PFDAVAdmin tool version 2.6 released - great new features!

Oops, had logging headed to a different directory than I was running the application.  This utility is the best.  I've despised public folders for the life of Exchange simply because these managerial features weren't present.  Plus, public folder calendar's don't publish to Free/Busy :)

Excellent, thank you.  Worked perfectly.  Any logging available to see exactly what changed?

Mipbar,

I just tried it and you're right, this is not working as expected in the latest build. I'll open a bug.

There are two other ways to remove the permissions in PFDAVAdmin, and they both appear to work properly.

One way is to use an import file. You can run an import where every line looks like this:

SETACL<tab>Public FoldersFolderA<tab>SomeUser<tab>Remove

During import, when a role of "Remove" is encountered, that causes the removal of any permissions for that user on that folder.

The other way is to use a Custom Bulk Operation. In this case, ti's pretty simple to configure it to do what you want. Here are the steps:

1. Go to Tools -> Custom Bulk Operation
2. For the Base, choose the Public Folders root or the selected folder, depending on what you want.
3. Hit Add, and choose Folder Permissions as the operation type.
4. Hit Select, leave the first permissions dialog blank and click OK (since you don't want to add any permissions), but in the second one add the user who you want to remove and click OK.
5. Now you should see that back in the Folder Permissions Op window, it shows the user you've selected followed by "Remove".
6. Click OK and it will start the operation.

You can use either of those methods as a workaround until this bug is fixed.

I'm trying to remove an account or group from a folder tree using propegate folder ace's but it's leaving the account with 'none' permissions instead of removing the account entirely.  is there a way to do this?

Once again - Super Thank You!!

I´ll try this out as soon as possible, and hopefully I´ll understand it, so I can make a tutorial for creating a Swedish Bulk Change on permissions on the Calendar (or "Kalender", in Swedish) for all my Swedish Exchange gurus to use.

I admire the passion shown. :-)

Best Regards
Gphorx

To create your own Custom Bulk Operation that will set permissions on Calendar folders in different languages, the steps go something like this:

1. Go to Tools -> Custom Bulk Operation.

2. Leave the Base set to Mailboxes.

3. Set the Overall Filter to include the desired folder names. When you use the built-in Set Calendar Permissions operation, PFDAVAdmin sets the Overall Filter to "(|(0x3001001E=Calendar)(0x3001001E=FreeBusy Data))". You'll notice these filters are very similar in syntax to LDAP filters. 0x3001001E is the MAPI proptag for PR_DISPLAY_NAME, and the '|' means that these conditions are OR'd. You can just add in any other names you want this operation to hit. For instance, to include both Swedish and English versions, you could use a filter of "(|(0x3001001E=Calendar)(0x3001001E=Kalender)(0x3001001E=FreeBusy Data))".

4. Hit Add to add your first operation.

5. Choose "Folder Permissions" as the Operation Type and click OK.

6. Leave the Action set to "Merge", and click Select to configure the permissions you want to set. These will be the permissions that will be set on the calendar folders.

7. Set the Filter at the bottom to include the desired names. This first folder permissions op will be the one that runs against the calendar folders themselves - the permissions on FreeBusy Data will be different. So on this filter, we want to include ONLY the calendar folders. Using the example above, the filter would be "(|(0x3001001E=Calendar)(0x3001001E=Kalender))".

8. Click OK. Now you're back on the main Custom Bulk Operation form and you should see the operation you just configured in the bottom part of the window.

9. Click Add again. Now we're going to add the operation that runs against the FreeBusy Data folders.

10. Choose "Folder Permissions" as the Operation Type and click OK.

11. Leave the action set to "Merge" and hit Select to configure the permissions. Per KB237924, for anyone who you granted Reviewer to the Calendar folder, you should grant them Reviewer rights here as well. If you granted them something greater than Reviewer to Calendar, then you should grant them Editor rights here.

12. Set the filter. We want this operation to only run against FreeBusy Data, so our filter will be "(&(0x3001001E=FreeBusy Data))".

13. Click OK. Now you're back on the Custom Bulk Operation form again and you should now see two operations listed at the bottom. One of them will set the desired permissions on the calendar folders. The other one will set either Reviewer or Editor rights on FreeBusy Data for each user who you granted access to the calendar.

14. Click OK to begin running the Custom Bulk Operation you just configured.

It would be nice to be able to save the custom operation settings to a file, so you don't have to go through this series of steps every time you want to do the same thing on a different server. Maybe in a future release... :-)

You may actually find it easier to just use the old Propagate ACEs functionality. Just right-click on the Mailboxes root, choose Propagate Folder ACEs, configure the permissions, and set it to only apply to folders named Kalendar. The disadvantage of this is that you have to then go back and run a separate propagate operation to hit FreeBusy Data, and if you want to hit calendars in other languages you would have to do each one of those separately as well. With the Custom Bulk Operation you can hit them all in one go.

Hopefully that was fairly clear. Maybe we can do a blog post on some Custom Bulk Operation examples in the near future.

Hi Bill Long!

Super thank you for your time, (and pointing out the missing screenshot *smile*). I think it´s amazing that an Exchange Freak in Sweden can get input from an Exchange Tool Developer in i whole different continent. Long live the Internet and community passion! ;-)

By the way, I´ve updated my tutorial.

If I understand you correctly, since I mostly have cutomers with Swedish Calendars (Kalender) I´ve got to use Custom Bulk Operation. It´s not all that clear to my how to point out the (Kalender) folder to edit the permissions. Can you give me a push in the right direction?

Best Regards
Gphorx

Gphorx,

I just had a look at the steps at the link you provided and they look good to me. One thing you may want to include is a screenshot of you choosing Tools -> Set Calendar Permissions, since the rest of the screens look very similar to what you see when you do a normal Propagate op.

Adam,

PFDAVAdmin started out as a way for me to teach myself C#. Originally all it did was fix non-canonical ACLs, but once I had that part done I thought it made sense to incorporate the ability to export/import permissions in the old pfadmin format. At that point, of course, it also made sense to have it do replica export/import just like pfadmin did too. I kept gradually adding features, and the tool gained such wide usage that it became an official release late last year. Now that it's an official tool, we do have a team of 3 or 4 people that maintain it.

Gphorx,

In the new version, you should use the Tools -> Set Calendar Permissions option to do this. The advantage of doing it this way is that it also automatically updates the permissions on the FreeBusy Data folder in the user's mailbox, as required by KB237924, instead of having to run a separate propagate operation for that purpose.

The only disadvantage is that it assumes that the name of the folder will be Calendar. For other languages, you'll need to use a custom bulk operation or the old propagate functionality.

Hi Haruya Shida!

I have created a small guide how to make the group "Everyone" able to view (reviewer) all calendars in an organization with this great tool of yours, PFDAVAdmin.

Is this the correct way to do that?

http://www.tekla.m.se/jesper/texter/pfdavadmin_tutorial/pfdavadmin.html

Best Regards
Jesper Bernle, MCSE: Messaging, Microsoft Windows Server 2003