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How to Build a Kick-Ass Windows Home Server

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How to build a Windows Home Server to back up your PCs and stream all your movies, music and photos

Your PC’s hard drive is probably packed to the platter’s edge with hundreds of ripped DVD videos, gigabytes of digital photos from your camera, and tens of thousands of songs. And that’s not even counting the high-definition digital video from your last family vacation that you’re still planning to unload. But with terabytes of media just gathering dust on your desktop PC, you risk losing years of aggregated files when your hard drive inevitably gives out (don’t even think about backing it all up to the cloud). Our solution: Keep all your data backed up on a Windows Home Sever. More than just a generic NAS box, Windows Home Server maintains backups, streams media files, and works as a file share across your home network. And the best part is that you can build one yourself—we’ll show you how!

Windows Home Server: An Overview

More than just a stripped-down version of Windows Server 2003, WHS has numerous features that make it ideal for small home networks

No-Hassle Backups

WHS’s primary function is providing automatic backups for computers on your home network. You can schedule daily backups for up to 10 Windows machines, and you have the option of picking specific local drives or excluding individual folders from backup. The backups aren’t image-based, either: WHS looks at the file system and stores only one copy of every file on its data partition, regardless of how many PCs that file appears on. WHS also monitors the antivirus and firewall status of all client PCs, a useful tool for home admins.

Intuitive File Sharing

The WHS administrator can create user accounts that give friends and family members access to shared files on the server, as well as a password-protected account folder to store personal files. Users’ PCs access the server like they would any other network-attached storage device, and they have the option of enabling data redundancy to duplicate selected folders across multiple physical drives on the home server.

You can add up to 10 Windows machines to back up with WHS, as long as their drives are formatted using the NTFS file system.

Robust Remote Access

Getting access to your files and managing backups on WHS remotely is easy as well. Users can use the provided Console Connector client software to change their own backup settings, navigate the file system in Windows Explorer with a network address, or even remote desktop into the server. Read more about remote access later in this article.

Versatile Media Streaming

Built into the latest version of WHS is the Windows Media Connect UPnP server software, which lets any compatible digital media receiver (like the Xbox 360, PS3, or Windows Media Player 11) stream movies and music off the home network. WHS’s Power Pack 2 update added support for MP4 video files and metadata, and third-party add-ins and server software enable advanced features like real-time video transcoding, so you can stream almost any file type.

Easy Expandability

 

One of the coolest things about WHS is its ability to seamlessly integrate any new hard drives into its data partition. Whether you’re adding new internal SATA drives or plugging in additional USB hard drives, WHS will automatically format new storage devices so all drives are treated as a single unified storage space. Replacing older hard drives is also relatively easy, though the removal process may take several hours as WHS relocates backup files to the remaining physical drives.

COMMENTS
avatarPower consumption!?

How much power does it consume? Very important for many people if it is supposed to be on 24/7.

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avatarDrivers?

How is the hunt for drivers coming?  I'm having a hard time making all my devices work in WHS.  The ASUS CD says it's not supported.  Does anyone have links to working drivers?  Thanks!

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avatarEasy except for the motherboard,

I had been interested in getting a NAS, but decided, once I'd read the magazine article, to go this route instead.  I am impressed with WHS's capabilities.

The magazine's instructions were easy to follow and everything went together well.  My only COMPLAINT is the Asus M4A78 Pro motherboard.  As another poster commented, Newegg's purchaser comments show this board has a lot of problems.  I've waiting for my THIRD board:

1st worked, except for the on-board lan.  Wouldn't work.  When I tried to upgrade to the latest bios, using the bios's own ASUS EZ Flash 2 program, the program reported success, but the board would not post.  No boot screen, no beeps, nothing.  RMA'd.

