Migration to new Linux machine

This post will cover the steps required on desktop Linux to migrate to a new hardware configuration.

It is assumed that all user data is in the ~/ directory (i.e. user’s home directory).

Migration Steps

  1. Install, configure, test OS on New machine.
  2. Install, configure, test applications on New machine.
  3. Stop updating files on Old machine and backup user’s home directory to external hard-drive. It is probably best to do this at night since the backup can take quite a while.

    • tar cpf /media/external-drive/home-dir-backup.tar ~/

    gzip compression can be used if necessary

    • tar cpzf /media/external-drive/home-dir-backup.tgz ~/
  4. On New machine restore user’s home directory from external harddrive
    • tar -xpf /media/external-drive/home-dir-backup.tar -C ~/
  5. Perform final configuration on New machine now that user data has been migrated.

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