WHS vs WHS(Vail)

uv · 17 Jun 2010 at 20:57

Howdy

I'm currently building a NAS, and after two days of struggling with various linux distros (even though I use red hat and ubuntu on a daily basis), I'm now thinking of a windows based setup. I've read up on Windows Home Server a fair bit, but it's old hat now and i have free access to the public beta of WHS2, "Vail". The main thing that puts me off Vail is the proprietary file system that means I can't remove drives and read them on a regular OS, whereas I could with the aging WHS1... does anyone have any experience with either OS, enough to recommend one over the other?

Destination · 17 Jun 2010 at 22:00

I don;t think you could do that with WHS, when added to 'the pool' wasn't a drive used in funky filesystem too?

Cool Breeze · 18 Jun 2010 at 10:42

I have Run WHS v1 now for 3 years there abouts and I have had no issues with it, it is based on the best server os for years (2003) and just works, Im not even tempted to try vail, if it ain't broke and all that.

I had a drive fail according to WHS and I thought I'd lost all my music, pluged the drive into another PC and I could read it no trouble and was able to salvage all my music back.

I have an HP 475 WHS and it's been great, lots of other manufacturers out there now or simply build your own.

daz.wallace · 18 Jun 2010 at 13:32

I run WHS and have had no problems, nearly a year now and like Cool Breeze says, if it aint broke, dont fix it

PhillyDee · 18 Jun 2010 at 13:43

Yes, the filesystem is specific to WHS. No idea how you managed to do that! I didn;t think it was possible.

Qu3 · 18 Jun 2010 at 14:35

Can't say I have tried WHS Vail but with WHSv1 you can access your data directly from the drives if say you put it in another computer.
This is one feature that will be gone in WHSV2 the drive extender now works at a lower level than WHSV1.

Probably should give Vail ago..

Moeks · 18 Jun 2010 at 16:20

What issues were you having using Linux for this task though? ...I use a Linux server at home without issue, I don't use any kind of raid or jbod on it though, just simple Samba shares ...although I am looking to start using a Raid 5 array ...or should I say I was, now I am very interested in using Open Solaris and the ZFS filesystem and seeing what I can do with that instead.