[BlueOnyx:01864] Re: Where are users stored

[Michael Stauber]

Hi enid vx,

> I wanted to know where exactly are the BQ or BX users stored in the system.
> I cannot see them on /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow files.
>
> I am not very aware if they authenticate with pam auth.

Where users are stored on BlueQuartz depends a bit.

On a stock BlueQuartz they're stored in the PAM database located at /var/db. 

*If* the box was converted from PAM to Shadow, they're stored in /etc/passwd, 
/etc/shadow and /etc/group.

It's easy to check what's used (PAM or Shadow) by checking /etc/passwd, 
because if that contains users from virtual sites, then you're using Shadow. 
Otherwise it's PAM.

BlueOnyx uses Shadow, so that's /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group.

But there is more to that. Email aliasses and email accounts are managed 
through /etc/mail/virtusertable and /etc/mail/aliasses. Websites have their 
configuration stored in /etc/httpd/httpd.conf and 
/etc/httpd/conf/vhosts/siteXX and for each IP you've also got a virtualhost 
container in /etc/proftpd.conf.

> So the question is if I want to migrate only the system/mail users , from
> one system to another (not with cmuExport/cmuImport scripts) how can I find
> where the users are stored.

I wouldn't recommend to manually migrate users without using the tools that 
are designed for that purpose (CMU or the CMU shell-tools). 

Both BlueQuartz and BlueOnyx use CODB - the "Cobalt Object Database" as 
backend for the GUI interface. All relevant information about sites and users 
is stored in there, too. If you manually create a user (by adding lines to 
/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group and by creating the user directory), then 
CODB will not be "aware" of the user. Hence the user will never show up in the 
GUI. To make matters worse: When you then create users through the GUI, "bad 
things can happen" (TM), because the GUI may not be aware that there are 
"ghost" users on the box that you created manually. So it might overwrite 
sites you created manually, or might run into username conflicts and 
therelike.

At the most you can use the CMU shell-tools (the "caddvsite" and "cadduser" 
commands) to manually create sites and users from the command line. Because 
that will create them properly both in CODB and on the system level.

However, the best (and recommended) procedure for a transfer of sites and 
users from BlueQuartz to BlueOnyx is to use CMU.

CMU typically exports all sites and users with all their data (webpages, 
mailboxes, etc.) and allows you to import all sites (or just selected ones!) 
onto the new system. You can even tell CMU to just create the sites and users, 
but not to import any mailboxes or webpages - if that is what you want.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber