Transfer User Area's - Permissions Issues ??

[mac_shinobi]

How do you go abouts moving the user areas from one server to another server ( without effecting permissions or screwing anything up ) and so I would obviously like to know the safest and best method to do this ( hopefully there is an easy way ( but taking into consideration it will involve permissions etc I am betting it will be a long walk through or something to that extent )

[Quackers]

I'm sure robocopy allows you to transfer files with the file permission intact, it has so many uses.

[Geoff]

Use NTBackup.

[Ric_]

MS also has a tool called 'SCOPY' IIRC which will copy the permissions.

I also have a script for resetting permissions and ownership on user folders if that helps?

[DMcCoy]

Use NTBackup.

Thats what I used, backup to a file even, move, restore the folders. I even used it between an old and new domain, as I had kept the sids with admt.

[SpuffMonkey]

I used

robocopy [list=1] <newdir> /e /copyall

worked fine

[mac_shinobi]

Ric Id like to see that script or get a copy of it

I also asked a question on EE and robocopy seems to be a good one and also the other ones you suggested were also suggested there.

[mac_shinobi]

Also any chance anyone can come up with a site that shows all the switches with regards to robocopy and what they do etc ?

also the same for any other of these types of apps that have or use switches and what they do as well.

[tosca925]

I use NTBackup as well and have done your scenario a couple of times over the last 2 years.

I also have scripts for permissons, redirection of home folder etc if you need them.

[kingswood]

Here's an extension to what Shane has asked (and thanks for the replies so far):

We have an existing 2000 Server with years 10,11,12 users and Staff areas on it. On our lower site we have years 7,8,9 users and areas stored on a 2003 Server (same domain etc).

Our Systems Manager is talking about letting go of CSE this year, and if this is the case my concern is that we make the user data *safe*. What I mean is, we want to take all those user areas from those two servers and put them on one new server (perhaps with a different domain name), transfer FSMO roles to the new server, take the old ones down and then reinstall the 2003 Server on the lower site and get some DFS working once we have re-installed things like Prism etc. I want to be able (if this happens) to allow the same user account to access the same user area they had before (under CSE) so that it is seamless.

This is all conjecture right now, and I know it *can* be done but obviously haven't done it to this scale. We're talking nearly 2000 users and areas. A lot of stuff to mess up if it doesn't work. Commonly known as a CLM- "Career Limiting Move".

Robocopy looks very interesting and I think I have used it already for copying some files between our existing servers. I'm not sure about how good NTBackup would be in this case- would it be better than ADMT? What about Veritas Backup- doesn't that keep permissions on the files?

Thanks for the help people!

Paul

[Ric_]

For those that want it, here is the script I use - I'm afraid this one is all hard coded (no handy switches this time).

My setup: The user folders are each within a folder representing the year of entry (e.g. current year 11 has the folder 'Year 2001'). I have the root share for the home drives mapped on my workstation to drive U:

The script goes through the folders within the specified directory and changes position so that domain admins have full control, 'staff' have read only access and the user has modify access. I then run chown to give the user ownership of their files.

[Netman]

Robocopy gets my vote....

[indie]

Microsoft has a useful utility called File Server Migration Toolkit, available from here.

It will move files/shares whilst preserving permissions and share names, i've not used robocopy so i don't know if this does exactly the same thing!

[Quackers]

Also any chance anyone can come up with a site that shows all the switches with regards to robocopy and what they do etc ?

also the same for any other of these types of apps that have or use switches and what they do as well.

http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy30.htm

[GrumbleDook]

You could also always build a script to change permissions to what you want them to be ... using xcacls.exe ... that way even if you do move them elsewhere again (or need to reset the permissions for everyone so that things work) you have something to hand to do it.

A bit of a longer job to start with, but could save you time at a later date.