Windows Home Server

[sixgun]

I too have been accepted, been running it for a few days now. Testing out the automated backup. I've also got 2 SATA drives on it giving me just under 400 gigs of storage.

Have you tried using net use (ie - network drive mapping). I personally wouldn't want my recordings on an non-duplicated area. One of the major selling points of WHS to me is the duplication and expandable storage. I think i'd set it up so my recordings share is duplicated.

Anyway, if you can give the drive mapping idea a go, and let us know how it goes.

I will be installing GBPVR and a spare tuner card i have soon, to give it a good run.

Regards.

[stu8080]

Sixgun im glad someone is brave enough to have a try first! lol
When you get things going i have a few questions for you:

1. WHS apparently shows no 'drives' just a central storage pool, so what do you enter into the 'directories' tab in config.exe?

2. Server 2003 R2 does not support much in the way of graphics cards and installing drivers was painful - is this the same in WHS (heard it was based on Server 2003 R2)

3. Can files, or more importantly types of files, be exluded from the backups? I dont want to back up 200GB of recordings that i delete frequently.

I'll probably have a crack this weekend anyway, as more than anything i like the remote management and clever backup it offers, especially with vista. Im not expecting it to sit perfectly with the way i have GBPVR though!

[Spartan]

1. WHS apparently shows no 'drives' just a central storage pool, so what do you enter into the 'directories' tab in config.exe?

Let me start off by saying that I have WHS loaded in a virtual machine at the moment and do not have GB-PVR on that machine (yet).

While it is true that there are no drive letters per se, you can certainly assign letters to the various file shares that WHS provides for you (or those you have created yourself). WHS gives you video, pictures, music, software shares, (among others).

Furthermore, the disk management service is still available so that you can add your own (raw) hard drives. Note that this is not recommended nor supported by Microsoft. I may just do it, however, in order to mount a RAID 5 hardware SATA array (at least until I figure out what happens when a drive is lost -- see below).

2. Server 2003 R2 does not support much in the way of graphics cards and installing drivers was painful - is this the same in WHS (heard it was based on Server 2003 R2)

Can't help you on this one, but since the core of WHS is small business server 2003, you're probably right.

3. Can files, or more importantly types of files, be exluded from the backups? I dont want to back up 200GB of recordings that i delete frequently.

Certainly. You create the network shares and then specify whether those shares are to be replicated or not. Quite simple, really...

I'll probably have a crack this weekend anyway, as more than anything i like the remote management and clever backup it offers, especially with vista. Im not expecting it to sit perfectly with the way i have GBPVR though!

The backup is really slick, although I lost my backups when I "killed" one of my virtual hard drives. It may be beta software, or it may very well be me not knowing what I was doing! :eek:

All in all, it's a very cool piece of software.

[stu8080]

WHS really does look like a brilliant OS (Vista may look and act smoother, but it didnt really give me anything significantly useful).

I couldnt get my head entirely round Server 2003 (im no sys admin!) so this should be far easier, although i can see it intended headless design will give me grief trying to install drivers for my gfx card.

As soon as i think i can prise the GBPVR box away from the wife for long enough to have a play, i'll let you know how it works out!

[stu8080]

Have you had a chance to manage this WHS-VM remotely? I understand a remote managenent console will follow, but a basic web interface is available at the moment?

[HTPCGB]

Hey Spartan,

I haven't had much luck getting WHS running in a VM. (The spare machine that I was going to use was requested by and given to a family member.....) Are you using Vmware or Virtual PC? What OS emulation type are you using?

Edit: When they said 512 MB minimum, they meant it. I finally got WHS working long enough in a VM for the installer to crash and request more RAM. I'll be ordering a GB of RAM soon.

[Rexel99]

I have it running on a minor box now for about a week. It's a restructed version of 2003 server with some front-end stuff to do the user management and the timed backup systems.
So far it's nice, works great as a shared printer host and media box. I dont think I would expect to run as a media centre though, as win 2003 doesn't have the graphic support for something like gbpvr to run effeciently but as a srive store, could be good.

[stu8080]

I was unsure about a media centre too, but its just installed the latest Omega ATI drivers, and hasnt crashed yet.

Server 2003 was never as allowing.

One thing though, i have a few drives and it seems it wipes all of them, not just the OS install drive! I didnt have anything crucial that wasnt backed up, but i didnt expect to loose everything!!

[stu8080]

Im a bit peeved about this, an upgrade would have retained my data, a clean install wipes all drives in the box!
The intallation notes say otherwise (although they still state this is Server 2003 business)

So beware, if you want to keep files, do an upgrade!!

[Spartan]

I was unsure about a media centre too, but its just installed the latest Omega ATI drivers, and hasnt crashed yet.

Server 2003 was never as allowing.

One thing though, i have a few drives and it seems it wipes all of them, not just the OS install drive! I didnt have anything crucial that wasnt backed up, but i didnt expect to loose everything!!

Actually, it states this quite clearly during the install process...

Hey Spartan,

I haven't had much luck getting WHS running in a VM. (The spare machine that I was going to use was requested by and given to a family member.....) Are you using Vmware or Virtual PC? What OS emulation type are you using?

Edit: When they said 512 MB minimum, they meant it. I finally got WHS working long enough in a VM for the installer to crash and request more RAM. I'll be ordering a GB of RAM soon.

I am using Virtual Server 2005 R2 -- there is no emulation type to speak of (like Virtual PC has).