Moving passwords to a new machine.

Every once in a while I find the need to move the role of a machine to something with more gusto.

When the service of the old machine cannot be down for an extended period of time, I usually…

1. Load the new machine, install all applicable software, copy all needed data from the old machine.
2. Copy the /etc/passwd file and the /etc/master.passwd file from the old machine to the new machine.
3. Run pwd_mkdb -p /etc/master.passwd on the new machine to update the password databases.

All done.