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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

PFDAVAdmin: Using Custom Bulk Operation

Summary:

PDAVAdmin 2.6 introduces a new feature which allows you perform bulk customizations on Public Folders using LDAP filters. I ran into a scenario in which an environment had created a Public Folder infrastructure in which all folders were created at the root level. This makes it difficult to choose a top level folder to propagate permissions. For example, if you wanted to add a user to have rights to all folders, you would have to perform this individually because there there no root folder to propagate down from. In this scenario, I was able to use PFDAVAdmin 2.6 to perform a bulk operation on the virtual Public Folder tree to add this user and propagate the permissions to all Public Folders.


To be safe, I would recommend exporting your permissions so that you will have a backup.


1. Download PFDavAdmin utility.

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2. Launch PFDAVAdmin by double clicking on the file; PFDavAdmin.exe

3. On the File menu, select Connect.

The "Connect" dialog will now appear as shown below.

a. In the Connect dialog box, enter the name of the Exchange
server the mailboxes reside on.

b. Check the "Authenticate as currently logged on user"
checkbox.

c. Select "Public Folders" under Connection and click OK.


4. Make sure Public Folders is highlighted at the root. On the Tools menu, select Options. Check the "Enable logging to file" checkbox and click OK.

The "Options" dialog box will now appear as shown below.

Make sure that the box labeled; "Enable logging to file", is
checked.

Make sure that the box labeled; "Enable extended logging",
is unchecked.

If you wish to backup your permissions first, go to Tools, menu, select export permissions, select all Public Folders, and choose XML as your format. You can use this file to import back in, in the event that your permissions get corrupted.

5. On the Tools menu, select Custom Bulk Operation.


a. Base Folder: Public Folder

b. Overall Filter: (&)(This default settings selects everything)

c. Operations: Click Add. Select Folder Permissions and click Ok.
Action set to merge. Select Permissions now, click Select button.
You will be prompted with a dialog "You will be presented will a
permissions diaglog you can use to configure permissions" Click Ok.

d. Click Add. Enter user name in the field and click search. Click Ok.
Give the user the appropriate permissions. Click Ok. You will be
presented with with a dialog "You will not be presented with a
permissions dialog to selecte entities that will be removed" If you
wish to remove users, you can from this procedure. Click Ok. If you
do not wish to remove anyone, Click ok. Click Ok once more. This user
that you added will now be propaged to all Public Folders.



James Chong
MCSE | M+, S+, MCTS, Security+
msexchangetips.blogspot.com

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10 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:03 AM

    Excellent Exchange Tip since we have a Public Folder structure with all folders at the root level.
    It saved alot of time preparing for the Daylight Savings Time change. I added myself as owner and was able to run the fix it tool on all public folders. Thanks! Mary J V

    ReplyDelete
  2. Goodness, there is a lot of effective info in this post!

    ReplyDelete