| Windows Home Server | |
| Family: | Microsoft Windows |
| Logo: | Windows Home Server logo.png |
| Screenshot: | WindowsHomeServer_(Server_Storage).png |
| Caption: | Screenshot of the Windows Home Server Console (with some third party plugins installed) |
| First Release Date: | July 16 2007 |
| Release Version: | 5.2.4500 [1] |
| Release Date: | July 16 2007 [2] |
Windows Home Server was released to manufacturing on July 16 2007.
While the underlying operating system is built on Windows Server 2003 SP2, 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 an RDP 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 or Windows Vista computer.
Windows Home Server is built on the same codebase as Windows Server 2003 SP2. It includes almost all technologies found in Windows Server 2003 SP2 but has been limited in some areas to remove unneeded complexity or limit its uses. It also includes some new capabilities not found in Windows Server 2003 SP2:
Windows Home Server Drive Extender is a file-based replication system that provides three key capabilities:[11]
Users (specifically those who configure a family's home server) deal with storage at two levels: Shared Folders and Disks. The only concepts relevant regarding disks is whether they have been "added" to the home server's storage pool or not and whether the disk appears healthy to the system or not. This is 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 have a name, a description, permissions, and a flag indicating whether duplication (redundancy) is on or off for that folder.
If duplication is on for a Shared Folder (which is the default on multi-disk Home Server systems and not applicable to single disk systems) then the files in that Shared Folder are duplicated and the effective storage capacity is halved. However, in situations where a user may not want data duplicated (e.g. TV shows that have been archived to a Windows Home Server from a system running Windows Media Center), Drive Extender provides the capability to not duplicate such files if the server is short on capacity or manually mark a complete content store as not for duplication.
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.[12] 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.
The system also offers an SSL secured web browser based interface over the Internet to the shared file stores.[13] The release version promises access to the web interface via a free Windows Live-provided URL. The web interface also allows the uploading to and downloading of files from the content stores.[10] However, there is a limit of 2 GB for a single batch of upload.[14]
The system also acts as an RDP gateway, allowing remote control over the internet of supported internal machines on the home network.[13][14] Currently supported systems are those which would normally support Remote Desktop: Windows XP Professional, Tablet and Media Center editions and Windows Vista Business 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.[14]
Windows Home Server features integration with Windows XP and Windows Vista through a software installation. Files stored on Windows Home Server can also be available through a Windows share, opening compatibility to a wide variety of operating systems.
64-bit editions of Windows Vista will be supported for backup with the upcoming Windows Home Server "Power Pack 1"[15]. Integration of the backup suite with Mac OS X's Time Machine is also being considered.
The following minimum specs are needed:
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.
Windows Home Server suffers from a File Corruption flaw whereby files saved directly to or edited on shares on a WHS device may become corrupted.[16] Only the files that have NTFS Alternate Data Streams are susceptible to the flaw. The flaw leads to data corruption only when the server is under heavy load at the time when the file (with ADS) is being saved onto a share. Backups made by Windows Home Server are not susceptible to the flaw.[17] Even though the issue was first acknowledged in October 2007[18], Microsoft formally warned users of the seriousness of the flaw on December 20, 2007. Microsoft has issued a list of applications, including Windows Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft OneNote, Microsoft Outlook and SyncToy 2.0, which might trigger the flaw if they are used to edit the files on a WHS share directly.[16]
While some hardware manufacturers have developed dedicated boxes, Microsoft has also released Windows Home Server to enthusiasts via the usual OEM/System Builder route. Pricing has varied amongst resellers, from around $150 to $200 [19].