Possible Solution to Drive Extender

Just because they saw an opportunity to throw "You can use our software in WHS" into a press release on a website doesn't mean their software is relevant or practical in a WHS scenario.
 
Hrm... saw this mentioned on mswhs.com yesterday but they pulled the article.

I'm looking forward to the review.
 
if it was any good, you'd think Microsoft would have bought the company and grafted it onto Windows Home Server codenamed "Fail"
 
No doubt. I'm sure it's pretty damn easy to make another drive extender version. I mean, if it was difficult it wouldn't have been dropped.
 
I think FlexRaid is a good alternative. You get the reduced storage overhead of raid vs DE and you can select individual folders to be raided if you want, completely expandable too.

I just put together a quickstart guide on my blog www.benwagner.net if anyone wants to test it out as an alternative. The author is super responsive to feedback and there is a helpful community.
 
Heh, as soon as MS kicked off DE new companies appeared trying to get rich off existing DE customer base :) Try Linux solutions, perhaps OpenSolaris as well.

Btw, FlexRaid is great for Windows. It has 20 HDD limit however. You may overcome it by setup two virtual machine each with 20 drives attached to it. Of course, they will have different OS installs and slightly more knowledge to handle them.
 
While all the above points are good ones I think I'll give them the oportunity to see what the do come up with. As of thier current software, No I would not use it in a Home Server enviorment, Mainly because of 2 reasons. First - It was designed for medium to large corporations and has many things that would not work in a Home Server enviorment. and Second - It is way to complicated for the home user and most will not give it a second look. HOWEVER, It does have some Very attractive possibilities. In my first glance at thier current software, I've seen several features that are what many are looking for. Namely Drive pooling with drives of any size, speed or brand. Not just a sigle pool, but multiple pools configured as you wish. The way I understand it so far, you sellect the drives you want to be used for shared storage, Then you create Virtual Pools from the shared pool of drives. For example: I commited (7) 1.5TB to shared storage, I then created (2) 5.25TB Virtual Pools. Drives can be added and removed from the shared storage as needed such as a Drive Failure, without and loss of data or interuption of the availbility of the data. Virtual pools can also be expanded or reduced without any interuption of availability. Also data protection, I'm not sure what type of protection is available as that is one of the things I need to dig a little deeper into.

In my E-Mail conversations with Carlos Carreras (Vice President of Alliances & Business Development) of Datacore Software. I feel that he may actually understand the situation MS left many of us in with the removal of DE. He is open to suggestions and is looking for input from the community. He said they are already monitoring some of the message forums and blogs and will soon begine to interact with the WHS/SBS Community. I therefor suggested that he come here to the [H] forums because I know that everyone here would be willing to give some suggestions.

I understand that there are others that feel there are other ways of doing the same thing using current available software, But the may not work for everyone. Such as any Linux solution may work great for some but not for others (Such as myself, I get completely Lost when it comes to Linux). Flexraid for me is to complicated, I've tried for weeks to get it running on Server 2008 and still can't get it working. HW Raid can't be used with many drives and the ones that can be used MUST be the same.

All I ask is that you give them the chance and see what the come up with.

Richard

PS: I will be doing some more testing and will report my finding both good and bad.
 
alexkuzko said:
Btw, FlexRaid is great for Windows. It has 20 HDD limit however. You may overcome it by setup two virtual machine each with 20 drives attached to it. Of course, they will have different OS installs and slightly more knowledge to handle them.
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Wrong. FlexRAID doesn't have a drive limit. unRAID however does have a 20-drive limit last I checked. Maybe you got the two confused.

FlexRAID realtime version due out soon (currently in beta)
 
Solarnet said:
In my E-Mail conversations with Carlos Carreras (Vice President of Alliances & Business Development) of Datacore Software. I feel that he may actually understand the situation MS left many of us in with the removal of DE. He is open to suggestions and is looking for input from the community. He said they are already monitoring some of the message forums and blogs and will soon begine to interact with the WHS/SBS Community. I therefor suggested that he come here to the [H] forums because I know that everyone here would be willing to give some suggestions.
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In other words they've got nothing. Which was pretty evident after five seconds of reading that fluff press release linked in the OP.
 
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Solarnet said:
All I ask is that you give them the chance and see what the come up with.

Richard

PS: I will be doing some more testing and will report my finding both good and bad.
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Out of curiosity why do you care so much about a company that makes SAN software with little relevance and no current offering in the home/enthusiast sector (which is most people on this forum), do you work for them? What exactly is it that people are supposed to be "giving them a chance" for? Your enthusiasm is a little peculiar if you're not an employee, no offense.
 
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odditory said:
In other words they've got nothing. Which was pretty evident after five seconds of reading that fluff press release linked in the OP.
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Actually, His comments lead me to beleive that it may be released within a week or two of WHS. He said preliminary work was complete and that the they just need to make sure nothing get broke because of final changes to the final code of WHS.

Richard
 
odditory said:
Out of curiosity why do you care so much about a company that makes SAN software with little relevance and no current offering in the home/enthusiast sector (which is most people on this forum), do you work for them? What exactly is it that people are supposed to be "giving them a chance" for? Your enthusiasm is a little peculiar if you're not an employee, no offense.
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No, I do not work with them or have any other association with them other that my current E-Mails with them. I guess I might be a little to excited, but I was also the same way when I found out about Unraid, Flexraid and also ZFS. After MS decided to pull the plug on DE, I went looking for alternatives, I found Unraid first and loved the Idea and the way it worked, But couldn't get past the HW limitations and Drive limitations. I would have to replace a raid card and mother board just to get it running. Then I would have to reduce my server Drive wise as I'm already running 24 drives in a Norco 4224 case. Moved on to Fleaxraid, Flexraid is also a great product, can do everything I'm looking for but the configuration is pretty dificult to get running properly. It took me almost 3 months to get it working and was afraid that if some thing went wrong I was in trouble. Move on to ZFS, Also very good, but I have alot of problems running any sort of Linux. Nothing wrong with it, But I just don't seem to have the knowledge or the will to learn. I've always run windows and am very comfortable with it. and at my age really don't feel like learning a new operating system. So I was doing some research for a Windows based Solution and come across Datacore. After doing some research on it, Felt that it was worth bringing up here to get others opinions and yes I am excited at what the possibilities could be, But as I said Above am taking a wait and see approach. I HOPE to see this as an alternative to DE for those of use that prefer a windows based solution. I am Also excited to see what comes of Flexraid Live. I beleive that this also could be a very good solution. The ONLY problem I have with flexraid is how difficult it is to configure.

I feel everone should be given a chance. Same way Unraid, Flexraid, and ZFS have been given a chance. I only bring up that this could also be a solution just like Unraid, Flexraid and ZFS are also. They get talked alot around here and felt it would be benificial to also bring up this possiblity also. Nothing wrong with that is there? I just want to see what the final product will be. And will pass final judgement when we can actually get to try it out.

My hope was that this would help spark conversation about what everyone is looking for and hopefully make all the above products mentioned above better, For ex. In my oppinion, Flexraid Live could be a very strong contender for me if it was easier to configure and get running. Unraid could also be a good contender if it was more compatible and did not have the drive limitation. ZFS is also a good pruduct but as I'm a windows person, It's just not for me.

Odditory, I no way take offence to your comments, I understand your concern and have the upmost respect for you and everyone else here, I have gained much from the fantastic people here and felt this as a opportunity to give back to the community. I just want to bring up another POSSIBLE alternative. Who knows Datacore could end up a complete wast of time and may not be what any of us are looking for, But it could be the other way around and be the solution that many have been looking for. I just feel that the possibility is there.

Richard
 
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