1) You can have as many configuration profiles as you want, but only one of them can be running at any given time. In order to back up one to the other, you'll need both of them running -- which is impossible unless you purchase two linodes.
1.1) If you have space to spare, duplicating a disk image might be the easiest way to back up your whole server. But you must shut down your server before duplicating, otherwise you might get a corrupt copy because some files get changed halfway through the duplication process.
1.1.1) You don't "restore" a disk image; you just detach the ones you don't need and attach the ones you want. You can choose which disk image(s) to attach by editing the appropriate configuration profile.
2) Not if you're thinking about doing this using duplicate disk images. In order to use rsync/rdiff-backup you need to have both the production server and the backup server online at the same time, which is only possible if you have two linodes or else you back up to your home computer.
Rdiff-backup is more featureful than bare rsync. But if you want simplicity, rsnapshot is also a very useful tool. Don't know about Bacula, never used it
3) The method of restoration depends on the method of backup. If you backup using duplicate disk images, you just attach the right image and reboot. If you use an rsync derivative, yes you'll need to copy everything back to where they were.
Personally I don't backup "everything" on the server; I just backup my data (/home), server logs (/var/log), and some important configuration files here and there (mostly under /etc). Because I keep a list of all the packages that are installed on my production box (php5, mysql, etc), I can start with a new distro, install all the necessary packages in one go, and then only restore the necessary files. Only takes 20 minutes to have everything ready to go!
But there are other threads that discuss exactly what is necessary, so be sure to look them up.
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