.

Any setup related to the domain was performed before my time, so while I have access to DNS and the email server, I'm unable to get any details about how I should even start recovery.

Any ideas how I go about getting Cloud Identity in this situation?

[andrewksmith]

Hey @yozu-dave,

Since Google Cloud and Google Workspace largely share the same user management, you'll have to verify your domain as a part of signup for Cloud Identity Free. See instructions to get started on our support page here: https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/7389973?hl=en

This will start the flow for taking over ownership of those other Google products and becoming the domain owner for the purposes of Google Cloud and Google Workspace.

[yozu-dave]

Hi @andrewksmith, I've tried the instructions in that link, that's the failed start I mentioned above.

When I put my details in there, I get "Someone at your organisation is already using your domain for a Google service. To sign up for a new Google service, you’ll need to verify ownership of this domain. Learn more ". From 'Learn more' I try to sign up for Workspace Essentials and get the message "We’re unable to create your Google Workspace account at the moment. You can try again now or later." Trying again now and later both failed, with no further information.

Are there any other avenues?

[andrewksmith · Accepted solution]

The previous owner of your domain might have signed up for a Google service. Fill out this form and the Support team will get back to you within 48 hours about taking over the domain. 

[yozu-dave]

That's a link I haven't been able to get to before. I've been through the process and verified ownership, which is huge progress. I'm now getting options to take ownership, with the following warning: "Please make sure that you no longer require access to the existing account. The existing account will be renamed/removed to allow for a new sign-up".

As I mentioned previously this was done by previous admins, so I have no clue what is in this account, therefore what the risks are of removing it. Do you know what sort of data are included in this type of account?

[yozu-dave]

I opted to email the admin, and managed to identify admins of 3 workspaces attached to the domain. I've removed all of those, and am waiting 24h to try again. Thanks for the help!