Server advice

[tp546 41]

Hey guys, I have been running the original WHS on my server for years now but I am running out of space and want to explore my options. Currently I'm limited by the 2TB drives with WHS so I was thinking about upgrading to WHS 2011 or Server Essentials 2012 and going with larger drives but I am a little worried about losing functionality I have currently.

 

I really like the automatic backup and restore feature of WHS and it has gotten me out of many jams. All my PCs run Windows 7 so I think I would be fine with with WHS 2011 or SE 2012 from what I understand - does the backup/restore process work the exact same way as in WHS v1?

 

I use drive extender to keep all my data organized (HD Movies, DVD Movies, TV, Sports, Music, Docs, etc) so I'm wondering what to do about losing that functionality.

 

Are there other things I need to be concerned about if I make the transition?

[Happy2Play 9780]

You will have to look at produces like Drive Bender or Drive pool to do the exact same thing as drive extender did in WHSv1.  They both have transition instruction if you go that route.  Haven't used SE2012 but WHS 2011 does backup/restore the same as v1.

[tp546 41]

Has anyone made this transition? Wondering if there are any things I'm overlooking.

[tp546 41]

also, is there a way to transfer all my PC backups from WHS v1 to WHS 2011 or SE 2012?

[Happy2Play 9780]

Has anyone made this transition? Wondering if there are any things I'm overlooking.

What are your plans?  Are you going with pool software or just migrating everything to individual hard drives?

 

also, is there a way to transfer all my PC backups from WHS v1 to WHS 2011 or SE 2012?

 

I thought there was a plugin that could export specific backups but overall no you can not move the backups for v1.

[kkhan 16]

I use Server Essentials with tRAID (FlexRAID) and it works pretty much exactly as WHSv1.  Much more expensive though and more difficult to set up.

[tp546 41]

What are your plans?  Are you going with pool software or just migrating everything to individual hard drives?

 

 

I thought there was a plugin that could export specific backups but overall no you can not move the backups for v1.

 

I'm not sure yet - still trying to figure it out but ideally I would use the pool software and keep everything as close to I have it now as possible.

[Nathanio 35]

I moved from WHSv1 to 2011 several years ago. Performance is night and day. I also have found reliability and uptime is significantly better, I rarely do anything to maintain the OS these days. 

 

I use DrivePool and it works like Drive Extender. No problems with corruption, availability or stability. In fact can easily still get 80-100MB/s copy speed to my server over my LAN. 

 

I would recommend an SSD as the boot drive; this really makes a significant difference to Emby and WHS performance under load. 

 

I don't think there is a way to tranistion backups between WHSv1 and 2011

[tp546 41]

I moved from WHSv1 to 2011 several years ago. Performance is night and day. I also have found reliability and uptime is significantly better, I rarely do anything to maintain the OS these days. 

 

I use DrivePool and it works like Drive Extender. No problems with corruption, availability or stability. In fact can easily still get 80-100MB/s copy speed to my server over my LAN. 

 

I would recommend an SSD as the boot drive; this really makes a significant difference to Emby and WHS performance under load. 

 

I don't think there is a way to tranistion backups between WHSv1 and 2011

 

Thanks! I switched to an SSD as the boot drive a couple of years ago and the difference was amazing - the server was almost unusable before that as it was running so slow.