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Tech Tips / Windows NT / Users and Groups

Migrating domain user accounts

Consider all the time you've spent creating domain user accounts. When it's time to move them to a new machine, you want the process to be as simple as possible. Let's look at a couple of ways to do it.

Domain user accounts are easy to move. You simply install the new machine as a backup domain controller (BDC), sync it with the primary domain controller (PDC), and then promote the BDC to a PDC. That's all there is to it!

If you actually want to merge two domains or just move some accounts, the following procedure should help. You'll need the Addusers.exe utility from the Resource Kit.

1. Log on as Administrator to the machine that has the accounts you wish to move.
2. Run the addusers /d <filename> command
   This will create a comma-separated file containing details of all accounts and groups.
3. You don't need the information about global or local groups, so edit the file to remove the [Global] and [Local] sections and their contents.
4. Copy the file to the machine on which you want to create the accounts.
5. Log on as an Administrator to the machine to which the accounts should be added (for a domain, log on to the PDC).
6. Run the addusers /c <filename> command
   This will read in the file and create the accounts.