Windows Home Server
Encyclopedia
Windows Home Server, code-named Quattro, is a home server
operating system
from Microsoft
. Announced on 7 January 2007, at the Consumer Electronics Show
by Bill Gates
, Windows Home Server is intended to be a solution for homes with multiple connected PCs to offer file sharing
, automated backups, print server
, and remote access.
Windows Home Server was released to manufacturing on 16 July 2007 and officially released on 4 November 2007. Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server was released on 20 July 2008, Power Pack 2 was released on 24 March 2009, and Power Pack 3 was released on 24 November 2009.
Windows Home Server is also the name of a family of server products for home users. The latest member of this family is Windows Home Server 2011, released on 6 April 2011.
application to remote PCs - while the application runs on the server itself, the UI is rendered on the remote system. The Home Server Console client application can be accessed from any Windows PC. The server itself requires no video card or peripherals; it is designed to require only an Ethernet
card and at least one Windows XP
, Windows Vista
or Windows 7 computer.
With drive extender, users could add larger capacity hard disk drives and then could offline lesser capacity drives to upgrade capacity inline. For example if the user was reaching capacity of the share with 5 Terabyte of the 6 Terabyte capacity used with 6 one Terabyte drives then the user could offline one of the 1 Terabyte drives and physically replace it with a 2 Terabyte drive. The WHS automatically equalizes the redistribution of used space across all available drives on a regular basis. The offline process would compress the used data across the minimum amount of drives allowing for the removal of one of the lesser capacity drives. Once replaced with a drive of higher capacity the system will automatically redistribute used capacity among the pool to ensure space capacity on each drive.
Users (specifically those who configure a family's home server) dealt with storage at two levels: Shared Folders
and Disks. The only concepts relevant regarding disks was whether they had been "added" to the home server's storage pool or not and whether the disk appeared healthy to the system or not. This was in contrast with Windows' Logical Disk Manager
which requires a greater degree of technical understanding in order to correctly configure a RAID
array.
Shared Folders had a name, a description, permissions, and a flag indicating whether duplication (redundancy) was on or off for that folder.
If duplication was on for a Shared Folder (which was the default on multi-disk Home Server systems and not applicable to single disk systems) then the files in that Shared Folder were duplicated and the effective storage capacity was halved. However, in situations where a user may not have wanted data duplicated (e.g. TV shows that had been archived to a Windows Home Server from a system running Windows Media Center
), Drive Extender provided the capability to not duplicate such files if the server was short on capacity or manually mark a complete content store as not for duplication.
Additional information can be found on the Windows Home Server Technical Brief for Drive Extender.
A known limitation of Drive Extender was that it in some cases changed date/timestamp of directories and files when data was moved around between disks. According to Microsoft this was expected behaviour. This caused unexpected behaviour when using clients that sort media based on date. Examples are Xbmc, MediaPortal
, Squeezebox Server. The aforementioned programs worked fine with WHS; however, files may have appeared out of order due to this caveat.
Drive Extender Cancellation
On 23 November 2010, Microsoft announced that Drive Extender would be removed from Windows Home Server 2011. This announcement has led to public outcry in the announcement's comments section. Criticism of Drive Extender's removal is mainly related to it being seen as a core feature of Windows Home Server and a key reason for adoption. As a replacement for Drive Extender, Microsoft states that OEMs will use RAID on their Windows Home Server products.
, file based restores are initiated through the WHS client software which allows the users to open a backup and "drag and drop" files from it. This technology uses Volume Shadow Services (VSS)
technology on the client computer to take an image based backup of a running computer. Because the backup operates on data at the cluster
level, single instancing
can be performed to minimize the amount of data that travels over the network and that will ultimately be stored on the home server. This single instancing gives the server the ability to store only one instance of data, no matter if the data originated from another computer, another file, or even data within the same file.
Computer backup images are not duplicated on the server, so if a server hard drive fails, backups could be lost. The "Server Backup" feature added in Power Pack 1 does not include duplication of backup images.
