copying users and groups to new server

[Donald Thaler]

what is the process for copying users/groups from one server to another

[Pete Randall]

The easiest way is to just copy /etc/passwd and /etc/group from one server to the other.


Pete

[Ivan Krastev]

And don't forget home directories.

regards,
ivan

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

The process depends on whether you are trusted or not.

/etc/group /etc/passwd for non-trusted,

contents of /tcb folder if trusted.

Take care to create home directories and copy profile customizations so that thing function normally.

SEP

[Glenn S. Davidson]

I've never been one to trust that you can just copy those files from one server to another. It just makes me twitch thinking about it. I've known alot of people that do it and then don't go back in a clean it up so you wind up with alot of accounts on other servers that are not needed.

I am more careful. I'm not implying that others aren't, I'm just saying my comfort level is a little lower than theirs. I have always copied the password/group files to the new machine and used them to create the new users/group individually. I've also created a separate home directory for the users and copied them over individually.

It takes alot longer but you only get the users and groups you want and all the home directories get created fresh and I've also used this time to correct UID/GID problems or create standards. Most of the problems I've seen relating to doing this are when people try to add a mass number of users to an existing server and they overwrite the existing file and existing account with the new file.

running 'pwck' is also good!