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I recently upgraded my main computer to vista ultimate and with all my recorded shows and dvd rips i tihnk its time for me to get a storage server
I just have a few questions about WHS
1. do i need a RAID array or does WHS take care of all that stuff?
2. Is it recommended i get a pci sata card?, would i get more performance using that instead of the onboard sata
3. does WHS support swapping drives while the system is working and if it does i'll need a motherboard supporting that right?
4.does WHS support UPS devices? (specific UPS's or all brands of UPS's)
5. can i enable UPNP on WHS?
6. with the backup feature, can i backup from non windows based OS's?
7. does anyone know the average transfer speeds copying from pc's to WHS on a 100Mb/s and a Gigabit network
and thats all the question's i can tihnk of so far!
(sorry for all the questions, i just want WHS to cover all my bases and be perfect for my needs)
I recently upgraded my main computer to vista ultimate and with all my recorded shows and dvd rips i tihnk its time for me to get a storage server
I just have a few questions about WHS
1. do i need a RAID array or does WHS take care of all that stuff?
2. Is it recommended i get a pci sata card?, would i get more performance using that instead of the onboard sata
3. does WHS support swapping drives while the system is working and if it does i'll need a motherboard supporting that right?
4.does WHS support UPS devices? (specific UPS's or all brands of UPS's)
5. can i enable UPNP on WHS?
6. with the backup feature, can i backup from non windows based OS's?
7. does anyone know the average transfer speeds copying from pc's to WHS on a 100Mb/s and a Gigabit network
and thats all the question's i can tihnk of so far!
(sorry for all the questions, i just want WHS to cover all my bases and be perfect for my needs)
Colin
in a nutshell, WHS makes for a great backup device BUT I do not recommend it for live streaming of video. There are several writeups in these forums you might want to have a read of especially the latest one started by Mike in this thread.
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That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.
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in a nutshell, WHS makes for a great backup device BUT I do not recommend it for live streaming of video
I respectfully disagree with ExtremePC opinion - this is based on my own experience using these two systems and many others who are sucessfully using WHS systems to stream recorded TV to Media Centers and Media Center extenders (in my case VMC recorded TV (both SD and HD) and AVI files). Ecidence of that is available on any of the WHS and Media Center sites around the world.
I have read Mikes comments and are trying to find an answer as to what is happening in his scenario - however that does not definitively prove that WHS and Media Center does not work
Quote:
Originally Posted by colin_090
and thats all the question's i can tihnk of so far!
(sorry for all the questions, i just want WHS to cover all my bases and be perfect for my needs)
Have a read of the WHS FAQ section and visit sone of the sites listed
Now to answer your questions:
1. do i need a RAID array or does WHS take care of all that stuff?
No - not at all - you need to read the Drive Extender whitepaper for details of how WHS stores files and can support multiple copies across seperate physical disks. Some people choose to use RAID as well - however that is not recomended by Microsoft
2. Is it recommended i get a pci sata card?, would i get more performance using that instead of the onboard sata
No - onboard SATA works fine
3. does WHS support swapping drives while the system is working and if it does i'll need a motherboard supporting that right?
No
Edit: I mean't to say it's not something I would recomend.....it may be possible depending on your MB and config however you would want to be making sure you removed the disk from the WHS system via the console before doing so
4.does WHS support UPS devices? (specific UPS's or all brands of UPS's)
Yes - I use one myself and there are add-ins to help manage UPS reporting and interaction but the built-in capability works fine
5. can i enable UPNP on WHS?
Absolutely - and hopefully your router works with it - or you can manually port forward
6. with the backup feature, can i backup from non windows based OS's?
