***The Official Windows Home Server 2011 Thread***

ChileanLlama said:
Disagree. If you don't need/want Storage Spaces it's much easier to control user access and shares, and there's also centralised backup, Remote Web Access and streaming with WHS.

Yes it can all be done on Windows 8, but not as easily. That article is terrible as well (not aiming this at Easyrider :) ). When all said and done it talks about how to create users, shares and homegroups, but where is the advice on centralised backup alternatives, streaming, remote access? It spends most of it's time talking about a generic PC build and Windows 8. I was really disappointed...

I'm trialling WSE2012 right now, and in the main it's WHS2011 with Storage Spaces - so simplifies much of the missing "features" you'd have to work around in a Win8 build - obviously the $400 cost is going to be prohibitive to many.
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But DE or staorage spaces are essential on a media server no?

Thats one of the reason I haven't gone to WHS 2011
 
easyrider said:
But DE or staorage spaces are essential on a media server no?

Thats one of the reason I haven't gone to WHS 2011
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I don't think so.

It can be done on individual drives though it's not as convenient, but how important is your data as all the pooling software on Windows seem to have flaws;

- WHSv1 - Silent corruption "bit rot" errors that MS never fixed
- WHS2011 - Drive Bender et al - can't have a large volume of users - whilst I don't know of any problems - could be they just haven't been found?
- WSE2012/Win8 - Storage Spaces - I've had major issues when drives have dropped, and performance is poor as well.

easyrider said:
How do you manage with directories bigger than the size of your physical drives?
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I use RAID, but even then I've had to split directories as I don't want to have one single 42TB RAID array. Again not without it's flaws, but when I weighed it up, it was better than the software alternatives. And yes it cost a few hundred quid to do properly...

I've also just migrated another WHSv1 to WHS2011 and left that without any form of pooling.

Both of these have directories bigger than the array or physical drives. But this is only for video, so once the video is filed it doesn't really matter how many drives or shares I have, as the front end I use consolidates this on my HTPCs so I don't see them.

This might not work for you, it'll depend on the nature of the content.
 
I have 6TB of MKV files duplicated across the pool.

I would have to spilt this directory into 3 drives in WHS 2011 meaning it would be a Royal pain in the ass to manage ....

Then point to three \\server\videos 1 then \\server\videos 2 and then \\server\videos 3 in XBMC in the client machines...

I feel sick:(
 
Hmmm....

How is it presented in XBMC? Is it as separate folders or does it consolidate all the MKV's from various sources into one view? If the former, then it would be a deal breaker for me. I really do keep meaning to give XBMC a go ;)

I use MyMovies on WMC and it basically handles the shares, and then serves up to the HTPCs all my movies, regardless of share, in one view. Maybe there's something similar for XBMC? But yet you would need to give each client access to all the shares.

It's easy to split into either alpha or by genre. Keep enough space for your estimated growth on each share. But what other requirements do you have? 6TB of data, what drives is that over, does it need parity or duplication, what's your growth estimates?

All I'm thinking if they're fairly simple requirements a RAID0/RAID1 using motherboard RAID just for the MKV files might be a quick and easy way to go - at least until Storage Spaces mature - but even then you're losing a lot of other functionality, that you may or may not use, if you choose the Win8 path.

I guess that which ever way you look there's compromises. WHSv1 was a great start, but they've never built on that. Of course if you don't want/need the other Windows functions there's always Linux and their software RAID implementations...
 
easyrider said:
I have 6TB of MKV files duplicated across the pool.

I would have to spilt this directory into 3 drives in WHS 2011 meaning it would be a Royal pain in the ass to manage ....

Then point to three \\server\videos 1 then \\server\videos 2 and then \\server\videos 3 in XBMC in the client machines...

I feel sick:(
Click to expand...

ChileanLlama said:
Hmmm....

How is it presented in XBMC? Is it as separate folders or does it consolidate all the MKV's from various sources into one view? If the former, then it would be a deal breaker for me. I really do keep meaning to give XBMC a go ;)
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This bit from easyrider confuses me. I'm pretty sure you can consolidate multiple paths into your Film library, which is then browseable through the one "Movies" menu option.

In addition to which multiple computers running xbmc is quite easy to set up. Just copy the XBMC folder from %appdata% to clients after you've installed and run the skin you want once.
 
ChileanLlama said:
Hmmm....

How is it presented in XBMC? Is it as separate folders or does it consolidate all the MKV's from various sources into one view? If the former, then it would be a deal breaker for me. I really do keep meaning to give XBMC a go ;)
Click to expand...

From various sources into one view...This is not the issue...Its the management of the files on the drives

I use MyMovies on WMC and it basically handles the shares, and then serves up to the HTPCs all my movies, regardless of share, in one view. Maybe there's something similar for XBMC? But yet you would need to give each client access to all the shares.
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XBMC does this

It's easy to split into either alpha or by genre. Keep enough space for your estimated growth on each share. But what other requirements do you have? 6TB of data, what drives is that over, does it need parity or duplication, what's your growth estimates?
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Is it though? What if my T collection is over 2TB? How do I estimate growth? I just want to copy to one directory end of. I use Duplication...Although in win8 it suggests using Parity in the Storage spaces for performance when reading...although you take a speed hit when copying the files to the server.
 
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platypus said:
This bit from easyrider confuses me. I'm pretty sure you can consolidate multiple paths into your Film library, which is then browseable through the one "Movies" menu option.

