For our mySql and mssql backups we dump the databases an hour or so
prior to the start of the backup cycle. For mySql it's a bash script
launched by a cron job, for mssql it's a backup job scheduled through
EM. We generally keep about a weeks worth on the disk.

Our amanda server only backs up the sql dump directory. It's quicker and
easier for us to install a server and restore the data than to do a bare
bones recover.

LP