I would like to do backups of some files on my server.
All backups will be local.

The problem is, when copying large amounts of files, eg 2gb.
same with gzip...

It lags up the server quite a bit... I think it puts the load average up to about 6.00

Is there any way of slowing it down so it doesn't lag up the server as much?

Anytime you are copying large amounts of files or file sizes it will put a load on the server. It works pretty hard...

I would suggest using incremental copying...only copying the files that have changed rather than the entire file list everytime.

both tar and cp have -u which is "update". Check "man tar" for more information. You might also look at using rsync it is powerful and also does incremental.

Good luck

Also, check the nice command (man nice) it'll stop intensive processes from sucking up all the CPU cycles.

Blacks