2nd worked, but again, no lan.  I did get the lan to connect to my router by enabling the "Check Atheros LAN cable" bios option.  I did find drivers that worked on the motherboard's cd, even if ASUS does not say they support WHS (WHS itself able to find the appropriate drivers by using device manager).  In fact, ASUS customer support specifically told me this board does NOT support WHS.  With the driver installed, lan communications functional.  Left the system on for 2 days, then shut it down.  A day later, when I booted, or attempted to boot, the board would not post.  Again, no boot screen, no beeps.  Nothing.  RMA'd.

Hopefully, 3rd time will be the charm.  With a HEADLESS server, having the board boot up EVERY time CRITICAL.  No chance to see boot errors when running headless.

In summary, the magazine's instructions are easy to follow, and the build is easy.  But using this motherboard, I now have a bit of practice installing motherboards, cpu's, and heatsinks again and again.

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avatarActivation seems seemless

I just installed 4 1.5TB WDGreen HDD's, full, complete from the ground up reinstall, not from a backup...  WHS does activate, but I didn't have any problems doing so.  Maybe if you change the MoBo but not with changing out all the drives and reinstalling everything from scratch...

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avatarComparison MOBO to the one in this how-to?

Disclaimer*:  Novice computer "building" knowledge, I know enough to be dangerous but do not keep up-to-date on what all of the technology means so any and all true help is much appreciated.

 I am looking to build this home server in order for it to be my media center because I watch most of my movies streaming through my Xbox 360 and I also need a place to keep a backup of my laptop (which is my main PC.  I don't use a desktop anymore).  While trying to piece together the parts list and reading quite a few reviews on this mobo on Newegg I'm not 100% sold on this one.  It seems that quite a few people have had trouble just getting it to boot (requiring them to flash the bios) among some other issues.  Can anyone recommend a similiar mobo comparable to this one?  Andwould you recommend I buy a combo deal with mobo + processor?

 This box will be used only as a server and I will be storing all of my music, movies, pictures, and backups on the drives.  My end goal is to just stream everything through my Xbox 360.

 Second question I have is what is the difference when referring to RAM (PC2 4200, 5300, 6400 etc.)?  What would be commended?

 I tried to log into the forums to ask this but am having username/pw issues for some reason.

 Thanks for any help you provide.

 

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avatarLong time user

I started with WHS before it was commercially released as a Beta tester and progressed over the years from the initial public release, the Power Packs 1 and 2 and am now beta testing the Power Pack 3.

The idea of WHS is just great. I have seven PCs hooked into it and backups are routine and unmonitored. It does nag you a bit if one gets missed (which you can turn off, but that would defeat the purpose). I have a medium-grade processor and 2 terabytes of data among about six drives.

There are two or three things that bug me. First, they built it on Windows Business Server 2003 and I've not seen any upgrade to 2008 come yet, nor does it appear they will do that upgrade. They really really really lock down your WHS for security which means you have to add trusted sites for almost any website you visit. Again, I somewhat agree with making this pretty tough to get around for novice users, but it's somewhat annoying when, for example, trying to troubleshoot DSL problems with my vendor. Third, for some reason, they partition only 20 Gigs to the C drive and then take all the rest of the drive space and make that the start of the data partition. I wanted to put SQLServer on my WHS machine because it's a server, it's connected to the internet, and it has lots of storage. I tell you, SQLServer ate through all of the empty space on the drive and then caused problems with backups because the drive had no room. My print queue went down and it took me forever to uninstall SQLServer. I tried my best to reinstall it on one of the D drives, but it (so far) has been impossible). Something glitched and I'm in no-install hell until I get it figured out. To make matters worse, they won't let you expand the C partition (at least through normal means), they won't let you do a roll-back (ala XP or Vista) where you can revert to a previous (pre-SQL in my case) setup. And, if you want to replace drives, you can mark any drive EXCEPT THE FIRST D PARTITION as 'don't use' and it will carefully move all of your data off that drive so you can do a swap. I upgraded from two 500 gig drives to two 1,000 gig drives with absolutely no problem. Just make sure your main drive never gets old because, so far, I can't figure out how to move data off that first partition. It SHOULD BE part of the WHS capabilities. I shouldn't have to image drives and restore complete drives. Plus, I'm very afraid to use a partition manager on there because WHS completely fills up that first D partition.

