Windows Home Server FAQ

theDreamer

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Oct 11, 2006
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Windows home server needs an FAQ here, and I thought I would give it a try. I hope to keep this up to date and evolving as the OS does. For a quick, rough, run down of features you can look at Wikipedia.
If anyone wants to add, correct me, ask questions, or just leave a message please do.

Features:
  • Centralized Backup - Allows backup of up to 10PCs, using Single Instance Store technology to avoid multiple copies of the same file, even if that file exists on multiple PCs.
  • Health Monitoring - Can centrally track the health of all PCs on the network, including antivirus and firewall status.
  • File Sharing - Offers network shares for computers to store the files remotely, acting as a network-attached storage device. Separate categories are provided for common file types like Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. The files are indexed for fast searching.
  • Printer Sharing - Allows a centralized print server to handle print jobs for all users.
  • Shadow Copy - Takes advantage of Volume Shadow Copy Services to take point in time snapshots that allow older versions of files to be recovered.
  • Headless Operation - No monitor or keyboard is required to manage to device. Remote administration is performed by using the Windows Home Server Console client software provided in the bundle. Also supports Remote Desktop connections to the server while connected to the same LAN.
  • Remote Access Gateway - Allows remote access to any connected PC on the network over the Internet.
  • Media Streaming - Can stream media to a Xbox 360 or other devices supporting Windows Media Connect.
  • Selective Data Redundancy - Guards against a single drive failure by duplicating selected data across multiple drives.
  • Expandable Storage - Provides a unified single and easily expandable storage space, removing the need for drive letters.
  • Extensibility through Add-Ins - Add-Ins allow third-party developers to extend the features and functionality of the server. Add-Ins can be developed using the Windows Home server SDK, to provide additional services to the client computers or work with the data already on the server. Add-Ins can also be ASP.NET applications, hosted in IIS 6 running on WHS.
  • Server Backup - Backs up files which are stored within shared folders on the server to an external hard drive.

Helpful resources:
~We Got Served
~WHS Add-ins
~System Drive for WHS? Large or Small

Power Pack 2
  • Windows Media Center Connector• Computers running Windows Media® Center can now view recorded TV content that is stored on your home server by using the recorded TV gallery.
  • Windows Media Center music, photos, videos, and recorded TV libraries are automatically updated to include the Music, Photos, Videos, and Recorded TV shared folders on your home server.
  • Media Center Extenders that are connected to a computer running Windows Media Center can now access content on your home server without using the guest account.
  • You can control the shared folders on your home server that Media Center Extenders can access by using the Windows Home Server Console. To do this, on the console, click Settings, and then click Windows Media Center. Media Sharing• Support for MP4 audio and video files is added.
  • Content that is stored on your home server and that is shared via Windows Media Connect, including files with extensions .mp4, .m4v, .m4b and .m4a, now appears in the music or video library with title, artist, composer, album, and genre metadata. Remote Access
  • The Remote Access Settings page is redesigned to make it easier to use.
  • A Web-hosted diagnostic service is used to more accurately test whether remote connectivity is available from outside the home network.
  • There are new and improved initial configuration and repair wizards.
  • There is better troubleshooting guidance for common home networking issues that can prevent Remote Access from working properly. Home Computer Backup• When you restore files and folders from a Home Computer Backup, the process may stop when it is 79% to 81% percent complete. This update helps prevent this issue. Home Server Backup• This update prevents you from unintentionally overwriting newer versions of the Windows Home Server Connector files. This could potentially happen if you restore files and folders from a Home Server Backup to the Software shared folder on your home server.
  • It is now easier to copy large files or folders from a home computer running the Windows Vista® operating system to a shared folder on your home server. Previously, the file size was limited by the free space on the primary hard drive of your home server. With this update, the file size is limited to the free space on the target hard drives that are connected to your home server.
  • The number of notification messages about files that are stored in shared folders is reduced. Previously, these notifications may have caused high CPU utilization on your home server for applications that access these files. After this update is installed, applications such as the software for the Microsoft® Zune® digital media player no longer consume excessive processor resources

Minimum Requirements:
  • 1.0GHz Intel Pentium 3
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 80GB internal hard drive
  • 100 Mbit/s wired Ethernet
Additional Requirements:
  • Bootable DVD Drive or USB Stick
  • Display
  • Keyboard & Mouse

Resolved issues:
~File corruption - The first release of Windows Home Server, RTM (Release to manufacturing), suffered from a file corruption flaw whereby files saved directly to or edited on shares on a WHS device could become corrupted. Only the files that had NTFS Alternate Data Streams were susceptible to the flaw. The flaw led to data corruption only when the server was under heavy load at the time when the file (with ADS) was being saved onto a share.