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The system also offers an SSL secured web browser
based interface over the Internet
to the shared file stores. The release version offers access to the web interface via a free Windows Live
-provided URL
, which uses Dynamic DNS
. The web interface also allows the uploading to and downloading of files from the content stores. However, there is a limit of 2 GB for a single batch of upload.
of any Windows computer on the home network. Currently supported systems are those which would normally support Remote Desktop: Windows XP
Professional, Tablet and Media Center editions, Windows Vista
Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions and Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. The web interface also supports embedding the Remote Desktop ActiveX
control, to provide remote access to home computers from within the web interface directly. Remote sessions can also connect to the Home Server console to configure the server over the internet.
(SP2 or newer), Windows Vista
, and Windows 7 (after the release of Power Pack 3) through a software installation, either from a client CD or via a network share. The connector software may also be installed by accessinghttp://yourserver:55000/ , where a link is provided to download the connector software and to install troubleshooting tools. Files stored on Windows Home Server are also available through a Windows share
, opening compatibility to a wide variety of operating systems. Also, the Administration console is available via Remote Desktop, allowing administration from unsupported platforms.
Windows Home Server does not support Microsoft's own MSE anti-virus program.
64-bit Windows client support was introduced in Power Pack 1, though the Restore Wizard on the Windows Home Server Restore CD is unable to restore clients running 64-bit operating systems. Windows XP Professional x64 isn't officially supported. However, unofficial workarounds allow Connector software to work on XP x64.
Integration of the file sharing service as a location for Mac OS X's
Time Machine
was apparently being considered, but upon Mac OS X Leopard's release, Apple had removed the ability to use the SMB file sharing protocol for Time Machine backups. One WHS provider, HP
, provides their own plug-in with their home server line capable of Time Machine backup to a home server.
Windows Home Server has not officially supported Domain Controller
capability and cannot readily join a Windows Server domain
. Wireless networking is not currently supported.
Note: These requirements have been upgraded for Windows Home Server 2011
Additionally, the following are required for installation of the operating system only:
Dedicated devices will have the operating system pre-installed and may be supplied with a server recovery disk which reloads the OS over a network connection. This is utilized on the HP MediaSmart Server, and the Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo Home Server.
Alternate Data Streams were susceptible to the flaw. The flaw led to data corruption only when the server was under heavy load at the time when the file (with ADS) was being saved onto a share.
Backups of client PCs made by Windows Home Server were not susceptible to the flaw.
Even though the issue was first acknowledged in October 2007, Microsoft
formally warned users of the seriousness of the flaw on 20 December 2007. Microsoft then issued a list of applications, including Windows Live Photo Gallery
, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Outlook
and SyncToy
2.0, which might have triggered the flaw if they were used to edit the files on a WHS share directly.
This issue was fixed by Power Pack 1, released on July 21, 2008.
/System Builder license. In November 2008, Microsoft lowered the price of the WHS System Builder SKU to US$100.
Users can also choose to use an existing PC or build their own systems, which would include the use of WHS System Builder.
As of March 23, 2009, Microsoft has also made Windows Home Server available to MSDN and Microsoft Technet
subscribers.
paid for Windows Home Server.
Third party:
Home server
A home server is a server located in a private residence providing services to other devices inside and/or outside the household through a home network and/or the Internet. Such services may include file and/or printer serving, media center serving, web serving, web caching, account authentication...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
from Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. Announced on 7 January 2007, at the Consumer Electronics Show
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
by Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
, Windows Home Server is intended to be a solution for homes with multiple connected PCs to offer file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
, automated backups, print server
Print server
A print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It can accept print jobs from the computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers....
, and remote access.
Windows Home Server was released to manufacturing on 16 July 2007 and officially released on 4 November 2007. Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server was released on 20 July 2008, Power Pack 2 was released on 24 March 2009, and Power Pack 3 was released on 24 November 2009.
Windows Home Server is also the name of a family of server products for home users. The latest member of this family is Windows Home Server 2011, released on 6 April 2011.
