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

but you don't think I can run 2 servers off of 1 router (im thinking the port forwarding will be the issue) as I have enough parts to build another server or 2.
 
wonder_lander said:
My WHS 2011 is sitting on a shelf waiting for the DE replacements to be released. Until then I'm happy with my current WHS v1.

Not looking forward to the prospect of migrating to a new server! May build a new server and sell the old ML115 that I currently use.
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I was in a similar situation after my whsv1 OS drive died on me. It was an IDE drive as well which shows you how long I have been running it :eek:
After some research, I decided to go for whs2011 as it was just too much of a pain to source another drive and the upgrade was long overdue.
For me, drive extender is absolutely essential as the whole family use the server and it makes everything so simple and I wanted to mirror my existing setup to avoid any confusion.
I bought myself a 3TB drive for migration purposes and to counter the fact that I was losing a sata storage port for the OS drive, installed the OS onto a 250GB drive and then installed stablebits drivepool for the drive extender part.
So far it seems to be working well and Im happy with it
I added the 3TB drive first and then added the other drives one at a time, copying the data across and then adding the drive to the drivepool.
I hate the new client, but that is just me, but overall it seems OK, and does what it should
I have an athlon64 x2 underclocked to 1300Mhz
3Gb RAM
2 x 2TB seagate 5400 drives
1 x 3TB Hitachi
2 x 1.5TB drives
1 x 260GB drive for the OS

The 1.5TB drives will be the next to go, probably replaced with the 4TB drives once they have been confirmed as reliable..
As drives get bigger, I tend to pick the smallest drive and upgrade it for a bigger one
 
paradisiac said:
but you don't think I can run 2 servers off of 1 router (im thinking the port forwarding will be the issue) as I have enough parts to build another server or 2.
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Oh yes, that would work - you'd probably need to reconfigure one of the servers in IIS so that the RWA page was on different ports and setup your router to forward the correct traffic. Assuming you don't have a static IP you'd also need multiple MS vanity names or dynamic DNS setting up.

But how many people are you sharing to, how much media, and what devices are they playing it back on?

A second server still seems overkill - even if you have the parts it's still another box to configure, all the heat, noise and lekky it will use.
 
ChileanLlama said:
Oh yes, that would work - you'd probably need to reconfigure one of the servers in IIS so that the RWA page was on different ports and setup your router to forward the correct traffic. Assuming you don't have a static IP you'd also need multiple MS vanity names or dynamic DNS setting up.

But how many people are you sharing to, how much media, and what devices are they playing it back on?

A second server still seems overkill - even if you have the parts it's still another box to configure, all the heat, noise and lekky it will use.
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for now there will be 3 users (me and 2 others) that will require streaming.
 
edgedemon said:
For me, drive extender is absolutely essential as the whole family use the server and it makes everything so simple and I wanted to mirror my existing setup to avoid any confusion.
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Surely Drive Extender isn't visible to the rest of the family? They will just be presented with a number of shares. Unless your shares are now bigger than your hard drives allow and need splitting into additional shares then they won't see any difference (naming conventions aside like Pictures and Photos)?

I totally agree removing DE was a backward step, and means more thought and admin for you, but can't see how this translates to what the family see if they're just accessing data through shares?
 
Maybe take a look at Plex, I've seen it mentioned a few places before - but never used it. You'll need to check that it will allow you to stream to different users via shares, but if it can do that it might work.
 
ChileanLlama said:
Maybe take a look at Plex, I've seen it mentioned a few places before - but never used it. You'll need to check that it will allow you to stream to different users via shares, but if it can do that it might work.
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I have used plex at home whilst trying to setup my htpc and so I could use it on my iphone too. I found it a bit, well, not too user friendly.
what about VLC, I believe that offers a streaming facility, but not sure if it does libraries.
 
what about setting up sub-domains, is that possible? if so would that then mean they could have their own dashboard, allowing them to have different folders in their media shares?
 
I dunno :s

I've no problem giving my family access to all of my media remotely. So if I wanted to I'd just give them all access to RWA streaming.

If I had media, say un-edited videos, render pictures that were WIP and didn't want to share remotely, I'd set up a new Share on the WHS which wasn't in the magic folders that WHS shares automatically. I'd then setup my libraries locally for these new shares.

E.g.

Sharename = Videos - Default WHS share & WHS shares for streaming/DLNA
Sharename = Videos Projects - Work in progress - not shared, not part of DLNA streaming
 
paradisiac said:
what about setting up sub-domains, is that possible? if so would that then mean they could have their own dashboard, allowing them to have different folders in their media shares?
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No. The problem is how the media sharing is served up, you could no doubt setup new dashboards for everyone, but unless you can change how WHS streams they'd still all pick up everything.
 
ChileanLlama said:
I dunno :s

I've no problem giving my family access to all of my media remotely. So if I wanted to I'd just give them all access to RWA streaming.

If I had media, say un-edited videos, render pictures that were WIP and didn't want to share remotely, I'd set up a new Share on the WHS which wasn't in the magic folders that WHS shares automatically. I'd then setup my libraries locally for these new shares.

E.g.

Sharename = Videos - Default WHS share & WHS shares for streaming/DLNA
Sharename = Videos Projects - Work in progress - not shared, not part of DLNA streaming
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yeh I get that, but like, I have 14k songs and 2k films/music vids etc that I like, but my dad does not. likewise im sure he will have a lot of files I don't really want to stream. so that would mean every time I wanted to listen to music, I would need to filter through all of his stuff and make custom playlists.
whereas if we could have personalised libraries this would not be the case. it seems like lack of forward thinking on microsofts side.
 
ChileanLlama said:
No. The problem is how the media sharing is served up, you could no doubt setup new dashboards for everyone, but unless you can change how WHS streams they'd still all pick up everything.
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its annoying because I can make different libraries on the server. so if MS had just implement a way for users to see libraries rather than shared media folders it would have been simple.
 
I don't think it's MS's fault. They've adopted the DLNA standard, and it doesn't allow for this. MS can't really win here, as no doubt there'd have been equal criticism had they created their own "competing" standard.

Ok, last two thoughts...

For PC's why not use the VPN, shares can then be set up on remote PCs just as they would be in your home. Each share can be added to the family member's media library software of choice. No need for RWA, no need for a second server as everyone gets access to only the stuff they want.

For phones. Do a search of the relevant app stores and see what media streaming software is available, as the priority is you and your father, both with different phones you could in theory install two different solutions to your server which would server the phones.

It doesn't remove the problem, and certainly with the phones doesn't allow much flexibility if you add more users, but I think it might be better than building a second server.

Or if you do go the second server route I'd seriously consider giving it to your father to hold. For home use he would then have much faster access to his content and you'd also have an offsite location for backups (as discussed yesterday). And because it's hosted from a different IP address you'd not have to worry about IIS configuration to get two WHS's running at the same site for RWA.
 
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hmm this is an option too, but then if his server was at his location then his backups would be stored at his house, along with his originals would they not?
 
No you'd still have him send you his backups to your server, but you could send your backups to his server.

What may change is that you'd ask him to put his backup on the server instead of on his desktop - so you may need to change the mesh folder locations/devices on his end etc.
 
ChileanLlama said:
No you'd still have him send you his backups to your server, but you could send your backups to his server.

What may change is that you'd ask him to put his backup on the server instead of on his desktop - so you may need to change the mesh folder locations/devices on his end etc.
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hmm...that sounds ok, but my issues would be if the server had problems. he wouldn't know what to do.
 
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