[X-Servers] Transferring Users & Groups from 10.4 to 10.6

[Joe Sporleder]

I just bought a Mac mini Snow Leopard Server. My old server is a G5 Tower with Server 10.4.11. In the past when I've upgraded servers, I've often either migrated or upgraded in place. However, I'm wanting to make the 10.6 server fresh from scratch to clear out any cobwebs that have crept in over the old server's life cycle. I plan on implementing AFP sharing right away on the new server, and then gradually add new services as I go along, turning off the services on the old server as they are brought online on the new server.

What is the best way to move my users and groups over to the new server, so that I don't have to type and/or reset any client passwords from scratch? I thought I could do this by archiving Open Directory information from the old server and restore the archive to the new server, but that didn't work (no new user accounts showed up on the new server).

Joe