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New Server: WHS 2011 or Server 2012 Essentials?

N

nite0

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
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Planning on building a new server, not sure which of the 2 server OSes to use: WHS 2011 or Server 2012 Essentials. I have a MediaSmart Server running WHS v1 for ~3 years now and will be building a whole new setup to replace it. Planning on installing 6x2TB HDDs for storage and another OS drive (probably ~250gb). Server is mainly used to serve media files to client computers (through My Movies for Windows Media Center) and general file storage. 'Bare metal' backup/restore functionality is a must as well but from what I can tell this works fine on both (and has served me well in WHSv1).

Any suggestions? I'm plenty capable of administrating a server but is Server 2012 much more complicated than WHS 2011? Don't want to dump a bunch of time into a system that doesn't need much exotic functionality.
 
I guess it would depend on your Drive Pooling approach. I am sticking to WHS 2011 for the time being until the pooling add-ins are upgraded to Server 2012 Essentials. Also, there's a $350 price differential.
 
Good point - not a huge fan of the simplistic 'duplication' system that WHSv1 uses (not the mention the space requirements) so I was hoping to use a parity system. Was planing on giving FlexRAID a try in either WHS 2011 or Server 2012.

My understanding is that if I wanted to replicate the WHSv1 system I could use DrivePool/Drive Bender in WHS 2011 or use the 'Spaces' system in Server 2012?

Not worried about price as I have a TechNet subscription.
 
FlexRAID is great from what I hear as far as parity systems go. I personally use StableBit DrivePool and it's very similar to DriveExtender, except it doesn't suck. It is generations better that DE ever was, the only problem with it really is that he has yet to port it over to Server 2012 Essentials, although that is planned.

Storage Spaces is garbage, don't even bother.
 
Got it - so leaning towards a Server 2012 Essentials/FlexRAID system for now (since FlexRAID is free to try at least).
 
I use WHS2011 and Stablebit Drivepool to create my large storage pool. It works great, nice that you have low price access to Server 2012 Es. but no good news out for Storage Spaces.

As Philmatic indicated, Drivepool is planned for Server 2012.
 
Essentials is the new SBS (Small Business Server). Overall it is AWESOME as it is a mix of some cool things from WHS (client backups, console for non-Pro clients, etc.), some of the SBS goodness (easy domain setup, etc.), and some new 2012 tricks (easy integration with Office 365 being one of them). This also makes it a bit more of a heavy hitter than WHS and not just focused on storage.

Bare in mind in the past it was:
WHS -> SBS -> Server Standard

Hence the big price difference.
 
Another downvote for Storage Spaces. I tried to break it in Windows 8 RTM. Within ten minutes, the OS was reporting results that didn't match the documentation. The parity modes also have terribly slow write performance.

You can pick up last-gen RAID-5/6 controllers for under $150. That's what I'd do.
 
Installed Server 2012 and FlexRAID. Will be testing over the next week or so as I transition it in as my main server.
 
Grentz said:
Essentials is the new SBS (Small Business Server). Overall it is AWESOME as it is a mix of some cool things from WHS (client backups, console for non-Pro clients, etc.), some of the SBS goodness (easy domain setup, etc.), and some new 2012 tricks (easy integration with Office 365 being one of them). This also makes it a bit more of a heavy hitter than WHS and not just focused on storage.

Bare in mind in the past it was:
WHS -> SBS -> Server Standard

Hence the big price difference.
Click to expand...

How is 2012 Standard for home use compared to essentials? My MSDN only gives me standard and I'm also looking at upgrading from WHSv1. I did just purchase a domain for personal use, though it won't be doing much other than remote utorrent, ftp, subsonic, and I may try MyMovies again.
 
Standard is far more complicated to setup than essentials, also... with standard and data center, CAL's are a necessary commodity.

In a perfect world, there would be a whs add on pack for windows 8.....I'd pay 150 dollars for that on top of the windows license.
 
Thought I'd report back - Server 2012 Essentials + FlexRAID is rock solid so far. Some minor quirks while I figured out how FlexRAID worked at first but Server 2012 was incredibly easy to set up. I just made to sure to bypass domain setup.
 
nite0 said:
Thought I'd report back - Server 2012 Essentials + FlexRAID is rock solid so far. Some minor quirks while I figured out how FlexRAID worked at first but Server 2012 was incredibly easy to set up. I just made to sure to bypass domain setup.
Click to expand...

Might I ask why you bypassed the domain setup? I'm in the same boat, looking to build a media server with flexraid. Clients are all windows 7 computers. Through Dreamspark I have access to Server 2012 Essentials, Standard, and Data Center. Any thoughts?
 
My understanding of a Windows domain system is that it moves all of your user profiles from the individual machines to the server itself (as a result, as user profile can be accessed from any machines). It's useful for an enterprise/corporate setup where you want to be able to login from any machine but I had no use for it at home since 1. my user accounts on each machine are already setup and 2. ALL of my machines go down if the server crashes.

I just wanted a machine to serve media files to client computers and automatically back them up. For home use, you would definitely want to go with Essentials as I believe this is the only version that integrated some aspects of Windows Home Server and is somewhat tailored for such use.
 
bypass domain setup on the Server, or during connector installation? I have seen the bypass for connector install and was going to test with it.

I'm in the process of setting up a new lower power server as my previous one was using 300W idle (dell precision 690 I got for free) 24/7 which meant about $21/mo to just sit there when not in use, god knows how high up when actually in use or trans-coding a stream lol. This one so far (celeron 3.33GHz, biostar g41 boar, 8GB, 5x3TB storage drives in external eSATA box) is sitting about 70W Idle.

let us know what you came up with for configs and testing so far :)
 
Wow - 300W idle! That's a ton of power.

Bypass domain setup for the connector install, it should work no problem. My setup has been running great for ~3 months now.
 
Only issue I ran in to so far has been possibly with the Celeron in it, when I first boot the cpu is pegged at 100% for about 15 minutes. I'll try to get the services doing it in a bit.

I have a e8400 that I might try to see if it helps out.
 
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