Enough on that. I do appreciate the suggestions on the add-ins. Last time I checked, there weren't many. The several you mention seem to be great additions. I've always thought the way you logged in and transferred files was pretty lame, but that's not why I purchased WHS.

One more thing... I use Carbonite to backup my WHS to the cloud. I store all our documents, videos, pictures, etc. and having an automatic off-site backup is somewhat reassuring. Carbonite, however, just cannot keep up.  It's never been current and there are files that have been on there for three years it hasn't gotten to yet. Not making me feel 100% secure, but most of my important data is already backuped on DVD and stored off-site (family pictures, etc). I have asked Carbonite to give me a better level of service, but they haven't heard me yet. They are very reasonably priced, but if you can't get current, betteer hope you don't crash-and-burn.

Altogether, nice article, guys! Thanks. MaximumPC is still a destination for me, both in print and on the web!!

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avatarBuilt a NAS two weeks ago, running WHS

I LOVE it... WHS is absolutely amazing. You can do so much with it.

The add-in recommendations are great guys!

A couple weeks ago my Dad gave me some money and said he wanted a new network and NAS setup.

I did my research and bought the following: 

ASUS AT3GC-I w/Intel Atom 1.60GHz

GMA950 (onboard)

1GB 667MHz Crucial

Mini ITX case w/250W PSU

2X Samsung 1TB HDs

I chose Atom because of low power consumption and the fact that I won't be streaming any video or anything.

It's great because now  we have all our pictures (that go back at least 20 years) on the network were everybody can access them.

I'll be settup up Windows media player to stream music to any of the computers as well.

Backups are awesome.

 

So in the end. THanks so much for this guide!

~Smee

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avatarMicroATX?

I apologize in advance if this is a basic question... I like the idea of having a Windows Home Windows server so I won't have to turn on my computer, connect my USB external hard drive and boot up PS3 Server every time I want to watch a movie/episode on my PS3/TV. However, I'm not too fond of the size of the tower.... can I have a similar spec on MicroATX? I will mainly use it to play mrk, rmvb, avi, ISO (dvdrip) movies on PS3 using PS3 Server as I mentioned earlier. I like Acer easystore's form factor but it just doesn't seem powerful enough with its atom CPU and video. Thanks.

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avatarmATX is the way to go

Glee, my WHS is mATX, system board and case, works great.  No need for giant case.

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avatarYes

You could defiantly use a MicroATX sized motherboard and still get all the same functionality.  And you are right, a more powerful CPU will help you watch HD content.

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avatarcheck out this site.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/

Pretty much the definitive site for WHS. It's from an HP perspective (which is a lot smaller than this tower) but answers a lot of basic concepts for WHS.

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avatarMy Movies Add-In

I have been running WHS since the Beta release and have to say that I'm quite happy with it.  I have played with freeNAS and some other Linux Server Distro's and have to say that they are nice, but WHS is much better for my non-tech savvy family members.  I currently run user profiles, back up all the machines (9) on my network and it integrates (now with SP2) seemlessly with my PS3, X360, Vista MCE, Windows 7, and my networked Yamaha Receiver...  I own Windows Server 2003 and 2008 (Dreamspark - from when I was working on my BSIT) but haven't even gotten around to installing them to play with because WHS does what I need it to do...

While I love open-source and Linux, WHS has a few bells and whistles that i have come to love...  I have my server set up as network drives (Mapped out as X, T, U, V, W (Music, Software, Documents, Videos, Pictures)).  With the My Movies addin (from this article) I am reconfiguring my movies folder (was using TVersity and/or the regular Windows interface).  I have about 400 movies re-ripped (thank you AnyDVD and HANDBRAKE) to MP4 to stream anywhere in my house (wireless and gig-wired).  My SilverStone, C2Duo, 4gb, 4TB home build (around $900 shipped (living in Germany) with case) works amazingly well...  I'm not sure I like the fact that I have to put each movie in its own folder, but I guess that comes with the territory - I like the interface of My Movies...

