Windows Home Server experiences?

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allan

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#83701 24-Aug-2007 23:58

chiefie: .....does it support WM2003 and WM5 and Outlook on Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Email etc? the usual Exchange-Outlook-ActiveSync combo.

Having installed it, no it doesn't. I see the 602LAN Suite beta website mentions Outlook integration, but there is none in this release. There are Thunderbird add-ins, for Calendar and Contacts (also LDAP integration, but I didn't try that), but they only bring up web pages.

As a web based Groupware product it's visually quite attractive and seems to hang together in quite an integrated manner, but it's a little rough around the edges in some places - timezones won't stick, pop-up boxes not in selected language, etc. However, it is a beta.

chiefie

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#83704 25-Aug-2007 00:05

Thanks Allan, I had a feeling that 602 doesn't quite do what I want... however Kerio Mail Server seems to be an ideal alternative without dependency on AD, and can be operated from non-server OS too... or Linux/MacOS if needed be.

I don't have my WHS handy at the moment, if you don't mind being my "guinea pig", would you able to install a trial version for KMS 6.4 on WHS and see if it will co-exist with WHS?

Do be aware that KMS 6.4 also install its web server, so you might have to change the existing IIS/Web setting to a different IP/Port... best consult the KMS manual.

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allan

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#83890 26-Aug-2007 21:10

Had a look at Kerio, which installed without a hitch onto WHS. It's not the most intuitive of admin interfaces & I found myself needing to go & consult the manual. Took me a while to figure out where webmail was actually administered from in order to change the port. Actually, that's one area where I thought Smartermail may have an advantage, rather than use its own web server, Smartermail uses IIS and you can also install it into a subfolder of your main WHS web site.

I set up a couple of POP3 connections to download into my test user and again took a while to figure out how to schedule the connections. There's a separate scheduling menu item. You can't leave the mail sitting on the initial POP3 server if that's important to you.

The integration with Outlook (I used Outlook 2003 - it needs to be at SP2 level) is very impressive and you actually install a connector (separate download) at the desktop end that then allows you to set up a connection to an "Additional Server Type" of Kerio. This then provides a single mailbox view into Kerio in a similar manner to Exchange integration (none of this Outlook Personal Folders, plus a separate set for your mailserver). Kerio provides its own SPAM rule setup and out of office handling.

Webmail also looks good, with individual components (Calendar, Contacts, etc) looking much like OWA 2003. Appointment free/busy views work in both Outlook annd the web interface. There is also a simpler webmail interface that allows plainer access to just email. I didn't try any Activesync stuff as I didn't want to blow away my current Windows Mobile settings. I did note that the web server must be operating on standard ports 80/443 for Activesync to work with Windows Mobile devices.

One thing I found that could be an issue for some is that the email address set up, must match the Kerio Username, i.e. if the username is "minnie", then the domain email address must be minnie@somedomain.com. It seems you can set up secondary email addresses, but not delete the initial one.

Also found a minor bug in Outlook. Kerio installs a toolbar that allows you to treat an individual email as SPAM or not-SPAM and navigating around in Outlook causes multiple SPAM toolbars to be installed, only of whcih is active.

All in all a pretty solid mailserver, although beyond the target WHS market - but then we all knew that anyway.

A while ago I looked at Merak/Visnetic (pre WHS) - don't go there. Its Outlook "groupware" integration is not robust and its webmail interface struggles under load.

adom

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#85366 4-Sep-2007 20:36

Just a few thoughts on my experiances...

As a Freelance photographer, I've been looking around for something to manage the storage of the ever increasing amount of digital files, I think this is where home server realy excells ... If you are running out of space - bung another disk in and away you go... 1TB so far and growing. I also wanted something to act as a centralised store for the familys data and to provide effective backup of my wifes computer, again Home server does this out of the box with little or no geek input.

My bigest concern was backing up the server it's self, first try was the "Enterprise" solution of BackupExec 10d and a LTO2 Library.. Home server and BE do not coexist very well, I could have setup a dedicated Backup server and backed up the shares over the lan but that defeated the purpose of running WHS (Near Slient black box), I have for a few years use a utility called SyncBak, this happily co exists on the WHS box and I've it set to sync the Shares over the net to a NETattached 500 gig drive of which I have two one lives at work and I swap em out on a monday..

Not ideal but it works.

Cheers

Andrew mac

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#85372 4-Sep-2007 21:17

I got my first real play with the RTM version of WHS today. We have built a prototype home server and installed on our network today for more testing. I have to say it is by far the best Windows product yet. Very fast, easy to use and intuitive.

As a result I'm building myself a home server with WHS.

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#85375 4-Sep-2007 21:38

You should not use the NT Backup or any other backup for now... Just wait.

But how you do? You use more than one disc! Instead of having a single very large disc, use smaller discs. So instead of one 1 TB HDD, add two 500 GB HDD. For some folders (the ones you really need backup) set DUPLICATION ON.

DUPLICATION ON will ensure the files are copied in two different units. In case of a disc fault, simply replace the faulty unit and it will be rebuilt automatically.

In case the system disc dies, simply replace that disc, reinstall Windows Home Server with the REBUILD option and it will bring back your files.

Some rules: make sure you have a large primary data disc, because this is the "free" space the system will see. Even if you have 3 TB of disc available, the single largest file you can copy will be limited by the size of the primary data partition. fter a while this file will be "balanced" to another disc, but it may take a few hours, depending on the size.

adom

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#85377 4-Sep-2007 21:49

Good points Mauricio, as I found out the hard way :) ... With duplication running this is a very resilliant solution. Just me being paranoid I like to have my data some there else and the network'd drives solution works well ... looking forward to a true WHS backup solution.

The thing that gets me with WHS is that I would have expexcted Microsoft to have made a HUGE song and dance about the product, heck this is the nicest piece of OS they have produced in a very long time, yet if you hadn't go looking for it, you wouldn't know it exists.

Just need some Sunday Newspapers to send their cheques and I'll be RTMing my beta.

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#85378 4-Sep-2007 21:52

The cool stuff about Windows Home Server is how you can plug and unplug USB, eSATA or Firewire drives and have those show up and be added or removed without having to power down the server.

I've done that this weekend with a new drive added to the pool. Really cool!

allan

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#85389 4-Sep-2007 23:12

I guess the song and dance will actually come when the various vendors actually release their boxes with WHS pre-installed, which if others follow the same path as HP, could well be some months off yet. At present it really just "us lot" who are prepared to take it and stretch it to its limits who really know anything about the product.

Having said that, I see that Microsoft are showcasing it at the upcoming Auckland Home Show http://www.aucklandhomeshow.co.nz/digital.htm

chiefie

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#85409 5-Sep-2007 09:36

I like the look of the HP's MediaSmart Server. A good size, not too huge and just the right bookcase/minitower. I think I can pick that over ReadyNAS/Netgear NV+... though if NV+ be somehow "upgrade" to use WHS, then that might be the way...

I got to try to install the newest build again to test out a new theory that I read, to get WHS to play nice with SBS2003 on web. :-)

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