My strategy is:

1. Build a database list from the files in the mysql data directory.
2. For each database run the command:
        mysqldump --tab=$BackUpDir --lock-tables --quick --user=$User
--password=$Password --verbose $DB
    BackUpDir points to enough disk to hold the backups and DB is the
    BackUpDir points to enough disk to hold the backups and DB is the
particular database being backed up.

3. Flush the log files using the command:
        mysqladmin --user=$User --password=$Password flush-logs

Then dsmc is used to backup the BackUpDir and the log files.

Jim