1843977 Members
1631 Online
110226 Solutions
New Discussion

password file query

 
SOLVED
Go to solution
Becke
Super Advisor

password file query


Hi Guys,

Happy new year to all of you,

We are running HP-UX version 10.01 in prod and am trying to restore a password file onto a DR machine which is running HP-UX 10.20.

Now my query is, where is password file kept in os version 10.01,is it under, /tcb/files/auth direcotry,

My DR machine is running version 10.20, on this server where is password file kept, so I can backup from my production machine and restore it onto this DR machine.

Please let me know,

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,
Raf
14 REPLIES 14
RAC_1
Honored Contributor

Re: password file query

Why you want to restore the file?? The file should be /etc/passwd and all files under /tcb dir in case of trusted system.
There is no substitute to HARDWORK
Devender Khatana
Honored Contributor

Re: password file query

Hi Raf,

I have not worked on 10.01 but on 10.20 and on other revisions after that the location of the passwd file is /etc. Copy this to later versions do not cause any problems but I am not sure to 10.20 from 10.01. But as it is a DR machine you can take a chance. Also preserve a copy of existing original file before copying.

HTH,
Devender
Impossible itself mentions "I m possible"
Becke
Super Advisor

Re: password file query


Thanks for your quick response guys,

I'm not talking about /etc/passwd file, I have already restored that, I want to backup and restore a password file which contains user's password, so when users login to DR machine they can use the same password as they have in production.

Please advise
Joseph Loo
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: password file query

hi,

if u r on trusted, the encrypted password r in /tcb/files/auth/system/pwhist. if not, they r found after the first colon (:).

regards.
what you do not see does not mean you should not believe
Joseph Loo
Honored Contributor

Re: password file query

hi,

sorry, the pwhist directory is the history of password.

refer to this directory, /tcb/files/auth/ where the encrypted password r in the u_pwd parameter. the following directory r based on the first letter of the username.

regards.
what you do not see does not mean you should not believe
Ajitkumar Rane
Trusted Contributor

Re: password file query

Farhan,

Yes it is /tcb/files/auth where the passowrds will be stored as from your comments it seems you are having a trusted system. Confirm if your DR systems are also trusted, else the system is not going to refere to the /tcb... directory.


Rgds,

Ajit
Amidsts difficulties lie opportunities
Becke
Super Advisor

Re: password file query


Thanks Joseph and all of you for your quick response and help,

my assumption was right too, as in the production system the user's passwords are kept in /tcb/files/auth directory where the following subdirectories are based on the first letter of the username.

My DR system hasn't got trusted ie tcb enabled, hence the system doesn't refer to the /tcb directory, however on the DR machine I found it under /usr/newconfig/tcb/files/auth directory but there are no sub directories based on the first letter of the user name.

So Where are passwords kept if the trusted is not enabled on a system?
I will assign point as well..
Thanks Guys

Regards
Raf
Becke
Super Advisor

Re: password file query


Hi Guys,

My query is that where is the password file which contains user's password is kept on the system if the trusted is not enabled.

As on my DR machine doesn't refer to /tcb/files/auth directory, so where will be all users password are kept.

Please let me know.

Regards,
Raf
Joseph Loo
Honored Contributor

Re: password file query

hi raf,

on non-trusted system, /etc/passwd is keeping the encrypted password after the first colon (:).

regards.
what you do not see does not mean you should not believe
Becke
Super Advisor

Re: password file query


Hi Joseph,

Thanks for telling me mate, now the other question is, how do I restore a all passwords from the trusted system to a non trusted system ie my DR machine, So all the users can use their same password as they have in production when performing DR test on the machine.

Mind you my production server is a trusted system and the DR machine is non trusted.

Basically all I want is to restore passwords for users so they can use their same password, I'm trying to clone a machine which is running HP 10.01 onto a machine ie running version 10.20.

I have successfuly cloned the machine but now I need to restore user's password...

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.

Thanks for your help

Becke
Super Advisor

Re: password file query

Hi Guys,

I have a problem, I would like to know how to enable trusted (ie tcb) on our HP-UX DR machine which is running HP version 10.20.

Is there an option to enable tcb when you first intsall an operating system?? and where is it??

