Windowsd Server 2003 vs. Windows Home Server

[zylander]

I was told that Windows Home Server has the ability to merge multiple hard drives into one, effectively creating one pathway, is this true? Is this function available in Server 2003?

Im want to install a new OS on my home file server. The server is used for storage and streaming media to my HTPC. I was going to just get WHS, but then I found out I can get Server 2003 Standard free through dreamspark. For use on a simple media/file home server is there really any difference between WHS and 2003 standard? I would need to be able to merge the hard drives together and I must have remote desktop.

 

[bsobel]

Get WHS, the drive extender technology is not available in 2003 server itself.

 

[zylander]

Now this drive extender technology will allow me to merge, say, two or three 750gb hard drives together and just have one pathway?

 

[bsobel]

Yes, at least to the clients (not the server itself). My 10 500gig drives show as one flat 5tb file system. I can start popping those out (if I tell WHS that I'll remove the drive it will empty it) and start upgrading to the 2tb drives and transparently get the other space.

However, for redundancy your only choice is to mirror the data (1 copy on 2 drives), its not true raid. But given how easy it is to upgrade drives it a nice trade off.

Also, the client backup functionality is great....

 

[zylander]

Well Im sold, guess Ill go ahead and order a copy, thanks!

 

[zylander]

One other question; Do you get to select which drives go into the drive extender pool, or does the OS automatically use all drives?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: zylander
One other question; Do you get to select which drives go into the drive extender pool, or does the OS automatically use all drives?

When WHS sees a new hard drive, it asks you if you want to add it to the storage pool. It'll reformat drives that are added to the pool Other drives are left alone and can be assigned drive letters. But those won't be used to store anything by WHS.

When first installing WHS, don't have any drives attached that you don't want reformatted.

 

[zylander]

When you say that drives out of the pool wont be used to store anything by WHS; are you saying that WHS will, by default will use the drive pool as the primary storage space? Does the OS have to be installed on the drive pool?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: zylander
When you say that drives out of the pool wont be used to store anything by WHS; are you saying that WHS will, by default will use the drive pool as the primary storage space? Does the OS have to be installed on the drive pool?

I'm also waiting to see how someone answers his questions. I've committed to buy the WHS OS for $95 -- it's sitting here. I have to make decisions about hardware before I get started -- thinking about breaking apart a RAID5 array -- for re-use in a hot-swappable drive-tray (StarTech) for backup. I'll probably start with two 320GB SATA2 drives in the "pool."

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: zylander
When you say that drives out of the pool wont be used to store anything by WHS; are you saying that WHS will, by default will use the drive pool as the primary storage space? Does the OS have to be installed on the drive pool?

When WHS is installed on a hard drive, it creates two volumes, "System" and "Data". The System volume is reserved for WHS. The Data volume is used by WHS to store all the shared data that you copy to the server.

When you add an additional hard drive, WHS will ask you if you want to add it to the drive pool. If you say "Yes", WHS will format the disk and automatically add its capacity to the "Data" volume.

You can add and subtract addtitional hard drives at will (except for the first hard drive that is being used for the OS), as long as you tell WHS what you are going to do. Before pulling a drive, you need to allow WHS time to transfer your data files from the "to-be-pulled" disk to one of your remaining disks.

When you add a new disk to the drive pool, WHS will start using it for data storage as it sees appropriate.

If you tell WHS to NOT add a drive to the pool, WHS won't use the drive. You can use it to make manual backups of data.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: zylander
When you say that drives out of the pool wont be used to store anything by WHS; are you saying that WHS will, by default will use the drive pool as the primary storage space? Does the OS have to be installed on the drive pool?

WHS can use no drives besides the drive pool for storage space. Drives that are not part of the pool can be used by other applications and as a destination for backing up WHS itself, but WHS will not do anything else with the drives. And the OS (or rather the drive it's on) is on the drive pool. The drive the OS is installed on is split in to 2 partitions, a 20GB partition for the OS, and the other partition is the rest of the space of that drive and is part of the pool.

 

[Genx87]

2003 has a distributed file system that sounds similar to this drive pool in WHS. You create the file system using a namespace and connect that way. I played with it for a bit and I believe you can link different servers into a single space and it distributes the load over the network. You can also sync it across the wire for redundancy with a second 2003 box.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: zylander
When you say that drives out of the pool wont be used to store anything by WHS; are you saying that WHS will, by default will use the drive pool as the primary storage space? Does the OS have to be installed on the drive pool?

WHS can use no drives besides the drive pool for storage space. Drives that are not part of the pool can be used by other applications and as a destination for backing up WHS itself, but WHS will not do anything else with the drives. And the OS (or rather the drive it's on) is on the drive pool. The drive the OS is installed on is split in to 2 partitions, a 20GB partition for the OS, and the other partition is the rest of the space of that drive and is part of the pool.

Right, its completely optional to add it. I put in an external USB drive that I didnt have added to the pool, rather I use a sync program on the server itself to back up data to it.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Genx87
2003 has a distributed file system that sounds similar to this drive pool in WHS. You create the file system using a namespace and connect that way. I played with it for a bit and I believe you can link different servers into a single space and it distributes the load over the network. You can also sync it across the wire for redundancy with a second 2003 box.

DFS is not remotely close, that is distribution across multiple servers not across multiple disks on the same server.