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windows home server

P

pickxx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 6, 2006
Messages
154
I have read a couple things about this lately, and being on the front page finally made me break down and ask. What in the heck is the difference between this and server 2k3?

I need something for my media server and while its working for now just sharing folders from Win XP to this computer, its not the smoothest for everything.

What are the major benifits? Everything i have read so far is mostly marketing and none of it really gives me a real world perspective. (example....."it will make share media easier" HOW??)


Thanx
 
essentially, easy integration of your file server w/ windows


easier backups, all of your media is in one shared folder (i.e. the 'My Music' on one PC maps to the same location as 'My Music' on another PC - therefore you can share easier), etc. it's really a great idea, my only gripe is that it needs a 1ghz CPU to run :( so much for this BP6 w/ 2 366mhz Celerons....
 
pickxx said:
HOW??
Click to expand...
You must not have read anything that goes into any detail. It basically is able to do everything with wizards and walk-throughs, so people who aren't server admins can set it up and use it's full potential. It's basically Microsoft's more refined attempt at something like ClarkConnect, etc.
 
deeznuts said:
however the front page news that it will not be standalone fucking sucks.
Click to expand...
The last I heard, Microsoft announced at some trade show that it would be available as a standalone product. I wonder if something has changed.
 
you guys have to remember that windows MCE (media center edition) was marketed the same way + you can buy that lots of places. What this really means is you won't be able to walk into best buy/staples/circuit city/office max/office depot/etc and buy boxed software - you'll have to buy a hardware/software bundle. Websites such as newegg should have just the OS available for purchase.. you may have to buy with "hardware" of some sort such as mouse,keyboard, ram, fan etc.

Oh + benefits - I use it mainly for the backups. WHS (windows home server) does a image based backup of your entire hard drive every night by default. It stores these backups as blocks... if two or more computers have the same block, it only stores that block a single time (awesome feature).... it also can keep track of historical backups without wasting a lot of space. You can set it to do something like this - store the first backup of the month for 3 months - store a weekly backup for 2 weeks - store the daily backups for 4 days.

I have three PCs with:
10 gigs on computer A
20 gigs on computer B
80 Gigs on computer C
Stored multiple backups as described above
- I have a total of about 95 gigs used on my WHS. - If I'd use Ghost or another backup program, I'd have 720 gigs from computer C alone with 9 backups stored.

If computer B crashes - hard drive is toast. You repace the drive, put in the bootable WHS connector CD - choose the backup you want to restore - 20 minutes later you have your machine back with all of your data, programs + settings... No OS re-install - no more applying 200 windows updates - no more spending hours downloading all of your programs again... its friggin awesome!

You can also use it as a file server, use it as a gateway into your home network when you are away from home and serve digital media to your Xbox 360 or other media extender - all of those functions also work really well, but my main excitement is over the exceptional backup.
 
teststrips said:
you guys have to remember that windows MCE (media center edition) was marketed the same way + you can buy that lots of places. What this really means is you won't be able to walk into best buy/staples/circuit city/office max/office depot/etc and buy boxed software - you'll have to buy a hardware/software bundle. Websites such as newegg should have just the OS available for purchase.. you may have to buy with "hardware" of some sort such as mouse,keyboard, ram, fan etc.

Oh + benefits - I use it mainly for the backups. WHS (windows home server) does a image based backup of your entire hard drive every night by default. It stores these backups as blocks... if two or more computers have the same block, it only stores that block a single time (awesome feature).... it also can keep track of historical backups without wasting a lot of space. You can set it to do something like this - store the first backup of the month for 3 months - store a weekly backup for 2 weeks - store the daily backups for 4 days.

I have three PCs with:
10 gigs on computer A
20 gigs on computer B
80 Gigs on computer C
Stored multiple backups as described above
- I have a total of about 95 gigs used on my WHS. - If I'd use Ghost or another backup program, I'd have 720 gigs from computer C alone with 9 backups stored.

If computer B crashes - hard drive is toast. You repace the drive, put in the bootable WHS connector CD - choose the backup you want to restore - 20 minutes later you have your machine back with all of your data, programs + settings... No OS re-install - no more applying 200 windows updates - no more spending hours downloading all of your programs again... its friggin awesome!

You can also use it as a file server, use it as a gateway into your home network when you are away from home and serve digital media to your Xbox 360 or other media extender - all of those functions also work really well, but my main excitement is over the exceptional backup.
Click to expand...


I came in here to post my experiences, but you pretty much covered it all.

