Windows Home Server V2 (Vail) Beta Available

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Interesting article on the new Drive Extender functionality on Anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3677/windows-home-server-v2-vail-beta-drive-extender-v2-dissected

Want to put this on my server to test it, but need the server working so don't want to take the risk.

I've got a load of bits, case/MB/processor/memory/hard drive that I was going to put up on the MM, but maybe I should put it together this weekend and give Vail a test run.

Wife will probably throw a wobly though when she see yet another PC in the study. Ah well, maybe she'll give me the silent treatment and that way I can then focus more on playing with Vail.

Taff
 
Soldato
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Interesting article on the new Drive Extender functionality on Anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3677/windows-home-server-v2-vail-beta-drive-extender-v2-dissected

Want to put this on my server to test it, but need the server working so don't want to take the risk.

I've got a load of bits, case/MB/processor/memory/hard drive that I was going to put up on the MM, but maybe I should put it together this weekend and give Vail a test run.

Wife will probably throw a wobly though when she see yet another PC in the study. Ah well, maybe she'll give me the silent treatment and that way I can then focus more on playing with Vail.

Taff

quite right - go for it!!

I've put it on an old hard drive and kept my xp stuff (that what i was using on my server before)

Giving it a whirl and very impressed so far.
 
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I'm going to install in a VM just to be safe for now. The new features look good rather than ground breaking.

However I am not too keen on the fact that Drive Extender 2 means disks can no longer be recovered by hooking a WHS drive up to any PC that can read NTFS. Plus as files can span disks even hooking up a drive to a another WHS PC/VM may not be adequate - if I get time I'll test out disk recovery.
 
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Setting up a Vail vBox machine and an XP one to connect in their own little private network to have a play. I have a WHS and all my PCs are connected to it, so dont want to start fiddling with my 'live' environment.
 
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I may virtualise it on my 2008R2 Enterprise server. Stayed away from WHS after it currupted my backups and i only discovered that when i need them.
 
Soldato
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I'm going to install in a VM just to be safe for now. The new features look good rather than ground breaking.

However I am not too keen on the fact that Drive Extender 2 means disks can no longer be recovered by hooking a WHS drive up to any PC that can read NTFS. Plus as files can span disks even hooking up a drive to a another WHS PC/VM may not be adequate - if I get time I'll test out disk recovery.

must admit that is one of the biggest things so far for me - not being able to read the disk in NTFS etc.

There is a large amount of people over on MS Connect program that have requested that be changed before release/next beta
 
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Not sure now - the more I read about the way the data is stored and "striped" across the disks, the more I think that's a dodgy route to go down with your data.
 
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Wow, just noticed the ability for the server to back itself up to an external drive, and a 3rd disk in the download called SrvRecover.iso....

If this means I can backup my servers system drive and recover it simply should that disk fail, im sold. The vulnerability of the system drive in WHS is the only issue I have with it.

Off to go an 'corrupt' my virtual hard disks :)

Not sure now - the more I read about the way the data is stored and "striped" across the disks, the more I think that's a dodgy route to go down with your data.

I dont agree. Yes, the current way WHS works means if it dies, you whip the disks out and plug them into a PC. However, if its as easy to recover a dead Vail server as it is to recover any other backed up PC, then its not an issue. WHS dies, recover it, recover any data.

Plus, the advantages of having shares mapped as actual drive letters and direct file access to them rather than having to do \\localhost\share to connect to anything massively outweighs any issues with the Drive Extender v2 being new and little used.
 
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Soldato
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Can this be installed from a USB stick at all?

I've downloaded it but just realised I've got no blank DVD's left to burn it to :(

Edit: Just read on the WHS forum that there is currently an issue preventing installation from USB sticks/hard drives
 
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Soldato
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In here and out there.
No matter what I try, I cannot seem to get vail to install in vmware player.
It will get to the desktop and then setupmon will crash out, I can run it as an admin and it will progress part way through, reboot and end up back with the setupmon crash.
I'll then run it again as an admin and it will faff about for a bit and finally tell me the install failed and to try again. :(

Oh, and it doesn't seem to like the key that the connect portal gave me..very strange.
 
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No matter what I try, I cannot seem to get vail to install in vmware player.
It will get to the desktop and then setupmon will crash out, I can run it as an admin and it will progress part way through, reboot and end up back with the setupmon crash.
I'll then run it again as an admin and it will faff about for a bit and finally tell me the install failed and to try again. :(

Oh, and it doesn't seem to like the key that the connect portal gave me..very strange.

re-hashing an old thread....this could be because your CPU won't do hardware virtualisation. My old Athlon x64 3700+ doesn't so I'm having to install straight onto an old 160GB disc to try it out.
 
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