Fastest way to get an entire FBSD system back online?

[Warren Block]

On Thu, 3 Mar 2011, John Levine wrote:

>>> It's not as automated as the Windows approach, but if you know what
>>> you're doing it's mostly limited by the speed of the disks. ...
>
>> Unlike "Windows", UNIX gives you the ability to create a fully
>> programmable automated approach according to your needs, e. g. for
>> multiple installations, defective systems can be booted via LAN, USB
>> or CD, ...
>
> Of course.  But the more interesting question is whether anyone's done
> that, e.g., a script to put dumps and a description of the disk setup
> on a backup device, and a boot image that will take the description
> and the dumps and put them back.  As far as I know, nobody has.

Sometimes called "bare-metal restore".  The tools are there, but I 
haven't seen it done with FreeBSD, either.  Handling media changes might 
be a little tricky for, say, a multi-DVD restore.  And of course it 
should have a suitably scary "This will destroy the system you are 
running!" warning.