Sharepoint 2007 Backup, Restore, Migration

The built in Sharepoint Backup and restore tool essentially backs up everything(including indexes, but not sure about Custom Solutions, Alternate Mappings, IISMetabase). I was not able to test this one, but will do it sometime soon.

In order to have a fail proof recovery plan, one might follow these steps:

• Backup the whole farm using the built in backup tool (either through central admin/ stsadm)

Command: stsadm.exe -o backup
-directory \\backupfolder\ -backupmethod full

• Back up all the databases(content and configuration using sql server tools)
• Backup the web front end servers(IIS Metabase, Hive, Inetpub, IIS logs etc.)

In case of disaster, you could use stsadm/central admin to restore the complete farm. Also, you can create the Web Application, restore the content databases and intall the custom solutions. You should create a new configuration database and if needed you can also restore the old one. Now this method will not restore the indexes or any settings in the central admin(Alternate mappings, search scopes, bdc and others) .You will end up creating the scopes and reindexing again.
If you want to migrate from one farm to another, check this article: http://blogs.msdn.com/priyo/archive/2006/09/15/755490.aspx