Topic: machine-id
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Regenerating SSH host keys and the machine ID on a cloned Linux host
A freshly cloned Linux host needs its own SSH host keys and machine ID before it joins a fleet; ssh-keygen -A and systemd-machine-id-setup can create them, but on an already-booted clone a duplicated machine ID needs a freshly written value and a reboot. Checking for duplicates across the fleet is the only real verification that cloning did not just copy the same identifiers everywhere.
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Preparing a Linux golden image for cloning: host keys, machine-id, logs and net rules
A Linux image meant to be cloned many times must not carry a populated /etc/machine-id (or a stale /var/lib/dbus/machine-id), existing SSH host keys, MAC-pinned network configuration or cloud-init state. Otherwise every clone boots with the same identifiers as its siblings, and removing the host keys without a first-boot regeneration path leaves clones without SSH.
Machine-readable: JSON