Overview

sm-inspect-users management extension analyzes key authentication-related files on either local, or remote server:

• /etc/group
• /etc/passwd
• /etc/shadow
• ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (for all users)

Next, for each server it creates a script that can recreate existing:

• groups
• users
• passwords (in encrypted form)
• home directories (commands that rsync them fron another server)
• ssh keys
• Samba passwords

on a fresh system.

Advantages over generic backup/export tools

Traditional, generic tools that export user credentials, generate complicated commands, that duplicate various default options, eg.

useradd -m -d /home/steve steve

This example may look ok at the first sight, but if you manage X servers, each with different set of users and their specific options, then having scripts duplicating unnecessary details like -d /home/steve, becomes a problem. This is much better:

useradd -m steve

Therefore, what this extension really does, is:

• analyze the files mentioned above
• compute, which user options follow default values and can be skipped
• generate optimized scripts, with minimal set of options