Copying Objects

 

Hyena supports copying of printers, shares, users, and both local and global groups. This section explains the features and limitations in copying these types of objects.

 

The menu options for accessing the printer, share, user, and group copy options can be found by right clicking on these objects in either the left or right windows. When accessed through the list window, multiple items can be selected at the same time.

 

The original objects that are copied are not affected or modified by the copy operation. Also, note that in some case, such as with users and local groups, the newly copied user/group will have a different SID than the original user/group. Exercise caution when removing the original user/group if it has been specified in file or other security mechanisms.

 

It is also highly recommended that careful verification of the copied objects be performed when using these functions for the first time to ensure that all security information has been successfully copied. This is especially important if the original objects used in the copy operation are to be deleted.

 

Copying Users

 

When users are copied, all user information, including group memberships, (if selected), will be copied to the target server. If the groups do not already exist on the target server, the users should be copied without copying the group memberships, otherwise the copy operation will fail. Then, the groups can be copied in a separate operation.

 

Note: Copied users will have a different SID than the original user. All file or share security must be re-established in order to change the access control lists (ACLs) that reference the original user’s SID.

 

Copying Groups

 

Groups can be copied with or without the group membership information.

 

If the option to Copy Group Members by SID is enabled, then the local group members will be copied without any attempt to resolve the user/group name.  This will result in the new group being identical to the original group.  

 

When local groups are copied without using the Copy Group Members by SID option, the domain reference (if any) will be REMOVED from the member and thereby implicitly replaced with the domain of the target server. It is therefore only possible to copy local groups to a target server in the same domain membership, or for use in creating a new group on a new server using entirely new users.

 

Note that if group members are copied, then members (users or groups) must already exist on the target server. The option to "Copy group members even if group already exists", will force the group members to be set identically on both servers, even if the group already exists on the target server.

 

Copying Group Members

 

The Copy Group Members function copies the current members of a selected local or global group to another group as specified. This function essentially “merges” two groups together, leaving the original group unaffected.

 

Copying Shares

 

Copied shares include all share information, optionally including the security on the share and/or the directory being shared. Note: copying shares does not involve copying of the files and directories in the share. To do this, use the SCOPY.EXE utility on the Windows NT Resource Kit.

 

Windows forces all newly created shared directories to already exist. Therefore, when a share is copied, the directory will be created if it does not already exist. Hyena will create only the LAST directory in the directory tree. For example, if the share being copied is in the directory E:\APPS\MSOFFICE, Hyena will create the MSOFFICE directory, but will not create the APPS directory.

 

If the target server has a different disk drive configuration, a different drive letter can be used to replace the original share’s drive letters. Using the previous example, if the share being copied is on E:\APPS\MSOFFICE, and the target server does not have an “E” drive, but does have an “F” drive, then “F” can be put into the drive letter replacement field on the copy share dialog. It is important to ensure that all shares being copied using this option in one operation will be on the same drive on the target server.

 

If the target server is to have a different directory structure than the original shared directory, you can specify a different base path for the share. For example, if the original’s shares path is E:\Data\JDoe, specifying a new base path of FileData\UserShares will result in the new share being given a directory of E:\FileData\UserShares\Jdoe.

 

Finally, the share and NTFS file permissions can be copied as well and applied to the new share and/or directory. However, Hyena will only apply the NTFS directory permissions if the directory needs to be created. The ACL information copied is applied directly without any re-interpretation of the user or group information. It is therefore assumed that the target server has either the same domain membership or group and user configuration as the source server.

 

Copying Printers

 

Printer information that is copied to a specified target server includes all of the printer information, except for the print driver and printer ports. It also does not include driver settings (such as page orientation, memory, etc.) since this is part of the driver. Windows does not support remote port creation easily, and the driver functions are both complex and do not support UNC paths, making them difficult to support remotely. In order for the printer to be successfully copied, the port must already exist with the same name as the source computer’s ports, or you can copy the printers without copying the port information. If this is done (by not selecting the “use existing assigned printer ports” option), then all printers copied will be assigned to LPT1:.

 

Note: If the printers being copied all use the same driver (i.e. the printers are the same model), then only one printer needs to be setup manually on the target computer to copy the required driver files. The remaining printers will use the same driver files and can then be copied from one server to another.