First, you should read this entry from the Supervisor FAQ on How to Move your Repository.
As for “how” to copy the repository and how to take a backup copy – you should talk to your DBA about how to do that. You can do a search to find where people have references to repository documentation – so you can then figure out what tables are part of each domain (security, document, universe).
I’ll let other folks chime in with suggestions for some of your other questions.
Anita Craig 
(BOB member since 2002-06-17)