Where is mail stored? etc...

I got a few quick questions...
I want to make backups of all the email on our server (we use IMAP accounts)... Where are the files stored?
Also, any suggestions on a good offsite backup program? I want to have a drive at home that automatically backs up the server at work every night... I could backup the whole server once when I'm at work... after that, when the drive is at home, it only backs up files that have been changed... since i am remotely backing up, i should back up incrementally like that right?
Thanks,
Chris

Hi:
No doubt others will give their opnions on what and how to back up as well as what to use.
Briefly Mail is stored in either an outgoing queue awaiting transfer to a remote server or in a local mail store accessible by local mail users. Outgoing mail messages are stored, by default, in the following spool directory on the startup disk: /var/spool/postfix. This location is temporary and the mail is stored until its transferred out. These locations can be moved to any accessible volume, either local or NFS mounted and symlinked to by the mail administrator. The Mail Service keeps track of incoming mail messages with a database, but the database doesn’t contain the messages themselves; the Mail Service stores each message as a separate file in a mail folder for each user. Incoming mail is stored on the startup disk in the following directory: /var/spool/imap/user/whatever the user name is. Cyrus puts a database index file in the folder of user messages. You can change the location of any or all of the mail folders and database indexes to another folder, disk, or disk partition. You can even specify a shared volume on another server as the location of the mail folder and database. Be careful if you decide to use a shared volume as things can slow down a bit. You should not use NFS for remotely mounted filesystems. Incoming mail remains on the server until its deleted.
You could also enable IMAP for all users that have their accounts enabled for mail. This way all mail is kept on the server until its deleted by the administrator or by the users, if you decide to go for this option as well then /var/imap is the database and /var/spool/imap is the mail store.
As for backup it depends on what you want to spend. Retrospect is a cheap solution that will do the incremental backup that you seem to want. Its been around for a long time and for most people its the first thing they turn to especially on the Mac platform. However its not perfect its slightly limited in its functions and there are problems with it running on the Intel platform, specifically Xserves. It can be ran remotely and supports a variety of devices. There are numerous others which others I’m sure will mention.

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Jan 14 06:47:18 server.local postfix/pipe[37427]: 58FCDC7B83C: to=<[email protected]>, orig_to=<johndoe>, relay=dovecot, delay=0.03, delays=0/0/0/0.03, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via dovecot service)
Jan 14 06:47:18 server.local postfix/qmgr[2788]: 58FCDC7B83C: removed
Jan 14 06:49:08 server.local postfix/pickup[37160]: 74726C7B846: uid=501 from=<johndoe>
Jan 14 06:49:08 server.local postfix/cleanup[37460]: 74726C7B846: message-id=<[email protected]>
Jan 14 06:49:08 server.local postfix/qmgr[2788]: 74726C7B846: from=<[email protected]>, size=604, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jan 14 06:49:08 server.local postfix/pipe[37463]: 74726C7B846: to=<[email protected]>, orig_to=<johndoe>, relay=dovecot, delay=0.2, delays=0.02/0.01/0/0.17, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via dovecot service)
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Jan 14 06:49:09 server.local postfix/pickup[37160]: C1FA6C7B84B: uid=501 from=<johndoe>
Jan 14 06:49:09 server.local postfix/cleanup[37460]: C1FA6C7B84B: message-id=<[email protected]>
Jan 14 06:49:09 server.local postfix/qmgr[2788]: C1FA6C7B84B: from=<[email protected]>, size=606, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jan 14 06:49:09 server.local postfix/pipe[37463]: C1FA6C7B84B: to=<[email protected]>, orig_to=<johndoe>, relay=dovecot, delay=0.06, delays=0.02/0/0/0.04, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via dovecot service)
Jan 14 06:49:09 server.local postfix/qmgr[2788]: C1FA6C7B84B: removed
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Jan 14 06:49:36 server.local postfix/cleanup[37460]: 9E9E7C7B850: message-id=<[email protected]>
Jan 14 06:49:36 server.local postfix/qmgr[2788]: 9E9E7C7B850: from=<[email protected]>, size=605, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jan 14 06:49:36 server.local postfix/pipe[37463]: 9E9E7C7B850: to=<[email protected]>, orig_to=<johndoe>, relay=dovecot, delay=0.03, delays=0/0/0/0.03, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via dovecot service)
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Jan 14 06:53:10 server.local dovecot-lda[37564]: lda(pid 37564 user johndoe): msgid=<[email protected]>: saved mail to INBOX
Jan 14 06:53:14 server.local dovecot-lda[37572]: lda(pid 37572 user johndoe): msgid=<[email protected]>: saved mail to INBOX
Jan 14 06:53:23 server.local dovecot-lda[37581]: lda(pid 37581 user johndoe): msgid=<[email protected]>: saved mail to INBOX
Jan 14 06:55:10 server.local dovecot-lda[37606]: lda(pid 37606 user johndoe): msgid=<[email protected]>: saved mail to INBOX
Jan 14 06:55:11 server.local dovecot-lda[37610]: lda(pid 37610 user johndoe): msgid=<[email protected]>: saved mail to INBOX
Jan 14 06:55:19 server.local dovecot-lda[37617]: lda(pid 37617 user johndoe): msgid=<[email protected]>: saved mail to INBOX

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