Migration from SuSE to Fedora???

[Ed Wilts]

On Tue, Jun 07, 2005 at 10:01:14AM -0500, John N. Alegre wrote:
> Is there anyway to overwrite a SuSE Pro 9.1 system with Fedora 3 and preserve 
> 2 things ...
> 
> 1. User info, accounts, passwords, etc
> 2. MySQL settings.

I've never run a SuSe distribution but here is how I would tackle it,
based on a fairly significant upgrade I did from a RHL 6.2 to RHEL 3
system with over 1,500 users on it.

1.  Don't even think about overwriting the system.  Back it up and do a
fresh install.

2.  Grab all entries from /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/shadow, and
/etc/gshadow for all UIDs over 500.  Look very hard at the ones below
500 - they're probably not required and are typically added by the rpms
for daemon-based packages (bind, etc.).  For each of those users, also
grab /etc/samba/smbpasswd (or wherever smbpasswd is stored on SuSe - Red
Hat moved it between releases from /etc to  /etc/samba).

3.  Red Hat keeps its mysql info in /var/lib/mysql.  Shut down mysql,
back it, copy the entire to another system, and start it back up.  I've
done between 2 Red Hat systems and the database came right up.

4.  Don't forget about the mysql ini files and php-mysql.

That's certainly not all of the steps required, but it's a good start.

        .../Ed

-- 
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program