Question : confused about backing up the OS

I am told that it does no good to backup the OS because the files are open and they will not get backed up well enough to have something to restore ( bare metal ).

I see we are backing up the OS 30 times a month.  

This is a linux envirment.

How does this work in windows,  HOw does it work in linux / Unix ?

Answer : confused about backing up the OS

In Linux, you will get an error if you cannot access the file.  For the OS you should be fine doing live backup, some applications using database like mysql require special backup procedures.

In Windows, you normally use the System State option to backup the live OS files using Microsoft VSS (Volume Shadow Services) which keeps a current snapshot of open files.