How to create an ISO image of a remote machine?

Question

linux

Set up the system on the server in a state of readiness for experiments. Since I am an inexperienced person in this, I will definitely screw up during these experiments. How to create an image of the system that is up-to-date at the moment, so that in which case it can be deployed immediately on the server, rather than reinstalling the system from scratch and not wasting time on initial configuration?
Ubuntu Server 18.04
IP access (keychain)
firstvds.ru
KVM Backup
is not available on the tariff
Local machine - win8/debian10
===support response===
The client does not have rights to create a system image, this requires logging in to the parent machine.

If necessary, our technical specialists can create a server image for you.
The image will store a complete copy of the virtual machine with OS, software, settings and data. You will receive a complete copy of your VDS at the time of image creation, it will be stored in qcow2 format.

According to the regulations of technical specialists, more details here:
https://firstwiki.ru/index.php/Regulation_of_work_sl...
These works are carried out within the framework of a one-time payment - 650 rubles.
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That is, it turns out that having root access to my machine, and being able to connect an ISO image to it, I cannot create this very iso (the current snapshot at the moment)?-

Answer 1

Learn Ansible in parallel. It will help save time in the future. In your case, this is a good alternative to a disk copy.

Answer 2

You deploy the Veeam Backup and Replication server of the free edition, provide access to it from your VPS (for example, VPN with VPS from your machine where this server will be), make a Veeam client a full backup of the machine on it, and then boot from the ISO file that the client makes during installation - and deploy the backup.
In the variant with VPS \ VDS, it may or may not work. And the Sanes
version with Ansible is much more convenient and faster.

Answer 3

There are standard utilities for dumping file systems, for ext - dump/restore, for xfs - xfsdump/xfsrestore.
To make a dump, it is enough to be able to connect via ssh; to restore the dump, it is enough to be able to boot from an external media and configure access via ssh.