New Windows Home Server “Vail” Preview Build

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
The Windows Team Blog has announced a new Windows Home Server “Vail” preview build. Hit the link for all the information and the download link.

This new build has plenty of enhancements and improvements over the original build and can be downloaded from the downloads section of our connect site. If you are new to the beta, please go to http://connect.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver to sign up for the download. You can provide feedback about the new build through our Connect site and even log ideas or feature suggestions for future versions of Windows Home Server.
Click to expand...
 
WHS is one of the best products MS has ever released.

If I had a gripe, it would be that they clearly stopped development on the current one about a year ago. Hell, FP3 was never even finalized, and every FP after FP1 introduced bugs that were never fixed.

DeathPrincess said:
That is an odd name. I wonder how long people are going to take to change the V to an F.
Click to expand...
 
I know it is. But its like when you call your child something that rhymes with a bad word. It doesn't set them up for a happy life. They just need a better name. Like...Vin!!!
 
Home server....really goes to show how out of touch microsoft are with their home users... The ppl who are capable of setting up/using/know-what-its-for are already doing it with linux. Intel atom+ram+harddrive+cheapest chassis with a psu you can find+ubuntu server and your good to go, less than 200€. Runs 24/7 shares files over smb upnp/dlna ftp/http/ssh anything you need basically. Have one at work, last time I checked the uptime was 334 days. Got one at home too setup as media server sharing mp3's and movies on the local network.
 
I would disagree... Linux even ubuntu seems to always require some sort of command line tweaks to get things to run right. The ubuntu desktop can't even join a windows workgroup properly with out starting a text editor, finding the file etc etc etc... Sure you can download a proper app to configure SMB but it should be built in the OS...

Not very "home" user friendly.

I have friends that are familiar enough with windows and windows setting dialogs to be able to run a WHS server but config files and sudo etc are just to much for them.
 
conholster said:
Home server....really goes to show how out of touch microsoft are with their home users... The ppl who are capable of setting up/using/know-what-its-for are already doing it with linux. Intel atom+ram+harddrive+cheapest chassis with a psu you can find+ubuntu server and your good to go, less than 200€. Runs 24/7 shares files over smb upnp/dlna ftp/http/ssh anything you need basically. Have one at work, last time I checked the uptime was 334 days. Got one at home too setup as media server sharing mp3's and movies on the local network.
Click to expand...

There is a pretty large following for whs due to the fact people grimace when they hear linux. I am not going to quote a bunch of uptime with my whs but I haven't touched it in over 2 years. Go see how many people have bought the pre-maid HP boxes or are doing what I did and used one of their free garaged pc's to just serve files/music/movies to their whole house.
 
conholster said:
Home server....really goes to show how out of touch microsoft are with their home users... The ppl who are capable of setting up/using/know-what-its-for are already doing it with linux. Intel atom+ram+harddrive+cheapest chassis with a psu you can find+ubuntu server and your good to go, less than 200€. Runs 24/7 shares files over smb upnp/dlna ftp/http/ssh anything you need basically. Have one at work, last time I checked the uptime was 334 days. Got one at home too setup as media server sharing mp3's and movies on the local network.
Click to expand...

Begging your pardon but it seems like you're the one out of touch with the world outside of the [H]. [H] users and techies aren't the only people in the world that uses computers.
 
You are actually comparing setup/operation ease of WHS with Linux? C'mon man LOL



conholster said:
Home server....really goes to show how out of touch microsoft are with their home users... The ppl who are capable of setting up/using/know-what-its-for are already doing it with linux. Intel atom+ram+harddrive+cheapest chassis with a psu you can find+ubuntu server and your good to go, less than 200€. Runs 24/7 shares files over smb upnp/dlna ftp/http/ssh anything you need basically. Have one at work, last time I checked the uptime was 334 days. Got one at home too setup as media server sharing mp3's and movies on the local network.
Click to expand...
 
Same here. With the exception of when I upgraded the drives (made incredibly easy with WHS - Well, as long as it's not the boot drive :)), mine has been sitting in a bedroom closet running 24/7 with zero maintenance. This has been since the product was available in OEM format so that's what, 2-3 years?

