Most convenient way to image & clone a Linux Mint install?

[Ghiddy]

I have a server running Linux Mint 11. I spent a weekend setting it up and setting up the software and drivers on there and now I want to deply the same exact setup to some other machines with almost identical (but not 100% identical) hardware.

I've done this with windows VM's where you have to do sysprep or whatever to change the machine SID after the install. Is there anything like that I would have to do with linux? Is there a way to clone it such that when I boot up the clone target for the first time I have to go through setup process where I set up the account and machine name ? Or is there a way to manually trigger that wizard through some of the control panel in Linux Mint?

My home folder is encrypted if that makes any difference.

I have a Linux Mint 11 live bootable USB which I used to install LM onto the original machine. I can put the image onto another USB stick, or the same one, or another SATA drive.

 

[rasczak]

ghost or acronis. I use acronis true image and it works great.

 

[SimMike2]

Depending on your hard drive manufacturer, such as Western Digital and Seagate, you can download a free version of Acronis True Image from their respective websites. Not the full program, but will certainly clone most disks from a bootable CD you create.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd use Clonezilla, and manually change the account details after imaging the blank machine. There's probably a better way of handling the accounts, but I don't know what it is. My way wouldn't be terrible for a few boxes, but probably not so good for 100 of them.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

dd but there are a dozen that work somewhat almost as well.