How can I transfer users from server A to server B?

[josel]

Howdy!

Need to replace server and must have all users transferred. How can I do this without having to create them all one at a time?

Thank you all in advance!


Jose Lerebours

KNOWLEDGE: Something you can give away endlessly and gain more of it in the process! - Jose Lerebours

 

[jfrantz]

You can copy the /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group files from the old server to the new server. Be sure to make backup copies of these files on the new server prior to the copy.

One thing I've done in the past is copy these files from the old server to /tmp on the new server. Edit the files and keep only the lines pertaining to users and groups which are not on the new system. You could then do: cat /tmp/passwd >> /etc/passwd which would add the users to the end of the existing passwd file. You can do the same for shadow and group. If you follow this procedure, be sure your user ids and group ids are uniqe.

You can then move the home directories over to the new server.

Hope that helps!
-Jeff

 

[josel]

jfrantz,

Thanks for replying. I actually found that 'ap' is the ticket. You can use it dump user profiles to file and then extract from file.

Thanks;

Jose Lerebours


KNOWLEDGE: Something you can give away endlessly and gain more of it in the process! - Jose Lerebours