Backups of client PCs made by Windows Home Server were not susceptible to the flaw.

Even though the issue was first acknowledged in October 2007, Microsoft formally warned users of the seriousness of the flaw on 20 December 2007. Microsoft then issued a list of applications, including Windows Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Outlook and SyncToy 2.0, which might have triggered the flaw if they were used to edit the files on a WHS share directly.

This issue was fixed by Power Pack 1, released on July 21, 2008.

~No native backup - Windows Home Server RTM did not include a mechanism for backing up the server. Power Pack 1 added the ability to back up files stored on the device to an external drive. Users can also subscribe to 3rd-party online services, for a fee. However, there remains no way to back up or image the installed server operating system (e.g., to a DVD) to prepare for the possiblility of a system disk crash.

Answered Questions:
  • What size hard drive should I use for the OS drive?
    ~This has been debated here and on We Got Served, at one point the files being copied to WHS landed on the OS drive and if not enough space it would fail to copy even though you had plenty of space in the pool. This seems to not happen this way anymore, but some still suggest a larger OS drive for any possible changes.
  • Is RAID Supported?
    ~No, not official. I currently have no experience running RAID with WHS, but a few people have attempted it. If any user has, please let me know and anything you would like to add.
  • What is the backup system?
    ~Windows home server uses selective data redundancy, which allows you to select specific folders to back up. This means that if I want to back up 500GB of data stored on my WHS then I will need another 500GB free space.
  • Will WHS install on a CPU less than 1.0GHZ and with memory less than 512MB?
    ~Answer provided by Dannny Bui, link
  • How does a restoring a computer with a problem work?
    ~The WHS recovery disc went in the optical drive and it loaded for a bit, then asked for the name of the server, then asked which computer I was trying to restore and I selected the laptop, then which restore point I wanted to use (I used a manual one I had done just before starting this process), then which disk to backup to (only had one in the laptop), and then it spent about 2 hours (on 100mbit) transferring the data. It automatically resized the drive from 200gb to 320gb in the process. Note: You can go from a smaller drive/partition to a larger one, however you cannot go from a larger drive to a smaller one, even if there is enough free space, it just doesnt work like that.
  • What is the landing zone or is one still there?
    ~Technically there is no "Landing Zone" it was supposedly fixed with PP1 and an Update. However recent post and issues do suggest otherwise, particularly when using Vista.

    The original definition - This was the size of the free space on the partition of the D:"data" drive on the main OS disk.
    That amount of said space was all you could transfer to the box at any given moment.
    This was due to the fact, that when you transferred a file or set of files to the WHS it had to first be written to the OS disk "data" partition and then be copied to the other storage disk(s).

