>> Try TIBBackupService component (from InterBase Admin page)
>
> Thanks Ivan
>
>
> Hey, I made a little utility in D7 to accomplish this, using the
> suggested component, and it works ok.
>
> However, I stumbled upon
>
> http://www.destructor.de/firebird/gbak.htm
>
> which states that I can use gbak with the -se dbserver:service_mgr
> option to accomplish the same thing. However, I can't make this work.
> I substitute "dbserver" with "localhost" and come up with a command
> string like this:
>
> gbak -v -t -user sysdba -password bubbles -se localhost:service_mgr
> "C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_0\security2.fdb"
> "C:\firebird_bk\Security2.fbk"
>
>
> This always gives me the error: I/O error for file "C:\Program"

It is bug in gbak. As you noted the Services API itself works o.k.
(using Delphi components).
A workaround could also be using short names (c:\Progra~1\Firebi~1\...)

Ivan