[freeside] Importing Legacy Data

ivan ivan at 420.am
Thu Jun 15 01:43:59 PDT 2000


On Tue, Jun 13, 2000 at 07:57:19PM -0700, Turtle wrote:
>
> >> but even so, it doesn't even need to leave the local machine!  I have the
> files
> >> I want to import on the local machine and there doesn't seem to be an option
> 
> >> for importing them from there.
> >
> >localhost:/path/to/local/file
> 
> 
> Doesn't that still mean that I have to run an ssh server for it to connect to
> on localhost?

Yes.

>  It's going to try to connect, and I just want it to go read a
> file.

You might be able to get away with manually putting the files in
`/usr/local/etc/freeside/export.<datasrc>/<filename>.import' (where
`<datasrc>' is replaced with your DBI data source and `<filename>' is
replace with the filename), and then letting the remote copy fail, but I'm
not certain about that. 

> >That's not good security.  SSH's public-key authentication is more secure.
> 
> >(No reason it couldn't be used to make a daemon like you describe, of
> >course) 
> 
> If it's on a local lan, encryption is redundant, since noone has any access
> to the packets anyway.

A network with public internet servers is not a "local LAN".  Distributing
passwd file changes with weak autheticatication and no encryption is a
*bad idea*, no matter how secure you think the network layer is.

> >>  What happens to all the other things
> >> like root and what not that I don't want to go through freeside?
> >
> >You should import your entire passwd file.
> 
> That would force me to change the root password through freeside?

Yes, if you're exporting the file directly (as opposed to NIS, for
example - not that I'm recommending NIS).

There's a replacement `passwd' command for user shell machines.

>  That just
> seems odd.  I'll do it though if I have to.  I'm just afraid of it.  I have
> a perfectly functioning mail server, and I don't want to accidentally drop someone's
> account or anything like that.

You should do a "dry run" and export files locally on your Freeside
machine, then compare them carefully to the actual targets, to make sure
you've imported your data correctly.

> What does meow mean anyway :-P Just curious.

It's a sound cats make.  ;)

-- 
meow
_ivan



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