Serve yourself

[greatbear]

Taking a step away from my usual building of computer systems, I decided on buying an HP Mediasmart Server EX495. This is probably the high end of a class of tidy little machines running Windows Home Server. It cost less than 600 bux. About the size of a toaster, it can hold up to 4 drives and sit quietly in the LAN, performing regular backups of PCs and Macs, collecting and converting videos and becoming a repository of various digital media that can be shared not only among computers, consoles and other media players on a network, but over the internet as well. It's silly easy to set up, and quite robust. Windows Home Server is kinda like a well-kept secret, it's well respected among the geekerati, extensible and flexible, yet runs perfectly on very minimal hardware. I picked up the dual-core version (many use Atom processors) with an installed 1.5TB drive. I threw in three more 2TB drives as the thing was running, which immediately became a part of the storage pool after selecting their function. The backups ran perfectly, though cramming over 3TB from this PC alone took about a day and a half, still not bad considering the backup throttles back when the PC is in use to avoid slowdowns. My LAN handled it without a problem. The upgrades from a couple years back to Gigabit, the 24 port managed switch and whatnot should future-proof things here at Mayhem Amalgamated for many years to come, with luck.

It's a shame that this tiny server will take up residence down in the Lab of Doom and not be seen. It's a gorgeous little gloss black box, and built like a tank. The sad thing here is that these things might be on the way out. Microsoft has been working on the successor to WHS, and have removed some of the key features, most notably Drive Extender, that make the OS so simple to use and expand. Now there is talk of abandoning the product entirely. How often do companies have a great thing, then ruin it?

Now there are two dedicated and one multipurpose servers humming away here. 27.5TB total. And you know that big number will become quaint in no time.

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I'm nowhere near your TB-age, but I've already encroached on the current limit for my 5-bay DroboFS; with 5 2-TB drives in it, I have less than a TB free and it's lit one of the lights asking for a larger drive ... which currently isn't available as a bare drive. Obviously I need to make some decisions about what stays on the thing since I'm not currently prepared to splash out for the 8-bay version.

I think the problem with WHS is that it hasn't been marketed correctly to the general public; as you say, the geekerati understand why having a home server is cool, but I think a lot of "ordinary" people balk at the word "server" for some reason.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

MS made it easy enough for a seasoned beginner to get up and running, but did not kneecap the setup so much that it would be shunned by the geekery. Indeed it was not marketed much at all, even to the advanced users. It was mostly word-of-mouth, a little secret gem. It should have been made into a product called the Home Hub or some other inoffensive name. Heck, the thing lives well with Macs. Sadly, I think this will be another "one of those that got away" that could have been something great.

I can add a shit-ton more storage via 4 USB ports and a eSATA port to the Mediasmart box. If I overflow the internal storage, I'll get some Drobo-like multi-drive box that connects via eSATA.

Even most savvy PC people cringe at the word "server" for some reason. Dunno why.