I'm not a big supporter of Windows (I HATE VISTA!!! ESPECIALLY UAC) but I have to say this is one thing Microsoft got right.  I have been testing the Win7RC (and Beta's) and am looking forward to a more seemless integration of files over the network...  I haven't played around with Ubuntu on the PS3 to see if that works with my WHS yet - maybe I'll try that this weekend...

Anyone evening thinking of picking up WHS should download the trial and test it out on older hardware - trust me, it brings a certain peace of mind to know that ALL of your computers are backed up; especially if you have more than one...and especially if you have kids that like to "mess" with their computers...

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avatarsome issues

I've had some issues with the restore process in the past (one as recent as this weekend). There should be a way for you to test the restore process before you need it on each individual machine. As I was hunting drivers yesterday, I finally noticed that the WHS folks are now building a RESTORE DRIVER directory where you can copy your dirvers to a memory stick so you don't have to hunt them down. I could NOT, however, get around a problem connecting to the WHS machine for the restore process. I'm not sure it it was a Windows 7 issue, a connectivity issue, or what. It kept saying it couldn't find the server. I finally hooked up my laptop and watched the DHCP table while connecting and figured out it wasn't loading my LAN drivers correctly. I finally found them, put them on a memory stick, loaded the drivers and finally got to the WHS login page. BUT, once I entered the password, all I can get is an error message saying it was having problems communicating with the WHS machine. I'm trying a work-around now, but I wish there were a way to 100% positively ASSURE connectivity and restore capability BEFORE you need it!!

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avatar3TB RAID 5 NAS

Hi everyone,

I built a NAS several months ago from consumer grade parts and have been loving it.  It has 3TB of hard disk space which I organized into a RAID 5 array which works beautifully.  Even though I'm trying to sell mine, I would recommend this concept for people who like to have easy access to massive amounts of data.  I have used mine mostly for video files which take up plenty of space.

Here are the hardware stats:

Motherboard - ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX
CPU - AMD Sempron 2.2GHz AM2 45W Single-Core 
RAM - 2x CORSAIR 1GB 240-Pin SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) 
Hard Drives - 6x 500GB
Video Card - ASUS EN7600GS GeForce 7600GS 512MB 128-bit
Power Supply - OCZ GameXStream 700W 
Case - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower 
Operating System - FreeNAS     Installed on a 1GB USB flash drive

FreeNAS makes everything super simple and offers plenty of free support.  I would recomend it over WHS anyday.  Everything is administered through a web gui from anywhere in the world.  It's a beautiful thing :) 

Any one else out there using FreeNAS? 

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avatarWHS > NAS

FreeNAS isn't bad.  I ran it prior to WHS.  I have used WHS for about 2 yrs now.  It does so much more than a NAS.  You have a machine die and you can have it back up within an hour - just the way it was last backup.  WHS is the best backup solution I have used to date and on top of that it is a great hub for all your media

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avatarits come a long way in 2 years

I hear ya.  I like the rsync feature from FreeNAS over WHS.

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avatarpower consumption?

While I recognize that energy savings is not a consideration in this design, would you mind posting the power stats, if known?

Thanks.

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avatarGood article!

I've got three PCs in the house...one on Vista HP SP2 and two running Win 7 RC.  The upgrade for the Vista box is on order, as is the final release for the other PCs.

So, this article is really timely for me.  Maximum PC articles tend to be that way. :)

I've got some spare hardware sitting here and I think I am going to give the WHS Beta 3 a try.

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avatarI removed my HP EX475? server. Win7 really does it all.