Features
- Centralized backup - Allows backupBackupIn information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
of up to 10 PCs, using Single-instance storageSingle-instance storageSingle-instance storage is a system's ability to keep one copy of content that multiple users or computers share. It is a means to eliminate data duplication and to increase efficiency...
technology to avoid multiple copies of the same file, even if that file exists on multiple PCs. - Health monitoring - Can centrally track the health of all PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s on the network, including antivirus and firewallFirewall (computing)A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass....
status. - File sharing - Offers network shares for computers to store the files remotely, acting as a network-attached storageNetwork-attached storageNetwork-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...
device. Separate categories are provided for common file types like Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. The files are indexedIndexed searchIndexed search, also called the cutpoint method, is an algorithm for discrete-distribution pseudo-random number sampling, invented by Chen and Asau in 1974.- Literature :...
for fast searching. - Printer sharing - Allows a centralized print serverPrint serverA print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It can accept print jobs from the computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers....
to handle print jobs for all users. - Shadow Copy - Takes advantage of Volume Shadow Copy Service to take point in time snapshots that allow older versions of files to be recovered.
- Headless operation - No monitor or keyboard is required to manage the device. Remote administrationRemote administrationRemote administration refers to any method of controlling a computer from a remote location.Software that allows remote administration is becoming increasingly common and is often used when it is difficult or impractical to be physically near a system in order to use it, or in order to access web...
is performed by using the Windows Home Server Console client software provided in the bundle. Also supports Remote Desktop Services connections to the server while connected to the same LAN. - Remote access gateway - Allows remote access to any connected PC on the network, including the server itself, over the Internet.
- Media streamingStreaming mediaStreaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
- Can stream media to an Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
or other devices supporting Windows Media ConnectWindows Media ConnectWindows Media Connect is a UPnP AV server from Microsoft for Windows XP and later Windows operating systems, to share and stream media on a Windows computer to WMC clients. The first two releases of WMC were made available as stand-alone software, and included a client as well...
. - Selective data redundancyData redundancyData redundancy occurs in database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more tables. For instance, in case when customer data is duplicated and attached with each product bought then redundancy of data is a known source of inconsistency, since customer might appear with different...
- Guards against a single drive failure by duplicating selected data across multiple drives. - Expandable storage - Provides a unified single and easily expandable storage space, removing the need for drive letterDrive letter assignmentDrive letter assignment is the process of assigning alphabetical identifiers to physical or logical disk drives or partitions in the root filesystem namespace; this usage is now mostly found in Microsoft operating systems...
s. - Extensibility through add-Ins - Add-Ins allow third-party developers to extend the features and functionality of the server. Add-Ins can be developed using the Windows Home Server SDK, to provide additional services to the client computers or work with the data already on the server. Add-Ins can also be ASP.NETASP.NETASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
applications, hosted in IIS 6Internet Information ServicesInternet Information Services – formerly called Internet Information Server – is a web server application and set of feature extension modules created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows. It is the most used web server after Apache HTTP Server. IIS 7.5 supports HTTP, HTTPS,...
running on WHS. - Server backup - Backs up files which are stored within shared folders on the server to an external hard drive.
Home Server Console
The configuration interface is designed to be user friendly enough that it can be set up without prior knowledge of server administration. The configuration interface, called the Home Server Console, is delivered as a Remote Desktop ProtocolRemote Desktop Protocol
Remote Desktop Protocol is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft, which provides a user with a graphical interface to another computer. The protocol is an extension of the ITU-T T.128 application sharing protocol. Clients exist for most versions of Microsoft Windows , Linux, Unix, Mac OS...
application to remote PCs - while the application runs on the server itself, the UI is rendered on the remote system. The Home Server Console client application can be accessed from any Windows PC. The server itself requires no video card or peripherals; it is designed to require only an Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
card and at least one Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
or Windows 7 computer.
Drive Extender
Windows Home Server Drive Extender was a file-based replication system that provided three key capabilities:- Multi-disk redundancy so that if any given disk failed, data was not lost
- Arbitrary storage expansion by supporting any type of hard diskHard diskA hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
drive (Serial ATASerial ATASerial ATA is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives...