    Current Definition
    - Unlike before when data had to be written to the OS disk, it is now written directly to storage disk(s) unless space is unavailable, then and only then is data written directly to the OS disk.
    However there still seems to be an issue particularly common when using vista, that although there is plenty of free space on other "Storage Disk(s)" there is not enough free space on the OS disk in relation to the size of file(s) one is transferring.
    When the size of the file is very large, lets say 200gb, and there is only 150gb free space on the OS disk data partition, you will receive an error and the transfer will not complete.
    This is particularly common with folks that have a small OS disk, and that is why it is still advised that you install the OS on the largest disk that you have.
    If you have a large disk and for some reason have accumulated a lot of data on the "data" partition of the OS drive, there is a fix for forcing data off the OS disk.
  • If I'm only hitting 50% network utilization, I may need a faster landing drive correct?
    ~No. Drive speed is not the issue here. The real issue is your network performance and your desktop network cards. Most desktops sees 300-500mbit/s utilization. Upgrading your network components (nics and switch) to higher grade material will improve your performance substantially (easily 600-900mbit/s). There are a lot of other factors, but drives are very seldom the cause of performance bottlenecks when hard drives are involved.
    For example, I use an ordinary hard drive (Seagate 1TB AS) for my system drive, I can saturate a gigabit (server grade) without any problems or performance loss to the system drive.
  • Will a TV Tuner card work in WHS?
    ~Yes and no. There is no WHS drivers for tuner cards, however, you can use 2003 drivers if they are supported by your tuner. WHS is simply a 2003 operating system with the WHS application overlay. If it supports 2003 you should have no problems.
  • Can you go from the 120-day evaluation period to a full version without having to reinstall?
    ~A reinstall is necessary but you won't lose your data. You will lose the OS settings, updates, and plugins just like a repair install of XP.
  • Can I install add-ins from my desktop to the server?
    ~Well remote desktop is enabled by default on the server. But you dont even need RDP to install addins. Copy the addin to the Software/addins shared folder. Open the console, go to settings, addins.
  • Has anyone migrated from FreeNAS to WHS ,all my data is in FreeNAS and is all UFS file system. Is there an easy way to copy all that UFS data over to WHS? The only way I can do it now is to copy over the network to Windows machine from the FreeNAS share, but that would take forever.
    ~Theres not going to be a faster way, because with WHS you are limited to single drive speed, which unless you have a SSD's in your WHS your transfer rate wont fully utilize gigabit speed.

Unanswered Questions:

User Input:
[LYL]Homer;1034504292 said:
Further, the RAID 1 is only for folders that you specify to have duplication on.

Here's a simple example (for simplicity's sake we won't count the OS portion or formatting) here's how Drive Extender (DE) works:

Drive A = 1tb
Drive B = 1tb
both are in the pool, gives 2000gb total storage.

You have a photos folder with 10gb of photos, and a videos folder with 500gb of video so a total of 510gb of data, with 1490gb free space. Turn on duplication for just the photos and it will now white the photos to both Drive A and B using a total of 520gb, with 1480gb free space.

Next, if the 500gb of video also had duplication turned on then a total of 1020gb would be used, with 980gb free - although with duplication turned on one burns through gigabytes twice as fast. So if the only photos and video folders existed and duplication was on for both you could only write another 490gb of data (980gb free space writing to both disks = 490gb).

Obviously duplication only works when you have more than one drive in the pool. So it's sort of an "expandable dynamic software RAID 1 like" solution. And it works great.
WARNING

Do Not Use HDDs such as the WDxxEARS that have the 4k sectors (aka Advanced Format) on your WHS.

The sectors size is not natively supported on XP/2003 and requires special software to work properly.
This combined with WHS DE could essentially eat your data.
 
Last edited:
Will WHS install on a CPU less than 1.0GHZ and with memory less than 512MB? I want to install it on my 933MHz 384MB machine.
 
How does restoring a computer with a problem work? Assuming it has scheduled backups enabled, of course. I know that there is a recovery disc that you boot the affected PC from, but what does it do? Can I just restore from the OS itself? Could I grab just an older unaffected file without recovery of the entire PC?
Thanks

-darkmatter08
 
Will WHS install on a CPU less than 1.0GHZ and with memory less than 512MB? I want to install it on my 933MHz 384MB machine.

I have a partial answer to that:
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WHS will install and run on a Pentium III 866Mhz CPU but it will be slow. When transferring files to the server, I saw 100% CPU usage as well as transfer speeds of only 10Kb/s. The transfer speeds is more than likely due to the NIC I used so I might replace that NIC with a nice Intel gigabit NIC one of these days. RAM usage wise, as you can see, the system used about 340MB when doing almost nothing, with the Console window and IE7 open. So the 512MB minimum RAM recommendation was definitely a good call on MS' part
 
Thanks Danny Bui. I'm running my PIII as a headless Server 03 box right now so I might as well stick to that. What I don't understand is why does WHS take so much RAM compared to Server 03 if WHS is a trimmed down version?
 
Thanks Danny Bui. I'm running my PIII as a headless Server 03 box right now so I might as well stick to that. What I don't understand is why does WHS take so much RAM compared to Server 03 if WHS is a trimmed down version?

WHS also has its own set of apps and processes that it needs to run in order to be a WHS setup. Those set of apps/processes take up RAM as well.
 