Kenworth said:
There is a pretty large following for whs due to the fact people grimace when they hear linux. I am not going to quote a bunch of uptime with my whs but I haven't touched it in over 2 years. Go see how many people have bought the pre-maid HP boxes or are doing what I did and used one of their free garaged pc's to just serve files/music/movies to their whole house.
Click to expand...
 
conholster said:
Home server....really goes to show how out of touch microsoft are with their home users... The ppl who are capable of setting up/using/know-what-its-for are already doing it with linux. Intel atom+ram+harddrive+cheapest chassis with a psu you can find+ubuntu server and your good to go, less than 200€. Runs 24/7 shares files over smb upnp/dlna ftp/http/ssh anything you need basically. Have one at work, last time I checked the uptime was 334 days. Got one at home too setup as media server sharing mp3's and movies on the local network.
Click to expand...

LOL wut?

You are so far out of touch with what the consumer market for a home server is it isn't even funny. The packaged systems from asus and especially HP are so user friendly its sick. Just plug and click and you are done.
 
dandirk said:
Not very "home" user friendly.
Click to expand...

That was my point, why does average joe need a home server? MS reps seem to think its going great fun for everyone with another one of their half-assed solutions. And make no mistake Windows home server will marketed at non-techie families. Thats what the MS reps said.

I work in tech support dont tell me im out of touch with home users. But I may soon be as I'm on verge of quitting. Not because my clients dont know facebook from the controlpanel but because I'm so incredibly tired of the stupid products IT companies like MS keep releasing. When is there going a warranty on software???
 
bacon said:
LOL wut?

You are so far out of touch with what the consumer market for a home server is it isn't even funny. The packaged systems from asus and especially HP are so user friendly its sick. Just plug and click and you are done.
Click to expand...

Yea...right. I've seen proffesional CAD users who didnt know how to change the background color of autocad. And that was after having used the software for several years. And youre trying to tell me the same ppl are just going plug in an hp or asus server. LOL wut?
 
conholster said:
Home server....really goes to show how out of touch microsoft are with their home users... The ppl who are capable of setting up/using/know-what-its-for are already doing it with linux. Intel atom+ram+harddrive+cheapest chassis with a psu you can find+ubuntu server and your good to go, less than 200€. Runs 24/7 shares files over smb upnp/dlna ftp/http/ssh anything you need basically. Have one at work, last time I checked the uptime was 334 days. Got one at home too setup as media server sharing mp3's and movies on the local network.
Click to expand...


And you have something that is basically half of what WHS is. I love the media streaming and basic file services, but it's the remote access and powerful backup/recovery system that makes it worth while. If I just wanted to stream media and share files a simple NAS would do the job.

As for cost, you could build your own with the same hardware you listed and WHS for $100 more. The extra features make it worth the cost. You can also just buy a prebuilt OEM system with WHS installed starting at $299 from newegg.

WHS is an excellent product, and extremely easy to set up and use for the average user while being flexible enough to do more sophisticated work. It's also extremely reliable. Once set up, they are truly machines you don't worry about. The only time I've had to worry about the server not being up in the 2 years I've had mine was after a 4 day power failure in my neighborhood. Of course, I don't know any linux box that can stay up without power for 4 days. :p

I have to say though, touting 300+ day uptime is cool for bragging rights and all, but, I also feel it's a statistic that is mostly meaningless for the home. The simple fact is, the OS only comes down when I tell it to. I have never had it unexpectedly error and crash, or require an out of cycle reboot. The machine is only restarted when I am actively playing around with new services and need to restart or when automatic update restarts.

I am running one of the original HP home servers that I upgraded to 2GB of RAM, and It just works. I have a home built server as well that is running Vail. It's been solid for the past 2 months since I set it up. I'm planning to retire or sell my existing server once Vail is released. I've had such a good experience with Vail, the only reason it's not my primary server for back ups and data is because We are still a couple builds away from release. Even still, It's now my primary remote access, web server, media machine (replicated from my live server).
 
conholster said:
That was my point, why does average joe need a home server? MS reps seem to think its going great fun for everyone with another one of their half-assed solutions. And make no mistake Windows home server will marketed at non-techie families. Thats what the MS reps said.

I work in tech support dont tell me im out of touch with home users. But I may soon be as I'm on verge of quitting. Not because my clients dont know facebook from the controlpanel but because I'm so incredibly tired of the stupid products IT companies like MS keep releasing. When is there going a warranty on software???
Click to expand...

You're point is that they don't need one, and that they should learn to mix linux and windows on their network if they do...that makes no sense.