 Y'know, with Win7 Ultimate, I found that I really did not need a server any more. I just took my HTPC (always on), added a couple more hard drives and I was done. My main computer backs up to the HTPC every night. As long as media player is running on my HTPC, I can stream anything that will play to my Xbox 360 and PS3. Remote access is easy with Home Group. The final kicker is to just clone my extra drives once a month for offsite backup using my BlacX ESATA drive port, something I could never do with my server.

 

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avatarThermal Paste?

Ummm, Don't you want to put some thermal paste on that CPU before installing that fan?

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avatarHe's most likely using the

He's most likely using the thermal pad on the stock cooler

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avatarHello mobo drivers?

Guys you went into great detail on the physical build but glossed over the actuall software install.  For instance you didn't even mention if this Asus mobo supports WHS or Server 2003 natively.  Looking at Asus' website there's no mention of that.  I have the Asus M3A78-EM and it didn't support WHS out of the box.  It was a bit of a PITA getting LAN drivers, etc. working.  I mean if you are going to show a picture of where to instert the stick of RAM you should go into some detail on how to get the software to recognize your hardware.   

Other than that though very nice article.  

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avatarWHS

I have used WHS for the past year with a home built box, mostly scrounged from spare parts. I used an old case, DVD ROM drive, 80 GB drive for the OS, spare Antec power supply that was not powerful enough for my SLI setup, and AMD Athlon 64 X2 proc, but did upgrade to a board with gigabyte ethernet for faster transfers, and two new 1.5 GB HDD. Less than $300 all told. Ony real problem I experienced over the last year was WHS not playing nice with the UnPnP with several Linksys routers, but I think that is more an issue with the routers. Manually setting port forwarding works so I can access the server over the web. Get some spare parts, an OEM WHS nad have fun!

I've upped my standards, now up yours!

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avatarReally?

Windows certainly has it's place, but I try to avoid it whenever the word server is involved.  Seriously though, any linux distro, with webmin, and fuppes or ushare(UPNP multimedia streaming servers like tversity or the like), and you have more than equal capability for free.  I have a screenless (it broke) celeron M laptop that I'm using as a small NAS box, web server, media server combo, running ubuntu jaunty server, and I have had it running straight for 4 months now with NO reboots, and the software upgrades are completely automatic (you can choose if you want it that way or not).  With webmin, backups are trivial too. It's just dead simple.  It really can't be easier, and after this article, I'm sure the software I've described on linux gives you a better home server...

Familiarity is the only real argument for going with Windows as a home server...just don't spend that much money without trying out a solution that I'm sure MANY others would also recommend.
### I'm an idiot, and I approve this message ###

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avatarThere are two big benefits

There are two big benefits to going the WHS route over a Linux server. (I used to run a Debian server at home for file storage, email consolidation, and media sharing, but replaced that machine with a WHS box, so I'm familiar with both.)

Backups on the WHS box are idiot-proof and happen at the block level. That means that that files that are on multiple machines are only backed up once, and is a good thing.

The ability to add and remove drives at will is possible on a Linux machine, but it's definitely not this easy. 

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avatarI don't think you should

I don't think you should make a blanket generalizations without having tried the product.  For instance, did you know that the backups are block level so you can have multiple point in time backups without keeping multiple full copies of the backup and that the software can automatically dedupe identical files across different systems?

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avatarOk you are right.

It wasn't fair to assume any given linux distro could do everything WHS could do without using it.
I do know about that feature, and it is nice. Can we not pretend that it's unique to windows though?
Lvm2 that is set up automatically with ubuntu-server can do point-in-time snapshotting.
And as far as deduping identical files, it's called rsync, or any of the hundreds of backup utilities that use rsync on linux.
Windows does backups really well.  So does linux.
For goodness sakes, linux is and enterprise-level OS to you know.  When it comes to servers, it really is a great solution.  Windows can be too, but I honestly don't think windows on a server is worth the money...that's just my opinion though.
Use it a bit and you might find out how that windows isn't the only good choice as far as OS's go.  I did, I've been very happy ever since.
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avatarI wasn't commenting on the

