Good Backup Software for Linux?

What is a good backup software for linux that will backup the entire system to a .iso file?

Why to an ISO?

If you're doing the entire file-system, don't forget to exclude /proc and /dev

First of all, IMHO, any backup that can save your neck is good enough. A backup is a backup and is meant to save your neck and reputation in case of any disaster. I have tried "rsync" method of backup and its good for files (your homedir, etc..). Recently I tried "bacula" and I have found it to be very versatile. Its standard and lets you configure your backup very fine tuned. I haven't checked out "amanda" yet. bacula even lets you rebuild your entire system and also supports win32 systems. It can write to most of the media including tape, disk, file or dvd. It can do a full-system restore from scratch also. But it depends upon your own situation also. If you only need to backup your own files than "rsync" will be good enough for you. If you are talking about many servers then "bacula" is the way to go. bacula even has catalog support with database's like mysql, sqllite or postgresql.

I am currently using Bacula also for daily backup of around 1 terabyte to tape - although I do have concerns about "if the building burns down, and all I have is my tapes in my hand, how do I go about restoring things?"

It's cataloging is very useful for "day-to-day" data restores though.

I know with tar or rsync etc, I can bang them in pretty much any *nix machine and start. With Bacula, I would need to fiddle around getting it up and running again.

I want to backup to an iso so I can create my own distro wiht ease.

So are you trying to fork your own Distribution, or are you trying to backup...?

I am trying to make my own distro (with all my programs, themes, settings, ect...). So if I backup my system to a iso, I can share it with everyone.

Not that easy...

1) Other people will have different hardware.
2) A Distro generally doesn't cover your personal settings.
3) Creating an ISO will only create an image - No installer etc. Burning it to a CD will not make it bootable. Someone will have to burn the CD, boot to a different bootable CD (Knoppix etc), then copy your CD block by block to their hard drive, manually create their own MBR then reboot. Then they'll run in to problems from number 1...

Okay, if you really want to backup a whole system, you want to perform a Bare Metal Recovery type backup..

What you're actually asking to do is to create you're own distro to give out to your friends, perhaps you should look into LFS or something like this: http://www.linux-live.org/

Thanks trickykid -- I've never been involved with Distro making, so I wasn't sure what the actual tools blahblah_x was after...