WHS Server Died, need replacement on the cheap

[Ravien]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
***I have a WHS box that died - not entirely sure whats wrong with it but it needed to be upgraded anyways. I hardly used the backup capability - mostly just the file serve, and I also used it to host servers for minecraft and Killing floor, among other games.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
***Budget is "cheap," relatively. I'm thinking the top end I want to purchase is about $500, but I know I can do better and still get good
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

***East of Cleveland, OH. Have a microcenter and bb nearby
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
***At the end of the day, I need a working system. CPU, RAM, case, PSU, hard drives will be reused- hopefully. Depending on price, if I could get quad core + 8gb ram min, that would be nice - debating looking into light virtualization so I can explore better server options.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
***I have 3 drives that together add up to about 2.7 TB of space. I hope to reuse these. They're all SATA2 5400rpm drives, so I know I won't get max performance.
6) Will you be overclocking?
***Absolutely not
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
***N/A - It ran as a headless server box when it wasn't acting up
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
***ASAP. The crew is bugging me to get my minecraft server back up.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
***RAID and USB3 would be nice moving forward. Onboard video would also be nice - don't have to have extra hardware to troubleshoot things.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
***Yes. It's 32bit, but what does that matter in the grand scheme of things.


In short, I had a PC that I wasn't using that I won in a contest about 5-6 years back that I cannibalized and turned into a WHS host that I used primarily for file sharing. Fast forward to about 6 months ago, the GPU that was in the system baked itself when the pin holding on the heatsink gave out and it overheated. Once I removed the gfx card, it booted fine, but I didn't have any method of display - but didn't matter as it worked fine and I could still RDP. Then, about 2 weeks ago, it died. When I power it on, it lights up, but shows no signs of booting, and even after putting a video card in it, wont even show the bios. I don't have time to figure out what part is failing, and I'm looking to move on from the 2.0ghz Athlon x2 +4gb ddr2 build, and especially that hideous ECS motherboard.

I'm hoping, with the WHSv1 build running drive extender, and therefore not being hardware raid, that I can pop the drives in a new system, boot from the proper drive, and have my system back up and running.

I'm looking to move in 1 of three directions, based on price:

1. A replacement for my old box.
2. A better box, quad-core, 8gb min
3. #2, but running on server hardware, possibly with a backplane for heavy expansion

I plan on bringing WHS back online, but I'm looking to do a couple things in the future, possibly, based on how thins would work with using Microsoft accounts with server infrastructure, but I am skilled with spoofing accounts using credentials, but you lose many of the features by not logging in with a domain account on server boxes.

• Keep WHS, expand to crazy levels
• Install Server 2012 with Hyper-V, run WHS as a virtual, and another virtual for applications/webhosts/possible domains
• Install ESX, virtualize any one of the various file serve options out there.

I'll be looking forward to your recommendations. Thanks, [H]

 

[Dangman]

***East of Cleveland, OH. Have a microcenter and bb nearby

Are you within a 30 to 45 minute driving range of that Microcenter?

Oh and is power consumption a real big concern?

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
***Yes. It's 32bit, but what does that matter in the grand scheme of things.

Because it's kinda odd to recommend a system with 8GB of RAM if you're using an OS that can theoretically only use 4GB of that RAM.

I'm hoping, with the WHSv1 build running drive extender, and therefore not being hardware raid, that I can pop the drives in a new system, boot from the proper drive, and have my system back up and running.

ehhh...might not be possible since WHS was based on Windows 2K3. From my experience with 2K3, it doesn't like being moved into different hardware.

I'm looking to move in 1 of three directions, based on price:

1. A replacement for my old box.
2. A better box, quad-core, 8gb min
3. #2, but running on server hardware, possibly with a backplane for heavy expansion

Option 3 is not happening with your budget sadly. Option 2 is possible as long as power consumption isn't an issue.

I plan on bringing WHS back online, but I'm looking to do a couple things in the future, possibly, based on how thins would work with using Microsoft accounts with server infrastructure, but I am skilled with spoofing accounts using credentials, but you lose many of the features by not logging in with a domain account on server boxes.

• Keep WHS, expand to crazy levels
• Install Server 2012 with Hyper-V, run WHS as a virtual, and another virtual for applications/webhosts/possible domains
• Install ESX, virtualize any one of the various file serve options out there.

I'll be looking forward to your recommendations. Thanks, [H]

Out of those three, I'd go for option 3 since it's the cheapest route.

 

[Ravien]

Are you within a 30 to 45 minute driving range of that Microcenter?

Oh and is power consumption a real big concern?

Power consumption is not a concern, as I have 5 active gaming PCs in the same house - a file server is the least of my electrical concerns.

And the microcenter is <10 min from my office.

Because it's kinda odd to recommend a system with 8GB of RAM if you're using an OS that can theoretically only use 4GB of that RAM.

