For MySQL backups, I think nobody mentioned doing nightly backups with mysqldump and then backing them up with rsync or other tools. That is what I do. No need to stop any services even for a second. I have a two-tier backup solution, where I first backup things with rsync to "backup 1" and then use rdiff-backup to construe an incremental archive on "backup 2" (in other location). - Jussi