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View Full Version : Windows home server drive extender technology is being removed from beta



garethsimpsonuk
November 29th, 2010, 09:49 PM
I just thought I'd share this with you guys.

http://www.wegotserved.com/2010/11/23/microsoft-abandons-development-windows-home-server-drive-extender/

Windows home server V1has a cool technology called DE )drive extender) which allows you to pool disks together into one logical volume. This allows you to duplicate the data across multiple drives at a folder level among other feature.

WHS v2 beta (codename Vail) is 8 months into a public beta and MS have just decided to drop the DE functions. In my opinion, and most other users this has removed the primary benefit from WHS and there has a been lots of complaints on MS connect. I think removing this will be the end of WHS.

Now I'm on the lookout for an alternative solution. I know there are some good projects out there and was wondering what you guys think can fill then void that MS will leave.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts...

cariboo
November 29th, 2010, 10:09 PM
Try Ubuntu server with LVM, it does essentially the same thing, and it doesn't need as many resources as wha.

crl0901
November 29th, 2010, 10:25 PM
This is probably the only reason why I use WHS. If they don't re-think this, I'll probably just use a Linux solution for my next server.

garethsimpsonuk
November 30th, 2010, 09:22 AM
Yes LVM looks pretty cool but is it expandable? Also, WHS has a ton of other features that the stock ubuntu doesn't do. I think there is a place for a Ubuntu home server project, I know its been tried before at ubuntuhomeserver.org which looks like it didn't work out.

crl0901: I'm not sure if I could make a 100% switch (although I would love to!) there are some windows server programs that I just can't live/work without. As much as I hate to admit it, I probably will still buy WHS v2 as I need a 64 bit OS for VMs.

I guess I will have to buy an expensive RAID card that supports OCE.

cariboo
November 30th, 2010, 09:29 AM
What features/programs can't you do without? I tried a demo copy of WHS a while back, there wasn't anything I could see that you can't do with Ubuntu.

garethsimpsonuk
November 30th, 2010, 09:42 AM
- Remote file access
- Simplified user management & permissions
- MS media center integration
- Media streaming to anywhere using ORB
- Dynamic DNS
- Health notifications

Do you know of a similar project which has good storage management but also a fully fledged desktop enviroment? Thanks

Spice Weasel
November 30th, 2010, 09:56 AM
CentOS

Don't forget to check the servers you want enabled and the GUIs installed when installing it.

NCLI
November 30th, 2010, 01:19 PM
- Remote file access
SSHFS for Linux systems and Samba for Windows systems.

- Simplified user management & permissions
Ubuntu seems simple to me.

- MS media center integration
Just install one of the many DLNA-compatible server applications available from the USC.

- Media streaming to anywhere using ORB
Read the above.

- Dynamic DNS
Works fine in Ubuntu.

- Health notifications
Easy to set up using various tools, or you can just pay Canonical to use Landscape(Though it's very expensive ATM, and only meant for big business)

Do you know of a similar project which has good storage management but also a fully fledged desktop enviroment? Thanks
Ubuntu Server + ubuntu-desktop.


About Drive Extender, why not just use mdadm to set up RAID in Ubuntu? It's fully expandable, and very stable.

NightwishFan
November 30th, 2010, 01:44 PM
I run a lot of file and music server tasks for my local network so I run my machine with the server kernel and ubuntu desktop, then just install server packages (server kernel is just optimized for some things, generic kernel is fine).

Sporkman
November 30th, 2010, 02:27 PM
Do you know of a similar project which has good storage management but also a fully fledged desktop enviroment? Thanks

You could try one of the Turnkey Linux packages (link (http://www.turnkeylinux.org/)) - not a desktop environment, but it does have a nice web UI apparently. Or you could try webmin on a standard Ubuntu Server install...

crl0901
November 30th, 2010, 09:10 PM
The major draw for me, besides drive extender, is the ease of use for WHS. There's very little configuration to get it working like you want. I just wanted something that I wouldn't have to mess with too much or take hours trying to configure it to do everything I wanted. I really like the backup system too. However, as I said before, if they remove DE, it's useless to me.