How to make ubuntu system portable and make backups?

[hockey97]

Hi, I currently have backups on my external hd. the backups are not solid some are cruppted etc. So I now needed them because my system got messed up. I now reinstalled ubuntu 9.04. I backedup my website files and work.

The one problem is that I backedup the config files for apache servers and mysql.

I backedup my whole system just in case. I right now need to find where my mysql data tables are located.

Well, what I want to know is how can I easily transfer my servers with the configs to other computers?

I want to spend less time reconfiguring and reinstalling software like servers etc. It's really painful to keep redoing the configuration of the servers .

I plan to transfer my system to a new computer this coming month.

I need to know how do you guys quickly transfer a sytem to a new computer.

Like servers for instance. I am currently using a old computer. I plan to buy new computers for the purpose to host my websites.

So with the old computer I am getting the server software ready and the website ready. So when I buy this new computer I just want to be able to easily transfer the files from one computer to another. That way I don't need to reinstall software or reconfig. I want to do less work when transfering the files to a new computer.

So what is the best method to transfer the files and also back them up so I or you can easily make the system mobile meaning you can transfer it to about 4 or 5 other computers.

I just don't want to keep spending alot of time reconfiguring server software to make it right when I already had it working and right configs.

any ideas?

[CoolHand]

Have you looked into remastersys? It might not be perfect for you in that you sound like you have a large amount of data but if you only do the system apps and config you should be fine. It basically creates a bootable disk like the normal install that contains all your modifications and apps.

[hockey97]

do you think I can use it on my external hard drive to boot the rescue disk?

ya, I got alot of data to backup. However I am looking for something just like that but can be put on my external hard drive so my external hard drive can be able to install every server software and system and be able to install the software with the saved configs and setups used with the new installation.

I just need a solution that will allow me back backup my system so if anything goes wrong or if I decide to move the same data to another computer I can do so with less effort and less time spent doing so.

cause right now I had to reconfig some of my server software cause some failed to be backedup and now I learned they weren't backedup because of some permission error. So at least I backedup most of the configs.

but if this happens to me again where I had to reinstall. I would want something that I can easily just pop in and tell it to install the system again with the old files and configs of software.

I don't want to spend alot of time reconfiguring things and installing things which could cause errors or problems making the recovering process take longer and takes more energy to do.

[CoolHand]

Not sure. It makes an ISO by default. I'm not sure if it has an option to go to an HDD. I usually just burn the ISO to a DVD and run it from my external DVD drive. I just like it because it is a live snapshot and will install as an exact copy of what you had. You may need to google it for more info.