WHS server question

daphatgrant

daphatgrant

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Jun 15, 2003
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Background: I am in the process of building a media/file server (reference thread) and am going to use WHS as the OS. I am going to initially run it on some old hardware that I have lying around and have it run on that for about a year or so, (until I do my next desktop upgrade) I am looking at 9TB's of HDD's in the system.

Question: In a year or so when I do the system upgrade how is WHS going to react to the change? I don't have anywhere to store 4TB's of data if a fresh OS install is needed. I plan on putting the OS on drive 1 and having the other 8 as the storage devices.
 
Here's a question, since you aren't using the WHS as a backup box versus a media server, where are you storing your backups anyways?
RAID is not a backup.
 
TechieSooner said:
Here's a question, since you aren't using the WHS as a backup box versus a media server, where are you storing your backups anyways?
RAID is not a backup.
Click to expand...

I am using WHS as a... the stuff that I am going to have on the drives is not vital to my existence and I know that RAID is not a true backup so if I lose everything on the whole computer the worst that I am going to do is temporarily startle my neighbors when I go on a 20-30 sec expletive spree :p. I am under the impression that if you turn on duplication in WHS it performs some hap-hazard form of software RAID 1. So there is essentially a "backup" of the data that is stored on the drives.

What I am questioning here is what is going happen or what troubles am I looking at in a year or so when I upgrade the hardware in the file/media server? If I install the OS on drive 1 and add drives 2-9 and then start loading data on it what are my options? is there a better way of keeping the OS separate from the stored data? Will a fresh OS install be able to recognize data scattered across the other 8 drives? I assume that the OS will need to be reinstalled after a new board, cpu, etc is installed, this is the case right?
 
Are you worried about partitioning or ???

WHS is essentially Server 2003... Upgrading hardware will perform the same (Read: Not bad at all).
 
Sorry I guess I am being a bit unclear.

In about a year when I do a motherboard/cpu/ram upgrade on the media/file server I am wondering if I am going to have to reinstall the OS since the major components are being changed. Like if I were to put a new board/chip/ram in my current desktop I'd have to reinstall the OS as windows would most likely not work with the new hardware since it was configured with the old hardware. Does that make sense?

Normally on my desktop when I get new parts I'll move over all my old files that I want saved to an external and then put a fresh copy of windows on the new desktop and then move all the files back over from the external. But in this case I don't have a 4TB external or enough externals to make up the 4TB's.
 
You can generally swap it out. If Windows doesn't start detecting it you can usually do a repair install (Although I have never done it on Server- I'd assume you have that option) to get the new hardware installed.
 
WHS probably would act like any other OS, where it may or may not boot. However, given the way WHS handles drives and controllers, I wouldn't even think of swapping the hardware without backing up and removing my data, with the intention of doing a fresh install. Also, considering the point of WHS, why even bother upgrading the hardware? It is meant to run as an appliance, so as long as it is running now, you are fine. You aren't going to notice any difference in WHS if you upgrade the hardware, aside from the hard drives.
 
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