I'm just finishing up building my first home server using windows home server and have a couple questions.
First things first, there is only one HDD (for now). Will there be any negative effect throwing in a HDD that is not the same? I think not, but best to ask.
Does WHS "Selective Data redundancy" run very well? I need the second HDD to be a mirror of the first.
What other tips can you guys suggest about WHS?
If they are two different sized drives, don't mirror. If they are the same capacity and speed you shouldn't see any problems
I would've thought that as long as they are the same speed, it should be okay.
I understand one would run out of disk space before the other, but by that time, I'll buy all the parts to build a really good one.
[QUOTE=wutanggrenad;25367882]I would've thought that as long as they are the same speed, it should be okay.
I understand one would run out of disk space before the other, but by that time, I'll buy all the parts to build a really good one.[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure you'll have problems if they aren't the same size. A lot of times, certain data is stored at the end of the hard drive, and that wouldn't mirror properly.
I would consider putting OS/applications on one drive, and data on the other. It wouldn't give any redundancy, but it would be a simple way to improve performance.
[QUOTE=wutanggrenad;25367882]I would've thought that as long as they are the same speed, it should be okay.
I understand one would run out of disk space before the other, but by that time, I'll buy all the parts to build a really good one.[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure you'll have problems if they aren't the same size. A lot of times, certain data is stored at the end of the hard drive, and that wouldn't mirror properly.
I would consider putting OS/applications on one drive, and data on the other. It wouldn't give any redundancy, but it would be a simple way to improve performance.
That's the other thing I forgot to ask, is it possible with whs to have the OS on one drive and nothing else copied to it?
I put in a 80GB drive just for the OS
[QUOTE=wutanggrenad;25368341]That's the other thing I forgot to ask, is it possible with whs to have the OS on one drive and nothing else copied to it?
I put in a 80GB drive just for the OS[/QUOTE]
I don't have any experience with Windows Home Server, but it's possible under every version of Windows I've tried, even non-server ones. I don't see why it wouldn't work in WHS.
Thanks man
No problem.
Windows Home Server doesn't work like the configurations already posted.
WHS has one central data pool. You can add any number of drives to the pool (size doesn't matter) at any time, which expands as drives are added. That's the beauty of WHS.
The OS knows where the data resides, so it will automatically try to keep copies of files on different physical discs if there is available space on each disc.
Everything is automatic but the best possible configuration involves having multiple discs, so files can be selectively mirrored as space allows and the server itself is automatically backed up to external media (optical/HDD/cloud).
[QUOTE=DrDevin;25372064]Everything is automatic but the best possible configuration involves having multiple discs, so files can be selectively mirrored as space allows and the server itself is automatically backed up to external media (optical/HDD/cloud).[/QUOTE]
It works like RAID1 in a way is what I'm hoping you are getting at, because that is what I need.
I need mirrored disks, in case of HDD failure
You're better off going for hardware RAID. Might not even need to buy a controller if youre motherboard chipset supports it.
[QUOTE=wutanggrenad;25376272]It works like RAID1 in a way is what I'm hoping you are getting at, because that is what I need.
I need mirrored disks, in case of HDD failure[/QUOTE]
As mentioned on wikipedia it's sort of like a unique style of software RAID.
Windows Home Server Drive Extender is a file-based replication system that provides three key capabilities:
Multi-disk redundancy so that if any given disk fails, data is not lost
Arbitrary storage expansion by supporting any type of hard disk drive (Serial ATA, USB, FireWire etc.) in any mixture and capacity — similar in concept to JBOD
A single folder namespace (no drive letters)
I'd suggest you read:
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Home_Server#Drive_Extender[/url]
or the technical brief:
[url]http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=40C6C9CC-B85F-45FE-8C5C-F103C894A5E2&displaylang=en[/url]
You're probably not better off going with hardware RAID due to complexity, additional costs and reduced functionality.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.