3 replies to this topic

[MarkJohnson]

I finally got my new N40L setup and upgraded the BIOS to the BIOS-MOD and installed 8GB ECC RAM.

Now I need to setup a home server. I will use it for back so will have a NAS setup. I would also like to stream video's movies to my other computers (Windows 7 and Appl iOS) and maybe even iTunes as well.

Not sure what I need for streaming, but I have a 5450 video card if that will help. plus it will add sound. I also have a Hauppage 2250 TV card I'd like to use to stream live TV.

I've played around a lot with setting up various servers temporarily just for kicks and have used different versions of linux over the years off and on, so I know my way around the system a little and have compiled programs manually a few times so I'm not afraid of the CLI.

If posssible I'd like to have an easy setup as possible until I get comfortable with the server environmemt, then I may try others setups.

I have a technet subscription, so I have whs 2011 and server 2008 r2 std and enterprise. My paid subscription expired, but the few keys I remembered to save still work. I'll prolly resubscribe when win 8 comes out. or just before.

I had whs2011 and r2 std installed and the system seem very laggy. while freebsd and linux felt more responsive.

I didn't try ESXi install yet as I figured that would just add to the lag.

Thanks for any advice you can give
-=Mark=-

[jmwills]

You can stream form the Microserver as is, no additional hardware required. My setup currently has TV shows and movies being sreplicated form the Home Server and I stream from the N40L which is stock with the exception of the BIOS mod and an additional 2GB RAM.

My N40L has Server 2008R2 as the base OS and I use DFS to enumerate the shares across the LAN.

[Joe_Miner]

Now I need to setup a home server. I will use it for back so will have a NAS setup. I would also like to stream video's movies to my other computers (Windows 7 and Appl iOS) and maybe even iTunes as well.

This screams either WHS-V1 or WHS-2011 to me. Check the key features list on the WHS-2011 for instance.

BUT FIRST: You need to decide if your N40L is going to be a test set-up or a production set-up.

A production set-up would have the critical mission of protecting my back-ups and critical data as well as streaming content around the house.

A test set-up I expect and plan on doing something silly/stupid that trashes the data on the machine from time to time so a test set-up would never be a repository safeguarding my critical data (unless maybe backups of backups that I’m “testing” with).

Not sure what I need for streaming, but I have a 5450 video card if that will help. plus it will add sound. I also have a Hauppage 2250 TV card I'd like to use to stream live TV.

I’m not sure what you are trying to do here. I use a HDHomeRun DUAL - High Definition Digital TV Tuner (Network Attached) HDHR3-US (Black) by SiliconDust and I can watch live TV on any of my PC’s in the house. If you use WMC to record live TV shows then the WHS connector in WMC will sweep those shows to WHS-2011.

(snip)

I have a technet subscription, so I have whs 2011 and server 2008 r2 std and enterprise. My paid subscription expired, but the few keys I remembered to save still work. I'll prolly resubscribe when win 8 comes out. or just before.

TechNET is only for testing per the EULA. For a production environment (once you’ve decided on how you’ll actually do it after some testing) you’ll need to get Retail license(s).

I had whs2011 and r2 std installed and the system seem very laggy. while freebsd and linux felt more responsive.

My set-up isn’t laggy. I’ve found that this is very drive IO dependent. How do you have your drives set-up? Is you OS drive separate from your VM [VHD’s] drive which is separate from your Data Drives? Are you using a SSD for the Host OS? WD Blacks or VR’s for the VM drives? What kind of Data Drives are you using? Were you passing the Data Drives thru to WHS-2011 in your set-up? Tell us about your set-up.

If posssible I'd like to have an easy setup as possible (snip)

For a production machine I would keep the set-up simple and straight forward. Pull everything off and set the machine up with WHS-2011 only. Put the OS on a separate drive in the ODD bay or if you can afford it put the OS on a SSD mounted just below the ODD bay and use the ODD bay for a green drive to back-up your OS and critical data. Fill the 4 bay cage with pairs of 2 or 3TB drives (or 4TB drives when finally available) and put them in software RAID 1. Add one or two USB 3.0 cards to the PCIe slots for external massive storage and external back-up drives that you rotate off site. If you can, consider some sort of cloud storage or crash plan like storage as another back-up for your critical data.

I know RAID 1 with all the multiple backups sounds excessive – until you lose a drive with all your financial records 2 days before you have to file your tax returns – believe me they will not sound excessive then.

Get another N40L to play with in your home server lab.

My 2 cents for what it’s worth.

