I doubt that re-install everything is a good plan. There is a risk of error and besides, you have to crete everything (all your configs for
ntp,
mail, groups, sudo rules, syslogs and users even) and the risk is that something gets lost, or a package has been updated, so you don't quite get a clone if you are using on-line resources (Satellite or direct to Red-Hat) to install the packages.
So you want a
mksysb (AIX)
ignite (HP-UX) etc. type clone on RHEL? Sorry, nothing is supplied. There are options though depending how you are currently running:-
Physical- Boot from media
- Slice your first disk to have a boot partition and a root partition (or LVM managed root and other filesystems is better)
- Restore a copy of your root and other critical* filesystems
- Build a new boot image in your boot partition
- Adjust the loader (usually GRUB)
Virtual- Use the VM tools to clone the boot device
- Bring up the system without network devices defined
- Change the network definitions
- Define the network devices for the VM
- Boot
More practically, there is commercial software that can do this for you. There is Christie Clone Manager and Storix, of which I am familiar, but there may be others too. I have AIX in the estate which I can recover with a
mksysb so I use that as my base for all RHEL backups and therefore clones.
Certainly
Storix is my favourite, but I have no idea on the cost. It works with physical and virtual servers (can migrate any to any too) and gives you DR capability as well as just cloning. Don't let me sway you to that though, have a look at Christie too and any others out there to make sure you get the one that suits you and the budget best.
Robin