In order to back up DSpace to DuraCloud:

Determine the version of DSpace that you are running

Tim -- is there a quick and easy way to determine this?

For DSpace 1.8.0+

For users running DSpace 1.8.0, the "Replication Task Suite" add-on is available and provides the ability to perform backups and restores easily via the DSpace Administrative User Interface of DSpace. For further information regarding how to download and install the add-on, please visit the Replication Task Suite documentation. Also, the following screencast details the Replication Task Suite add-on and how to begin using it with DSpace 1.8.0+

For DSpace 1.7.0-1.7.2

For users running DSpace 1.7.0-1.7.2, you have the ability to use the "AIP Backup and Restore" tools to backup DSpace to a set of AIPs (Archival Information Packages). This has the added advantage of letting you backup or restore just individual items. Please note that the AIP backup and restore tools is a command line tool that generates AIP packages locally and then these packages can be transferred to DuraCloud via the DuraCloud synchronization or upload tools. For further information regarding how to use the AIP backup and restore tools, please visit the documentation.

For DSpace 1.0.x - 1.6.x

For users of DSpace versions 1.0.x through 1.6.x, performing backups involves the entire database (at once) along with the entire set of files. So, DuraCloud could still be useful to get an offsite backup of your content, but that content can only ever be restored in its entirety (e.g. there is no way to easily restore a single Item). These backups can only be performed via the command line, and you'd have to use DuraCloud sync tools to get the files into DuraCloud