WHS 2011 must go! NAS or Xpenology/unRAID?

Minstadave · 26 Apr 2017 at 22:26

WHS 2011 has annoyed me for the last time, I need to get rid of it.

I've got a fairly powerful home server with:

Penguin G3258
8GB RAM
2x1TB drives (soon to be upgraded)
1x4TB drives

WHS was providing:
Multiple windows client backups
Network drives
Media serving
Print serving (mac and PC)
Off loading loading long cloud uploads and torrents

I used drive bender to pool my drives and provide redundancy and really liked the software. Unfortunately WHS is junk and it's time to move on.

What would be my best bet to do all the above? A dedicated NAS or keep the current hardware and stick something like Xpenology or unRAID on it?

Minstadave · 27 Apr 2017 at 08:29

Can Xpenology and unRAID just be installed as a normal OS? I have no experience of virtualisation.

Does either offer similar functionality to Drive Bender? I like the fact that I can pull or add drives to the pool and choose what is duplicated.

Minstadave · 27 Apr 2017 at 12:25

Thanks I appreciate the help.

I'll try unRAID I think and see how I get along. Sounds quite robust.

Minstadave · 27 Apr 2017 at 22:40

Thanks all. Will unRAID act as a print server for windows machines? Do I configure it with the right windows drivers or do I need to dig out a Linux driver for it too?

Minstadave · 27 Apr 2017 at 22:54

Quartz said:
Try Windows Server Essentials.

It's pretty expensive for a file/print server.

Edit: Or dirt cheap on the bay. Hmmmmm.

Minstadave · 2 May 2017 at 20:35

Quartz said:
Try Windows Server Essentials.

Just to update and say thanks.

I've opted to move to Windows Server 2016 Essentials which so far does exactly what I want and touch wood isn't as decrepit and flakey as my experiences with WHS. Meant I could just do a fresh OS install, reinstall drive bender and rebuild my pool. All done in under an hour. Printer sharing is a doddle, didn't even need to install drivers.

Bare metal restores look a lot easier without all the driver hassles.

Minstadave · 3 May 2017 at 13:47

Steveocee said:
unRAID and use containers/VM's or you could look into ESXi and running some VM's although the 8GB RAm may limit you to only a couple.

That's a bit high brow for me. I struggled getting around Server 2016s desire to be a domain controller, so virtualisation is beyond me.