WHS vs NAS

[mike2fix]

I have a NAS that does backups as well as other services, media streaming, torrent DL, etc. I am into the NAS about $500.00 which includes two 1TB drives, so the cost is comparable to WHS & a server to run it.

What advantage does Windows Home Server offer over a full featured NAS?

I'm just curious if I am missing something here.


Thanks

 

[RebateMonger]

Some likely differences:

1) The backups. WHS can automatically wake up ten computers, make a full image backup of each, and then put them back to sleep. The restore process is super-easy and lets you restore anything from a single file to an entire computer, using backup points ranging from several months ago up until last ngiht. Drivers for each PC are stored on the WHS server, so no need to search for them when doing a restore.

2) Disk flexibility. You can add an "unlimited" number of hard drives of any shape and size to the WHS drive pool. All data is stored in standard NTFS format, so even if the server melts, the drives can still be read by most any computer.

3) Folder-level redundancy. If you want to enable folder redundancy (similar to RAID 1), you can do it on a folder-by folder basis. No need to devote entire hard drives to redundant storage.

4) Web site serving.

5) Encrypted remote access to all (XP Pro, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate) computers without having to do port forwarding or other magic.

6) High speed networking. Many low-end NAS devices don't transfer data very quickly. WHS is pretty much capable of full-speed Gigabit network transfers.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Don't forget about the plethora of add-ins for WHS. Want to host a webpage? You can do it with WHS.
I just set one up this weekend and am still playing with it to get it set up.

Though you said you use your NAS for streaming video ect, but can you stream that content outside of your network? With WHS and the right add-ins you can stream anywhere you have a network connection.
There is a uTorrent add-in so you can do your torrenting on your WHS.

 

[mike2fix]

My NAS has the ability to Host web pages, it also has a built in service to DL torrents. I don't use the streaming, so I am not that familiar with its capabilities.

I have no problem using WHS, I have it and have fooled with it, not very successfully though. My workstation sees it but will not connect to it and I did a little troubleshooting but not much.

The NAS serves my purposes extremely well and was very easy to setup and configure.

Thanks for the good information, I just wanted a different perspective than my own.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger


2) Disk flexibility. You can add an "unlimited" number of hard drives of any shape and size to the WHS drive pool. All data is stored in standard NTFS format, so even if the server melts, the drives can still be read by most any computer.

This is a huge feature to me. About a year ago I unsuccessfully tried recovering data off of some old backup tapes. I didn't have the old hardware anymore, but I lucked into a similar tape drive from a local thrift shop. The new drive couldn't read the old tapes though, so I was screwed.

That sold me on having a common standard for by backup routine. As Rebatemonger said, just about anything can read NTFS file systems, and will for many years to come. If your NAS uses a proprietary file system, you'll have to buy the same type of unit(if it's still available) to retrieve your data.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

WHS FTW....

WHS box:
-E2140 processor
-some Asus mobo
-4gb RAM
-10 750gb SE2 hard drives....

Problems: none at all.

 

[pjkenned]

I just moved from trying out OpenFiler/FreeNAS over the past few weeks to WHS. It is great. Integration is good, and getting better as MS just updated with Power Pack 2.

My WHS Box: 8x 1.5TB 7200.11's (Raid 5), 2x 1TB 7200.11's, NorCo 4U (GREAT cheap WHS case, but very loud fans), E6420 (Q6600 swap out this weekend), 4GB OCZ DDR2, Gigabyte EP45-UD3P

I'm totally hooked on WHS now, and started a website that I will be building out over the coming weeks about WHS: http://www.servethehome.com

I honestly believe people do not understand how great recycled/unused PC parts can be as a WHS, and how good Microsoft made this product. Having one of these around is hands an shoulders above anything Apple is doing for their "high-end" consumers, yet you never hear about it.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
WHS FTW....
Problems: none at all.

Yeah, WHS has been rock-solid for me so far (crossing my fingers). I've re-installed over the top of both Trial and OEM versions (don't ask..., I couldn't decide where to put my WHS), I've migrated all my files, backups, and web sites from one server to another, I've backed up and restored OSes that Microsoft doesn't even support (SBS 2003, Server 2007, Windows 7), I've done a dozen total restores of PCs, and now I'm running my WHS on Hyper-V virtualized hardware. The backups and restores have been flawless so far, even with a backup database that's seen four "different" WHS servers.

 

[pcgeek11]

I too just moved from FreeNAS to WHS and I love it. I cannot understand why you cannot connect to the server? It was easier than FreeNAS.

pcgeek11

 

[crisscross]

Mike: what NAS do you have?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: mike2fix
My NAS has the ability to Host web pages, it also has a built in service to DL torrents. I don't use the streaming, so I am not that familiar with its capabilities.

I have no problem using WHS, I have it and have fooled with it, not very successfully though. My workstation sees it but will not connect to it and I did a little troubleshooting but not much.

The NAS serves my purposes extremely well and was very easy to setup and configure.

Thanks for the good information, I just wanted a different perspective than my own.