My other query is if the trusted is enabled on a system does it always refer to '/tcb/files/auth' directory, i need to know this because I'm trying to restore a password file which contains user's password from a trusted system to a DR machine which is a non trusted system and I need to enable tcb on my DR machine so it can refer to the same directory ie '/tcb/files/auth', and restore user's password. Please note I don't have access to the DR machine and that's why i need to know the above.

Please let me know this is extremely urgent.

Thanks as always for your help guys.

Regards,
Raf
Bill Hassell
Honored Contributor

Re: password file query

There is no way to copy anything from a Trusted system to a non-Trusted system. The two methods are quite different and the subdirectories in the /tcb structure contain much more than just passwords.

So your DR machine is not really a DR machine for the 10.01 system because they don't match in the most basic part: user authentication. The good news is that you can change the 10.20 system to Trusted in less than a minute using SAM. Look at the accounting task. When you go to accounting, it will ask if you want to convert.

Now your 10.20 system is Trusted. NOTE: the untrusted passwords are all 8 characters or less, but unfortunately users can type more than 8 with the system silently ignoring characters 9 and beyond. But once the system is Trusted, the extra charcaters are no longer ignored. So it's possible some users may fail to login--just tell them to use only the first 8.

10.20 has been obsolete since 2001 and 10.01 obsolete for a lot longer. I would be quite concerned about having production code running on 10.01 and would also be concerned about using 10.20 for DR. Trusted systems were introduced at 10.01 so there is a small possibility that the /tcb directory contents may have some compatibility issues. You would be safer to clone your 10.01 system using Ignite/UX. That will avoid patch and version issues.

If your application runs on 10.20, I would strongly recommend creating a fully patched 10.20 system and porting your apps to that system. Then after testing, make 10.20 production and work on porting to 11.11. There are just too many security and other patch issues with 10.01 and 10.20.


Bill Hassell, sysadmin
Becke
Super Advisor

Re: password file query


Thanks a lot Bill and everyone else, I have resolved my problem through your help.

Thanks for your elaboration Bill, actually my production machine is a legacy system will be going sometime in the future..

last year I was managed to perform the successful DR on version 10.20, I was unable to restore the system from 10.01 mksysb as 10.01 was compatible with the DR machine's hardware, so therefore I have installed version 10.20 on the DR machine and got the applications going successfully.

However last year i didn't restore user's password from the trusted production machine to DR as it wasn't trusted at that stage, I have only restored /etc/passwd file and /etc/group file from production to DR machine which is running os version 10.20.

But I'm going to perform another DR and the DR machine is not here on-site, its kept at vendor place.

Bill your help has clarified my questions, as we have a dev machine here and trusted wasn't enabled on it, I have enabled the tcb database onit and worked out everything.

I will only be restoring /tcb/files/auth directory from production to DR machine and I presume in doing this it won't break anything else and user's will be able to use their same password at the DR site when perform their application test, and that is the whole point why I wanted to restore users password and enable tcb....

Thanks to all of you guys for your prompt help.. I have assigned points and i will now close this thread...

I have learned quite alot in HP from you guys as my main platform is AIX.......

we have an excellent team here.

Regards,
Raf
Becke
Super Advisor

Re: password file query

Thanks a lot Bill and everyone else, I have resolved my problem through your help.

Thanks for your elaboration Bill, actually my production machine is a legacy system will be going sometime in the future..

last year I was managed to perform the successful DR on version 10.20, I was unable to restore the system from 10.01 mksysb as 10.01 was compatible with the DR machine's hardware, so therefore I have installed version 10.20 on the DR machine and got the applications going successfully.

However last year i didn't restore user's password from the trusted production machine to DR as it wasn't trusted at that stage, I have only restored /etc/passwd file and /etc/group file from production to DR machine which is running os version 10.20.

But I'm going to perform another DR and the DR machine is not here on-site, its kept at vendor place.

Bill your help has clarified my questions, as we have a dev machine here and trusted wasn't enabled on it, I have enabled the tcb database onit and worked out everything.

I will only be restoring /tcb/files/auth directory from production to DR machine and I presume in doing this it won't break anything else and user's will be able to use their same password at the DR site when perform their application test, and that is the whole point why I wanted to restore users password and enable tcb....

Thanks to all of you guys for your prompt help.. I have assigned points and i will now close this thread...

I have learned quite alot in HP from you guys as my main platform is AIX.......

we have an excellent team here.

Regards,
Raf