I have a Linux machine (CentOS 5.8) on which I have installed multiple applications and tools (with yum and few others after compiling the source code) on it. As I have spent considerable time in configuring the applications on it, I do not want to repeat it again if its hard disk crashes!
Hence, I would like to make a bootable ISO image of the machine. What I mean is that this bootable ISO image after it is written on a bootable DVD, I should be able to install the Linux system on a new hard disk with all the previously installed applications.
I researched about it on the web and found few tools like clonezilla. But it requires if my Linux systems is on 100GB disk, then I need to have backup disk with 100GB or more. As I know, the disk space occupied by all of my applications is well within the 4.7GB, that can well be accommodated on a DVD.
I read about LiveCD, which creates a bootable DVD of a new version of the operating system, but that does not serve my purpose. Then I came across mkisofs tool, but I am not successful with it as it is not able to see the Linux kernel in the ISO image.
Do you know any site on the web that describes the steps to create a bootable ISO image with existing installed applications? I would be grateful to you if could share your knowledge on how to do this.