Linux computer duplication.

Here, you will be introduced to ways to duplicate a Debian based Linux computer. You could also use a commercial software program, but we will not be discussing that here. Would probably be easier to use clonezilla live boot cd, but that takes all the fun out of it. This instructable is not intended for beginning users. as I will not be responsible for any issues. Get help from a professional if you are unsure.

Note: What is also nice is that traditional Microsoft based systems such as MSWindows XP and prior can also be cloned or backed up with Clonezilla. The good old Norton ghost open source replacement.

Step 1 Supllemental file copy.

The point of this exercise is to install just a basic system and then copy a list of installed files from the host machine to the destination system.

Say you want to have several machines to be exactly alike that run Debian or Ubuntu Linux. You will want to set up the first machine the way you want it.

Now we need to get the list of packages that have been installed (software installed via ppa's may still have to be setup manually.)

$ dpkg -–get-selections > installed-software.log

installed-software.log:
[code]
...
...
x11-common install
xauth install
xfonts-encodings install
xfonts-utils install
xkb-data install
xml-core install
xz-utils install
zlib1g install
[/code]

You could probably edit this file to add any last minute packages to be added or removed.

Now you want to do a minimal install of Debian. You will want to uncheck the graphical environment when tasksel asks you what packages you want installed. That will make the rest of the install go quickly.

After the reboot of the finished install, you will want to be able to have ssh and scp file capabilities so on the destination machine so install the ssh programs. (note: on Debian you will also have to install as root sudo and include your user name in /etc/sudoers).

$ sudo apt-get install ssh openssh-server

Now you want to copy the installed-software.log file from the setup machine to the new destination machine via the network.

$ scp installed-software.log [destinationmacineipaddress]:~/.

On the destination machine you need to confirm the repositories are accessible with

$ sudo apt-get update

Now you need to let the destination machine aware of the installed-software.log.

$ dpkg -–set-selections < installed-software.log

And finally you want the system to do the update with the software list.

$ apt-get dselect-upgrade

This will install the duplicate software.

to make sure the machine is update you will want to:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If there are any issues you can always issue the command:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade -f

That should be it for the software install part. if you tweaked any configuration files, those will be needed to be duplicated over to the new machine also.

Done.