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WHS or Server 2008 R2 for Media Server?

post #1 of 13
7/18/12 at 10:32am
Thread Starter 
Microsoft has pulled the plug on WHS (Windows Home Server Takes It's Final Bow)
From what I understand, WHS was just a stripped down version of Server 2008, but for $50 instead of the ~$400 price tag that Server 2008 carries. If that is the case, and the price is not an issue, should I just use Server 2008, or am I wrong about WHS being a stripped down Server 2008?


I am currently using FreeNAS, and I'm not all that happy with it. I do like the fact that it can run from a flash drive, but I have a stack of SATA drives just sitting here, so putting another drive in the machine really isn't a big deal. I would like to move to a Windows platform for a variety of reasons. Right now I'm just trying to figure out of I should use WHS, Server 2008 R2, or just plain 'ol Windows 7.

This is my hardware setup:

Norco RPC-4220
Supermicro X7SPA-H-D525
4GB Mushkin SO-DIMM DDR3 1333
Corsair TX650 PSU
2x Datoptic SPM94 Port Multiplier
5x WD Green 3TB in RAID5 on one SPM394
5x Seagate XT 3TB in RAID5 on one SPM394

The Port Multipliers allow the 5x drives to be seen by the BIOS/OS as a single 12TB drive (before overhead). So, I essentially have 2x 12Tb drives, that I want to then merge together for one 24TB volume.
So, in addition to which Windows solution, I'm trying to determine the best way to "merge" the drives together. Ideally, I would like to be able to buy a couple more 3TB drives and then add them to the "data pool", and then I'd get another Port Multiplier when I needed to. I wasn't sure if Server 2008 had something I could do that with, or if I should just use FlexRaid's Data Pooling

Thoughts?
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post #2 of 13
7/18/12 at 11:15am
WHS 2011 is a stripped down Server 2008. It's a steal at $50. Even though WHS doesn't have a future by that name, it is being rolled in to another server product. The pricing hasn't been provided for that. There's a lot of confusion surrounding WHS now. It's not as though MS has ceased developing a server for home use. Sounds like more of a rebranding to me.

Philip
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post #3 of 13
7/18/12 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I haven't seen pricing or availability for the Server Essentials.

I can get my hands on a copy of Server 2008 R2 pretty cheap, so I think I'll just go head with that.
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post #4 of 13
7/19/12 at 5:46am
Isn't Win 8 supposed to have Drive Extender?
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post #5 of 13
7/19/12 at 7:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 357 View Post

Isn't Win 8 supposed to have Drive Extender?


No, Windows 8 has a much improved technology called storage pools. They work much better than drive extender
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post #6 of 13
7/19/12 at 8:00am
Can't wait to upgrade my Win7 then. smile.gif
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post #7 of 13
7/19/12 at 8:20am
Is there a solid eta on Win 8 yet?
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post #8 of 13
7/19/12 at 9:46am
Oct 26! Upgrade your existing Windows for $40 supposedly.
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post #9 of 13
7/19/12 at 11:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dizzy49 View Post

Yeah, I haven't seen pricing or availability for the Server Essentials.

I can get my hands on a copy of Server 2008 R2 pretty cheap, so I think I'll just go head with that.

Server essentials for small business seems to be around $400. The restriction to 10 users from 25 should make the "home" version considerably less expensive. Developers seem to be selling Addons for WHS 2011 which also work on small business essentials. That would seem to make the future for "WHS" brighter than ever. They had to do something since all the hardware vendors were dropping WHS systems.

The neat thing about WHS is the console and ability to run it headless. Hopefully that won't change. I don't know if you could easily do that with the full Server 2008.

Philip
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post #10 of 13
7/19/12 at 11:21am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I'm not sure about Win8.

I'm thinking about grabbing a copy of the RC to check it out.
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post #11 of 13
7/19/12 at 11:28am
If one installed the release candidate version, can you buy a license and update the RC version to full version, or does M$ make you do a new install ?
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post #12 of 13
7/19/12 at 5:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BllDo View Post

If one installed the release candidate version, can you buy a license and update the RC version to full version, or does M$ make you do a new install ?

You will need to do a full install
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post #13 of 13
7/19/12 at 5:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 357 View Post

Oct 26! Upgrade your existing Windows for $40 supposedly.

Available to technet subscribers 6 weeks earlier
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