Functional equivalents to Microsoft HomeServer

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brycejones

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jan 29, 2002
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I've just started playing around with the Release Candidate for Windows HomeServer and was wondering if there any other solutions out there provided same ease of set-up and capabilities such as centralized back-up and restore.
 
pretty much any off the shelf NAS..... Quite a few routers..... Most Linux distro's..... Most BSD distro's.....

Nothing special about it, it's just MS attempt to make an old product new.
 
I'm not so sure, I've messed with Linux before as a home server, I haven't worked with anything yet though that was as simple out of the box and easy enough for my wife to use.

If someone has a specific Linux distro they would like to point out and package that provides for automated back-up and full restore capability from a server for desktops that is what I'm looking for.

But so far (I'm not generally a huge MS fan BTW) it is a pretty solid product.
 
duby229 said:
pretty much any off the shelf NAS..... Quite a few routers..... Most Linux distro's..... Most BSD distro's.....

Nothing special about it, it's just MS attempt to make an old product new.
Click to expand...

Really? Can you point me to a NAS, router or *nix distro that supports an unlimited number of drives, a JBOD-setup *with* redundancy for user-defined directories, automatic backups of my systems, the ability to run Windows applications that I don't need wasting CPU cycles on my main rig (utorrent, newsbin, etc.), and is setup with virtually no effort?

Because that's what I'm personally looking for in a home server setup. If you know something similar that would work for me, lemme know. I'd definiteley be interested, because I sure haven't found it.
 
Oooska said:
Really? Can you point me to a NAS, router or *nix distro that supports an unlimited number of drives, a JBOD-setup *with* redundancy for user-defined directories, automatic backups of my systems, the ability to run Windows applications that I don't need wasting CPU cycles on my main rig (utorrent, newsbin, etc.), and is setup with virtually no effort?

Because that's what I'm personally looking for in a home server setup. If you know something similar that would work for me, lemme know. I'd definiteley be interested, because I sure haven't found it.
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Don't forget boot from CD bare metal restore of a machine designed to be easy enough for your mom who can barely use email.
 
Please keep the normal objections to Microsoft out of this thread and provide objective responses that point to functionally equivalent software that delivers these requirements:

1. Automatic back-up of machines to central server.
2. Automatic addition of JBOD disks to storage pool with data redundancy.
3. Capability to restore a machine entirely from the central server by booting from a CD.
4. No need to touch a command line.
5. A unified file space.
 
nessus said:
http://www.pfsense.com/index.php?id=26

I'm somehow missing the data storage redundancy and workstation backup and restore features in the list. Is the product description incomplete in some way or am I missing a link to further features?
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That is just one example. First it has a web interface. Second it can run any unix program on the box through the web interface. Third it already has hundreds of plugins that can be installed with no more then three clicks of the mouse.....

There are others as well. Monowall works too. Most routers that you can buy at BB can be setup as a file server. Most of which supported scripting. Most NAS solutions can be setup as a file server that support scripting. Both will have web interfaces. Most linux distros can be setup top do what you want using a variety of interfaces such as Webmin among others. Most BSD distros would work too.

I linked to pfsense becouse it is preconfigured and can do pretty much everything you want straight off of the boot disk, and will boot on pretty much any PC. Pop the disk in and turn it on. Spend a few minutes setting up the NAS, set your backup points, and schedule. Plus the benefits of all the hundreds of other plugins that are freely available.
 
No, there's nothing else with all the features of WHS, nevermind being as easy to set up and use.
 
any old beater PC that can run a Linux can do most of what WHS does.... just not as easily obviously, but the upside is that Linux's hardware requirements are much lower, and it *is* free, with feature sets that will expand much faster in the future than MS could ever hope to match
 
pxc said:
No, there's nothing else with all the features of WHS, nevermind being as easy to set up and use.
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Well that is a blatant lie of the features front...As it has already been stated there is nothing special about windows home server and all said functionality you can get from ANY linux distribution.

Easy to setup... That is a relative term. I personally find the install and Setup a million times easier then any Windows install and more intelligent.

I am not saying to go use linux (it aint for all) and you may have to pull in some packages to meet all your needs (although ubutun-server editiion should be close)

HOWEVER... What is a bit odd is the OP want WHS but also talks abt a central server existing as well???


But anyway nothing like an NFS mount on local Linux-Home-Server to central server with rsync to keep backups. An LVM array or even software RAID will allow infinite expansion of disk. Can use any linux LiveCD to then pull an rsync image if OS and data back to drive in the case of a FUBAR. Command-line? possibly but everyone knows if you are doing alot of tasks alot of times really regually the command line >>>> GUI+mouse (although as stated there are web interfaces or GUI for virtually all admin progams... even SAMBA as a webinterface). The whole concept of Unified file space is odd dont know what you mean


So basically ANY linux distro can meet and exceed what WHS has to offer on alot lower specs and alot more flexable. I mean I have archlinux on a 500MHz machine acting as a NAS (SAMBA server), HTTP,SSH, FTP,Media-player (using MPS and myth) quite happily with <1Gig for the OS and 60meg of RAM used in idle. It also runs fanless


HOWEVER... linux as a server is a bit of a learning curve so it may not be best suited for those who don't want to learn, who cant learn, or those who don't have the time to learn. Saying that WHS is going to have a learning curve associated with it, like EVERY new PS product.
 
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