[Samba] How to bulk add machine accounts during PDC hardware refresh?

[Michael Lueck]

Harry Jede wrote:
> You need passwd AND shadow for the users, but normaly NOT the hole file.
> The system accounts may be different on your new system, so identify the 
> min and max uidnumber for regular users and copy only these users. Do 
> the same with the shadow file. AND make backups.
> 
> Same thing with groups. Identify your min and max gidnumber and copy 
> only these groups.
> 
> Maybe you need to transform some uid/gid-numbers :-) .

Thanks for speaking up, Harry! :-)

For Samba users (real actual users) there is an entry in passwd and group. I would think I can use adduser to set those up, and edit the uid/gid # to match.

For Samba machine users, there seems to be only an entry in passwd, and shadow of course. The password hash appears to be the same hash as other ID's which no one ever logs into. So I would think I 
would be safe hand editing both passwd and shadow to add the machine accounts, and simply copy/paste the password hash that is appropriate for the new server.

Do you see any problems with this course of action?

Sincerely,

-- 
Michael Lueck
Lueck Data Systems
http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/