While I was able to add 'FOO=bar' to /etc/environment and get it to persist after a reboot, I was unable to identify it as a system environment variable.
Instead, I added 'export FOO=bar' to the end of /etc/profile. When I rebooted, this change persisted, and the variable was identified. This should apply system-wide.
Brian.D
NI Product Owner
VeriStand