Yeah, I know I'm strange, but its more for that move into the future, moving away from WHS towards a system supporting virtualization or just a better system in general.

ehhh...might not be possible since WHS was based on Windows 2K3. From my experience with 2K3, it doesn't like being moved into different hardware..

Please do tell - Is it that it just won't act period? Or will it just have issues with drivers and such? TBH, I don't even care if it works at this point, I just want it to boot up so I can extract all my data to an external hard drive. If you know of a way to do this on a WHS drive array without an operational WHS, that'd be nice too.

Option 3 is not happening with your budget sadly. Option 2 is possible as long as power consumption isn't an issue.

I didn't think that Option 3 was happening, tbh, but it was a nice thought. Just the case and the motherboard would go over my budget I think.

Out of those three, I'd go for option 3 since it's the cheapest route.

I don't really have an issue with licensing/software pricing as I have a load of NFR keys, so I'll probably just end up with whatever I feel like installing at the point in time, as the new system might also end up being a test bed for temporary small customer server setups.

 

[Dangman]

$245 - AMD FX-8320 CPU + Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 AMD 990FX Motherboard Microcenter Combo
$134 - Crucial BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00 Ballistix Sport 2 x 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$30 - XFX HD 5450 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$68 - XFX Core Edition PRO550W 550W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
---
Total: $527 shipped plus tax and on the CPU and mobo

While the hardware is ridiculously overkill for WHS v1, it's perfect for ESXi or any virtualization route you go with. That motherboard supports IOMMU, a feature you're gonna need if you plan on passing hard drives straight to a VM. You generally need more cores than raw clock speed with virtual machines. Finally the 16GB of RAM means that you have a solid foundation for more virtual machines in the future. Or more heavier duty VMs.

That case will support up to eight hard drives right off the bat. You can add in another 4 drives with this Coolermaster 4in3 module. Yes that XFX 550W PSU will be enough even if you crammed in 12 hard drives into that server.

The video card is there since I'm not 100% sure if the motherboard will boot and work correctly without a video card.

Please do tell - Is it that it just won't act period? Or will it just have issues with drivers and such? TBH, I don't even care if it works at this point, I just want it to boot up so I can extract all my data to an external hard drive. If you know of a way to do this on a WHS drive array without an operational WHS, that'd be nice too.

You'll see stability issues and programs not acting quite right. I should point out that I also have WHS v1 as well. I was able to recover files from a broken/odd WHS install by simpling hooking up the data drives to my PC, enabled "show hidden files and folders" and presto! I was able to recover files without having to reinstall or boot up WHS. This links explains it a bit more (just scroll all the way down):
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/...ecover-data-after-server-failure?forum=whsfaq

 

[howarddavidp]

Hello,

I am a fellow WHS user, I have been using many versions of WHS since release.

From reading your article, your best IMMEDIATE bet would be to buy a replacement motherboard, even if you change hardware platforms in the future. Let me explain why:

For Windows Home Server, which is built on either Windows Server 2003 or 2008 (the newest might be on 2012, but they don&#8217;t call it WHS anymore), you MAY have problems trying to migrate the data off those volumes that use Drive Extender. I know at a minimum, you will not easily be able to move the boot partition to another hardware platform and boot up to get to your data. Also, I have never moved a drive extender volume to another hard drive controller, so I am not sure how this will work. I have avoided Drive Extender entirely, since there have been so many issues with it. I just added more space and made the shares on the other volumes, and never tried to have 1 BIG volumes that spanned multiple disks. I also broke from the norm and used hardware RAID controller, which work but Microsoft says it is neither needed nor supported 100%. The biggest benefit to me was that I could take the drives to another OS and they would work, since the array was attached to the controller and NOT the motherboard.

I sourced similar motherboards, and they can be had from eBay for $50 or less, one I saw that looked like it would work for you was $18, shipping included. Once you get your motherboard working again (assumed that it is not your power supply or RAM), I would boot up your system and begin a FULL backup. If you don&#8217;t have backup software, I suggest and highly recommend Acronis. I have had much luck with their products, but if you want to try something else, then look at Ghost 15 (or whatever works from them with WHS). Again, I use Acronis, so I don't know which competitors&#8217; products work with WHS.
You can easily relist the motherboard and get your money back once you are through with it, or possibly take your RAM and CPU and other guts to a better motherboard, I would suggest something like a Gigabyte Ultra Durable model, which is what I have run on most of my WHS.

Just my 2C worth of advice. I was saddened when I saw they were dropping WHS from their line of server products. I think they did not do enough to advertise this product even existed. If they did, maybe there would be more of a future for this fabulous server version.

