Some n00b Win Home Server questions

[Undercover_Man]

Hello. I am still planning my WHS server. It will mainly backup and store things. I want it to make complete 100% backups of all my hard drives in my system as well as the other computers/laptops in the house and also have a nice storage size for everyone.

That's my objective.

Here are questions.

I was wondering if the OS should be on a separate hard drive than the backups/storage drives.

I was told about the duplication feature. I can duplicate files to a different hard rives in case a hard drive dies. Can I set it so it backs up everything? The backups as well as the storage? I was told I can't do a RAID 1 in a WHS server. I'm just concerned in the event a server hard drive fails. What can be done to protect the server hard rives?

I'm assuming I don't need a separate hard drive for each backup. How do the backups show up on the hard drive? Like one big huge file or each and every file in it's own folder? Like Computer 1 backup folder>Entire contents of backed-up hard drive?

Should I keep back ups and storage on separate hard drives?

When backups are scheduled, does it back up the entire hard drive or just modified/new files? I'm assuming the latter applies.

How often would you back up? Daily? Weekly? Or does it continuously monitor hard drives for changes and back up that way?

Besides backing up the hard drives around the house and providing storage for everyone, what other use can a server like this do? I know just basic storage/backup take minimal hardware specs, but if one were to amp up the specs some, what else can a server do if given the additional specs?

I might be moving back to Orlando for a bit, should I leave the server at home where no one really knows how to provide any maintenance or operations but where all the computers are (besides mine of course), or can I take it with me and still provide backups and storage to the home computers as well as mine that I take with me?

I tried doing research and stuff and they did answer a ton of n00b questions, but these were some that weren't answered. I just wanted you guys to know thadid do research instead of coming here first with n00b questions.

THANX

 

[mattjw916]

Generally speaking when they are available it is better to store the data on separate physical drives than the OS.

A typical drive layout would be a pair of drives in RAID 1 for the OS, with a group of drives in RAID 5 for the data. This is the (a) traditional method. To do that you would need a minimum of 5 drives ideally the same size and geometry within each array.

I really don't play around with "home" servers or equipment so I don't know what their limitations are. Most decent motherboards have integrated RAID controllers that can support this in hardware. Keep in mind hardware RAID >> software RAID which means the controller is doing all the calculations and housekeeping without involving the host OS. The OS just sees the arrays as one big logical block of storage.

The are a ton of different methods of backups as well. Again, a common way to accomplish effective backups is to do a "full" once a week with "incrementals" on a daily basis. If you needed to restore you would have to restore the full and then every subsequent incremental that was run since the full was completed. Alternatively you could do a full and "differentials" every night which make restore operations less complicated since you just need to restore the full and the latest differential. The way a backup utility knows which files have changed since the last backup is through the "archive bit" being set on a file.

That should get you started at least with some basic terminology...

 

[lgestle]

I purchased a HP ex470 about a year ago. As you heard Raid is not an option within the OS, but you can specify folder duplication for specified folders (you must select it). OS is not one of them.

I recall hearing that the user data will be kept off of the system hard drive (if other drives are installed) and only used if all available storage is used on other drives. Personally I would get a small primary drive, and large WD Green drives for data.

Backups I believe are diffs, and you can set threholds for when these should get purged. By default the system is designed to be 24*7. Backups are configured for daily, and you cannot configure any other method outside of time and which drives on the client. I use a free third party application called lights out to hibernate my server during inactive times to save on power. So essentially you can turn the home server off/on to control the backup schedules. One of the other features you can specify is to wake machines that are in hibernation to perform the backup, and the time in which backups should be performed.

Backup can only be made on the local network, so if your remote the backup will not take place. Given your situation I would leave the home server where the most risk of loss would be. It's really set it and forget it, and you can administer remotely if needed.

One of the included features is a web portal for photo and video sharing, remote connection to a client, and file upload/download of data. One of the features I have used it for is Media Streaming to Xbox 360s. One of the other features I was looking into was security cameras for the home.

For the hard drive configuration in my current Home server I have the 1 OS, 2 WD Green (folder duplication turned on for select folders), and 1 USB(to backup the folders I select for redundancy).

This is for sufficient for me as I have the source file on the client, 2 copies on the home server (via folder duplication), and another copy on the usb drive.

Typically high end machines are not ideal for Windows Home Server and 24*7 operation. Example many of the retail products are low end processors. I have never found a situation were I wanted more power, outside of upgrading the standard memory from 512mb to 2gb.
The home server is also designed to be headless (ie no monitor-keyboard-mouse) and administered through the remote gui. This is another reason why building high end may have little return on investment.

 

[Deleted member 12106]

Generally speaking when they are available it is better to store the data on separate physical drives than the OS.

A typical drive layout would be a pair of drives in RAID 1 for the OS, with a group of drives in RAID 5 for the data. This is the (a) traditional method. To do that you would need a minimum of 5 drives ideally the same size and geometry within each array.

I really don't play around with "home" servers or equipment so I don't know what their limitations are. Most decent motherboards have integrated RAID controllers that can support this in hardware. Keep in mind hardware RAID >> software RAID which means the controller is doing all the calculations and housekeeping without involving the host OS. The OS just sees the arrays as one big logical block of storage.

The are a ton of different methods of backups as well. Again, a common way to accomplish effective backups is to do a "full" once a week with "incrementals" on a daily basis. If you needed to restore you would have to restore the full and then every subsequent incremental that was run since the full was completed. Alternatively you could do a full and "differentials" every night which make restore operations less complicated since you just need to restore the full and the latest differential. The way a backup utility knows which files have changed since the last backup is through the "archive bit" being set on a file.

That should get you started at least with some basic terminology...

You don't use raid with WHS. WHS comes with an agent you install on the PC's, then you use the WHS console to do the backups.



With PP2? WHS will use the disk you installed the OS on as part of the pool.

I have a whs box running on an atom 330 board with about 8tb worth of storage. Unit is bullet proof. I've been using WHS for some time and I gotta say, yes, set it and forget it.

If you have another machine that torrents, you can map network shares as a network drive to dump files to.