What home server OS would you recommend?

[cheesemp]

I've got an old Dell Server (just a poweredge sc440 with a Pentium D in it) that I'd like to use as a home server. I'm ideally going to use it to auto backup 2 laptops and a PC. I'm also looking to use it to share the odd photo, music and video but nothing too taxing. I've stuck two 2Tb Sata drives in it (which would be software RAID'd or equiv) plus an old 200Gb Sata drive for OS so storage should be ok.

I've got a technet subscription so decided to try Server 2012 Essentials as a first pass for OS but it keeps getting stuck during install at the 7% mark. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience of 2012 essentials and would recommend it or would Home Server 1/2012 be a better bet on the lower spec hardware. Also a bit tempted with avahi as a linux box...

[Bluecube]

I'm currently trying out Xubuntu. I've installed Webmin for easy administration, set up Samba and will be using PS3Server for media streaming. I also have Squeezebox Server installed. So far, so straightforward.

Not sure about the autobackups but you could look into RSync which is very good.

I'm using a HP Microserver N40L for reference.

[scaryjim]

It might be worth checking which Pentium it is and what power-saving features it has: if its an old Prescott Pentium D then it'll be a power hog and may not have many of the modern power-saving technologies that we take for granted to keep power draw reasonable. My old Celeron D (socket 478) rig used to pull almost 100W at idle with just a GeForce 8400 graphics card. Leave that on 24/7 (which you presumably will, if it's a server) and you're looking at a minimum of £100 electric usage over a year, probably more (particularly if its a more powerful Pentium and a server board with hardware controllers etc.). Whilst it's a nice idea to reuse old hardware, it might not be the most economical, or even environmentally-friendly, option!

As far as OS goes, my understanding is that if you want a simple set-it-up-and-leave-it backup Windows Home Server is the way to go. If you want to persist with Win Server then check what hard drive controllers the server has and whether you need to install drivers for them during start up (and even if drivers are available for the version of Win Server you want to use). I'd only go linux if you're already familiar with or you want to become familiar with it for CV purposes - if you've got no interest in it apart from to run a backup server (and you can access to all the MS OSes anyway) I personally wouldn't bother.

[Saracen]

A lot of the enthusiasm for WHS died when MS removed Drive Extender in the later versions. I know a lot of people that refused, rightly or wrongly, to upgrade for exactly that reason. I certainly lost interest in v2 at that point because it was one of the major attractions, for me.

[Bambooz]

Pentium D = Pentium 4 Prescott x2 -> avoid (125W TDP on some models!)
Pentium Dualcore = Core 2 Duo with half the cache -> okay (65W TDP on all models, actual power consumption is usually much less than that)

As for Windows as the Server-OS.. just keep in mind what the consumer-grade counterpart is..:
Server 2012 = Windows 8
Server 2008 R2 = Windows 7
Server 2008 = Vista
Server 2003 (R2) = "XP" (newer kernel .. technically an updated version of XP)

Windows Home Server = Server 2003 R2
Windows Home Server 2011 = Stripped down Windows 7 that doesn't have all the actual server functions the previous version had

I'm currently using Server 2008 R2 on a Atom D425 1.8GHz (Singlecore with HT) with 2GB DDR3. Despite the ultra low specs, it performs well and the RAM usage is suprisingly low (considering it's basically Win7 ; currently about 700MB with everything running as normal), but S2008 is obviously not made to be a homeserver OS, so you're on your own software-wise. I got it for free though (Dreamspark), so I'm not complaining

[BobF64]

A lot of the enthusiasm for WHS died when MS removed Drive Extender in the later versions. I know a lot of people that refused, rightly or wrongly, to upgrade for exactly that reason. I certainly lost interest in v2 at that point because it was one of the major attractions, for me.

The loss of DE never worried me as I wasnt using v1 and was going for a clean WHS 2011 install on a "large" hardware RAID array.

If youre building a non-expanding server, ie youre buying and/or fitting all the disks you can from the offset, WHS 2011 is very nice, and for the price its a bargain copy of Windows Server.

