Windows Home Server replacement

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w2krules

497 posts

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#134037 12-Nov-2013 15:45

My 6-year old WHS box recently died. I decided to put a new server together with the WHS hard drives expecting to have to reinstall the system. Even though I'd bought a Haswell MB which only supported Win 7 and 8 by mistake, WHS fired up without a problem and only needed a driver for the Ethernet controller to run perfectly! Even with a $80 Pentium CPU, it's way faster than it used to be.

Anyway, this exercise brought me face to face with the reality that WHS 1 will soon reach end of life status. And the question is, what on earth do I replace it with???

And do not suggest a NAS box!!!

I was a geek before the word was invented!

Gilco2

1556 posts

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#931568 12-Nov-2013 15:54

whs2011 with stablebit drive pool or windows 8 using storage spaces or Windows 2012 server also using storage spaces OR stablebit drive pool. Apart from that a Linux server but then you may as well get a nas box. I use WHS 2011 and it is great for me.

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sidefx

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#931576 12-Nov-2013 16:16

EDIT: It's probably worth asking yourself whether you actually need to replace it any time soon though. Just because it reachs "end of life" with Microsoft doesn't mean it's just going to stop working. Depending on how you use it it could well keep running fine for months or years more ;-)

I've been using Amahi with Greyhole for drive pooling for a while and it seems pretty good. Bit of a learning curve initially, but very happy with it overall and all free :)

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w2krules

497 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#931610 12-Nov-2013 16:54

Thanks, WHS 2011 with drive pooling looks like an option.

I expect that WHS 1 will be OK until Server 2003 reaches end of life in 2015. The new hardware has certainly improved performance - I just saw 60 MB/sec copying some files from the server over the LAN.

I was a geek before the word was invented!

CYaBro

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#931622 12-Nov-2013 17:16

Server 2012 R2 Essentials as it has the workstation backups included like WHS did.
Plus you can use Storage Spaces and other full Server 2012 programs.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

w2krules

497 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#931653 12-Nov-2013 17:46

CYaBro: Server 2012 R2 Essentials as it has the workstation backups included like WHS did.
Plus you can use Storage Spaces and other full Server 2012 programs.

I'll have a look, but won't it be expensive compared to WHS?

By far the best feature in WHS is the client backups and the ease of restoring both a PC and individual files.

I was a geek before the word was invented!

fastmikey

296 posts

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#931699 12-Nov-2013 20:08

If you're wanting to go WHS, I have an unused WHS2011 licence I can let go for a good price :-) I jumped from WHS to Server Essentials 2012 (yay for MSDN!)