About /etc/fstab and LABELs

[Shane Presley]

Hello,

Using...RedHat ES v3

A default install from CDs creates an /etc/fstab that looks something
like...

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

Could you explain what those LABELs are, and more specifically what creates
them and how does it map them to phsyical disk partitions?

The reason I ask is that for disaster recovery. I build a new system, and
format a brand new drive with the same partition sizes as my old system
(using fsdisk). Then I restore my data. The problem is grub install fails
(and can't automount the drive) because the new disk doesn't seem to have
labels.

If I change my /etc/fstab to use physical names (/dev/sda2. etc) and not
labels, my restore procedure works fine.

But I would prefer to continue to use labels, if I can understand how to
recreate them?

Thanks
Shane