I have a project which needs a lot of packages to be installed (like CUPS, Parse Server, mongoDB, etc) on ubuntu 16.04. My question is : After all installations and configurations, how can i backup the entire system + packages and restore on a different machine?
To explain in few words why i have to do this, is because i have to install this project in each restaurant and i need a different machine with the same packs and settings.
Thx in advance!
Best Answer
Cloning
I use Clonezilla and there are other tools that are also good for the cloning task.
But here I focus on the setup of the system itself.
OEM setup
Often you do not want identical systems, but different IDs for the computer and the user. This can be achieved with an Ubuntu OEM installation.
The special setup (installed program packages, tweaks etc) is done while running the oem user. Then the special icon on the desktop is used in order to activate the final installation (to run when booted in a target computer), 'Prepare for shipping to end user'.
A [compressed] image of this system is created (with a cloning tool).
A clone is installed into each target computer from the [compressed] image.
Boot the target computer and finish the setup to create computer ID and user ID.
See this link,
help.ubuntu.com/community/Ubuntu_OEM_Installer_Overview