, USBUniversal Serial BusUSB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
, FireWire etc.) in any mixture and capacity — similar in concept to JBOD - A single folder namespace (no drive letters)
With drive extender, users could add larger capacity hard disk drives and then could offline lesser capacity drives to upgrade capacity inline. For example if the user was reaching capacity of the share with 5 Terabyte of the 6 Terabyte capacity used with 6 one Terabyte drives then the user could offline one of the 1 Terabyte drives and physically replace it with a 2 Terabyte drive. The WHS automatically equalizes the redistribution of used space across all available drives on a regular basis. The offline process would compress the used data across the minimum amount of drives allowing for the removal of one of the lesser capacity drives. Once replaced with a drive of higher capacity the system will automatically redistribute used capacity among the pool to ensure space capacity on each drive.
Users (specifically those who configure a family's home server) dealt with storage at two levels: Shared Folders
Shared resource
In computing, a shared resource or network share is a device or piece of information on a computer that can be remotely accessed from another computer, typically via a local area network or an enterprise Intranet, transparently as if it were a resource in the local machine.Examples are shared file...
and Disks. The only concepts relevant regarding disks was whether they had been "added" to the home server's storage pool or not and whether the disk appeared healthy to the system or not. This was in contrast with Windows' Logical Disk Manager
Logical Disk Manager
The Logical Disk Manager is an implementation of a logical volume manager for Microsoft Windows NT, developed by Microsoft and Veritas Software. It was introduced with the Windows 2000 operating system, and is supported in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 7...
which requires a greater degree of technical understanding in order to correctly configure a RAID
RAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
array.
Shared Folders had a name, a description, permissions, and a flag indicating whether duplication (redundancy) was on or off for that folder.
If duplication was on for a Shared Folder (which was the default on multi-disk Home Server systems and not applicable to single disk systems) then the files in that Shared Folder were duplicated and the effective storage capacity was halved. However, in situations where a user may not have wanted data duplicated (e.g. TV shows that had been archived to a Windows Home Server from a system running Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
), Drive Extender provided the capability to not duplicate such files if the server was short on capacity or manually mark a complete content store as not for duplication.
Additional information can be found on the Windows Home Server Technical Brief for Drive Extender.
A known limitation of Drive Extender was that it in some cases changed date/timestamp of directories and files when data was moved around between disks. According to Microsoft this was expected behaviour. This caused unexpected behaviour when using clients that sort media based on date. Examples are Xbmc, MediaPortal
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing...
, Squeezebox Server. The aforementioned programs worked fine with WHS; however, files may have appeared out of order due to this caveat.
Drive Extender Cancellation
On 23 November 2010, Microsoft announced that Drive Extender would be removed from Windows Home Server 2011. This announcement has led to public outcry in the announcement's comments section. Criticism of Drive Extender's removal is mainly related to it being seen as a core feature of Windows Home Server and a key reason for adoption. As a replacement for Drive Extender, Microsoft states that OEMs will use RAID on their Windows Home Server products.
Computer Backup and Restore
Windows Home Server Computer Backup automatically backs up all of the computers in a home to the server using an image-based system that ensures point-in-time-based restoration of either entire PCs or specific files and folders. Complete computer restores are initiated through a restore bootable CDBoot disk
A boot disk is a removable digital data storage medium from which a computer can load and run an operating system or utility program. The computer must have a built-in program which will load and execute a program from a boot disk meeting certain standards.Boot disks are used for:* Operating...
, file based restores are initiated through the WHS client software which allows the users to open a backup and "drag and drop" files from it. This technology uses Volume Shadow Services (VSS)
Volume Shadow Copy Service
Shadow Copy , is a technology included in Microsoft Windows that allows taking manual or automatic backup copies or snapshots of data, even if it has a lock, on a specific volume at a specific point in time over regular intervals...
technology on the client computer to take an image based backup of a running computer. Because the backup operates on data at the cluster
Cluster (file system)
In computer file systems, a cluster or allocation unit is the unit of disk space allocation for files and directories. To reduce the overhead of managing on-disk data structures, the filesystem does not allocate individual disk sectors, but contiguous groups of sectors, called clusters.On a disk...
level, single instancing
Single-instance storage
Single-instance storage is a system's ability to keep one copy of content that multiple users or computers share. It is a means to eliminate data duplication and to increase efficiency...
can be performed to minimize the amount of data that travels over the network and that will ultimately be stored on the home server. This single instancing gives the server the ability to store only one instance of data, no matter if the data originated from another computer, another file, or even data within the same file.