Thanks Danny Bui. I'm running my PIII as a headless Server 03 box right now so I might as well stick to that. What I don't understand is why does WHS take so much RAM compared to Server 03 if WHS is a trimmed down version?
you'll be a lot better off upgrading the RAM
people with those HP MediaSmart units saw a large benefit going from 512MB to 2GB
 
How does restoring a computer with a problem work?

I updated my wife's laptop drive from a 200gb one to a 320gb and used WHS to do this a few weeks ago. I swapped the drives and the new one was unformatted, more or less simulating a worst case drive FUBAR.

(from memory) The WHS recovery disc went in the optical drive and it loaded for a bit, then asked for the name of the server, then asked which computer I was trying to restore and I selected the laptop, then which restore point I wanted to use (I used a manual one I had done just before starting this process), then which disk to backup to (only had one in the laptop), and then it spent about 2 hours (on 100mbit) transferring the data.

It automatically resized the drive from 200gb to 320gb in the process.
 
[LYL]Homer;1033678037 said:
I updated my wife's laptop drive from a 200gb one to a 320gb and used WHS to do this a few weeks ago. I swapped the drives and the new one was unformatted, more or less simulating a worst case drive FUBAR.

(from memory) The WHS recovery disc went in the optical drive and it loaded for a bit, then asked for the name of the server, then asked which computer I was trying to restore and I selected the laptop, then which restore point I wanted to use (I used a manual one I had done just before starting this process), then which disk to backup to (only had one in the laptop), and then it spent about 2 hours (on 100mbit) transferring the data.

It automatically resized the drive from 200gb to 320gb in the process.

Yes that is exactly how it works

Something to note:

You can go from a smaller drive/partition to a larger one, however you cannot go from a larger drive to a smaller one, even if there is enough free space, it just doesnt work like that.

BTW Dreamer I'm really pissed at you:;)

I have been making a WHS FAQ for the last 3 days.
 
Yes that is exactly how it works

Something to note:

You can go from a smaller drive/partition to a larger one, however you cannot go from a larger drive to a smaller one, even if there is enough free space, it just doesnt work like that.

BTW Dreamer I'm really pissed at you:;)

I have been making a WHS FAQ for the last 3 days.

Well send me a PM with your write up or with your email and we can go over what I missed. I did this mostly out of boredom and the fact we have had a lot of people asking the past month. This is a very rough FAQ and would be great if some of the heavy users could throw in their ideas/suggestions.

Also, thanks for all the input and answers guys, keep it coming.

Edit: Found your definition of landing zone and added it, good explanation.
 
STICKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I'm only hitting 50% network utilization, I may need a faster landing drive correct? Currently a 1Tb 5400 rpm Samsung drive.

Considering upgrading to either a 1TB segate 7200rpm drive or a 640GB WD 7200rpm drive.

Thanks for writing this up!
 
My one question before making the leap to windows home server is will my TV turner work. I use my server as a PVR/DVR. Otherwise I'm sold on WHS but if the turner won't work I'll just stick it out with XP and drive shares. (Not really what i want to do but it works.

Is anybody out there using WHS in this capacity.

TV Tuner is Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 MCE
 
Dreamer ill pm you when I have it done.

As for the TV tuner stuff.......IDK but I just got a tuner, and I planned on putting it in my WHS so I guess well find out soon.

It does not have media center on it, although there is a lil hack to install MCE2005 on server2003 its not fully functional.
IMO SageTV has the best PVR capability and I know they have a WHS version of SageTV.
 
I know I couldn't install the drivers for my Tuner in Server08 (Thus the aw screw it I'll just use XP) If I can get the drivers to install I'm not worried about finding an app to record.


Wow that makes no sense lets try again. The drivers for my TV card would not install right in server 2008. So if I can get the drivers to install I'll be happy. Finding software is easy enough but I need the drivers to work first.
 
Keep in mind that anything that runs on server 2003 will run on WHS. You may have to remote into the box though to manage, as not everything has a WHS console addin.
 
1) If I'm only hitting 50% network utilization, I may need a faster landing drive correct?

