AutoInstall for Mandrake Linux
The Mandrake Linux Distribution provides a facility, DrakX, which allows for the automated installation on to computers that you use or manage.
Configuring APT to mix stable and unstable
Quoting the explanatory mail :
For all those that are using the stable Debian version but would like to sometimes run a few packages from the unstable Debian version.
http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2002/1/mail#1
There are also some special repositories that allow to install recent versions of programs on a stable Debian.
Debian Planet on Automatic Installation and Backup
This discussion summs up many ways to automatize installation/update and backup of a Debian installation.
Article with many comments published in Debian Planet on Backup and Automated Install
http://www.debianplanet.org/article.php?sid=586
FAI
Quoting the official page :
FAI is an automated installation tool to install or deploy Debian GNU/Linux and similar distributions on a Linux Cluster or a bunch of different hosts.
Fully Automated Installation for Debian
http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai
Jablicator
Allows others to easily replicate your package choices via Debian's apt-get utility. Generating an apt-gettable, custom debian package, with the appropriate dependencies.
http://packages.debian.org/testing/admin/jablicator.html
MondoRescue
Mondo Rescue archives Linux and Lin/Win sytems to tapes or CDs, which may be used to restore some or all of your OS and data in the event of catastrophic data loss. The emphasis is on stability and ease of use. Currently, ext2, ext3, (v)fat, minix, ReiserFS, XFS, and JFS filesystems are supported, as are RAID and LVM.
http://freshmeat.net/projects/mondorescue
PartImage
Generates partition images and write them back on disk without saving ununsed blocks, unlike dd. Availabe for i386 and PPC platforms for mostly any OS (Linux, Windows, MacOS)
RedHat KickStart
This HOWTO briefly describes how to use the RedHat Linux KickStart system to rapidly install large numbers of identical Linux boxes. For advanced users, we describe how to modify the KickStart installation procedure to do your own thing, and give a quick guide to building RPM packages of your own.
http://sial.org/howto/kickstart/
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/sysadmin-guide/ch-kickstart2.html
http://kickstart-tools.sourceforge.net/
RxLinux
A CD-ROM based server distribution designed to accelerate the deployment of linux servers and centralize configuration.
http://on-x.ca/html/rxlinux.html
Suse Alice
Alice allows to automate software installation and configuration on SuSE systems.
http://www.suse.com/us/support/howto/alice
SystemImager
SystemImager allows to automatically install and configure any kind of distribution. It also allows to mirror a given system image on running clients.