[buug] clone a production server

[John de la Garza]

A week or so ago I was asking how to use dd to back up a complete  
server.  I think I should of stated what I needed and got feedback on  
how to best do it instead of wanting to use dd.

I have a production server running a mod_perl web app that talks to  
Oracle.  There are tons of symbolic and hard links and the  
documentation on how to build it is far from complete.  I plan to  
reverse engineer it and use the current docs to one day (soon)  
understand it and be able to build it and clean up some of the  
clutter on it.  The problem is, that if this box where to go down,  
we'd be hosed, so I want to copy it ASAP.

What would be the best way to make a backup of the entire box as it  
is?  Is this even really doable?  I'd like to be able to make a hard  
drive that I could just switch with the one in the current server and  
have it work fine.

The box isn't local, but at a data center.   I can drive down there  
if I need to and I can shut it down, if need be.