David

edit: Why did Dangman suggest a video card for this server? This is a waste of money, and I would suggest getting the cheapest possible video card, even a PCI card will work instead of a PCI-Exp card. You don;t run games or apps on this server that need any type of 3D, especially Direct-X. You would be better off and spend your money on a $20 card if the motherboard does not have video built in. Also, the Ultradurable boards I have always used came with 2 GBe LAN ports, so you can team them up and get more bandwidth and some redundancy. Care to explain Dangman?
howarddavidp@gmail.com

 

[Dangman]

edit: Why did Dangman suggest a video card for this server? This is a waste of money, and I would suggest getting the cheapest possible video card, even a PCI card will work instead of a PCI-Exp card. You don;t run games or apps on this server that need any type of 3D, especially Direct-X. You would be better off and spend your money on a $20 card if the motherboard does not have video built in. Also, the Ultradurable boards I have always used came with 2 GBe LAN ports, so you can team them up and get more bandwidth and some redundancy. Care to explain Dangman?
howarddavidp@gmail.com

Yeah next time read the post fully before you go on the attack. I literally answered your question in my post:

The video card is there since I'm not 100% sure if the motherboard will boot and work correctly without a video card.

 

[howarddavidp]

Ok Danman,

So we agree you don't need the video card.

Here is a suggestion, to save some cash and get you back and working quick. This is actually the same board I run on a Freenas server and also WHS. It is a 939 board, which has plenty of slots and expansion, built-in RAID with up to 8 SATA ports, as well as 2 IDE ports, plenty of USB and you can always add USB3 with a card if needed. It also comes with 2 GBe LAN ports. I am linking an eBay auction for Board and 4GB RAM and a 2.2GHz CPU for about $50. Since you already have a 939 setup, everything should be reusable, from CPU (which you won't need), RAM (ditto), PSU, case, etc. It is nice that you have onboard RAID, but you can still but a cheap PCI or PCI-E RAID card if needed with this board.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dfi-lanpart...US_Motherboard_CPU_Combos&hash=item2eccde6eed

Enjoy!

 

[Dangman]

Ok Danman,

So we agree you don't need the video card.

Like I said: I'm not 100% sure if that motherboard will boot or function correctly without an installed video card. I've Unless you have information that suggests otherwise about the motherboard I speciically recommended, I cannot say I agree that the video card is unnecessary in this case.

Here is a suggestion, to save some cash and get you back and working quick. This is actually the same board I run on a Freenas server and also WHS. It is a 939 board, which has plenty of slots and expansion, built-in RAID with up to 8 SATA ports, as well as 2 IDE ports, plenty of USB and you can always add USB3 with a card if needed. It also comes with 2 GBe LAN ports. I am linking an eBay auction for Board and 4GB RAM and a 2.2GHz CPU for about $50. Since you already have a 939 setup, everything should be reusable, from CPU (which you won't need), RAM (ditto), PSU, case, etc. It is nice that you have onboard RAID, but you can still but a cheap PCI or PCI-E RAID card if needed with this board.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dfi-lanpart...US_Motherboard_CPU_Combos&hash=item2eccde6eed

That's a major rip-off. At the pricing as of this post, that setup comes out to 67.85 shipped. That's way too much money for a platform that's outdated and that won't meet the OP's new goal of going the virtualization route.

 

[howarddavidp]

The setup I mention is not to virtualize, but a way to get his setup working again so he can get his data backed up. The real question is, will $67 be worth the cost of the data? The problem with using drive extended is that you cannot just take drive volumes and mount it on another platform with issues. Sure, people get lucky and it works, but not always. I hate drive extender, and I highly suggest NOT using it, but since it was already said to be used, I wanted to suggest a way to get the data back safely.

If he wants to virtualize, I agree a totally different platform is needed. The AMD NF4 board will only support 4GB of RAM, and that will not be enough.

I have even tried to image WHS installed from the same platform, but to different drives. Unfortunately, WHS keeps track of which drives are used, so you can't easily backup and restore to dis-similar hardware. I used Acronis Universal restore and the latest Ghost, neither worked. After he gets his data backed up, I would say to sell off the $67 worth of hardware and restore to a new build if he wants to virtualize. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't see a board, chip, and RAM that can virtualize for $67 delivered? Thoughts?

 

[Dangman]

The setup I mention is not to virtualize, but a way to get his setup working again so he can get his data backed up. The real question is, will $67 be worth the cost of the data? The problem with using drive extended is that you cannot just take drive volumes and mount it on another platform with issues. Sure, people get lucky and it works, but not always. I hate drive extender, and I highly suggest NOT using it, but since it was already said to be used, I wanted to suggest a way to get the data back safely.

I literally posted a link showing that you can indeed recover files from a WHS drive using a different PC. Hell I've done exactly that myself with my own WHS server. So I don't see a reason to spend $67+ on a platform that you have no guarantee whatsoever of recouping the costs by reselling off when there's a free option that's been shown to work.

If he wants to virtualize, I agree a totally different platform is needed. The AMD NF4 board will only support 4GB of RAM, and that will not be enough.

He has specifically said he plans to virtualize.

Maybe I am wrong, but I don't see a board, chip, and RAM that can virtualize for $67 delivered? Thoughts?

Way to try to strawman there. That was not my specific argument at all.