The following is an exemplary command of how to archive your system.
tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz --exclude=/backup.tar.gz --one-file-system /etc
back.sh (backup with timestamp) – add to cron (sh /back.sh)
#!/bin/bash DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S) BACKUP_DIR="/backup" SOURCE="/etc" tar -cvzpf $BACKUP_DIR/backup-$DATE.tar.gz $SOURCE