Migration#

There are several use cases where administrators may choose to migrate either to FreeIPA, either on the same platform or OS or on different. This page shows several procedures for different use cases:

Migration from different identity management solution#

Migrating from NIS to FreeIPA#

Migrating from LDAP to FreeIPA#

See related RHEL Guide chapter or read how GNOME project migrated from OpenLDAP to FreeIPA.

Migrating from other FreeIPA to FreeIPA#

If you want to start a new FreeIPA deployment and you cannot simply create FreeIPA replica as for example realm is now different, new FreeIPA installation has to be made and data migrated.

Users and groups can be migrated using the migrate-ds command, just like with any other LDAP based identity management server. You just need to make sure that FreeIPA Kerberos related attributes are not migrated as they need to be generated again by the new FreeIPA server and it’s new Kerberos settings or keys. The command doesn’t migrate user private groups. Following command is suggested:

$ echo Secret123 | ipa migrate-ds --bind-dn="cn=Directory Manager" --user-container=cn=users,cn=accounts --group-container=cn=groups,cn=accounts --group-objectclass=posixgroup --user-ignore-attribute={krbPrincipalName,krbextradata,krblastfailedauth,krblastpwdchange,krblastsuccessfulauth,krbloginfailedcount,krbpasswordexpiration,krbticketflags,krbpwdpolicyreference,mepManagedEntry} --user-ignore-objectclass=mepOriginEntry --with-compat ldap://migrated.freeipa.server.test

Until #3656 is implemented, other objects (SUDO, HBAC, DNS, …) have to be migrated manually, by exporting the LDIF from old FreeIPA instance, selecting the records to be migrated, updating the attributes in batch (e.g. new realm) and adding the cleaned LDIF to new FreeIPA.

Migrating existing FreeIPA deployment#

Upgrading to new FreeIPA release#

See Upgrade page.

General procedure#

Before you begin, make sure that you have sufficient redundancy in your FreeIPA deployment (at least 2 running replicas). If the upgrade procedure goes wrong in any way, other FreeIPA server can keep the functionality until the upgrade process is successfully finished. If there is just one FreeIPA server, consider preparing a new replica used for the upgrade.
When ready, simply upgrade the underlying operating system and FreeIPA packages on chosen replica. After the upgrade, it may be useful to see /var/log/ipaupgrade.log and check for errors..
When the upgrade is finished, it is recommended to check the upgraded services to see that upgrade procedure was successful. This includes testing that:
- FreeIPA users are still recognized by the operating system
  
  $ id $USER
- Kerberos authentication still works and passwords can be changed
  
  $ kinit $USER
- ipa command works
  
  $ ipa user-find
- Web UI works
- DNS service (if provided by the server) works
  
  $ host $(hostname)
- CA services (if appropriate) works
  
  $ ipa cert-find $ ipa cert-request $(CSR_FILENAME)
After the FreeIPA upgrade is confirmed to be successful, remaining FreeIPA server may be upgraded using the same procedure, one by one.

Migrating to different platform or OS#

Sometimes, FreeIPA server package update within one operating system may not be an option. In that case, the following general procedure can be applied:

At the start of the procedure, there is a number of FreeIPA servers that are about to be migrated to different platform or OS
On one of your servers, create a replica file (ipa-replica-prepare) and copy the replica file to the new server/VM which will host the FreeIPA server
Install the, preferably most up-to-date, FreeIPA server on the target system (ipa-replica-install). It should have all the services as the original server had, i.e.
- if original server had CA installed (it probably did), add --setup-ca option to ipa-replica-install
- Note that the FreeIPA master CA server (this is by default the first installed FreeIPA server) is being migrated, you need to promote the new CA replica to the FreeIPA master CA server
- if original server had DNS installed , also add --setup-dns option to ipa-replica-install
  
  The new server should now have all the capability of the migrated servers. Administrator may want to run at least a basic test to test all major functions of the migrated FreeIPA server, namely testing that:
- FreeIPA users are still recognized by the operating system
  
  $ id $USER
- Kerberos authentication still works and passwords can be changed
  
  $ kinit $USER
- ipa command works
  
  $ ipa user-find
- Web UI works
- DNS service (if provided by the server) works
  
  $ host $(hostname)
- CA services (if appropriate) works
  
  $ ipa cert-find $ ipa cert-request $(CSR_FILENAME)
If the FreeIPA server is configured to provide DNS service, FreeIPA domain SRV records should be already updated and FreeIPA clients will also use the migrated FreeIPA server for their function. When other DNS service is used, SRV records need to be either updated manually, if used. If clients are using fixed list of servers, administrator would need to update these lists in /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/krb5.conf and other configuration files that were manually configured.
If the installation was successful and the actual migration is about to start, administrator may want to spin off more replica on the new platform to:
- Keep redundancy in case of failure of one of the migrated server
- Split the load when the migrated servers go live
When the FreeIPA servers on the migrated platform are ready, old FreeIPA servers can be stopped, one by one, so that clients will only use the migrated FreeIPA servers:

# ipactl stop This step is important, this will prevent loosing data in case the new server misses some functionality and will let you start the server again in such case
When administrator verifies that clients keep functioning properly, old FreeIPA server may be removed:
1. Log in to one of the migrated FreeIPA servers
2. List all servers in the realm:
  
  ipa-replica-manage list
3. Identity server on the olf platform and start removing them, one by one:
  
  ipa-replica-manage del old.ipa.server.fqdn
  
  This procedure will also remove these servers from FreeIPA DNS SRV records, if used.
Old FreeIPA servers can be now uninstalled with ipa-server-install --uninstall

Migrating Identity Management in RHEL/CentOS#

If you are using FreeIPA/Identity Management in RHEL or CentOS, please refer to downstream guide for migration process:

Migrating the IdM Server to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Migration

Contents