preserve_hostname: false manage_etc_hosts: true ssh_pwauth: false disable_root: false Here is the battle-tested, distro-agnostic flow for Linux sysprep: Step 1: Provision a "clean" VM (not container) Build a VM exactly how you want your golden image: packages, configs, users, hardening. Step 2: Run the Generalization Script Save this as /usr/local/sbin/sysprep-linux.sh :
echo "=== Sysprep complete. Shutting down for imaging. ===" shutdown -h now linux sysprep
On Linux, there is no sysprep command. There is no single magic incantation. And that leads to a dangerous misconception: "Linux doesn't need sysprep. Just clone the disk." ===" shutdown -h now On Linux, there is no sysprep command
If you’re coming from the Windows world, you know the drill: run sysprep /generalize , shut down, capture the image. It strips away unique identifiers: the SID, computer name, driver caches, and logs. It prepares the OS to be born again on new hardware. Just clone the disk
It's the understanding that a computer is more than its disk contents. It's the knowledge that identity, state, and hardware relationships matter. And it's the craft of stripping away the ephemeral so that the essential can be reborn.
#!/bin/bash set -e echo "=== Linux Sysprep - Generalizing System ===" find /var/log -type f -exec truncate -s 0 {} ; rm -rf /var/cache/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/* 2. Remove unique IDs echo -n > /etc/machine-id rm -f /var/lib/systemd/random-seed 3. Remove SSH host keys rm -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* 4. Remove network interface persistence rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules rm -f /etc/network/interfaces.d/50-cloud-init.cfg # if using netplan 5. Clean package manager cache apt clean || yum clean all || dnf clean all 6. Remove shell history unset HISTFILE history -c find /home -name ".*history" -exec rm -f {} ; rm -f /root/.bash_history 7. Prepare for first-boot provisioning Ensure cloud-init is installed and enabled systemctl enable cloud-init 8. Remove udev hardware database (forces re-detection) rm -f /etc/udev/hwdb.bin
Run it as root, then capture the image from the powered-off VM. When you deploy from this image, pass cloud-init user-data:
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