Linux is a great option, but for the average joe, setting up WHS, expanding it, and setting up all users on the network to automatically be backed up to it, is a breeze.
 
Hop-Scotch said:
You're point is that they don't need one, and that they should learn to mix linux and windows on their network if they do...that makes no sense.

Linux is a great option, but for the average joe, setting up WHS, expanding it, and setting up all users on the network to automatically be backed up to it, is a breeze.
Click to expand...

No my point was they don't need one, period. And the ones that do, have been doing it way before windows home server.

There's no real market for home servers. Time spent on WHS should instead have been invested in optimizing windows 7 for nettops.
 
conholster said:
No my point was they don't need one, period. And the ones that do, have been doing it way before windows home server.

There's no real market for home servers. Time spent on WHS should instead have been invested in optimizing windows 7 for nettops.
Click to expand...

Hmm you are behind times.

Various Asrock models
Acer Revo
Asus EeeBox PC
Dell Zino HD

And so on.. they all run Windows 7 just fine. What's wrong with going further and provide user-friendly home servers to people who wants it? Remember when smartphones and laptops were niches?
 
WHS is just easy.. I have had mine up and running for about 1 year now. I use it for back up and to Stream my blu-rays around the home. I have a remote account setup for my grandma , so she can login and download picture of my son. I dont see my grandma remoting into my linux box and downloading pictures lol All my stuff in the house see's it NP and can stream from it NP. That includes my Samsung tv, ps3, WD tv live, Xbox. It's reliable and it just works. Can't wait for the new one. My box is a little over powered lol i5, 4 gigs of ram and 10 terabyte's of storage.
 
this seems interesting. However, I already have a FREENAS set-up going strong, so I think I'll pass. It's been flawless and gets about 50 MB/s average on large files on a raid 5 configuration.
 
conholster said:
No my point was they don't need one, period. And the ones that do, have been doing it way before windows home server.

There's no real market for home servers. Time spent on WHS should instead have been invested in optimizing windows 7 for nettops.
Click to expand...

So just you need one and it should be linux based? So if I never found out about whs I wouldn't need it, I would just have to run around with thumb drives in my house or leaving on a dedicated box manipulated from windows and add on programs for backup, streaming, drive management? I have built 3 for friends and family out of Fry's specials and know a couple others who bought a pre-made from HP. It basically brings all their devices closer and it took them less than an hour to get it up and running. Fact is anybody with more than one computer and an xbox or ps3 can get this running and leave it to its devices for a long time down the road.
 
El Barto said:
this seems interesting. However, I already have a FREENAS set-up going strong, so I think I'll pass. It's been flawless and gets about 50 MB/s average on large files on a raid 5 configuration.
Click to expand...

is that write or read throughput?
 
conholster said:
No my point was they don't need one, period. And the ones that do, have been doing it way before windows home server.

There's no real market for home servers. Time spent on WHS should instead have been invested in optimizing windows 7 for nettops.
Click to expand...

If peopel only got things they needed, the tech industry would have died a long, long, time ago. No one Needs 60" TV's, Satellite Radio, GPS units, or anything more than a budget PC with integrated graphics, yet, there is a market for all of these. With the right kind of advertising, there could be a much larger market as well. There are plenty of households with multiple computers these days and a central storage and backup system like WHS would be a good thing to have.

There is also, so it seems, enough of a market for WHS that mainstream OEMs have been making them for a couple of years and updating them. First just HP, now Acer, Asus, VIA, Lenovo, tranquil PC, and others have started making them.
 
So, if this is just a "Beta Preview", it means we still need to see the real Betas and RCs, and RTM is likely to be some time in 2011. :(
 
Hop-Scotch said:
That seems slow for a single drive, let alone a raid setup.
Click to expand...

Well, it's much faster than a USB 2.0 attached external hard drive that I had previously.that was a blazing 6 MB/s. Hopefully we'll see inexpensvie USB 3.0 external hard drives in the near future.
 
WHS throughput is a lot less than 50 MB/S
see the following link http://blogs.msdn.com/b/matt_pietrek/archive/2007/01/26/windows-home-server-day-4.aspx

"To test out the I/O throughput, I copied ~100GB of video from my Vista box to the WHS machine. Sustained throughput was around 22 MB/second. Both machines have GB LAN cards and SATA II disks. Watching the network throughput in Task Manager, the data transfer was bursty in roughly minute intervals, alternating between moments of 50% net utilization and 15% utilization."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top