Make sure the WHS has power pack 2. If you're desktop is running a 64-bit OS that could have been your problem. With Power Pack 1 or 2 installed on your WHS, go to your workstation open IE and in the address bar type HTTPS://<servername>:55000 (leave out the <>)
This will bring up the internal page for WHS and allow you to install the correct and more up to date connector client than what shipped with WHS.
I too had problems when I went to configure my laptop and couldn't get the connector to work. I could RDP the WHS box and my 32-bit systems worked, but the powerpack 2 upgrade let me get the 64-bit Windows 7 laptop on.
I'm now in the process of upgrading all my cabling to Cat 5e so I can use my gigabit switch.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
Make sure the WHS has power pack 2. If you're desktop is running a 64-bit OS that could have been your problem. With Power Pack 1 or 2 installed on your WHS, go to your workstation open IE and in the address bar type HTTP://<servername>:55000 (leave out the <>).

I've read of that, but I've always just use I.E. to go the the WHS server's shared "\\<servername>\Software\Home Server Connector\" folder and run the Connector's "setup.exe". I've hooked up several dozen PCs and haven't had any with connection problems. Unlike the Restore CD folder, WHS keeps this folder updated with the latest Connector software.

By the way, on my system, it's "http://<servername>:"55000, not "https://<servername>:55000". The latter doesn't work for me.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
Make sure the WHS has power pack 2. If you're desktop is running a 64-bit OS that could have been your problem. With Power Pack 1 or 2 installed on your WHS, go to your workstation open IE and in the address bar type HTTP://<servername>:55000 (leave out the <>).

I've read of that, but I've always just use I.E. to go the the WHS server's shared "\\<servername>\Software\Home Server Connector\" folder and run the Connector's "setup.exe". I've hooked up several dozen PCs and haven't had any with connection problems. Unlike the Restore CD folder, WHS keeps this folder updated with the latest Connector software.

By the way, on my system, it's "http://<servername>:"55000, not "https://<servername>:55000". The latter doesn't work for me.

it could be http:// I'm not at home right now, so I'm going off of memory. And I've been typing a lot of https:// today so it may have been a slip.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Can you describe how you set it up using hyper V?
thanks,

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
WHS FTW....
Problems: none at all.

Yeah, WHS has been rock-solid for me so far (crossing my fingers). I've re-installed over the top of both Trial and OEM versions (don't ask..., I couldn't decide where to put my WHS), I've migrated all my files, backups, and web sites from one server to another, I've backed up and restored OSes that Microsoft doesn't even support (SBS 2003, Server 2007, Windows 7), I've done a dozen total restores of PCs, and now I'm running my WHS on Hyper-V virtualized hardware. The backups and restores have been flawless so far, even with a backup database that's seen four "different" WHS servers.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Chiefcrowe
Can you describe how you set it up using hyper V?

I'm running full Server 2008 Hyper-V. I added a separate 1 TB Hitachi hard drive for my WHS System drive and formatted the drive as a single 931 GB Basic Partition.

Then I created a new Hyper-V Virtual Machine with a single CPU and 512MB of RAM. I allowed Hyper-V to create a 928 GB virtual hard drive on the new 1 TB drive. Then I inserted the WHS Install DVD and installed WHS on the virtual hard drive.

I gave the virtual machine access to an Intel Gigabit NIC on my server.

When I need to add more space, I'll buy a large drive, format it under Server 2008, then tell Hyper-V to add another virtual hard drive to the WHS virtual machine.

That's it. The entire Windows Home Server a single file on a 1 TB hard drive at this point.

 

[mike2fix]

After reading more of these posts, I started a fresh install of WHS and still had problems connecting. I fooled with it a bit and after I renamed the server, everything worked fine. It was having DNS issues, I could ping the IP but not the name, anyway, working fine now.

I now have the WHS running as well as my NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS Duo).

The NAS is certainly more to my liking, much smaller and it does anything I need. It has 2 drives mirrored with Netgear's utility (RaidX or something) which allows me to upgrade to larger drives or replace a bad drive without losing any data. I run a backup program that backs up all data on all computers, once setup, it takes care of itself, to the NAS.

I can see where WHS would be useful for some people but for my needs, the NAS is the way to go. I had looked at a few different units before getting the Netgear (I have no vested interest or affiliation with Netgear) and I must say I am pretty impressed with the ease of configuring and using it.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

ahh, i figured it was something like that but thank you for detailing it all out. I haven't used hyper V yet and this would be a cool thing to test on it... now to find a computer for it...

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Chiefcrowe
Can you describe how you set it up using hyper V?

I'm running full Server 2008 Hyper-V. I added a separate 1 TB Hitachi hard drive for my WHS System drive and formatted the drive as a single 931 GB Basic Partition.

Then I created a new Hyper-V Virtual Machine with a single CPU and 512MB of RAM. I allowed Hyper-V to create a 928 GB virtual hard drive on the new 1 TB drive. Then I inserted the WHS Install DVD and installed WHS on the virtual hard drive.

I gave the virtual machine access to an Intel Gigabit NIC on my server.

When I need to add more space, I'll buy a large drive, format it under Server 2008, then tell Hyper-V to add another virtual hard drive to the WHS virtual machine.