No
7. does anyone know the average transfer speeds copying from pc's to WHS on a 100Mb/s and a Gigabit network
I dont but have a search through some of the sites listed in the FAQ
Hope these answers help and feel free to ask more questions - but do check out the FAQ first
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Media Centre: Apache H-21BK Case, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3, Intel E8400, 4GB 800Mhz RAM, nVidia 8600GT, 500GB/750GB SATA, 19" Dell FP LCD & Fujitsu 19" LCD, Hauppauge NOVA T-500 dual digital tuner, ICE TV, Vista Ultimate with XBOX360 Prox2, Fujitsu 42" P42HHA40US Plasma, AUSID HD Dig Tuner
WHS: Dell 9150 (aka XPS400) D940 3.2GHz dual core, 2GB 667MHz RAM, 500GB/400GB,/320GB SATA/500GB USB, MSI nVIDIA NX6200TC Video, WHS PP1 with clients - 2 x Vista Ultimate, 1 x Vista Home, 2 x XP Pro, 2 x XBOX360
Last edited by bodogbodog; 4th July 2008 at 04:58 PM.
Reason: Edited answer on hot swapping drives
The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to bodogbodog for this information:
3. does WHS support swapping drives while the system is working and if it does i'll need a motherboard supporting that right?
No
Sorry bodogbodog, I have to challenge that one. As far as I am aware WHS does support hot swapping. If you have a MoBo that supports it that is. Once a drive is removed from the pool, WHS will allow removal from the system and a new on to be installed. The new one won't appear in the pool until you add it from the management console, but the whole swap can be done without downing the server.
I agree with you on the media serving though. I have not seen anything near the problems Mike is having on his system. colin_090, if you look at this post in the thread ExtremePC linked to above, you will see the speeds I am getting from WHS on file transfers.
I have had some minor niggles with streaming to Vista Media Centre from WHS, but getting all the latest patches has alleviated most of them. Sometimes I have an avi freeze just after starting, but stopping and starting again it works fine. More annoying than a real problem, but not perfect.
Having said that, I have recently installed the latest patch from MS to do wth streaming issues in Vista MC, but haven't tested it yet.
WHS is a great product and well worth considering.
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Linux is only free if your time has no value.
The following Member(s) said "Thank You!" to GlenR for this information:
Sorry bodogbodog, I have to challenge that one. As far as I am aware WHS does support hot swapping. If you have a MoBo that supports it that is. Once a drive is removed from the pool, WHS will allow removal from the system and a new on to be installed. The new one won't appear in the pool until you add it from the management console, but the whole swap can be done without downing the server.
Noted and agreed - I was in too much of a rush to get out the door this morning - what I mean't to say on that one is that it wouldn't be something I'd recomend myself. I've edited my answer accordingly
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Media Centre: Apache H-21BK Case, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3, Intel E8400, 4GB 800Mhz RAM, nVidia 8600GT, 500GB/750GB SATA, 19" Dell FP LCD & Fujitsu 19" LCD, Hauppauge NOVA T-500 dual digital tuner, ICE TV, Vista Ultimate with XBOX360 Prox2, Fujitsu 42" P42HHA40US Plasma, AUSID HD Dig Tuner
WHS: Dell 9150 (aka XPS400) D940 3.2GHz dual core, 2GB 667MHz RAM, 500GB/400GB,/320GB SATA/500GB USB, MSI nVIDIA NX6200TC Video, WHS PP1 with clients - 2 x Vista Ultimate, 1 x Vista Home, 2 x XP Pro, 2 x XBOX360
thanks for all the help guy's. It looks like i'll be taking the plunge and going with WHS. i had a choice between WHS and Freenas and the things really appealing to me in WHS is the UPS support and the fact it looks shiny (cmon who dosent love shiny things!)
i've been reading alot of information on these forum's and that's also swayed me towards WHS
I use my WHS to stream everything up to HD (1920x1080p) content and it works fine. On the really high bandwidth stuff ffw/rew is a bit slow although that may be something to do with codecs.
There is a new add-in to manage recorded tv, so I'll be moving that onto my WHS pretty soon.
One bit of advice, because its on a lot (I use lights out to turn mine off at night) build it to use minimum power. You really don't need much grunt for WHS.
Mine runs on a 690G with a BE2150 processor and 10 HDDs. I have found that cheap PCI Sil3114 sata controllers work well in WHS
