I have an Ubuntu server on bare metal that was set up by a third party. It runs a proprietary service. There is no proper documentation about what is running and how.
I had to repurpose this server for another service, an Ubuntu Server with Docker containers running the new service.
I need to run the previous proprietary service that was running on the bare metal server. I also need to run it in a container for easier deployment and management.
I am not sure how to move an Ubuntu Server to containers.
I know that this is not the "Docker way" to do this.
One approach I found is to create an image from scratch and transfer the file system except for the following folders: /proc, /sys, /dev, /tmp, /mnt, /media, /run, /boot, and /swapfile
FROM scratch
ADD folders-to-transfer.tar.gz /
CMD ["/bin/bash"]
Is this the correct way?
Others suggested using a VM, which sounds like overkill.
I would rather clone the whole disk of the server where the software is installed with something like Clonezilla and run it as a virtual machine.
Without knowing exactly how the software works and what libraries it needs, it does not seem overkill at all.