[log in to unmask] wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Is there a way I can backup the root directory, /boot and the partition
> table, so that if something goes wrong I do not have to go through the
> whole process of installation and configuration?

Sure. Mondo Rescue will burn a CD or DVD with a backup of your system.
you can boot the CD/DVD and do  'bare metal' recovery on a system with 
blank hard drives.

http://www.mondorescue.org/

The RHEL 4 RPM packages should install fine on a SL system.
ftp://ftp.mondorescue.org/rhel/4


The other way to do things would be to do as you suggest - backup your
root parition, /boot and partition table via
sfdisk -d /dev/sda  > partition.save
and keep this on the backup
Boot the machine with a Knoppix CD, and rebuild the drives by:
sfdisk /dev/sda < partition.save

Been there, rebuilt dead machines, got the T-shirt.


In fact, we commonly ship clusters with a backup head node.
This is a machine with a second hard drive in it, which is partitioned 
with the same partition table as the primary. Every night the primary is 
rsynced to it. Run lilo to enable a dual boot between the normal hard 
drive and the secondary copy disk.




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      John Hearns
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      Streamline Computing,
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