Computer backup images are not duplicated on the server, so if a server hard drive fails, backups could be lost. The "Server Backup" feature added in Power Pack 1 does not include duplication of backup images.
Remote File Access
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
based interface over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
to the shared file stores. The release version offers access to the web interface via a free Windows Live
Windows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...
-provided URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
, which uses Dynamic DNS
Dynamic DNS
Dynamic DNS or DDNS is a term used for the updating in real time of Internet Domain Name System name servers to keep up to date the active DNS configuration of their configured hostnames, addresses and other information....
. The web interface also allows the uploading to and downloading of files from the content stores. However, there is a limit of 2 GB for a single batch of upload.
Remote Desktop Services
The system also supports Terminal Services Gateway, allowing remote control of the desktopTerminal Services
Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, formerly known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and previous versions, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network, using the Remote Desktop...
of any Windows computer on the home network. Currently supported systems are those which would normally support Remote Desktop: Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
Professional, Tablet and Media Center editions, Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions and Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. The web interface also supports embedding the Remote Desktop ActiveX
ActiveX
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
control, to provide remote access to home computers from within the web interface directly. Remote sessions can also connect to the Home Server console to configure the server over the internet.
Add-Ins
Windows Home Server allows for developers to publish community and commercial add-ins designed to enhance the Windows Home Server with added functionality. As of January 2010, nearly 100 of these add-ins have been developed for WHS, including applications for antivirus & security, backups, disk management, automation, media, network/power management, remote access, BitTorrent and more. The Windows Home Server SDK (Software Development Kit) provides developers with a set of APIs and tools to use when developing for and extending Windows Home Server.Compatibility
Windows Home Server features integration with Windows XPWindows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
(SP2 or newer), Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, and Windows 7 (after the release of Power Pack 3) through a software installation, either from a client CD or via a network share. The connector software may also be installed by accessing
Server Message Block
In computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
, opening compatibility to a wide variety of operating systems. Also, the Administration console is available via Remote Desktop, allowing administration from unsupported platforms.
Windows Home Server does not support Microsoft's own MSE anti-virus program.
64-bit Windows client support was introduced in Power Pack 1, though the Restore Wizard on the Windows Home Server Restore CD is unable to restore clients running 64-bit operating systems. Windows XP Professional x64 isn't officially supported. However, unofficial workarounds allow Connector software to work on XP x64.
Integration of the file sharing service as a location for Mac OS X's
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
Time Machine
Time Machine (Apple software)
Time Machine is a backup utility developed by Apple. It is included with Mac OS X and was introduced with the 10.5 "Leopard" release of Mac OS X. The software is designed to work with the Time Capsule as well as other internal or external drives.-Overview:...
was apparently being considered, but upon Mac OS X Leopard's release, Apple had removed the ability to use the SMB file sharing protocol for Time Machine backups. One WHS provider, HP
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, provides their own plug-in with their home server line capable of Time Machine backup to a home server.
Windows Home Server has not officially supported Domain Controller
Domain controller
On Windows Server Systems, a domain controller is a server that responds to security authentication requests within the Windows Server domain...
capability and cannot readily join a Windows Server domain
Windows Server domain
A Windows domain is a collection of security principals that share a central directory database. This central database contains the user accounts and security information for...
. Wireless networking is not currently supported.
Minimum system requirements
The following minimum specs are needed:- 1.0 GHzGHZGHZ or GHz may refer to:# Gigahertz .# Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state — a quantum entanglement of three particles.# Galactic Habitable Zone — the region of a galaxy that is favorable to the formation of life....
