Make sure you allow enough time for the backup  to run. If you are running the
command line version it will return quickly but the backup will really continue
to run  in the background until it completes...

Thanks for the quick response. So it should run  the same as if SQL and
SPS are on the same box? I don't know what is happening but I still only
get 2 files. I'll try it again and see what happens. Thanks.

Yes it should run  the same either way. One possible difference might be in the
user you run it as. Are you using a local or domain account to run the command?

I didn't specify an account anywhere. I'm running this batch file:

@echo off
echo =================================================
echo backup  sites on the SharePoint Portal 2003 Server
echo =================================================
d:
cd \Program Files\SharePoint Portal Server\Bin
@echo off
spsbackup.exe /all /file d:\spsv2backups\sunday /overwrite
echo completed

Is this not correct?

In that case it is running with the user's credentials that you are logged in
as. Are you logged in under a domain account with admin rights on SPS?

I don't understand what is happening here. I have 2 scenarios:

1. SQL and SPS on the same box. When I go into the backup  interface, I'm
able to browse the local hard drive (not root drive), select the SITEDBS
and INDEX to backup and it runs with no problem.

2. SQL on one box and SPS on one box. I cannot browse my local hard
drive, it tells me "Local paths or mapped drives are not allowed in a
farm, UNC notation is required". So I put in
\\servername\foldername\filename and I get a "Unable to write to
directory \\servername\foldername". I verified that everyone has full
control on this folder and it's also shared out.

The user interface does not work at all but when I run  the batch file, I
still only get the 2 files. I'm missing the PROF, SERV and SITE backup
files.

Here's what should be a full list of the rights needed for a farm backup:

· The account for the Microsoft Windows NT® service corresponding to the
SQL server  instance must have write access to the directory if you want to
create a backup; the account needs read access if you want to restore  a backup.

· The search service and the account that the Microsoft SharePoint
Portal Server Search service runs under must have write access to the directory.

· The current user must have write access to the directory.

· The user is a member of the Local Administrators group on the
(optional) backward-compatible document library server.

· The user is a member of the backup  Operators group on the content
index servers.

· The user is a member of the SQL Server 2000 System Administrator’s
role if you want to restore a backup. For a backup, it is required that the user
account has write access to the configuration database  and backup permission on
the particular databases that are being backed up.

But why is it not accepting neither the
local path or the UNC?

The local path is not supposed to work in a farm. Have you made sure that the
SQL account on the SQL machine can access the share?