That's it. The entire Windows Home Server a single file on a 1 TB hard drive at this point.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Chiefcrowe
ahh, i figured it was something like that but thank you for detailing it all out. I haven't used hyper V yet and this would be a cool thing to test on it... now to find a computer for it...

My main Hyper-V server is a dirt-cheap Dell SC440 I bought when Dell closed them out last October. The box was $200. Since then, I've added a Q6600, 8 GB of ECC memory, a PCI-E RAID controller, and three 1 TB hard drives, which added a bit to the total cost.

My secondary Hyper-V server is just a E6300-based desktop, again with 8 GB of memory (non-ECC). I dual-boot, either to an XP hard drive (for gaming) or to the Server 2008 Hyper-V hard drive (for serious experimentation). Hyper-V is very flexible about hardware, but you DO have to have a CPU with Intel VT or AMD-V extensions.

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: pjkenned
My WHS Box: 8x 1.5TB 7200.11's (Raid 5),

Is there a reason you used Raid on the drives? It does mean you loose the ability to slap the drives in another machine should things go horribly wrong.

 

[dawks]

So you can get a HP Media server box, or install WHS on your own hardware?

Does the HP Media box do RAID? 5? Can it grow dynamically like Drobo by just adding bigger drives?

Whats the performance like on say the HP Media server? 20megs/sec (gigabit?)

I'd like something like the Drobo since its RAID5, and dynamically expandable, its downside for me right now is speed. Only looks like its about 20megs/sec even on firewire.

I enjoy the 80megs/sec my internal single SATA drive gets :/

 

[TheKub]

By default it does not do Raid. Basically, every hard drive you add (and configure to do so) goes into a drive pool, like a bunch of spanned disks. If you want redundancy you can enable duplication which will tell the server make sure there are 2 copies of those files on different disks.

Expanding the pool is as simple as adding a drive, but the difference is that you normally will get to use the entire space. My understanding with the Drobo if you mix drive sizes you only use the space equal to your smallest drive (which is the same with Raid 5).

After thinking about it running Raid 5 allows you to run without the duplication setting and you can still suffer 1 drive failure. That way you are only loosing 1 entire disk worth of capacity. Whereas if you simply enable duplication you are loosing 50% of your space.

One of the nice features about the WHS method is that at any time you can pull out a drive and put it into any other machine and read its contents like normal. That is not so with Raid (without moving the entire set that is).

 

[Modelworks]

Or could just install a linux distro for free and do whatever you want and use it as a NAS.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: pjkenned
I just moved from trying out OpenFiler/FreeNAS over the past few weeks to WHS. It is great. Integration is good, and getting better as MS just updated with Power Pack 2.

My WHS Box: 8x 1.5TB 7200.11's (Raid 5), 2x 1TB 7200.11's, NorCo 4U (GREAT cheap WHS case, but very loud fans), E6420 (Q6600 swap out this weekend), 4GB OCZ DDR2, Gigabyte EP45-UD3P

I'm totally hooked on WHS now, and started a website that I will be building out over the coming weeks about WHS: http://www.servethehome.com

I honestly believe people do not understand how great recycled/unused PC parts can be as a WHS, and how good Microsoft made this product. Having one of these around is hands an shoulders above anything Apple is doing for their "high-end" consumers, yet you never hear about it.

To me, WHS was but a rumor until I started looking into it a few days ago. I found a very extensive review/explanation/recommendation for WHS here:

Pretty thorough review and explanation of WHS !!!

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Or could just install a linux distro for free and do whatever you want and use it as a NAS.

I read a post by a guy who said he abandoned a Linux NAS solution because he couldn't find a workaround for the OS's 128 character limitation on path+filename. He said that WHS has twice this capacity.
- - - -
I'm looking for a cheap, fast, low power way to run my laptop and PC off the same data (email clients and database applications) and came across this machine:

MSI Wind PC Atom 1.6 MHz CPU Intel 945GC 1 x 200Pin Intel GMA 950 Barebone

The laptop (Lenovo T60) and the PC are both running XP, and I connect to my router wirelessly with the laptop. I want access to the data from either without having to have the other powered up. What do you people think of that box using WHS (or even XP) as a file server? It could evidently be configured nicely as an automatic backup solution.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Muse

I'm looking for a cheap, fast, low power way to run my laptop and PC off the same data (email clients and database applications) and came across this machine:

MSI Wind PC Atom 1.6 MHz CPU Intel 945GC 1 x 200Pin Intel GMA 950 Barebone

My WHS is that box with 2GB RAM and 2x 500GB HDs. Works perfectly.
I'd recommend the Atom 330-based dual core version that is available now though.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: Muse

I'm looking for a cheap, fast, low power way to run my laptop and PC off the same data (email clients and database applications) and came across this machine:

MSI Wind PC Atom 1.6 MHz CPU Intel 945GC 1 x 200Pin Intel GMA 950 Barebone

My WHS is that box with 2GB RAM and 2x 500GB HDs. Works perfectly.
I'd recommend the Atom 330-based dual core version that is available now though.

After tax and shipping (I'm in CA) it comes to $173. The other one should be $145 after rebate. The difference would buy me the 2 GB RAM.