[mythtv-users] How is a master backend identified?

[Rob Rosenfeld]

I've been running a master backend on the same hardware for years and
it's slowly dying.  There's one HD (system) with the OS and MythTV
install and another (data) with the storage space for mythtv files.
I'm going to build a new system and would like to start with a fresh
system build from scratch.  Once I have the new system in place with
MythTV installed, how do I configure the MythTV instance it to be
recognized as my master backend?

Alternately, how do I promote a slave backend to master status?  I've
done a bit of forum searching and Googling and the only relevant
thread I found was:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/283387

But this involves manual updates to the database which doesn't sound
very clean.  Is that the best (only?) way or is there a better way?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Rob