[Samba] How to move a samba PDC to a diffrent box

[Wes Deviers]

On Tue 3 Jun  2008 4:42:40 am ml wrote:
> Hello List,
>
> i have got a samba pdc running based on the smbldap tools and Debian Sarge.
> Now we would like to move everything over to Ubuntu Hardy.
>
> Can i simply:
> - Create the same users and groups with the same id on Hardy
> - Move the files and profiles over by keeping their permissions (rsync
> -avzp ...)
> - Set the samba SID to be the old orginial one (i do not know how this
> could be done and if it even works)
>
> Will i then simply be able to log back in with my Windows clients?
> Is there a HowTo explaining this scenario?
>
> Thanks,
> Mario


I don't know how "official" it is, but if you move all the files and 
everything beforehand, making sure to keep the ACLs, then shutdown samba on 
machine 1.  Then move

/etc/samba
/var/lib/samba

to the new machine, overwriting the existing ones created by the .debs.  Start 
samba on the new machine, and you're done.  

Of course, that's not very high-availability, and it's assuming you're not 
using LDAP or something...even though it should work.  Have to make sure 
everybody is off of the original.  I may be forgetting something, but I've 
done it dozens of times; one of the benefits of samba versus MS 
implementations is that there's much "magic" involved and so it really can be 
as simple as moving the files.

Wes