rsnapshot is a filesystem snapshot utility for making backups of local and remote systems.
Using rsync and hard links, it is possible to keep multiple, full backups instantly available. The disk space required is just a little more than the space of one full backup, plus incrementals.
Depending on your configuration, it is quite possible to set up in just a few minutes. Files can be restored by the users who own them, without the root user getting involved.
There are no tapes to change, so once it's set up, you may never need to think about it again.
rsnapshot is written entirely in Perl. It should work on any reasonably modern UNIX compatible OS, including:
Debian,
Redhat,
Fedora,
SuSE,
Gentoo,
Slackware,
FreeBSD,
OpenBSD,
NetBSD,
Solaris,
Mac OS X,
and even
IRIX.