Moving FTP accounts and folders/files from a server to another...

Hi there,

I've been searching the web and Linux Forums especially for about 2 days now, with no success... Many thanks in advance for your help!

What I need to do, as mentioned in this thread title, is to (massively) move FTP accounts from a server (A) to another server (B). Both servers run a linux distrib (A runs Debian, B runs a derived Gentoo, as far as I could see...), and have ProFTPD installed and serving.

I plan to use rsync to copy all folders/files to server B, using the -azv parameters - which will normally preserve permissions while copying.

Now, I would like to "copy" (FTP) users from A to B first, so that when everything is back online, the FTP accounts do work properly. I guess there are two options :

- either the FTP users are "virtual" FTP users created for ProFTPD, so that wouldn't be tough to reflect this on B : I would just need to insure that the real Linux user is created on B (not sure if ProFTPD uses nobody?)

- or the FTP users are real Linux users, and then I need to list all users from A, then create them on B

In case of the seccond option (which is the right one, I guess, regarding what I already know from the server configuration), do any of you know of a quick solution / shell script example I could use to treat all users at once?

Many thanks in advance!

Cheers

Jimshell

Are both servers on the same premises, and accessible? Do you mind doing it the old-fashion way? Why not dump the data into a USB memory stick, walk over to the other server, and upload it there.? You won't have to worry about any transfer protocols, and it may be much quicker than pounding on the keyboard, to setup an electronic transfer.

If one of the servers is not accessible, then you need to do it the hard way, setting up the transfer software.

:)

Hey Onederer,

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately, both servers are far away from each other, and far away from me as well, so, the physical transfer approach can not be envisaged here...

I decided to manage users/groups manually (say, recreate the existing users/groups on the new server one by one, as there are not too many), then to rsync the whole ftp directory to the new server. I made a test with one user, and it works a treat, so I won't bother about how to optimize this approach / method right now, but sure that if anyone here has clues about how to automate the whole process, I'll have it! :)

Thanks again for your help!