How to synchronize data between several copies of a VMWare instance?

Question

I have multiple copies of a VMWare virtual machine that is running Ubuntu 10.04 Server that I am using for development (web and compiled applications). I would like to keep all of these copies synchronized. Specifically, I need to keep the following items the same across all the machines:

• Packages
• Config files
• Data files in /home/ directory

I using Git for the source code, so I don't have to worry about that, just the system files.

Thank you

Answer 1

For packages and config files looks like you're looking for a config management system, such as cfengine or puppet. See the wikipedia for a comparison .

To replicate /home , you might want to try Unison or rsync.