Setting up WSE2016 to replace WHS2011

The backup ability of WSE 2016 is critical for me. A key improvement for me of WSE 2016 is the network booting. You can boot a workstation to the network and do a full restore. I could replace the SSDs on my PC with a NVME drive, reboot the PC, and just do a full restore. No media is required. This also enables me to set up installation images. I have an image of Windows 10 Professional, for instance. I haven't bothered customising it or anything. It's also easy to add WSUS, SQL server, and more.

I don't make use of it but WSE 2016 has a limit of 64 GB RAM and is not core-limited. It can also used two CPUs. So there's plenty of opportunity for VMs.
 
Now that I am happy with the evaluation of WSE2016 my thoughts have turned to the server hardware. At the moment my WHS2011 runs on desktop hardware (ASRock H77 Pro4 M mobo, Intel i3-3220 cpu and 8gb ram). I think this hardware should be ok, maybe with a ram upgrade to 16gb, but now is the time to upgrade if I'm going too. Is it worth upgrading to say a B460/B560 mobo with a gen 10/11 Intel CPU?
 
WSE 2016 will handle 64 GB RAM and as many cores as you can throw at it. I suggest you look at an older Xeon system. Something like a Xeon E5-2683 v4 will give you 16 cores and 32 threads for under £200 with a motherboard costing a similar amount.

Hell, you could have a dual Epyc system with 128 cores / 256 threads - but only 64 GB RAM.
 
Quartz said:
WSE 2016 will handle 64 GB RAM and as many cores as you can throw at it. I suggest you look at an older Xeon system. Something like a Xeon E5-2683 v4 will give you 16 cores and 32 threads for under £200 with a motherboard costing a similar amount.

Hell, you could have a dual Epyc system with 128 cores / 256 threads - but only 64 GB RAM.
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Thanks but thats way to much power for something that will only be a file server and handle client backups. I might just buy an extra 8gb ram to give me 16gb and upgrade the cpu to an i5 or i7, if I can find one secondhand.
 
A small issue.......

Yesterday I installed a new hdd to the server, I formated it and added it to the shared pool (I'm using Stablebit Drivepool). When I booted the server I had no access to the server via my test pc and when loading the server dashboard there were no users or devices listed. The server had raised an alert about the wsemngtsvc not successfully starting but I was unable to manually start the service and all the configuration and dependencies were OK. Went online for some ideas none of which worked so I decided to recover from a previous image but still no access and no users or devices. Finally I uninstalled the hdd, rebooted the server and the failing service now loads ok. Appears the issue was caused by the new hdd but I have installed the hdd in another pc with no issues and it tests OK, further online investigation is needed on how to add new storage to the server.
 
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I don't know if I'll get any responses from a new post on this old thread...

I have stuck with WHS2011 in spite of the various issues. However I have just built a new PC and am thinking of recycling some of the hardware to upgrade my server and it seems like a good time to upgrade the OS. I just looked into Home Server 2022 and see that the essentials version is a special licence build of the standard product. So it's likely more than I need but also expensive. So I then considered WSE 2019 essentials until I read this thread and the comment that MS dropped some useful features that WSE 2016 had. Can anyone expand on this?

My server needs are fairly basic which is why I have stuck with WHS2011 for so long. Beyond file serving I like that it backs up the clients. I did configure WSUS which has occasionally had problems but I liked that I could control the update of the clients used by my kids. However they have now left home so like the MS Family features I no longer see the need for just 2 clients when the Windows 10 update seems pretty good. So I just need it to keep working as a file server and backing up my Win 10 (and eventually Win 11) clients but be more Win 10+ friendly.
 
The critical feature (for me) that WSE 2019 drops is the client backup.

You can, apparently, install it on Server 2019 with a hack. But you need the Server 2016 product.

Edit: just found this - it's now on GitHub, though I can't seem to download it.
 
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Thanks - that's critical for me too. Ideally I'd like to avoid hacks so looks like I'll use WSE 2016.

Another question has anyone bought one of these cheap OS keys which loads of places seem to be selling apparently legally?
 
therealdippy said:
Thanks - that's critical for me too. Ideally I'd like to avoid hacks so looks like I'll use WSE 2016.

Another question has anyone bought one of these cheap OS keys which loads of places seem to be selling apparently legally?
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I'm sure you have figured out by now that the cheap keys are not legal.

