Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-25 Thread Nico Kadel-Garcia
On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 2:36 AM, Benjamin Smith
 wrote:
>> What is the most sensible or correct way to migrate ALL the users to the
>> new system?
>> Way in the past is was just perhaps copy the /etc/passwd file but I know
>> thats not the case anymore.
>> how do I easily recreate their account names etc... on the new machine.
>
> When transitioning mail servers, I've always done this by writing a perl/PHP
> script to parse the passwd files and create "user only" passwd/shadow, group,
> gshadow, etc. files and then append those to the new system. For most recent 
> RH
> based distros, users start at either 100 or 500, with the lower numbers
> reserved for system/daemon accounts. Then you can copy over the emails with
> rsync with the numeric IDs option set and it will all "just work".

Beware the user "nobody", and a lot of carelessly built vendor
software that adds a user, but fails to make that user a "system"
user. I just ran into this headlong with the latest NX software from
www.nomachine.com.
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Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-24 Thread Benjamin Smith
> What is the most sensible or correct way to migrate ALL the users to the
> new system?
> Way in the past is was just perhaps copy the /etc/passwd file but I know
> thats not the case anymore.
> how do I easily recreate their account names etc... on the new machine.

When transitioning mail servers, I've always done this by writing a perl/PHP 
script to parse the passwd files and create "user only" passwd/shadow, group, 
gshadow, etc. files and then append those to the new system. For most recent RH 
based distros, users start at either 100 or 500, with the lower numbers 
reserved for system/daemon accounts. Then you can copy over the emails with 
rsync with the numeric IDs option set and it will all "just work". 

My approach requires some programming knowledge; I don't understand why there 
isn't a standard set of scripts to use for transitioning mail servers; there 
may be. 

Good luck! 

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Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-22 Thread Chris Geldenhuis
Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 10:07 PM, Jerry Geis  wrote:
>   
>> hi all,
>>
>> 
>
> hmm..
>
> scp :/etc/passwd :/etc/passwd
> ditto /etc/gshadow,/etc/groups, /etc/gshadow
>
> YMMV
>
> Regards
>
> Rajagopal
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>   
Hi,

Be aware that if you are doing this between different releases 4.x to 
5.x for instance you stand a good chance of breaking your system as the 
systems account set up by the installer may well differ between the two 
releases. It is safer to extract the users that you have added to the 
system from the password and shadow files and to append the resulting 
files to the new system's password and shadow files.

ChrisG
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Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-22 Thread Les Mikesell
On 12/22/10 4:26 AM, Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Eero Volotinen  
> wrote:
>> 2010/12/22 Rajagopal Swaminathan:
>>>
>>> scp:/etc/passwd:/etc/passwd
>>> ditto /etc/gshadow,/etc/groups, /etc/gshadow
>>
>> It's possibly better way only to cp&paste normal usernames, not
>> internal daemons and so on.
>>
>
> I did not quite understand the phrase "internal daemons and so on".
> Could you elucidate further please...
>
> I alluded to the names of four files which matter in the context.

On CentOS 5, uids up to 500 are reserved for the system and will belong to 
various installed packages.  501 and up should be the users you installed 
locally.

-- 
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 lesmikes...@gmail.com
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Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-22 Thread Rajagopal Swaminathan
Greetings,

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Eero Volotinen  wrote:
> 2010/12/22 Rajagopal Swaminathan :
>>
>> scp :/etc/passwd :/etc/passwd
>> ditto /etc/gshadow,/etc/groups, /etc/gshadow
>
> It's possibly better way only to cp&paste normal usernames, not
> internal daemons and so on.
>

I did not quite understand the phrase "internal daemons and so on".
Could you elucidate further please...

I alluded to the names of four files which matter in the context.

Regards,

Rajagopal
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Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-22 Thread Eero Volotinen
2010/12/22 Rajagopal Swaminathan :
> Greetings,
>
> On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 10:07 PM, Jerry Geis  wrote:
>> hi all,
>>
>
> hmm..
>
> scp :/etc/passwd :/etc/passwd
> ditto /etc/gshadow,/etc/groups, /etc/gshadow

It's possibly better way only to cp&paste normal usernames, not
internal daemons and so on.

--
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Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-21 Thread Rajagopal Swaminathan
Greetings,

On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 10:07 PM, Jerry Geis  wrote:
> hi all,
>

hmm..

scp :/etc/passwd :/etc/passwd
ditto /etc/gshadow,/etc/groups, /etc/gshadow

YMMV

Regards

Rajagopal
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Re: [CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-21 Thread Eero Volotinen
2010/12/22 Jerry Geis :
> hi all,
>
> I will be migrating my mail server from centos 4.8 to 6 when its released.
> Basically its just a number of users with their passwords. Their mail is
> downloaded to their clients
> and not stored on the server.
>
> What is the most sensible or correct way to migrate ALL the users to the
> new system?
> Way in the past is was just perhaps copy the /etc/passwd file but I know
> thats not the case anymore.
> how do I easily recreate their account names etc... on the new machine.

cp&paste correct entries from passwd and shadow files + copy files?

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[CentOS] preparing to migrating to new system

2010-12-21 Thread Jerry Geis
hi all,

I will be migrating my mail server from centos 4.8 to 6 when its released.
Basically its just a number of users with their passwords. Their mail is 
downloaded to their clients
and not stored on the server.

What is the most sensible or correct way to migrate ALL the users to the 
new system?
Way in the past is was just perhaps copy the /etc/passwd file but I know 
thats not the case anymore.
how do I easily recreate their account names etc... on the new machine.

Thanks, for any advice.

Jerry
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