Hey Will be building up a G530 based windows home server in the next few days, using 2x2Gb DDR3 and an Asrock Z68Pro3 board I have spare, will not be using RAID in any form as I do full mirrored backups to two identical drives that I hotswap with my NAS currently. Anyone have a Win Home Server 2011 build already up and running and have any tips hardware or software wise for things to look out for? Never used the OS before, only used a basic Synology NAS and just wanted something a bit more expandable that I can tinker with. Cheers
I went from a Synology to a WHS11. Its super straight forward. If you can use windows 7 you can use WHS11.
Don't forget the 8GB RAM limit and keep in mind the 160GB hard drive requirement. If you need drive pooling, then i can recommend Drive Bender (i used it on my former WHS2011 box), but AFAIK there are few more alternatives. And look around for more WHS2011 plugins, maybe something will be interesting for you. The only thing i disliked with WHS2011 was the client software you had to install on your computers, to be exact the inability of that software to run at start up minimized.
I can't recommend Lights-Out highly enough - fantastic piece of software for starting your server when you want, hibernating it when you want (it can't wake the server from off) and waking the server / shutting it down when client computers are active / off. I upgraded from the free version so I could get it to stay on when IP clients were active (not just those with the client software installed). You can also monitor uptime (to begin with my server was waking itself in the middle of the night as I'd stuffed up some of the WoL settings... ) Check out the forums / main site at www.wegotserved.com - really helpful lists and explanations of the different add-ins available and the developers of most of the add-ins (like Lights-Out) are active on the forums too. Exactly why I love it so much They've updated it with the most fantastic option "Always minimize the launchpad at start" Edit 1: I guess he's referring to the Launchpad program you install on your Windows machines Edit 2: I also have Acronis Drive Monitor installed on mine (you can install many Win 7 compatible programs on WHS2011) to monitor my drives - it's set up to email a weekly report to myself about drive health etc and also if it detects any errors. Edit 3: (lol) I also don't use the Windows built-in backup as I read accounts of it failing to work - I use SyncBack Free to backup my documents etc. This may well hopefully be my last edit (although I won't guarantee that!)
Yeah, the launchpad - the little green window with links to the management interface, remote access and which AFAIK performs the backups as well etc.
That always popping up was really annoying wasn't it! Yeah - that's been fixed now so you never see it unless you need it
Cheers for the tips guys, few good things in there. I had no idea that 160Gb was the minimum limit, and went and bought myself a 60Gb SSD to use as the boot drive! Have done a bit of googling though and apparently it can be installed to a 60Gb drive with a few small modifications! http://connecteddigitalworld.com/20...n-ssd-or-sata-hard-drives-smaller-than-160gb/ Just got my G530 today and will be test booting the system later with the memory from this machine, will get the other parts on monday (install disk + RAM) so will hopefully get to play with it then.
I never realised about that limit either. Seems strange seeing as my WHS2011 installation only takes up 37Gb...
Hi everyone, The pop up window Is Not required to be started for the backups to run FYI, you can remove it from MS Config It is the Windows Server Launchpad (Sometimes it appears as Windows Operating System) and once removed all functionality still works, and you no longer have the annoying popup I can provide screenshots to anyone who requires them
Still using WHS V1 lol I would hate to lose drive pooling and duplication options. Gonna wait a bit before I move to this for these drive pooling addons to mature a bit and then I will work out what's the best one for me. Upto now it would be "Stablebit Drivepool" its Final and most seem to like it. also recommend "lights out" it really is a must have.
You can get around the 160 gig drive with the ini on a usb trick. Stupid as the main drive doesnt need to be anywhere near that big!
It does work for a storage server, which has the same requirements, so I expect it would do here as well.
I've had mine set up for a while now, with WHS2011. I must admit, I need to set up LightsOut on mine sometime as I boot it up when needed and rdp to shutdown usually, bit daft I know but I've not sat down with it properly. It streams without any issue using the default setup. I've found the built in backup works well. I also point my Win8 PC to backup to it for the file history backup feature. I've found jTunes to be great as a service run on bootup to enable iTunes media sharing. I use mine to basically stream and backup, nothing special.
Well, memory and install disk arrived, have done the cfg.ini trick and it worked perfectly so currently installing happily to a 60Gb SSD. You do have to watch the install closely, as the reboot comes around quite quickly when you need to remove the pen drive and could easily catch you out. Currently all sitting on a removable motherboard tray as I have no case, need to rectify that soon...
Its a quality little home OS. Also quite snazzy that it has its own mobile browser so when you log in from your phone its easy to get to your stuff. You never get stuck without music or films, ever! Loads and loads of stuff to play with.
The pendrive actually adds a line entry in essentials that stops it running the cfg.ini again (I build WSSE 2008R2 boxes and drives me insane)
