News - Microsoft removing Drive Extender from next version of Windows Home Server

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‘Vail’ and related SMB products will not include drive duplication tech.

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Read more.

This is completely crazy. I was really looking forward to a having a Vail server and DE was the main reason. Had some bad experience with raids. Going to try out amahi now!

What he ^^ said.

DE is a major factor for WHS appealing, and without it, I lose any interest at all.

What intrigues me is the quote ...

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The announcement also explained that feedback from the small and medium business markets ....

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Excuse me, but what what part of Windows Home Server are those morons at MS not understanding? This was supposed to be positioned as a home product, not a small or medium business one.

Microsoft been Microsoft, waring factions inside the firm. Looks like the WHS team wants to make their system higher performing... Yey!

By all means promote hardware RAID, encorage the OEMs to offer it, demonstrate its performance advantages but seriously? I hope for a U turn.

It seems Microsoft has been massaging the news somewhat. Paul Thurrott's posted comments regarding a discussion he had with Microsoft's Kevin Kean:

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"Drive Extender was a neat feature, but the implementation was off, and we discovered some application compatibility and disk tool problems related to its ability to correct data errors on the fly," Microsoft general manager Kevin Kean told me. "We don't want to give customers problems; we want to give them solutions. So ultimately, we decided that we needed to cut out Drive Extender. Removing Drive Extender will make file shares easy, and it's possible to accomplish most of its features otherwise. For example, you use the server's centralized backup or even RAID as an alternative to data duplication."

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I was gutted when the news broke yesterday. I'd already begun planning a custom built replacement for my trusty HP box as WHS v1 has served me well, I'd anticipated v2 would do the same. DE v1 does have its problems, streaming large media files can get a little choppy, and with it being 32bit, it has compatibility issues with large hard drives (2TB and greater). I'd hoped DE v2 would have rectified that but alas it looks like it won't be happening any time soon, if at all.

To me, and many others (plenty of comments on both WeGotServed and MediaSmartServer.net), the future of WHS sans DE is now questionable. I don't want to be reliant on 3rd party solutions for data duplication, and despite having the technical know-how, I would have preferred not to have to manage a less flexible RAID setup.

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Originally Posted by Saracen

What he ^^ said.

DE is a major factor for WHS appealing, and without it, I lose any interest at all.

What intrigues me is the quote ...

Excuse me, but what what part of Windows Home Server are those morons at MS not understanding? This was supposed to be positioned as a home product, not a small or medium business one.

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WHS has always been a home and small business technology, despite the name. With the introduction of Vail, they're introducing a 25-license Active Directory capable version specifically for slightly larger businesses (as far as I know, may not be 100% accurate).

Nonetheless, this is ridiculous. Drive extender is the sole reason I like WHS. If it's removed from Vail, I'll probably install Server 2008 on my WHS box instead... no point whatsoever.

Like most, I was under the impression that this was WHS's "USP" (key feature). Certainly it was one of the most talked-about features in the press when it came out. Without it, I really can't see what the advantage is over a multi-disc NAS box (from one of the usual suspects).

*goes hunting for Dell Perc 5i on ebay*

Irritating, as I was hoping to add drives as I needed them, but I suppose I can guess my storage requirements and just buy the drives in one go....

Flipping crazy. I'm sticking with my original WHS then.

I never like the idea of WHS so not really a deal braking news for me.

IF I wanted to run RAID1 I would, without WHS that is..

Storing not redundant data its not for me and needing 50% of my storage to make it redundant isn't for me either.

What's so special about WHS as opposed to a proper RAID array?

*Runs rather quickly to put flame-proof coat on*

well its not RAID1, its RAID5.

That is the point of WHS, its replicated storage for people who don't know the difference between RAID5 and RAID1, or who cba to do any boring admin work.

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Originally Posted by spoon_

I never like the idea of WHS so not really a deal braking news for me.

IF I wanted to run RAID1 I would, without WHS that is..

Storing not redundant data its not for me and needing 50% of my storage to make it redundant isn't for me either.

What's so special about WHS as opposed to a proper RAID array?

*Runs rather quickly to put flame-proof coat on*

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You don't get it do you.

The whole point behind WHS was that oem's made a all in one box with WHS on and sold it to the home user who didn't need much more training other then told to click here, Simple and Effective, no fuss or mess. They didn't have to concern themselfs with raid this or that, it just worked.

Now one of the USP's of the system is being taken out i don't think i will be getting the new version at all and i can not see me putting this fwd for recomendation to thoese that ask about doing this or that.

Really what are MS thinking......

Does it matter? RAID5 (even bios/soft RAID) will fill in for both file duplication and drive extender, and do it better and more consistently. Nothing of value was lost.

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

well its not RAID1, its RAID5.

That is the point of WHS, its replicated storage for people who don't know the difference between RAID5 and RAID1, or who cba to do any boring admin work.

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Hardly. There are a lot of benefits over RAID, like the fact that you can plug any of the disks into any old USB caddy and all of the files are ready and accessible. And there are no rebuild times or increased risk of failure as a consequence of RAID recovery, it's all more or less instantaneous and transparent, although its inner workings are adequately hidden to prevent you making a hash of it.

The fact that so many of us, who are tech-minded enough to know exactly what RAID is, are using WHS proves that there's a lot more to it than "NAS for idiots".

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Originally Posted by dave87

*goes hunting for Dell Perc 5i on ebay*

Irritating, as I was hoping to add drives as I needed them, but I suppose I can guess my storage requirements and just buy the drives in one go....

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You can still add drives as you need/get them on a real RAID card. Oh, and I would recommend looking at the 6i cards instead. With large drives, RAID-6 is the way to go in my opinion.

This is Microsoft's worst decision in a long time. The whole point of WHS was simplified and reliable Home PC backup and replicated storage, and Drive Extender delivered that. You don't need to worry about separate backups or RAID (or the additional cost & hassle of managing these as your storage needs grow). Without Drive Extender, WHS Vail is dead on arrival.

This decision is creating a furore across the WHS consumer base - check out the comments here:

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b...-extender.aspx

I won't be upgrading my WHS to Vail without DE, and I won't be recommending Vail as a Home Server solution to anyone. You don't need an 'IT guy' with WHS. You may as well just build a home server with a full server OS, set up a simple linux server, or use a NAS. And fill in the other gaps (backup, RAID storage growth etc) yourself by various less elegant means.