[MarkJohnson]

Now I need to setup a home server. I will use it for back so will have a NAS setup. I would also like to stream video's movies to my other computers (Windows 7 and Appl iOS) and maybe even iTunes as well.

This screams either WHS-V1 or WHS-2011 to me. Check the key features list on the WHS-2011 for instance.

BUT FIRST: You need to decide if your N40L is going to be a test set-up or a production set-up.

A production set-up would have the critical mission of protecting my back-ups and critical data as well as streaming content around the house.

A test set-up I expect and plan on doing something silly/stupid that trashes the data on the machine from time to time so a test set-up would never be a repository safeguarding my critical data (unless maybe backups of backups that I’m “testing” with).

It will be test server for now. but will be production once I work out the bugs. But I have little critical data that needs protecting.

Not sure what I need for streaming, but I have a 5450 video card if that will help. plus it will add sound. I also have a Hauppage 2250 TV card I'd like to use to stream live TV.

I’m not sure what you are trying to do here. I use a HDHomeRun DUAL - High Definition Digital TV Tuner (Network Attached) HDHR3-US (Black) by SiliconDust and I can watch live TV on any of my PC’s in the house. If you use WMC to record live TV shows then the WHS connector in WMC will sweep those shows to WHS-2011.

My tv card is PCIe, but I like that HDHomeRun idea. I wish I'd known this when I bought my Hauppage last fall. It sounds perfect for my needs.

I was wondering if the Hauppage would be supported in the WHS2011 or how it could be made to work. I want to be able to watch TV on on all my devices as well as watch my video collection, music, documents, pictures, etc. Pretty much everything through the server.

I have a technet subscription, so I have whs 2011 and server 2008 r2 std and enterprise. My paid subscription expired, but the few keys I remembered to save still work. I'll prolly resubscribe when win 8 comes out. or just before.

TechNET is only for testing per the EULA. For a production environment (once you’ve decided on how you’ll actually do it after some testing) you’ll need to get Retail license(s).

Yes, I have whs 2011 already. I also have vmware workstation 8.

I had whs2011 and r2 std installed and the system seem very laggy. while freebsd and linux felt more responsive.

My set-up isn’t laggy. I’ve found that this is very drive IO dependent. How do you have your drives set-up? Is you OS drive separate from your VM [VHD’s] drive which is separate from your Data Drives? Are you using a SSD for the Host OS? WD Blacks or VR’s for the VM drives? What kind of Data Drives are you using? Were you passing the Data Drives thru to WHS-2011 in your set-up? Tell us about your set-up.

I have a spare 120GB SSD and 3 spare 2tb drive and a current 1tb backup in this machine. one 2tb drive is a wd black drive (WD2002FAEX), a WD Green drive that was bundled free with this N40L (WD20EARS], and my Hitachi 2TB HDS722020ALA330 that was a drive I needed when my WD 2tb green drive went out and was without for a couple of weeks for RMA (they sent me the WD 2tb Black from above instead for a replacement when I RMAed the WD 2TB green drive a second time)

Not sure how to set them up, but prolly SSD as boot, Black and Hitachi in raid 1 and wd green as data? Maybe all three in raid 5? undecided really. I may get a sata 3 controller for ssd, but prolly not needed as sata 2 ssd is still very fast.

If posssible I'd like to have an easy setup as possible

For a production machine I would keep the set-up simple and straight forward. Pull everything off and set the machine up with WHS-2011 only. Put the OS on a separate drive in the ODD bay or if you can afford it put the OS on a SSD mounted just below the ODD bay and use the ODD bay for a green drive to back-up your OS and critical data. Fill the 4 bay cage with pairs of 2 or 3TB drives (or 4TB drives when finally available) and put them in software RAID 1. Add one or two USB 3.0 cards to the PCIe slots for external massive storage and external back-up drives that you rotate off site. If you can, consider some sort of cloud storage or crash plan like storage as another back-up for your critical data.

I know RAID 1 with all the multiple backups sounds excessive – until you lose a drive with all your financial records 2 days before you have to file your tax returns – believe me they will not sound excessive then.

Get another N40L to play with in your home server lab.

My 2 cents for what it’s worth.

Actually, this was suppose to be my cloud server. lol

my other computers mostly have spare HDD for backup. although I can't get win 7 to delet old backups automatically. I also have USB thumb drives for backups as well.

I always have to manually delete old backup to make room for new one every few months. I may have more if I find any need for secure backup.

Thanks for the advace fellas. it's much appreciated.
-=Mark=-

ps, more suggestions welcome.