Tape backup help
 

Hi all,

I am fairly new to the UNIX world in general. I have a server machine running Red Hat 8.0 Professional. Several weeks ago, I had a catastrophic problem, and had to rebuild the entire machine. At the time, I had a SUN DLT 4000 tape backup unit hooked up to it via an Adaptec 2940 SCSI card. Prior to that failure, I had never taken the time to LEARN how to backup the system, and therefore, I did not have a backup. My server is rebuilt now, and my number 1 priority is to get it backed up on a weekly basis. I want to back up EVERYTHING on the system onto 1 tape(40GB capacity tapes). However, like I said, I don't know anything about backing up right now, but I need to get it working. A friend of mine told me that there is a simple "tar" command I can use that will backup every single thing onto the tape. Can someone please explain to me what this might be? I am a newbie to this, and I intend on truly learning about backups soon, but I need to get it working before I learn. What I want to do is set the server to backup automatically, every Sunday night at midnight. I want it to do a full backup, and rewind to the beginning of the tape when it is done, that way, the next week's backup will overwrite it. Can anyone explain this to me step-by-step. You'd be a lifesaver!!! Thanks a million!

Chris B.

Please don't double post.