I did try out Windows Storage Server Essentials, I dont know how much it is like 2012 Essentials, but the problem I had was that you cant actually buy copies of these things, which was a bit of a pain tbh.

[cheesemp]

ScaryJim - You're very right I'm sure it will be power hog but I'm only planning to have it for 6 months or a year to see how well the idea works in practice with the family (I'm also not planning to run it 24x7). If all goes well I hoping to get one of the HP N40L Microservers next time they are on offer. I'll also be able to justify the cost when the wife see's what it does. I'm pretty conversant in Linux having setup a few servers in my time (plus even more windows servers) but I do prefer the idea of automatic imaging WHS or WSE both provide (hence my preference for Windows bluecube!).

For the record i'm very familar with servers - just not in the home environment!

[scaryjim]

Pentium D = Pentium 4 Prescott x2 -> avoid (125W TDP on some models!)

Not entirely accurate aka "actually, I think you'll find..."

The Pentium Ds were split between 95W and 130W TDPs, but some models (the later steppings) feature EIST to reduce power consumption at idle. Those wouldn't be too bad for a server (although still wouldn't be as energy efficient as a modern system). The earlier steppings without EIST should be avoided like the plague though

[BobF64]

Windows Home Server 2011 = Stripped down Windows 7 that doesn't have all the actual server functions the previous version had

It is? Looks an awful lot like a cut down version of Windows Server 2008 R2 to me, complete with pretty much all the basic Server components, except Domain Controller and probably a few others, rather than a bodged up version of Windows 7 made to look like a server.

[cheesemp]

ScaryJim - I think its an 820 or 920 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...icroprocessors) as its 2.8Ghz and they are the only two 2.8Gghz Pentium Ds I can find. In which case they do support EIST (which ties in the with the speedstep settings I saw in the BIOS last night).

Edit: Actually its likely a 915 as I've found others selling the same model with this processor.

[peterb]

I use Fedora as the OS on my home server - the processor is a Via 1.2Ghz and it performs very well with software raid, overlaid with a logical volume structure for maximum flexibility in space allocation.

[scaryjim]

yeah, the 820 doesn't support EIST at all, the 920 supports it with the C1 stepping but not the B1. The 915 supports it full stop. Aren't you glad that Intel's feature support list is easy to understand

From the other specs and a quick google it looks like it's almost certainly a 915, I agree. In which case it's got EIST, and shouldn't be too bad at all powerwise.

I've always thought WHS was a heavily stripped-down version of Windows Server with some specialist storage function GUIs, rather than a trumped up version of a client OS. tbh for your purposes I don't think I'd look past WHS, it should do everything you need with the least hassle (which, if you're managing servers in your day job, is probably what you want when you get home, rather than another hour of server admin ).

If you do want to go proper Win Server, biggest issue to me looks like it'll be driver support for Server 2012 - the sc440 was a Server 2003 machine originally and is > 6 years old now, so basically EOL for most enterprise renewal cycles (I'm sure that's teaching you to suck eggs, cheesemp, but it might help others who read this thread ). A quick google doesn't show any obvious results for 2012 drivers, and whilst you'd hope the chipsets would still be supported you might hit problems with custom Dell firmware or some such.

[cheesemp]

Thanks for the advice scaryjim. I'm quite tempted with the original WHS now. It should fly on the old hardware. I was hoping for something newer like Server 2012 essentials (which is supposed to replace WHS) but if i'm just going to replace this in 6~12 months then I can always make that decision later. I just need to check it supports Win 7 backups okay. If not WHS 2011 will have to do.

For the record I'm just going to use Windows dynamic drives to set up a basic software RAID as performance isn't an issue (yet!).

[jimborae]

It is? Looks an awful lot like a cut down version of Windows Server 2008 R2 to me, complete with pretty much all the basic Server components, except Domain Controller and probably a few others, rather than a bodged up version of Windows 7 made to look like a server.

You're correct WHS 2011 is a cut down version of Server 2008 R2 not Win 7 and it's actually not that bad for the job although as Saracen said the removal of DE is a major pita.