Backing Up SQL Server

I currently have two SQL servers, one of which is a replicator, and I have decided that it is long past time to start backing up properly. I have looked at a number of solutions but Veritas Backup Exec seems to be a decent product. I was wondering if I could get you opinions on this and any other products there might be out there (keeping in mind I am a small company on a budget). THXWhat types of backups are you talking about? Are you wanting to do database backups, or file backups to a tape device or something? Database backups can be done reliably using the sql tools, tape backups are a different matter.|||If you already have a server with a backup device you can configure the SQL Server to perform its backups to a share on that server. The files will be backed up along with the existing backup on the existing server (hopefully this is still clear).|||Im talking about doing a backup of my database and of the system databases. I was going to backup to a tape (AIT3) drive. I was looking at using Server's backup tool but I didn't know if it could backup hot or not. Once again thanks.|||SQL Server has actually made this very simple for you. Open up Enterprise Manager, and expand the Management folder. Then Right Click on the Database Maintenance Plans icon and select new maintenance plan. Then follow it through. SQL can back up any and all of its database while still serving data and filling requests. Then you can back up the .bak or .trn files dumped to tape after the maintenance plan has completed. Read up on maintenance plans in books online. There is alot of info in there.|||Yea I saw that but then I got to wondering if there was something else to that because I see companies like Veritas and commVolt making these backup packages and I kinda figured if they did that there must be somthing missing from Microsoft's backup, or is there? Thanks, SQLhack|||I have only come across one problem that I couldnt solve with the bundled SQL tools. We had a transaction log that was corrupted and couldnt apply it to our standby server. We actually had to get Lumigent Log Explorer to script it out and then played it forward. But that is another story. The other reason SQL backup solution may not work is for larger databases (100 Gig +) the restore times can be slow. Especially if your site is down during the restore. For the rest of my 6 years of SQL Server experience, database and log dumps copied off the server and backed up to tape have always gotten me out of any problem that hase come along.|||We used Veritas Backup Exec on many NT4 servers, and we upgraded our servers to Win2k, we decided to use Microsoft Backup instead, cause many tech of these sites complains about complexity to manage backup, etc.