Windows Home Server Operating System

[Inferno]

TechReviewSource.com - Your One-Stop Source for Technology Reviews - Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server is just one of the many operating system products that Microsoft has been working on for the past few years and now they have released a public beta to try out before it makes its retail release this fall. It is meant to be installed on an old PC and is designed to run "headless" (without a mouse, keyboard, or monitor). It is basically a home server that automatically backs up your home networks' computers and allows you to store your digital media and files on the server to access them from a centralized location on your network.

Windows Home Server (WHS) is actually built off of Windows Server 2003's codebase, so you know that it's a really solid operating system and has lots of administrative features for networks. What Microsoft has done is made it so you don't have to ever touch the server computer after you install the OS because you administer the server from the Windows Home Server Client Console from a client PC connected to the network. From there you do everything from create user accounts, manage the servers's storage, and use WHS add-ins. The console's interface is really sleek and easy to use.

For those of us that likes to blow through reading, this is not the successor to Windows NT/2000/Server 2003. Consider it a stripped down Windows Server 2003 with Vista visual style, used solely to backing up your machines on the network. Hopefully they can keep the price close to $100, this could be very useful installed on an older machine that you don't use anymore.

[Stan]

I guess that's cool... but I bet they try to charge like $250 for it.

[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by Inferno

For those of us that likes to blow through reading,

You're right, it is an interesting alternative for an old PC. I set one up just a month or two ago with XP, it's done what I need, but this would have (probably) been easier to manage remotely.

[Vicious]

So what's so great about this thing? I already have my old computer running windows xp and I can backup all my stuff through my wireless.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Vicious

So what's so great about this thing? I already have my old computer running windows xp and I can backup all my stuff through my wireless.

Simplicity.

[Bitter]

i'd be interested in "buying" it linux is sort of a pain in the ass, since i cant write to my ntfs drive and windows doesnt like to write to linux partitions.

[Anus!]

FAQ and Known Issues - Windows Home Server

question I have is how do you know if your mother board is APCI compliant? I have an oldER Dell desktop that I'd like ot use for this. I just have to replaced the hard drives but I'm not sure if the mother board has the windows 2003 server drivers or not.

[scoliosis]

Weren't they saying this is only available as an OEM product? HP has a product out there that is suppose to run this like a NAS thingamy I think.

[Anus!]

I'm not sure. I'm liking that little HP server they have in the one video. that would be great if it's somewhat cheap.

[Bitter]

Originally Posted by Anus!

FAQ and Known Issues - Windows Home Server

question I have is how do you know if your mother board is APCI compliant? I have an oldER Dell desktop that I'd like ot use for this. I just have to replaced the hard drives but I'm not sure if the mother board has the windows 2003 server drivers or not.

iirc if its within the last 4-5 years and has the energystar, a soft power button, and supports things like suspend, sleep, or spinning the drives down, then its compliant. the only boards i've seen that werent were some OLD socket 7s,8's, 486's, etc. they all were AT boards, my old P2 board from a gateway was APCI,

[Tearstone]

Try Ubuntu.

[Bitter]

Originally Posted by Tearstone

Try Ubuntu.

what i want is to be able to remotely power my system on and off and logon remotely. tell me how to do that on 6.01 and i'll walk to florida and juggle your nuts.

[Anus!]

the home server will work great for me. see this is my main plan for network achitecture and backup.

I will have one or two desktops at home along with the server. the server will probably have the system drive and two 750Gb WD drives. the desktops will have a single 74Gb raptor or maybe a 150Gb raptor drive for gaming purposes.

then I have my laptop which will travel with me where ever I go.

then I will have my 320Gb external drive strictly for backing up my photos and music. I still have 200Gb left on that drive so it's way more than enough. that drive will stay at work.

now, I take photos, upload them to the server on the shared folder which can be accessed by any computer on the network. the server backs up every computer each night or once a week (I don't make many changes so once a week would be fine) with the dual 750's it's backed up so if one drive fails I still have all the data. then for photos and/or music I can access the server remotely from work and copy the new files to the external drive at work so that if something happened at home (break in, flood, fire) the important files are still safe on the external drive at work.

[Phinhead54]

Throw a DVD backup in there every once in a while and you'll be set!

[LuxoDave]

This is cool.

Another really awesome feature is the remote access ability that comes built-in to WHS. From any browser from anywhere, you can remotely connect to your server and access your files shares and even remotely connect to your individual network PCs as long as your PC's operating system supports it. Microsoft even provides you with a subdomain of your choice at https://xxxxx.homeserver.com to remotely connect to your server using your user name and password. (Microsoft requires you to have a Windows Live ID, which are free, to sign up for the free domain.)

