Transfer Ubuntu ec2 server to Lightsail

gistfile1.txt

# USE AT YOUR OWN RISK
# THIS IS FOR EXPERTS ONLY - KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

#Step 1:
Make sure old system and new system are running same OS
On both systems:
apt update
apt upgrade

#Step 2:
reboot both systems

#Step 3:
On both systems, create systemd unit maintenance.target
This allows you to stop all processes except ssh and networking.

Note: you won't be able to transfer stuff onto the server whie it is in maintenance mode

create /etc/systemd/system/maintenance.target

[Unit]
Description=Maintenance Mode with Networking and SSH
Requires=maintenance.target systemd-networkd.service sshd.service
After=maintenance.target systemd-networkd.service sshd.service
AllowIsolate=yes

enter your maintenance mode:

sudo systemctl isolate maintenance.target

exit maintenance mode

sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target

#Step 4:
Bring the old server to maintenance mode

#Step 5:
As sudo, run command to create backup file:
(check the filenames in the tar first, maybe your swapfile is different)

refer here for xz/multicore compression
https://gist.github.com/bootrino/bc4a4b8bfe82180391904046c2c9e344


tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz \
--exclude=/mnt/backup.tar.gz \
--exclude=/var/swap.1 \
--exclude=/proc \
--exclude=/tmp \
--exclude=/mnt \
--exclude=/dev \
--exclude=/sys \
--exclude=/run \
--exclude=/media \
--exclude=/boot \
--exclude=/usr/src/linux-headers* \
--exclude=/home/*/.gvfs \
--exclude=/home/*/.cache \
--exclude=/home/*/.local/share/Trash /

#Step 6:
put a copy of the target servers pem file into the current directory

#Step 7:
transfer the backup file to the target server:
sudo scp -i tmp.pem backup.tar.gz ubuntu@x.x.x.x:.

#Step 8:
on the target server, go into maintenance mode

sudo systemctl isolate maintenance.target

#Step 9:
on the target server, copy your ssh authorized keys to your home directory:
cd ~
cp .ssh/authorized_keys ~/.

#Step 10:
on the target server backup /etc/fstab
important! the one file you need to ensure is the same is /etc/fstab so 
make a copy of it in your home directory:
cd ~
cp /etc/fstab .

#Step 11:
restore the backup file:
sudo tar -xvpzf backup.tar.gz -C /  --numeric-owner

#Step 12:
rationalise the two fstab files - examine both and probably use the new one

#Step 13: CRITICAL!
add the contents of the authorized_keys that you saved earlier into the authorized_keys file that was restored from backup
this will allow you to log into the machine with both the old and new pem files.

#Step 14:
recreate swapfile after restoring backup onto system
if the machine you are copying from has swapfile then you should configure swapfile on this machine too.
follow the instructions here: 
https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/ec2-memory-swap-file/

#Step 15:
reboot target machine

#Step 16:
check everything is working