Migrating users from non thunderbolt Macs to new devices with without Firewire

USB to ethernet adapters and migration utility works for us. Not the fastest, but I usually get the old Mac when the user leaves for the day and let the migration run overnight.

Corbin

OK i should read the main post first. you already use those. we usually transfer the users home over the network to the new computer with rsync, while they work on the existing computer, then when we have a copy, we tell them to logoff the old machine, rsync the stuff again from the old to new one last time which just gets the bits that have changed. Switch the computers and get them up and running, if going from an old OS to a new OS I kind of like to move the old preferences to a save directory and make them start with new preferences.

We have also given the users this process because some people have to share mahcines on the second shift etc and move around often, so the users can migrate their own home from one machine to the next.

I've been using a straight ethernet connection (with thunderbolt ethernet adapter for Airs/Retinas) between the machines. By straight I mean just connect the machine's ethernet ports directly with a cable. Turn on file sharing, and connect using the machine name .local. I don't really use the migration assistant. Data migration is quite fast, as most semi-modern Macs have gigabit ethernet.

I second Dan. If it has firewire 800, it has gig ethernet. Also, every Macbook that has been made (dating back to their 2006 debut) has had gig ethernet.

Gabriel, you need to remember that new systems wont run old OS's. Download MacTracker to see what the earliest OS that your device will support is. If some of the devices are brand new, they may even have a custom build that you cant upgrade an older machine to. Migration assistant over gig-e is gonna be your fastest method and may end up giving you the best compatibility.

how does Rsync work? first time i hear of that.

I use the Firewire800 to Thunderbolt adapter by Apple. That allows me to target disk mode everything except the once Macbook Air Model and copy to new machines using a Firewire 800 cable.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD464ZM/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter

+1 for nessts' strategy - using rsync gives you a few advantages; network speed and reliability - in our case, we have enough gigabit Ethernet available in IT, but if you're still on 10/100, a USB adapter wouldn't be the limitation - and file/pattern exclusions, such as, say, --exclude=Caches* --exclude=Trash*

My usual move old ~ to new hardware looks basically like this, after the username has been logged in on the new machine:

rsync -avhPrz --exclude=*Trash* --exclude=*Cache* --exclude=*PubSub* --exclude=*ipsw* --exclude=*Office 2008* /Users/username/ username@172.x.x.x:/Users/username

Note of course that this requires ssh running and remote login rights granted to the user account in question.

http://www.maclife.com/article/columns/terminal_101_using_rsync_locally has some info i found useful

For the few non Thunderbolt macs we have to migrate over. I would physically pull the drive then put it into a Thunderbolt drive dock. http://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Dual-Bay-Thunderbolt-RocketStor-5212/dp/B00DJ3YEH0 Or tear apart a Buffalo MiniStation if you don't want to use a power cable. (Which is what we did) There was a walkthrough on youtube for the teardown. I haven't had a drive not mount yet with it and it is BLAZING fast.

I also use rsync, but if your users are directory mobile accounts and not local accounts, you might find that they can't login off the network if you don't create the mobile user.

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/Resources/createmobileaccount -n [user_shortname] –v

usage: createmobileaccount -n username [-h homepath] [-P | [-p password]] [-e] [-q] [[-x] | [-X]] [[-s] | [-S]] [-u syncURL] [-t urlPath] [-d] [-v] -n username : user record name. -h homepath : user home path; Default is "/Users/<username>". -p password : user password. -P : prompt for user password. A user password is required to create a FileVault home. -e encrypt : encrypt new home with FileVault. -q quota : max size in bytes of FileVault home. -x : create as external account on non-boot volumes. Default. -X : create as mobile account account non-boot volumes. -d : disable external account creation. -s : set home sync on if home created. -S : set home sync off if home created. Default. -u syncURL : server target of home synchronization. -t urlPath : additional path after syncURL. -v : verbose output.

@nessts, how do you compensate for users with gigantic home directories? Our users typically have between 200 and 400 GB of data to copy. Some as high as 900 GB.

I've toyed with the idea of an rsync over ethernet, then a quick hardware swap and done, but have not been able to compensate for the huge amounts of data.

Currently I do an rsync over fw800 to tb, making sure to exclude things like caches, etc. I typically get about 60-70 gb /hr with this method, unless they have a ton of fonts, in which case its anyone's guess as to how long it might take.

Always looking for a faster method

We've used all of those methods in the past. However, for the circumstance that we have a user with a huge home folder and one of those computers, we've setup our help desk with a Drobo 5D (USB 3) and just run that in-between. Our users don't handle the swap to another laptop so it's pretty trivial for us. For the most part, it's not a huge occurrence with us as most of our users have thunderbolt.