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Microsoft Access Based Enumeration
By Adam Bell | September 16, 2008
Have you ever had one of those moments in IT, when you discover a tool, and a light bulb goes on inside your head, and you say to yourself “I’ve needed this for ages! This really fixes issue X”?
I’ve had that a few times (maybe I need to get out more?), and one of those times was a few years ago with a tool from Microsoft, named as only MS can: Windows Server 2003 Access Based Enumeration or ABE. I took it for granted that everyone knew about this great tool, and was using it. That was until I suggested to a client that it may help his corporate share restructering project, and he looked at me blankly. In fact the more people I’ve mentioned this to, the more blank looks I’ve got. So, if you’ve not heard of it you’re probably asking what the damned thing does?
ABE, is a very small download from Microsoft, that provides a piece of functionality everyone has been wishing for since, well NT4 in my case. Basically when you have a user connect to a shared folder, and they are browsing within that folder structure, if they don’t have permission to a folder/file then they just don’t see it. Gone are the previous issues of getting access denied messages, followed by helpdesk calls to clarify if they should be allowed in to Folder Y. Great huh?
As part of installing ABEUI.msiyou have the following options:
Configuration choice during installation
Post installation changes can be made through CLI using abecmd.exe or through a tab on the share’s property dialog:
Options for configuration ABE on the Property sheet of the share folder
Acess Based Enumeration requires Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1. It’s not required on Windows Server 2008, because the behaviour is already included, but is not configurable. Finally ;)
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Topics: Windows Server 2003 | 2 Comments »
October 1st, 2008 at 8:18 am
All praise ABE. It finally brings to Windows Server what Novell offered us 10-15 years ago! Now if I can just teach my co-workers how to use Nested Groups and NTFS rights properly so that Inheritance is never broken! Old Dogs, New Tricks!
October 1st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Tim,
Yup, it’s been a long time coming that’s for sure. I’ve been genuinely surprised at how few people are even aware of this tools existence.
The best use I’ve found for this is with Windows Home Server (WHS). If you have kids it’s brilliant, but that’s a post for another day!
Cheers,
Adam