Excuse me for the typo: "A simple Rsync Backup"
We are using a Mac OS X server:
1. Want to backup folders located in HD to a LaCie Drive(external)
2. Want to backup folders to a tape backup device (exabyte)
3. Would like to schedule the backups weekly at 10PM
4. Would like to get a notification email with results.

I'm asking this because I'm not a shell script expert I found this little script and I'm playing with it:

#!/bin/sh

# To use Apple's rsync switch commented lines below
# To use rsyncx:
RSYNC=/usr/local/bin/rsync --eahfs --showtogo
# To use built-in rsync (OS X 10.4 and later):
# RSYNC=/usr/bin/rsync -E

# sudo runs the backup as root
# --eahfs enables HFS+ mode
# -a turns on archive mode (recursive copy + retain attributes)
# -x don't cross device boundaries (ignore mounted volumes)
# -S handle sparse files efficiently
# --showtogo shows the number of files left to process
# --delete deletes any files that have been deleted locally
# $* expands to any extra command line options you may give

sudo $RSYNC -a -x -S --delete \
--exclude-from backup_excludes.txt $* / /Volumes/DataHD/
$RSYNC -a /Volumes/DataHD /Volumes/"LaCie Disk"
# make the backup bootable - comment this out if needed

#sudo bless -folder /Volumes/OSX/System/Library/CoreServices

I don't know how to refer to the tape device which has a firewire connection. I was looking under /dev and /Volumes folder. I was looking for the IEEE or something similar. We have been using retrospect but my boss doesn't like it. Help is greatly appreciated. thanks

Don't all of the devices on usb, and firewire buses show up as scsi devices? My old server doesn't have firewire. Heck, I'm still using promise-IDE cards. USB-2 devices show up on all of my distros as sda sdb etc. As a firewire device wouldn't it be using ATAPI commands over the firewire bus?