In the end I decided that WSE2016 was too complex for me to manage, and the tiresome hacks needed around domains when, when all I wanted was somewhere to backup my PC's too and use as a file server so I now have a Windows10 "server" and installed Stablebit Scanner and Stablebit Drivepool on it. I then just share the required folders with my client PC's and use the free edition of Macrium Reflect for backups to one of the shared folders on the W10 server.
 
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Hi @flowrider99, timely reply because I am just completing my evaluation of WSE2016. Yes I realised that the keys are dodgy, but I also see that a legal license costs more than one for WSE2019 so I'll probably take a gamble with them.

I have found WSE2016 relatively easy to set up, I only needed one hack for the client connector. The other issue was some of the errors including the ones from the BPA which I have been researching - I fixed what needed to be fixed and excluded the others. Whilst I agree that it is far more than I need, and certainly more than WHS2011, getting it working as a file and backup server has been straightforward and all that I need. I didn't have any issue with the domain controller part.

But if I have any trouble with getting a key to work then maybe I'll go the same route as you...
 
therealdippy said:
Hi @flowrider99, timely reply because I am just completing my evaluation of WSE2016. Yes I realised that the keys are dodgy, but I also see that a legal license costs more than one for WSE2019 so I'll probably take a gamble with them.

I have found WSE2016 relatively easy to set up, I only needed one hack for the client connector. The other issue was some of the errors including the ones from the BPA which I have been researching - I fixed what needed to be fixed and excluded the others. Whilst I agree that it is far more than I need, and certainly more than WHS2011, getting it working as a file and backup server has been straightforward and all that I need. I didn't have any issue with the domain controller part.

But if I have any trouble with getting a key to work then maybe I'll go the same route as you...
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I managed to setup the WSE server but the ongoing maintenance was to much for me, error messages kept popping up and I didn't have the necessary knowledge to know whatv was relevant or not.

There is a 180 day evaluation key that can be re-activated up to 5 times so effectively a 900 day license.
 
flowrider99 said:
In the end I decided that WSE2016 was too complex for me to manage,
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Huh? What is complex about it?

Anyway, I am contemplating Server 2022 (because I've borked WSUS) and applying the WSEE above, but I'm struggling to see how to get a non-evaluation ISO without a MSDN account. Or will the eval version become non-eval with a valid license key?
 
Quartz said:
Huh? What is complex about it?

Anyway, I am contemplating Server 2022 (because I've borked WSUS) and applying the WSEE above, but I'm struggling to see how to get a non-evaluation ISO without a MSDN account. Or will the eval version become non-eval with a valid license key?
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I guess if you have the knowledge then WSE2016 isn't complex but I don't and I wasn't interested in spending loads of time finding out when Windows10 would do everything I needed and I knew how to set it up.
 
flowrider99 said:
There is a 180 day evaluation key that can be re-activated up to 5 times so effectively a 900 day license.
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Thanks for that tip, and about the maintenance. At the moment I have enough interest to research the errors and learn - let's see how long that lasts!

WSUS was problematic for me on WHS2011 so I'm not going to enable it on my updated server.
 
Happy New Year to all. My server progress was slowed by something that had all the symptoms of covid and it tried to kill me but all the tests were negative so that was a ****ing mean cold!

Now I have a server upgraded with the i7 2600K and 16GB RAM from my retired gaming machine and is now able to boot to my existing WHS2011 HDD or to my new evaluation WSE2016 SSD (also from the gaming machine - I could have bought new hardware but it feels good to be recycling where possible).

I want to move to the newer OS soon, but the licensing issue is making me hesitate. Although I appreciate @flowrider99's tip about renewing an evaluation license it is not a permanent solution. I am willing to try a cheap dodgy key, but I have read reviews that they may only work as part of an ISO and I am reluctant to install an SW supplied by a dodgy key supplier. So the alternative seems to be to use WSE2019 with WSEE installed. If that works (and I plan to evaluate it) then it looks like I can buy a genuine Microsoft licence for just over £300 which I am OK with.

But I have not fully researched the difference between WSE2016 and WSE2019. Does adding WSEE to WSE2019 give it back all the features that WSE2016 has or is there anything else I need to be aware of?
 
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