Windows Home Server V2 - code name "Vail" public preview

[Moby-Dick]

Running this as a VM in workstation 7 ( thin provisioned disk FTW )

[Champman99]

A little off topic, but this thread reminded me of it. My current storage PC is running Windows 7. I was very interested in moving to Windows Home Server for the software Raid features.

I got Server 2008 r2 from Dreamspark for free, but I cant run that because I currently use Xbox 360 for my TV streaming device, and you cant use Server 2008 for that, (and using something like Tversity is problematic as well)

Firstly, does Windows Home Server support streaming to the 360 as a media extender.

Secondly and most importantly - if I was to install WHS and use the Raid5 simulation type thing on 3 storage drives (OS would be on a seperate drive), what happens if the OS needs to be reinstalled, for example an expired beta, or a problem. It seems like a crazy failure risk considering that if I just left the drives as is the OS could fail no problem and I could just slot the drive into another machine. (Though of course I still have the risk of a failed drive)

If I'm not using the hard drive features, someone sell me on the benefits of WHS compared to just running a server with Windows 7.

Sorry if its a bit off topic, but seems lots of WHS fans in the thread.

[Moby-Dick]

You can do software raid in Server 2008 if you wanted to , however as is the case with many things , just because you can, doesn't always mean you should ! I'd go for some form of hardware raid over software any time ( even if it was nasty onboard , which I 've had to use , but thats mailny due to being too tight to buy a proper S-ATA raid controller - they are not cheap ! )

I'd have thought WHS v1 would support streaming to an xbox 360 ( can't try it for you as I've noly got a classic xbox and a PS3 )

[doddsy]

Yeah you can stream from home server to a 360. Only files supported by the xbox though, unless you want to transcode on the fly (meaning a more powerful server machine would be needed).

I think the OS is on a partition, I've never needed to re-install so not sure. Iirc you can now backup the OS onto an external drive for extra backed-up-ness.

[jim]

Yeah, the OS is on its own partition.

The point is, it doesn't matter. If you lose the OS, you just reinstall it. Your files are fine, the only thing you need to is recreate user accounts and reinstall add-ins, then it's as if nothing ever happened.

[Champman99]

Hmm, i'm still confused guys! (Sorry!)

Currently the system is:

250GB Hard drive, Windows 7

3*500GB Each individually formatted for storage. Now I wanted these to be Raid5, but then I broke the raid card I bought (long story), and my motherboard only supports Raid0 and Raid1.

So now my plan would be WHS on the 250GB Drive, and then the 3*500GB Drives in some sort of drive extender type thingy.

I think what you are saying is that I could reinstall WHS (if something went wrong) on the 250GB drive, and that the drive extender volume would be maintained? Would it be automatically detected or would it have to be re-initalized or something.

Also do the drives need to be in AHCI mode or anything for a Drive Extender volume (currently in IDE emulation mode I think)? I have downloaded the public preview, so may have a play later if I can find space on other machines to back everything up.

[jim]

Hmm, i'm still confused guys! (Sorry!)

Currently the system is:

250GB Hard drive, Windows 7

3*500GB Each individually formatted for storage. Now I wanted these to be Raid5, but then I broke the raid card I bought (long story), and my motherboard only supports Raid0 and Raid1.

So now my plan would be WHS on the 250GB Drive, and then the 3*500GB Drives in some sort of drive extender type thingy.

I think what you are saying is that I could reinstall WHS (if something went wrong) on the 250GB drive, and that the drive extender volume would be maintained? Would it be automatically detected or would it have to be re-initalized or something.

Also do the drives need to be in AHCI mode or anything for a Drive Extender volume (currently in IDE emulation mode I think)? I have downloaded the public preview, so may have a play later if I can find space on other machines to back everything up.

Oh I see what you mean. Right.

Don't dictate to WHS what to do - no RAID, no messing around like that. Just have all the hard drives you want inserted, and install WHS.

That goes on the system disk (don't know if you get to pick which drives that is, I don't get to choose but I'm using a bought machine with a custom build of WHS), and then the remaining drives plus leftover space on system become data disks. WHS pools all of the drives together, and combines them all into one huge D: partition - that's why you don't use RAID or anything like that. Then if you want you can select certain folders that should be duplicated, and it will keep each file in that folder on two drives rather than just one, making it redundant.

That's the whole point of WHS - it's simple. Running out of space? Insert a new 2TB drive and WHS will start using it for storage. Want to remove a dodgy 500GB disk? Tell WHS you'd like to remove it, and WHS will move all of your files off it, tell you when it's done and then you can pull it out. No mucking around, you just put drives in there and let it do its thing.

If you have a system disk failure, then you take out the offending disk. Let's assume any data files you had stored on that disk were duplicated using the feature I mentioned earlier, so no actual data has been lost. If there's enough space left on the disks, get cracking - or buy a new disk and insert it into the system. Install WHS, and you get two options. Fresh install, wipe all data or Reinstall, retain all data. And there's no initialisation process - once the OS is installed, the data is ready to be used.