Complete backup of Linux install

[Kenneth Burgener]

Michael Torrie wrote:
> One way to back up such a small amount of data would to make a 4 GB
> ext3-formated file image, then loopback mount it and rsync your entire
> disk to the image.  Then burn the image directly to a DVD.  When you
> want to restore, format the drive with the partition structure you want
> and then mount the DVD and copy the entire contents to the new disk.
> Then you have to make sure fstab is correct and just reinstall grub.
> Reinstalling grub is usually a matter of booting knoppix, chrooting to
> your disk and running "grub-install."

Will this take care of the device files in /dev/?  I was hoping that 
what ever I use to make this backup would require not having to 
reinstall the OS to overwrite it with the backup.  What I really want is 
an exact snapshot of how the system is at one point, and the ability to 
restore it.

I am not sure which product it was, but this imaging software is what I 
saw in use at school.  The systems came in completely empty, and all 
they had to do was bootup, and they saw some sort of RIS server that 
imaged the system identically to the primary server.  I am hoping for 
something similar to that.

Kenneth