Donald:

tar is always a good choice but there is more to backup. Try these references

1. LINUX Administration Handbook by Evi Nemith, et. al. ISBN0-13-008466-2, $49.99 U. S.
----chapter 10 page 159, Quickly useable with some distribution specific comments. Covers many subjects useful to admins with both background and practical advise.
2. UNIX Backup and Recovery by W. Curtis Preston, ISBN: 1-56592-642-0, $36.95 U.S.
----Chapters 1 -> 4, 8,18,19 plus those related to databases you are running. Very detailed with multiple references

Combine those two books and think about recovery when a server completely crashes and burns. Try looking for used book sellers as you buy more books it gets expensive. Watch out for old editions being represented as the latest. As long as the words of a book are still good it will not matter that if it is a used book.

Donald Henson wrote:

I have been using Linux (SuSE 8.2) for about two months. I need to backup my data. I have looked everywhere I can think of and have not been able to find simple (newbie-level) instructions on how to back up anything. I did find tar and that will work, I suppose, but it has a LOT of options. I thought I saw a gui program either in KDE or Gnome when I first installed Linux but I can't find it now. Would anyone like to take this newbie under his wing and earn his eternal gratitude?

Don Henson

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