No. Drive speed is not the issue here. The real issue is your network performance and your desktop network cards. Most desktops sees 300-500mbit/s utilization. Upgrading your network components (nics and switch) to higher grade material will improve your performance substantially (easily 600-900mbit/s). There are a lot of other factors, but drives are very seldom the cause of performance bottlenecks when hard drives are involved.

For example, I use an ordinary hard drive (Seagate 1TB AS) for my system drive, I can saturate a gigabit (server grade) without any problems or performance loss to the system drive.

Will a TV Tuner card work in WHS?

Yes and no. There is no WHS drivers for tuner cards, however, you can use 2003 drivers if they are supported by your tuner. WHS is simply a 2003 operating system with the WHS application overlay. If it supports 2003 you should have no problems.
 
Great Stickie Idea!!!



Upgrading your network components (nics and switch) to higher grade material will improve your performance substantially (easily 600-900mbit/s).

Could you point me in the right direction for some decent nics? I see the prices from 10.00 to 300.00 but there's gotta be something in the 20.00 to 40.00 range that's better than the built-ins on my Abit IP35-Pro.

No fiber or dual ports are needed, just something reliable that I can move from machine to machine.
 
Great Stickie Idea!!!





Could you point me in the right direction for some decent nics? I see the prices from 10.00 to 300.00 but there's gotta be something in the 20.00 to 40.00 range that's better than the built-ins on my Abit IP35-Pro.

No fiber or dual ports are needed, just something reliable that I can move from machine to machine.
would also like to know this
 
Great Stickie Idea!!!





Could you point me in the right direction for some decent nics? I see the prices from 10.00 to 300.00 but there's gotta be something in the 20.00 to 40.00 range that's better than the built-ins on my Abit IP35-Pro.

No fiber or dual ports are needed, just something reliable that I can move from machine to machine.

An Intel Pro PT or MT will do the trick.
 
Well the PT's are gonna be around $100+, the MTs are prob your best bet.
Although if you look around you can find some good deals on broadcom based cards. I just got a dual port PCI-X for $50.
 
An Intel Pro PT or MT will do the trick.

At those prices they better do more than one trick!

It looks like those are more geared towards servers and are wayyyyy to pricey for me.

While browsing the Intel site I did notice they claim this one is a desktop adapter.

I'll need two for a total of 78.00 and that's a little more in my price range.
 
Well the PT's are gonna be around $100+, the MTs are prob your best bet.
Although if you look around you can find some good deals on broadcom based cards. I just got a dual port PCI-X for $50.
I don't understand why PCI cards are around $30 and once you go to PCI-X or PCI-E, the price jumps $100.
Also, what kind of speeds can you expect with one of these?
 
Would the Intel GT series be a good (cheap) alternative?

Well the PT's are gonna be around $100+, the MTs are prob your best bet.
Although if you look around you can find some good deals on broadcom based cards. I just got a dual port PCI-X for $50.

At those prices they better do more than one trick!

It looks like those are more geared towards servers and are wayyyyy to pricey for me.

While browsing the Intel site I did notice they claim this one is a desktop adapter.

I'll need two for a total of 78.00 and that's a little more in my price range.


To all three quotes above me, PT's are now down to 30 bucks for a single port x1 card.... If that is expensive, then you guys are just cheap :p
 
To all three quotes above me, PT's are now down to 30 bucks for a single port x1 card.... If that is expensive, then you guys are just cheap :p

LOL!

Didn't even see the card EnderW linked to since it was OOS at newegg.
 
I am currently using an old ASUS P4PE mobo in my server. It only has PCI slots. Would I still see an improvement in network speed by going to an Intel add-in NIC (I saw an article talking about the limited speed on some PCI slots). The other computers have PCIx slots available.

The other computers on the network are listed in my signature plus an Xbox360. I have a Netgear GS116 switch w/ CAT6 run throughout the house and CAT 6 patch cables between the wall and computers.

Generally, only one computer is utilizing the network at a time. I use my HTPC to rip my movies and then transfer them to the server. I'm just starting the process of ripping my collection and noticed some lengthy transfers when moving 100GB+ of data.
 
It's not "kickass" per se, but it is going to give you double or close to double the performance given if you have a proper network switch than some cheap onboard.
what do you use in your machines? looking at your pics of Galaxy, I didn't see any discrete NICs
 
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