This method does not require any changes on all the clients.

Task: Move MeshCentral physical server with windows to virtual server with Debian

I spoofed the mac address in the virtual machine settings and disconnected the physical server (removing from production so no longer need to connect the LAN)
I then set my IP address the same as what my physical machine IP was (you can probably change this but be sure to update your firewall port forward rules)

Went here https://www.turnkeylinux.org/nodejs and downloaded the ISO

After install I then followed the instructions on the MeshCentral site for installation:
mkdir meshcentral
cd meshcentral
npm install meshcentral

after that I coped the following folders over from the old physical server:
meshcentral-data
meshcentral-files

I did not need nginx and it is using 443 so I disabled it like so (you can change the listening port instead if you need it):
systemctl disable nginx

I then edited the file /etc/rc.local and added the following command to start on boot:
node /root/meshcentral/node_modules/meshcentral/meshcentral –cert CERTNAME

reboot then try your MeshCentral address. after 1-2 minutes all of my agents connected and all seems to be working. 2 factor still works as well.

Hope this helps someone.