I have some new machines for which I need to set up backups. I'm aware of various programs (e.g. dump, tar, rsync, cpio, dar, taper, mondo) and have limited experience of using some older ones for backups but don't know anything about the newer ones or what suits my circumstances. I have a main fileserver that has two SATA RAID arrays of 1.5 TB each. The first plan that occurred to me is to use one as the main public storage, under LVM, and the other as back up. I also need to back up some other machines with smaller disks, so I'd need either to compress the backup or to exclude from the backup data that can be regenerated, or both. We have a DVD writer that can make extra backups of critical stuff and I also have access to a networked tape archive but its too small to be practical for the main backup, so again we can make extra copies of critical stuff. One particular concern I have is how to protect against the effects of a system failure during the backup. A good feature is that the system does not have to be continuously available. Any thoughts on a good choice of software and strategy for this situation, or pointers to tutorials that explain the options? I haven't found much in the SuSE documentation. Thanks, Dave