A recent OReilly Network article gives an example of how to use NFS for networked backups. It includes a couple of example scripts you can use to build small backup commands. Backups are lifesavers, and I’ve found it worth the brief time of setup and testing to make regular backups.
This method, NFS, is essentially what I do when I have an NFS server available in my environment. While I use rsync with ssh when I don’t have an NFS server around, when I do have one I use rsync and NFS. My basic backup command mounts the NFS volume to the right place and executes my rsync command to copy the information I need to the server, and then unmounts the NFS system. It’s a simple setup, but it’s saved me hours of rebuilding. Check out the article for some ideas.