Which sort of backup should it be? AIX offers a so-called "mksysb", which backs up the rootvg. This results in a system backup with all the systems relevant data saved (users, groups, passwords, mountpoints, printqueues, interfaces and the like), but not (if the system is set up correctly) the data or the applications. Basically the mksysb issues a "savevg rootvg" and adds some additional logic to that so that the resulting file could be booted from if it is written to a bootable medium.

If you want to back up the remainder of your system you should set apart the static parts (say, the applications executables) and the volatile parts of your data (database files for instance) and develop different backup strategies for these.

Another point is the size of the backup and the timeframe you have for taking the backup: local disks as destination are faster than network and you can transfer the backup file(s) over the network later. Still you have to have enough diskspace to do that. Taking the backup directly over the network is slower, but doesn't require the extra disk space. On the other hand taking backups over the network might put some strain on the network hardware and/or the destination host. Maybe there are some other hosts sending their backups over the network too and the compete for the network bandwith and the I/O bandwidth of the backup server - in this case you need a schedule so that only one server is backing up at any given time.

Tell us more about your environment and your requirements and we might be able to help you better instead of telling you some commonplaces about backups.

Regarding software: i would stick with something as simple as possible: tar, maybe rsync, ftp, scp and something such.

I hope this helps.

bakunin