U can take backup  using sharepoint Backup and Restore Tool

I tried that, but I could not get the batch file to create the files that get
created when I do it manually.

Stsadm.exe is a command line tool that includes backup/restore - I've used
it to migrate sites from one box to another - I'm counting on it for
catastrophic recovery.

There are several ways to back up/restore/migrate SharePoint Portal
2003 (we will talk about WSS in a minute). First, if you want to
backup the WHOLE portal  there is only one way: spsbackup. I have it
running from a batch file nightly and it's working fine.
You also need to backup  the database fully. That's the key to the
whole thing. Use SQL management tools to schedule  that process.
Backup all 4 databases  (prof,serv,site, and config).
Now if you want to backup individual sites (WSS sites) then use the
stsadmin tool. I wrote a batch file that enumerates the sites (using
stsadmin) and then backup each site individually. That's a good
option if you are using WSS only.
Now the restore  is a bit tricky. If you are restoring or migrating
the whole site, you need to rebuild or build an installation of
SharePoint Portal or load Windows 2003 with WSS if that's the way you
are going. This will create your databases for you so all the restore
tool does is populate the data. Do your restores using the tools and
everything should be OK. You might need to go into the admin screen
and point to the correct app pool as well.
Let's say you backup your WSS sites nightly and you want to roll back
to a previous version. That's pretty simple. Just pick the correct
backup file and use the stsadmin tool to restore it.
If you have any questions, please hop over to my web site and post
it. One of my guys will have the answers for you.

I can get the script to work, but it does not create all the same files that the
manual process does. Could you post a copy of your script?

There are several ways to back up/restore/migrate SharePoint Portal
2003 (we will talk about WSS in a minute). First, if you want to
backup the WHOLE portal  there is only one way: spsbackup. I have it
running from a batch file nightly and it's working fine.
You also need to backup  the database fully. That's the key to the
whole thing. Use SQL management tools to schedule  that process.
Backup all 4 databases  (prof,serv,site, and config).
Now if you want to backup individual sites (WSS sites) then use the
stsadmin tool. I wrote a batch file that enumerates the sites (using
stsadmin) and then backup each site individually. That's a good
option if you are using WSS only.
Now the restore  is a bit tricky. If you are restoring or migrating
the whole site, you need to rebuild or build an installation of
SharePoint Portal or load Windows 2003 with WSS if that's the way you
are going. This will create your databases for you so all the restore
tool does is populate the data. Do your restores using the tools and
everything should be OK. You might need to go into the admin screen
and point to the correct app pool as well.
Let's say you backup your WSS sites nightly and you want to roll back
to a previous version. That's pretty simple. Just pick the correct
backup file and use the stsadmin tool to restore it.
If you have any questions, please hop over to my web site and post
it. One of my guys will have the answers for you.

spsbackup nightly - are you launching via scheduler and script, or
how do you automate this?

I just have a batch file that runs spsbackup from the command line
then copies the files to a network drive. I schedule  this batch file
to run nightly using the task scheduler in Win 2003. Here is the
batch file code:
del d:\backups\*.* /q
del z:*.* /q
set x=%date%
set y=%x:~4%
set z=%y:/=%
C:\"Program Files"\"SharePoint Portal
Server"\Bin\spsbackup /all /file d:\backups\sps_jbosc-ps1-pilot_%z%
copy d:\backups\*.* z:
The first 2 lines just delete the old backup  files. The next 3 lines
set some variables to name the files by the current date. Next, it
runs spsbackup and finally, it copies the files to a network drive. I
also have Nero scheduled to back them up to CD on another machine
(pulls them off the network drive).

I tried this, but my results are not coming out correctly.

I am selecting all, and it has failed everytime:

<BackupStatus>FAILED - Error encountered during operation</BackupStatus>

Will this work on a farm? I have all components on seperate boxes....