[scoliosis]

Originally Posted by Bitter

what i want is to be able to remotely power my system on and off and logon remotely. tell me how to do that on 6.01 and i'll walk to florida and juggle your nuts.

Have a system that has Wake On Lan capabilities and you can run whatever OS you want. You power on the system by sending it a magic packet (non internet routeable so you'll need a bounce box or a router that lets you login and send magic packet. Power it off using the OS. Unless there's anything physical, I don't think the OS can make the machine come on by it's own.

[Tearstone]

Originally Posted by Bitter

what i want is to be able to remotely power my system on and off and logon remotely. tell me how to do that on 6.01 and i'll walk to florida and juggle your nuts.

Read scoliosis's post. What kind of remote login are you looking to do? You should be able to ssh into your box.

[scoliosis]

Originally Posted by scoliosis

Have a system that has Wake On Lan capabilities and you can run whatever OS you want. You power on the system by sending it a magic packet (non internet routeable so you'll need a bounce box or a router that lets you login and send magic packet. Power it off using the OS. Unless there's anything physical, I don't think the OS can make the machine come on by it's own.

Oh yeah, you could also get a managed power strip like the cyclades. Have your BIOS configured to auto power on when power is fed to it and you can power cycle the machine via the power strip. You'll still need a machine to connect to the power strip though, unless you want to put it out on public internet and risk people remotely cycling your box for you

[Bitter]

Originally Posted by scoliosis

Have a system that has Wake On Lan capabilities and you can run whatever OS you want. You power on the system by sending it a magic packet (non internet routeable so you'll need a bounce box or a router that lets you login and send magic packet. Power it off using the OS. Unless there's anything physical, I don't think the OS can make the machine come on by it's own.

ya, i dont want it sleeping all the time since i dont often need files off it. sitting wasting power is a no no for me. i might could splice into the soft power button and run some wires alongside the cat5 to a switch at my desk, that way i can turn it on and off, but logon to linux?

[Anus!]

Originally Posted by Phinhead54

Throw a DVD backup in there every once in a while and you'll be set!

I'm not going to bother with that until the blu ray stuff comes WAY down in price. this way I'll have 3 backups (HDD wise) and 2 in different locations. once I can fit more than a memory card on a DVD then I'll back up to DVD. as it is now I'll need over 20 normal DVD's or about 10-12 dual layer DVDs.

[scoliosis]

Originally Posted by Bitter

ya, i dont want it sleeping all the time since i dont often need files off it. sitting wasting power is a no no for me. i might could splice into the soft power button and run some wires alongside the cat5 to a switch at my desk, that way i can turn it on and off, but logon to linux?

You can do pretty much everything from the command line in Linux via SSH. If you really need a GUI, you can install FreeNX or VNC on the Linux server and run the client from your desktop to it. It works just like rdesktop. Wake on lan doesn't require your machine to be in standby. It wakes the system up via the BIOS and network card on an ATX system. It's the software equivalent of pushing the soft power button on your system meaning the OS does not need to be up and running.

[Bitter]

Originally Posted by scoliosis

You can do pretty much everything from the command line in Linux via SSH. If you really need a GUI, you can install FreeNX or VNC on the Linux server and run the client from your desktop to it. It works just like rdesktop. Wake on lan doesn't require your machine to be in standby. It wakes the system up via the BIOS and network card on an ATX system. It's the software equivalent of pushing the soft power button on your system meaning the OS does not need to be up and running.

ah cool, i dont know tho if the board and card i have will do that its and old gateway board, jabil something or other. amd athlon, slotA, 700mhz. nothing fast, just it was dirt cheap and ALOT more stable than my old P3 board ever was.

[scoliosis]

Originally Posted by Bitter

ah cool, i dont know tho if the board and card i have will do that its and old gateway board, jabil something or other. amd athlon, slotA, 700mhz. nothing fast, just it was dirt cheap and ALOT more stable than my old P3 board ever was.

In that case you might want to look at the managed power strips. They cost a bit but it will do the job for pretty well. We use them in data centers for remote power cycles when the out of band management system can't be accessible.

[dazed1]

Originally Posted by scoliosis

In that case you might want to look at the managed power strips. They cost a bit but it will do the job for pretty well. We use them in data centers for remote power cycles when the out of band management system can't be accessible.

yeah, abt 1200-2k

[scoliosis]

Nah... List is $750, prolly get it around $400 from a distributor. But then of course at that price, you might as well build a new system that does support WOL That ancient Gateway might have WOL capabilities though, I have an ancient P3-500 Dell XPS from 98-99 that has it. Check the motherboard and nic for the connector. Small 3 pin connector about 5-10mm in width.

[Anus!]

HP Mediasmart Home Server Now Available to Pre-order Online in the USA, Shipping Late November | We Got Served

preorder now. I'm gonna wait at least until I move. pretty good prices though.