[SunHELP] Settle a bet: Syncing passwd files

[Ben Ricker]

I have a number of machines that do the same thing; they are part of a
redundant web application. I am running Solaris 7.

I have a dispute with a fellow admin. He seems to think that syncing
/etc/passwd, group, and shadow passwords from one machine to another is
bad news and one should not do it. I counter with the fact that if that
were the case, then how could you ever restore an /etc directory after a
catastrophe without a complete backup.

Anyway, does anyone have a definitive answer to this dispute? I have
done this a number of times and have run into a couple of problems here
and there, mostly due to munged accounts I have to recreate.

Ben Ricker
Wellinx, Inc.