Migrating Users From AIX 3.2 to 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3

Contents

About This Document

This document discusses migrating users from AIX 3.2 to AIX 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 without transferring their home directories.

Files That Can Be Copied Over

 
/etc/security/group 
/etc/security/limits - AIX Versions 4.2 and 4.3 manually merge this file 
/etc/security/passwd 
/etc/security/.ids 
/etc/security/environ 
/etc/security/.profile 
/etc/group 
/etc/passwd 

 
   root:!:0:0::/:/usr/bin/ksh 

When you copy the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files, make sure they contain at least a minimum set of essential user and group definitions.

Listed specifically as users are the following:

• root
• daemon
• bin
• sys
• adm
• uucp
• guest
• nobody
• lpd

Listed specifically as groups are the following:

• system
• staff
• bin
• sys
• adm
• uucp
• mail
• security
• cron
• printq
• audit
• ecs
• nobody
• usr

These users and groups are documented in Appendix D. of the AIX Version 4.3 Installation Guide.

If the bos.compat.links fileset is installed, you can copy the /etc/security/mkuser.defaults file over. If it is not installed, the file belongs in the /usr/lib/security directory. The /etc/security entry is a symbolic link to /usr/lib/security.

If you copy over mkuser.defaults, changes must be made to the stanzas. Replace group with pgrp, and program with shell. A proper stanza should look like the following:

 
    user: 
            pgrp = staff 
            groups = staff 
            shell = /usr/bin/ksh 
            home = /home/$USER 

The following files are different at AIX Version 4.x and CANNOT be copied over:

 
   /etc/security/login.cfg 
   /etc/security/user 

In the new /etc/security/user file, you may want to copy the individual user stanzas from the 3.2.5 user file and modify the default stanza to have the same values. Edit the default stanza to contain the pw_restrictions entries formerly found in login.cfg(3.2.5).

In AIX 3.2 the password restrictions are applied universally. In AIX 4.x they can be applied individually. You may want to reevaluate which stanzas to modify. This is optional. You can also decide whether or not to implement any of the new features presented in the user file.

Once the files are moved over, execute the following:

 
    usrck -t ALL 
    pwdck -t ALL 
    grpck -t ALL 

This will clear up any discrepancies (such as uucp not having an entry in /etc/security/passwd). Ideally this should be run on the 3.2.5 system before copying over the files as well as after porting these files to 4.x

Migrating from AIX Version 4.1 to 4.2 and 4.3

All of the files described previously can be copied directly, except the /etc/security/limits file. This now includes both soft and hard limits, so the file must be manually merged.