One way of replicating many machines at once, if they are identical hardware, including disk drives etc, is to use udpcast. The idea is that one machine is used as a template for the others. Each machine is booted off a special boot disk (or a system image served over the network) which has some special programs that allow machines to be replicated over the network. One machine acts as a sender and the others are receivers.
I had to build a special kernel as the disk controllers used were not yet in the kernel source tree. It is actually extremely easy to build a boot disk with the instructions given at http://www.udpcast.linux.lu/mkimagedoc.html. For a CD image, it just involves having the kernel image (can be placed anywhere) and the modules (in /lib/modules, if you are using a modular kernel). Then run makeImage -k
It will replicate the disks (maybe using dd?) over the network. In my case, I just used a crossover cable as I was just doing one machine (it is really designed to do many machines at once)
Of course, you may need to modify some things, like IP addresses, hostnames etc...
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