I use mine as a file server with my "My Documents" type stuff synchronized with my PC via Offline Files. That way I can make changes on the PC and it sync's those changes with the server content. Having multiple copies of my crap holds a lot of value for me. (One copy on the PC, one in my personal folder on the server and one in my nightly backup done by WHS)(Not to mention the 80GB USB drive I use for monthly backups or the documents and pictures I burn to DVD every 6 months or so).

The ability to define Users and their premissions on network resources without having to fool with AD is very nice, and the interface is dead simple. My wife and I have full access to our pictures, where my daughter only has read access. Only I have remote access capability (where you tap in via your livenode address) using the same username and password that I use to log in to my computer at home.

Drive and volume management is also dead simple, where new drives simply increase the amount of available storage space. Redundancy is accomplished in software, where each drive maintains a copy of your personal folder. This feature limits storage space, but is configurable in the GUI. Once the beta is done I will be building a new box with some sort of hardware RAID for the drives that will host the 20GB OS partition, as I believe it only lives on one drive.

The remote access feature is nice for grabbing files from home, or gaining access to your desktop. I've used it a few times so far to grab pictures that need printing or the occasional save game file.

Granted most, if not all of this is doable with 3rd party software. But having it all in one package has been the most interesting project I've had in months.
 
I downloaded and installed the release candidate. The install went very smoothly and the server was up and running in about an hour with very little input from me. The client side install that sets up the back-up and creates the account on the server is dead simple to use. My server currently has 3TB of storage on it and the performance has been decent.

Yes you can do many of the same things with Linux but no-one has yet been able to point me to a distro that does all things that WHS does with so little additional configuration required.

You can also install what are essentially plug-ins. There is one available that runs uTorrent on the server as an example.

All in all it is a solid product so far.
 
deeznuts said:
I'm excited about this product, however the front page news that it will not be standalone f***ing sucks.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9744971-7.html

WTF is up with that? OEM copies leaking to secondary market?
Click to expand...

Accurate reporting would help. It will not be available as a retail product, but there will be a system builder version of it. (Just like you can buy the system builder version of Vista pretty much everywhere.)

Retail - you can call Microsoft for support no matter what platform you put it on, MS staffed help-line
System Builder - OEM manufacturer is responsible for providing support. If you install the OS, you are the OEM and you are responsible for providing your own support. No help-line staffing cost for MS.

I re-purposed what was my Mom's old computer that I still had laying around after I replaced it about a year ago(AMD Sempron 1800+, 768 MB RAM, it was a $199 dollar Fry's Linux special when I bought it and added 512 MB or RAM to make it really usable), added 2 300 GB PATA drives I bought for cheap. It works great!

It's backing up my my primary Vista box, my media center PC, and a couple of XP VM's. I'd get it for the backup and restore capability alone.

When my parents move out to the back woods, which my parents intend to do shortly when my dad retires. I'll definitely set them up with one. Centralized remote capabilities and backup/restore that's dead easy to perform. Its a no brainer for remotely supporting technically challenged parents. At least they will have a decent high speed connection to support them over, 1.5 Mb full duplex residential microwave. Only $50 a month.
 
djnes said:
The last I heard, Microsoft announced at some trade show that it would be available as a standalone product. I wonder if something has changed.
Click to expand...



http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-15WHSNewHardwarePR.mspx

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/16/Microsoft-wraps-up-work-on-Windows-Home-Server_1.html

Sider declined to provide specific release dates for either the system builder version -- standalone software that will allow users to install WHS on older PCs -- or the various hardware products. But he did confirm that an evaluation edition would be available with the eval timing out after 120 days.
Click to expand...
Looks like Shoddy reporting from news.com. Appears it will be for sale for system builders. Wonder if Steve can update the front page.
 
rayman2k2 said:
my only gripe is that it needs a 1ghz CPU to run :( so much for this BP6 w/ 2 366mhz Celerons....
Click to expand...


my bp6 with dual 533's has been retired to ipcop router duty

but i wish it could be my windows home server box :)

id read someone got away with less than the min required ram, i think it was like 382mb or something. im sure u can get away with a lower specced cpu, unless the installer demands it :(

haven't tried that yet though.
 
on the WHS forums, someone got it running on a 400 mhz box.... you will have trouble though with slower CPUs as it needs CPU cycles to figure out where to store backup data... you'll have slow performance... but it should work.
 
i was thinking about getting this for a skt 754 pc using 1gb ram and a turion 1.6ghz cpu, i was wondering if this was avalable for purchase yet?
 
luke51087 said:
i was thinking about getting this for a skt 754 pc using 1gb ram and a turion 1.6ghz cpu, i was wondering if this was avalable for purchase yet?
Click to expand...

It will be available around the end of September, first part of October. You can go ahead and download the release candidate now though.
 
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