In addition to which multiple computers running xbmc is quite easy to set up. Just copy the XBMC folder from %appdata% to clients after you've installed and run the skin you want once.
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You can....But its the back end that worries me....I don't want to manage my files into Alpha or Genre...I just want to dump them in \\server\Videos and be done with it.

My setup is 8 x 2TB drives not including Boot

serversept2012.jpg
 
easyrider said:
Is it though? What if my T collection is over 2TB? How do I estimate growth? I just want to copy to one directory end of.
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Split it by genre, split it into T-Tm and Tn-Tz or something, there's loads of ways. You estimate growth by having 6TB collected over x number of years, and whether you think that pace will increase or decrease. All it takes is a bit of planning.

Sorry, but think you want your cake and eat it, which is fine, but I did say there were compromises with whichever route you go. I'm only trying to give you some suggestions as to how you can make it work for you...
 
ChileanLlama said:
Split it by genre, split it into T-Tm and Tn-Tz or something, there's loads of ways. You estimate growth by having 6TB collected over x number of years, and whether you think that pace will increase or decrease. All it takes is a bit of planning.

Sorry, but think you want your cake and eat it, which is fine, but I did say there were compromises with whichever route you go. I'm only trying to give you some suggestions as to how you can make it work for you...
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I know mate...Thanks for the discourse:D

This is why I think that windows 8 is going to be my only upgrade path. WHS 2011 would mean using a 3rd party DE or massive amounts of planning.

I could create a 16TB storage space or even a 12GB storage space with Parity using 6 x 2TB drive for music videos and Photos then create a 4TB storage space for documents etc...with duplication. All the client PC document areas point to server\user\docs anyway no one saves to the local PC's
 
Making multiple drives look like a single filesystem is easy. You just mount them like you do in Linux.

Create a folder (\\WHS\shares) then mount the disks on subfolders (i.e. disk 1 / disk 2). The option is available in [Computer Management] -> [Disk Management] -> Right click partition -> [CHange drive letter and paths] -> [add] -> [mount on following NTFS folder].

I use this to manually access my drives which are in a Drivepool drive individually.

For added flashyness you could have a scheduled task that parses the directories and creates shortcuts for any new files in a single folder (i.e. all_files). I am sure someone can or has come up with something that can manage this.

The problem is that this clearly does not get around the issues of just dumping files and them getting moved to the most appropriate disk in the pool of storage. Again someone could put together a little program to take files from a 'drop off' folder and work out the best place to put them but then you are getting back to drivepool or one of the other software raid systems and for the cost of drivepool or drive extender, might as well just buy one.

The Raid controller route is much better and does not suffer from things like the raid 5 hole issues if it has a BBU or uses FBWC. I have been eyeing the HP P410is with 1GB FBWC for a while on ebay US. Have not yet taken the plunge though.

Win Server 2012 is meant to be out tomorrow so I guess I will download it (Action pack - Solution Provider sub) and spin it up on a VM. Still trying to find time to play with SBS 2011 Standard as well. All the time WHS 2011 running on the same box just keep on ticking away.

I wont be changing WHS 2011 for quite a while for my home use.

RB
 
platypus said:
I use Stablebit drivepool. My largest physical disk is 2TB (2 of them), the rest are 1TB. I have a 4TB "films" share.
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Same here though my films share is 12TB
Have to say that stablebit drivepool is rock solid, though I might move to Win 8 as it has built in DE tech for free...
 
easyrider said:
I know mate...Thanks for the discourse:D

This is why I think that windows 8 is going to be my only upgrade path. WHS 2011 would mean using a 3rd party DE or massive amounts of planning.

I could create a 16TB storage space or even a 12GB storage space with Parity using 6 x 2TB drive for music videos and Photos then create a 4TB storage space for documents etc...with duplication. All the client PC document areas point to server\user\docs anyway no one saves to the local PC's
Click to expand...

Windows 8 is an alternative, but just as the pooling is important to you the other features of WHS can be equally important to others. In which case WSE2012 is the only true path. E.g. I see you're using backup, how would you do that and still keep the same small footprint on a Win8 based server?

It'll never happen but MS to release the dashboard and tools as a WHS2011 priced add-on for Windows 8 would be the best solution. As I say it'll never happen though as it would kill WSE2012.

Looking at your config though, I would say get yourself a decent RAID card and create an array that way, if you went RAID5 you'd get some space back too as it won't be 1:1 duplication you have at the moment. You can then use WHS2011 and have all the benefits of the pool, plus the admin tools you'd lose if you went with Windows8 (dependent how important they are to you).
 
RimBlock said:
Win Server 2012 is meant to be out tomorrow so I guess I will download it (Action pack - Solution Provider sub) and spin it up on a VM. Still trying to find time to play with SBS 2011 Standard as well. All the time WHS 2011 running on the same box just keep on ticking away.

I wont be changing WHS 2011 for quite a while for my home use.

RB
Click to expand...

You want to give Windows Server Essentials 2012 a spin too if you're looking at WHS alternatives. It's a mix of WHS2011 and SBS2011 Essentials with drive pooling, and other than the cost ($400) looks like it has it all (my reservations about Storage Spaces aside ;) )
 
easyrider said:
So you still use a 3rd party DE then;)
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Aye, but it works, and its been rock solid so far.
edgedemon said:
Same here though my films share is 12TB
Have to say that stablebit drivepool is rock solid, though I might move to Win 8 as it has built in DE tech for free...
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Yeah but you've already paid for Drive Pool :p.

The only changes I want to make to my server now really is faster hard drives. I wonder when affordable TB ssds will appear..
 
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