Windows Home Server (WHS) + HP = AWESOME!
The good folks at HP sent me one of there Windows Home Servers and I just got it up and running. Stay tuned for the wife and I to put it through our usual battering of tests. This terabyte of storage looks like a great place to store the media for my TiVo’s. I am loving the thought of the integrated iTunes aggregator, remote access and automagic client backups. Comments? Thoughts on integration into our lives?
Are you running a Windows Home Server? What Brand? Home Brewed?
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October 17, 2008 - 8:33 am
Now usually I am a big fan of Microsoft’s Server products, however I have to make an exception with Home Server. I tried it, and found that far too many things were corrupted during backup (even SyncToy files get corrupted).
Here is a list of known Issues (and workarounds for many of them): http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whsfaq/threads/
Personally I’d rather shell out some extra coin and get a full version of Server 2008, as so far it seems to be ROCK SOLID.
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October 17, 2008 - 12:04 pm
I got a copy of WHS through a friend from the Microsoft store and put it on a dual Athlon machine I had over a year ago without any data loss. I have a terabyte of storage and have it backing up 5 machines. It ROCKS. When the drive in my son’s machine died, I dug out a different hard drive and put it in with the recovery disk and had his machine back up in 45 minutes.
And it is awesome to have all my pictures and music in one location. As well as the dozens of other cool things I now get with WHS. I could write a full article on it!
If you figure out how to get the TiVo desktop to save to a Windows Home Server share, post that tip because I can’t get it to work with TiVo Desktop 2.6.2.
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 5:55 am
I am all over it! I will keep you posted! Have you tried a mapped drive or using the devices proper UNC path?
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October 17, 2008 - 8:30 pm
Windows Server 2003 is a lot better than WHS. I’d rather fork out extra money for WS2003 Standard R2 than WHS.
Windows Server 2003 can do what WHS can do and a little more extra: It can also act as a DC without having the WHS licenscing service to kick in and disabling the server like crazy. Shouldn’t Microsoft give home users the option of Single Sign On at home? I personally my self have 2 desktops and 2 laptops. The sales reps down at my local computer store recommended me to buy WHS if I only have that much of boxes in my house. Right….
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
October 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Not everyone wants to run active directory in their home – what about your parents? Dear god think of your parents. Do you want them diagnosing DNS issues?
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curriegrad2004 Reply:
October 19th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Well… do my parents diagnose DNS issues? That never happens in my domain.
Here’s my suggestion: They should include AD in the WHS package, but limited to maybe say 5 users? That way everybody in that family has Single Sign On (And no, no family will ever need IAS and x509 certs to implement a WPA2 Enterprise network… Unless you’re me…)
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
October 20th, 2008 at 5:54 am
@Joe – good points but as i always say… Their is a correct tool for every job. Sometimes it is a stripped down OS!
@curriegrad2004 Single Sign On would be awesome don’t get me wrong but on the few machines in my house (not my home office) all have the same usernames and passwords. Everyone with access is configured on the appropriate machines. No big deal for 3 users and a guest account.
If I needed single sign on and to be able to run a ad, a update server or any of the other stuff I am limited to then guess what I would have bought… Server 2003!
When stripping stuff out of an os that you know you will not need eliminates overhead and problems waiting to pop-up. This is the same reason I use custom XP and Vista images with loads of services/features not installed or running.
And as for the “That never happens in my domain” quote those are famous last words! :)
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Joe Glessner Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 9:55 am
True enough, but if I’m going to go to the trouble of configuring an actual server (versus something like a terastation for central network storage), I want to at least be able to use WSUS so that I can keep all the machines patched.
I can see the market for this, but I would put forth that if that is the market that M$ is going after, they should be providing the things that those users will want:
* Print Server
* Automatic backups
* Patch management
* Central file storage
* Single Sign on
* Content Filtering
If M$ can cover all those things well, then they’ll penetrate deep into the market they are targeting.
The problem as I see it, is that there is no “plug and play” solution for those things, so the market you are actually going to be dealing with is not clueless home users, but Power Users and IT Pros (I can’t even imagine my Mom trying to set up a WHS machine), and they are going to quickly become frustrated with the “dumbing down” that M$ has tried to do for the end users.
I guess the bottom line is that the technology isn’t quite there yet for the “plug and play” solution that M$ is shooting for, and until it is, they are going to be disappointed in the results of WHS.
I think the better option at this point in time is to offer WS2003 (or 2008 now) with license restrictions for home use at a similar price point. If M$ were to offer home users the same technologies that they offer businesses at a more reasonable price point (maybe something like $250 instead of $1350) they would have better results, and would be “hooking” the next generation of IT pros on M$ products.
But then if I had all the answers, I’d be working at M$ making the big $$.
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Karl L. Gechlik | AskTheAdmin.com Reply:
October 21st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
WHS can be a print server, has an amazing automated client backup system, wsus will work on WHS with some slight hacking, it is of course a file server and you can do content filtering and network antivirus on this guy as well. But only if it is going to be your client gateway (THis is just what I have read as I am just getting my hands dirty.)
I didn’t pay for it but I am enjoying it’s ease of use. Also I am not sure how much of the nifty features are outright WHS or how many of them are HP. But stay tuned kiddies!
And Joe have you sent your resume in yet :)
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