Hi Evan!

>BACKUP
>- any recommendation for tape drives (or other media) and backup software?
>- are tape drives and tapes still the best way to go?
>- ideally backups would be done on live data without having to shut down the web app, but I can live making the web app release its hold on the VFP tables for 1 hour at night to do a backup without locking issues.

I have a travan tapestor (20gb NS20 tapes) at our store. It's reliable for the most part but, for some reason every tape develops problems eventually and I have to get it replaced (lukily the tapes have a lifetime warranty, but it's a hassle nonetheless). This happens

I like the fact that these drives are inexpensive and have high capacity, even though I seem to have no luck with mine.

If what you need to backup fits in a cd, by all means, go with that. Faster to restore and easier to access than a tape.

>Spare Parts:
>- should I keep a spare nic and hard drive for failures?

If you have a staples or another store that's open 7 days a week that stocks this sort of thing nearby, I don't see why keep spare parts.

If anything, I'd keep spare fans for the cpu, power supply, and case of the computer. These aren't as easy to come by when you need them, and usually you need them fast.

alex