I usually just lurk, but have strong feelings about this subject. When working for a large company tapes went to Iron Mt. More importantly we had a tested Continuity Plan - seems 'Distaster Plan' is an old term. Now, on a server, I use a USB hot swapable disk and put in as big a disk as necessary and use backup2l, see http://backup2l.sourceforge.net/ (my choice as it is written for disk backups). It keeps disk usage down by updating the Full backup and keeping interim backups small by even eliminating deleted files (configurable as to how many interims to keep before another Full is done). Have at LEAST 3 swapable disks because you always want one off site. Disks are fast, so recovery is fast. DO NOT believe you can easily 'just reconfigure' all the machines. How much time do you spend a week tweeking them? I believe you need build a test server, run backup, and see if it works [in spare time]. That includes being able to install and configure all software etc. Ya, maybe /etc and more should be backed up. There is much more to do then just running user data backups as the URL: http://www.taobackup.com/ shows. All software CDs as well as a hard copy of all hardware should be inventoryed and off site. I agree with the suggestion to get the O'Reilly book. Money well $pent. Have even seen insurance taken out on replacement value of equipment. One last tip, even fire proof paper cabinets will not protect tapes or other media like this. http://www.firecooler.com/ May B paranoid, but have ALL needed files (yup, tested), Don Nelson http://appservers.us _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list