the way i see IT

I was kind of skeptical when I first heard about Windows Home Server. But the more I heard about it, the more interested I got. I signed up for the beta a while ago, and today finally got around to installing it.

I installed Home Server on a spare Dell OptiPlex GX260 – 2.6GHz Pentium 4, 512MB, 120 GB total drive space (40 + 80). The installation took surprisingly long. I didn’t time it, but it was over an hour and a half and included at least 4 or 5 reboots. Not really a complaint – just an observation.

Once installed, it’s easy to see this is a stripped down version of Server 2003. I poked around a bit and it’s very familiar if you’ve used a Windows Server. However, once WHS is installed, you’re not supposed to use the server directly. It’s intended to be a headless machine that’s accessed through the client console.

After the server installation, I installed the Server Connection client on my main XP box and on my Vista PC running in Parallels on my iMac. The client connects your PCs to the server and installs an icon in the system tray. From there you can load the Home Server Console. This is the interface to the server, and it’s extremely simple and straightforward. Each computer connected to the server will be listed, and you can configure backup sets for each one and view their status. There are also shared folders setup on the server, which can serve as the media hub of the home network – pictures, videos, music, etc – and Xbox 360 and other media streaming devices can access these shares.

That’s the main goal of Windows Home Server – backup. That’s why I’m really excited about this, because anything that automates and simplifies backups at home is a good thing. WHS allow you to backup individual files/folders, but also allows you to restore an entire computer including all files and programs. Every computer on your home network is backed up over the network to the server, and it’s only limited to the amount of hard drive space in the server.
You can perform a full image-based restore of any PC on your network, browse through backups with a standard Explorer interface, and drag and drop files and folders out to your desktop.

WHS adds up all internal drives in the system (internal and external) and pools them together so it appears you only have one massive drive. Microsoft says it’s similar to RAID, but not. Apparently data is mirrored at the shared folder level, so that two copies of a folder are always stored on two different physical hard drives. Unlike RAID, the drives can all be different types and sizes, and you can add or remove drives easily using a wizard.

So far I haven’t run into any issues, which is unusual for a MS beta. I ran a full backup of my main XP box with no issues, and Vista’s running right now. The test of course will be when I try to restore something.

Microsoft is also going to add a remote access feature where you can access your server & computers remotely from anywhere over the internet. The functionality is there now, but you have to port forward your router, know your public IP, etc. Eventually they’re going to give you a free domain name (www.<yourname>.homeserver.com), and they’re going to automate the process of making everything accessible.

I understand this is intended mainly as a backup/storage product.  I just can’t help thinking that there’s so much more potential here.  If this is geared toward the household who has multiple computers in the house, chances are they’ve got a computer or two for the kids.  What about some sort of centralized monitoring/reporting functions that can lock down the kid’s computer, monitor web activity, filter their internet access and send a report of activity? 

What about monitoring the health of each network PC?  It could monitor the event logs, crashes, hard drive health, etc and then give you a report from the server about the health of each PC.

Overall this is definitely something I’d be interested in, but it’s really going to depend on the price for me. It sounds like they’ll be offering it as software only, as well as preconfigured hardware options.

UPDATE:  Check out my Flickr set for better pictures.