I wasn't commenting on the fact that this was something that this particular product did well to the exclusion of a linux solution, just the fact that you're commenting on the quality of a solution by basing it on what appear to be generalizations you've formed as opposed to having had first hand experience with this particular platform.  Yes, I get that Linux is great in the enterprise and that the same sort of thing can be accomplished with a variety of tools, but again the focus is specifically for home users (Windows based home users in particular) and keeping the level of complexity to a minimum.  It might make sense that for some people your solution will work best, but making blanket statements essentially advising that no one should be using any Windows server products under any circumstances is pretty silly.

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avatarI never said

I never said that nobody should ever use any windows server products under any circumstances.  I have used them in some circumstances myself.  What I did say, is that I tend to avoid windows server if I can.
And I quote myself: "Windows certainly has it's place, but I try to avoid it whenever the word server is involved."
If you are threatened into thinking that I don't believe windows server is usefull, then you are just assuming I hate windows, and am advising that nobody use it.  That isn't what I said at all.  I merely was stating the fact that any decent linux distro can offer the same functionality, and that I prefer that solution over windows server solutions.  WHS probably is easier for people used to windows.  Thats a given...but it does cost money.  Some people don't realize that they have other options.  I was only pointing that out...I wasn't trying to start a flame war about windows vs linux.  We all know they each have their benefits.  Now get off my lawn.
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avatarDo you have to do anything

Do you have to do anything at all with your "any linux distro" from the CLI?  Because as soon as you do, you've gone far beyond the target audience for WHS.

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avatarnope

like the other replyer to you post said, it does completely depend on what distro you intend to use.  But if you decide to use a distro with a desktop-environment installed by default, then no, almost for sure not.
I've run server funtionality on MANY of my ubuntu installs at one time or another, and I don't NEED to drop to the CLI if I don't want to.  Do I want to though?  For many tasks, yes, as its sometimes orders of magnitude faster than clicking through a GUI.

Also, webmin that I mentioned, gives a nice, intuitive, web interface that you can use to administer anything you could imagine.  So, there you go, 3 good options for management/administration really:
Desktop, terminal, webpage.
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avatarDepends on the distro

Depends on the distro used.  Many of the specialized server distros don't need cli at all to be setup or distros like opensuse that have gui tools like YaST that don't require dropping to cli especially when your talking about a small server like a media server.

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avatarSave yourself some $$$$

Save yourself a bit of money and get that "getting something accomplished" feeling and use one of the many feature laden linux distro's for the ultimate in a home server.

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avatarre-installing

how picky is WHS OEM on re-installs and hardware upgrades?

is it like XP ?  or is going to be a nut buster and not let me if I change my MoBo  in a year...

 

I have an older tower  with a AMD64 3000 chip in it that I want to use for while I save for a custom build like the one you outlined, and I dont want to have to buy another copy of WHS.

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avatarI'm not even sure Home

I'm not even sure Home Server is activated. I don't recall seeing activation on the one I'm running.

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avatarESXi

It wouldn't be a bad idea to throw on VMWare ESXi so you can have a couple different servers. Like if you got a few NICs you could route your internet though smooth wall or make your own domain with server 2003 or 2008. You could host your own internal website with a Linux server. Ect, ect. The best part is ESXi 4.0 is free and isn't to hard to understand. Though its a pain to get it going because of pretty harsh hardware requirements. You could just get the free Vmware server and run it on top of Windows home server, though you get horrid performance that way.

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avatarHome Server on ESXi

I run two servers at home, an ESXi server for running all of my regular Linux and Windows Server OS and a separate Windows Home Server for my home server needs.

If you run WHS on a VM in ESXi you lose the benefits of being able to add hard drives and swap drives as easily as a physical box. 

To check out some pics and the specs of my server check here: http://connectedcommuter.com/news/our-new-webserver/ (The upper server is my WHS box and lower is my ESXi server.)

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