building 5 identical machines - how to clone the HDs?
 

I'm building 5 identical machines today. I'd rather not go through the process of installing linux, all the needed software, configuring the user accounts, etc. for each one. Can I just make one, then clone it's drive to all the others?

If so, can I just use dd & do:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb

Will that work? Will it copy all the patition tables, boot records, maintain permissions, etc?

Thanks

If the hard-disks are identical (and without
bad sectors) yes. After having them in the
"new" machine you'll have to change IP
addresses and hostnames, of course.



Cheers,
Tink