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Sharing a User's Calendar

What is the best way for an Exchange admin to share a user's calendar with other user's without having to login and open Outlook of the user who is wanting his calendar shared? I get this request often and have not found an easy way with the Exchange Manager, only from the user's workstation. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Barry
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barrykeel
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barrykeel
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2 Solutions
 
SembeeCommented:
It is a client side setting. You have to use Outlook to change the setting.
You can do it from a workstation using a third party tool called SetPerm. I have documented a process for doing this change in bulk on my web site: http://www.amset.info/exchange/folderpermissions.asp

Simon.
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kentonwrightCommented:
There is an Exchange tool called PFDAVAdmin that can be used to accomplish this from the server.  The tool is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=635BE792-D8AD-49E3-ADA4-E2422C0AB424&displaylang=en .  

Read the documentation with the tool, but the jist is:
Open PFDavAdmin
File, Connect
Provide information (verify you are using an account with the ability to log into to the mailbox(es)
Select "Specified mailbox"
the correct format is http://servername/exchange/user (like specific mailbox access via OWA)
Click OK

At this point it will pull up the mailbox in a tree view on the left.
Select the Calendar and right click for "Folder Permission"
At this point you can add user accounts and set what type of permissions they will have.
When you have made the changes, hit Commit Changes.

This is a bit involved, but can be done from the server and does not require opening the users mailbox with an Outlook client.

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barrykeelAuthor Commented:
Thanks for the links. I tried both. I like PFDacAdmin, but it seems to time out with forms based authentication enabled. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Barry
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kentonwrightCommented:
Is this a single server environment?  If so then that might be a problem.  If not, then on the mailbox server it should not have FBA enabled and the path would be to the mailbox server not a front-end box.

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barrykeelAuthor Commented:
It is a single server Exchange Servive Pack 2. We have a app for our Macs that enable Apples iCal to sync to the Exchange server. It requires FBA. Of course Microsoft Entourage is no problem. Turn FBA off and PFDavAdmin works fine. The other issue is we run a Blackberry server and soon we will have a couple of Windows Mobile devices. FBA does not play well with the Active sync for mobile devices. There is an article at Microsoft about this and setting up a virtual Exchange Directory as an alias and not using FBA or setting up a front end server. Is this going to be my only options?

Thanks,
Barry
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kentonwrightCommented:
Front-ends are nice, but not necessary if you have a very small Exchange user base.  The separate virtual directory works, but just takes so setup effort.  

Maybe if this isn't an everyday task, you just continue using Outlook from a separate machine like you were in the past.  If you ever place a front-end, then you can turn on FBA there, and remove it from your Exchange mailbox server.  Then PFDavAdmin will work fine.

I have a hatred for creating documentation, but in this case it might be worth the effort.  If you create a good doc for how a user can share their calendar, then just send it to them when they want to do it.  Put the responsibility on them to set this up.  Then you don't need a method to accomplish it on the server.
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barrykeelAuthor Commented:
I work at a law firm. They can't even set a default printer and if dialog box appears they panic. And I am not streching the truth here. So documentation for that is out of the question. It has already been tried.

Thanks,
Barry
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kentonwrightCommented:
Unfortunate, but understood.  At this time I would just say, have an Outlook client on your machine that you can create profile to their boxes from.  And do it through Outlook.  PFDavAdmin is cool, but it assumes you have a true back-end that you can point to.
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