Advice needed for backups

[Ian McKinnon]

Hi all,
This may be a little off topic (not directly related to FC) but I do need a
little advice for my FC server.

I have been searching for a backup method for my personal server (files,
mysql).  As I am currently a student, and cannot afford a tape backup system
I would like to backup to the DVD-R / RW drive I have in my server.

Is this a feasible idea?  I have seen that there is at least one commercial
product that will backup to optical media, but unfortunately I have to slosh
through multiple pages of people wanting to copy DVDs (for archival purposes
of course) on their Linux systems just to find a nibble or two.  Is there
anything available through yum or apt already for FC?

Does anyone have any practical experience in this??  What are your own
experiences?

Thanks,

Ian