Best practice / tools for backing up a server before production ?

[Florent Gilain]

Hi all,

Could someone give me informations concerning best practices of backing up
my server under RHEL3 or RHEL4.

I suppose i should :

1) configure the server as i want it
2) Do a full backup / image using a third party tool/software
3) Put the server in production
4) Backup only changed datas everyday

Thanks, i know many of you are Linux Gurus...so your advices will help me a
lot; i suppose some tools/software are better than others...

PS : free softs/tools would be better...but simplicity can too make the
difference !
PS2 : according to me, the simple way would be to have a network bootable
CDROM that would allow me to boot the server, then run the image / backup
tool to save files to a remote server (linux or window$$..) isn't it ?

Florent