News - Microsoft’s Vail becomes Windows Home Server 2011 for RC launch

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Rumours turn out to be true, as next-gen server OS becomes available for testing.

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Read more.

Like I said before, without Drive Extender this product is useless.

I won't be upgrading to it.

I watched the demo video and I must say I am little dumbfounded by the shared folder approach.

In WHS v1 I currently have one Movies shared folder which automatically spans many hard drives.

On the new WHS Vail I would assume I would need to create multiple Movie shared folders, possibly one for each drive, all with slightly differing names.

Have I understood correct, as this seems like a pile of pants?

Can't we have virtual shared folders which are made up of n number of physical shared folders underneath, even if you have to configure that bit yourself?

Surely Vail could then work out where best to store the data, and where to acquire it from when requested, it doesn't sound that hard to do, just a simple index with some disk sizing logic would do the trick.

Not interested in upgrading based on Vails backwards storage approach. It's the storage management and backup facility that are the key selling components for WHS everything else like remote logins, streaming functionality are nice to haves.

Thankfully still very happy with WHS v1.

Cant see me upgrading either, the only thing wrong with my WHS box is the poor network performance, and even if they improved that 100x under Vail the removal of drive extender makes the whole thing a bit useless..

The only problem I have is that sometimes when streaming video files they would pause and skip for no apparant reason.

It seems that WHS should have been enabled to know that when someone is doing or watching something that they shouldnt starting transferring files over all the HDD's.

It seems rather than fix the bugs they just took the easy way out and binned it. I'm not going to part my money for a lazy company. Linux can do anything this Vail can. The whole point of WHS was the drive extender as it made everything easy for noobs like me.

For anyone that knows what theya re doing then they would already have linux and wont be swayed by Vail whatsoever.

Still don't agree, DE was unique. No matter how happy you are with RAID and the like, it just doesn't represent a like-for-like solution.

Certainly for me - and a I daresay a good many others - WHS without DE is like Blackadder's proverbial broken pencil; pointless.

+1 to the above views. IT doesn't matter what MS call it. As it stands, I have no interest in the new version at all, and sadly, it's pretty clear MS do not plan on changing tack. Oh well.

I saw a demo of vail and also (what is now) SBS 2011 sometime last year. The drive extender technology looked very slick and mature. No idea why they'd remove such a useful feature.

What you guys moan about? DE is out and nice fancy and colourful wizard to copy your data around gets introduced.

Microsoft will keep you sweet no matter what!

Question: I have 500gig left on my 6tb server.

If I upgrade to Vail, will it delete everything on my server as it removes the extended drive, or will it cleverly just reassign the content to new folders?

Seems a bit daft if it just scrubs everything.

Anyone know?

Can you even do an upgrade?

I presume WHS is still aimed at OEMs selling appliances rather than end users, so upgrades are out of the question.

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Originally Posted by Funkstar

Can you even do an upgrade?

I presume WHS is still aimed at OEMs selling appliances rather than end users, so upgrades are out of the question.

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Can you upgrade by installing over the top? Don't know, and don't care. I wouldn't do that anyway. Can you take the new version and install it on existing hardware, after copying data off and formatting? Yup. Which is what I would have done.

It's not a retail OS (as far as I know) but is available to buy OEM, not just installed on a WHS appliance like the HP or Tranquil boxes.

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Originally Posted by spoon_

What you guys moan about? DE is out and nice fancy and colourful wizard to copy your data around gets introduced.

Microsoft will keep you sweet no matter what!

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That is so clearly wrong, because so many existing WHS users clearly don't intend to upgrade (or not to Vail anyway) because of the removal of DE.

If I wanted a box and a copy wizard, I can do that with Ubuntu and avoid paying MS any money. Which, as and when the box needs an upgrade, is now precisely what I'll do. With DE, for me at least (and I'm certainly not alone), WHS isn't worth having.

MS has not kept me, or any other DE fan, sweet, in any sense of the word. 'Alienated' would be closer.

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Originally Posted by Shooty*

Question: I have 500gig left on my 6tb server.

If I upgrade to Vail, will it delete everything on my server as it removes the extended drive, or will it cleverly just reassign the content to new folders?

Seems a bit daft if it just scrubs everything.

Anyone know?

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Nope, but I'll give it a test if you like a little later?

Hokay - seems that WHS is x86, whereas Vail is 64 bit only (being based on Server 2008 R2), so there is no straight upgrade path. Hope that helps those of you who have been considering the upgrade anyways :)

I knew that, but never thought about the upgrade implications :)