My company will replace a server running RH 7.2 with a box running RH 9. 
Hundreds of clients connect to the old box using SSH v. 1. The new box 
will have the same name and the same IP address, and will host SSH v. 1 
sessions with the same clients. We have done as much as we can to make 
it look like the old server, but if we allow it to run SSHd on its 
locally-generated private keys the clients will not connect, claiming it 
is a man-in-the-middle attack.

For the client, it is only a matter of changing the known_hosts entry 
referencing this server and allowing each client to rebuild the key. 
However, I am not in a position to modify hundreds of computers in 
several remote locations. Is there any way to move the private keys from 
the old server to the new server, so the clients accept the connection 
without modification? Simply moving the keys as-is does not work -- I 
have tried it. (I also made sure permissions and ownership were correct 
and checked md5sums.)

Any advice appreciated.

John Reese
jwreese0 at comcast.net