Intel Pentium 3 (or equivalent) processorMicroprocessorA microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and... - 512 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
RAMRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another... - 65 GBGigabyteThe gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
internal hard drive as primary drive - 100 Mbit/s wired EthernetEthernetEthernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
Note: These requirements have been upgraded for Windows Home Server 2011
Additionally, the following are required for installation of the operating system only:
- Bootable DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
drive or USB stick - Display
- KeyboardKeyboard (computing)In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
and mouseMouse (computing)In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
Dedicated devices will have the operating system pre-installed and may be supplied with a server recovery disk which reloads the OS over a network connection. This is utilized on the HP MediaSmart Server, and the Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo Home Server.
File corruption
The first release of Windows Home Server, RTM (Release to manufacturing), suffered from a file corruption flaw whereby files saved directly to or edited on shares on a WHS device could become corrupted. Only the files that had NTFSNTFS
NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7....
Alternate Data Streams were susceptible to the flaw. The flaw led to data corruption only when the server was under heavy load at the time when the file (with ADS) was being saved onto a share.
Backups of client PCs made by Windows Home Server were not susceptible to the flaw.
Even though the issue was first acknowledged in October 2007, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
formally warned users of the seriousness of the flaw on 20 December 2007. Microsoft then issued a list of applications, including Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery is a photo management and photo sharing application released as a part of Microsoft's Windows Live initiative. It is an upgraded version of Windows Photo Gallery, which is a part of Windows Vista....
, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...
and SyncToy
SyncToy
SyncToy is a freeware tool in Microsoft's PowerToys series that provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface for synchronizing files and folders. It is written using Microsoft's .NET framework and uses the Microsoft Sync Framework.-Features:...
2.0, which might have triggered the flaw if they were used to edit the files on a WHS share directly.
This issue was fixed by Power Pack 1, released on July 21, 2008.
No native backup
Windows Home Server RTM did not include a mechanism for backing up the server. Power Pack 1 added the ability to back up files stored on the Shared Folders, to an external drive. Users can also subscribe to 3rd-party online services, for a fee. However, there remains no way to back up the installed server operating system. Backing-up of the client backup database is available either manually using the instructions provided by Microsoft on page 24 of this document or can be done using the WHS BDBB add-in written by Alex Kuretz and available from this website.Pricing
While some hardware manufacturers have developed dedicated boxes, Microsoft has also released Windows Home Server under the OEMOriginal Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
/System Builder license. In November 2008, Microsoft lowered the price of the WHS System Builder SKU to US$100.
Users can also choose to use an existing PC or build their own systems, which would include the use of WHS System Builder.
As of March 23, 2009, Microsoft has also made Windows Home Server available to MSDN and Microsoft Technet
Microsoft TechNet
Microsoft TechNet is a Microsoft program and resource for technical information, news, and events for IT professionals. Along with a website, they also produce a monthly subscription magazine titled "TechNet Magazine"....
subscribers.
Refund of Windows Home Server license fees
Some computer systems are available only with a bundled Windows Home Server license. As is the case with other versions of Windows it is possible to request a refund of the license feesWindows refund
The "Windows refund" is a refund claimed by a user after purchasing a computer with the Microsoft Windows operating system pre-installed on it. The refund is issued by the computer manufacturer, or occasionally the retailer, for the copy of Microsoft Windows alone, rather than the whole computer...
paid for Windows Home Server.
See also
- Home serverHome serverA home server is a server located in a private residence providing services to other devices inside and/or outside the household through a home network and/or the Internet. Such services may include file and/or printer serving, media center serving, web serving, web caching, account authentication...
- File serverFile serverIn computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for shared disk access, i.e. shared storage of computer files that can be accessed by the workstations that are attached to the computer network...
- Media serverMedia ServerA media server refers either to a dedicated computer appliance or to a specialized application software, ranging from an enterprise class machine providing video on demand, to, more commonly, a small personal computer or NAS for the home, dedicated for storing various digital media .-Purpose:By...
- Network-attached storageNetwork-attached storageNetwork-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...
- Print serverPrint serverA print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It can accept print jobs from the computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers....
External links
Official:- Windows Home Server Blog at The Windows Blog
Third party: