Another RIP for Windows Home Server

I came across another post about the (untimely?) demise of Windows Home Server (WHS). WHS, of course, is the attempt by Microsoft to enter the home and small business server market with a product that was easy to use and could provide bare metal restore of client Windows machines. And, at least in the first release of WHS, the server provided drive pooling that allowed for one folder to span across multiple drives (Drive Extender) and still be protected because of behind the scenes folder

Another RIP for Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server is Dead

Another article about the demise of Windows Home Server is found at Arstechnica.com. As the article points out, it will be a while before WHS is gone for good:
The current version, Windows Home Server 2011, is the last ever version. It's not going to disappear overnight—it will be available for OEM preinstallations until an astonishing and not entirely plausible December 31, 2025, though hobbyist system builders only have until December 31, 2013 to buy standalone copies—but

Windows Home Server is Dead

Skydrive vs. NAS vs. Windows Home Server vs. Windows’ Shares

Hal Berenson over at hal2020.com has provided an interesting commentary on the demise of Windows Home Server (WHS). In it he talks a bit about the history of WHS and WHS 2011, and discusses the alternatives that are and will be available:
From the moment that WHS launched it was under assault from a range of alternatives, none of which were as good as the package but all of which were more than adequate for their individual task. Windows client had long had facilities for

Skydrive vs. NAS vs. Windows Home Server vs. Windows’ Shares

Thecus TopTower N6850 NAS Reviewed

Smallnetbuilder has done their usual thorough job of reviewing the Thecus TopTower N6850 NAS. This Thecus NAS is a typical example of Thecus' NAS design which includes strong hardware at a low price point. The NAS has some of the most powerful features available in a small NAS with and is driven by a Pentium G620 processer. It has six-drive bays, USB 3.0, and optional 10 GbE ports. It comes standard with 2 GB DDR3 RAM, which is expandable to a whopping 16 GB of RAM. Also

Thecus TopTower N6850 NAS Reviewed

Synology DS412+ Review

Techpowerup has produced an 18 page review of the Synology DS412+ - a Synology 4 drive NAS server, NAS running a dual-core Atom processor running at 2.13 GHz with 1 GB DDR3 RAM. Techpowerup, as have almost all reviewers of Synology NAS servers in recent memory, has nothing but praise for the Synology Disk Station Manager (DSM) software that runs this NAS and all Synology NAS servers.

This page has the performance summary which contains this:
In general the DS412+ is pretty

Read More Synology DS412+ Review

Synology Expansion Unit DX510

I found an in depth video overview (including unboxing) of the Synology DX510 expansion unit. The Synology DX510 is a five bay expansion unit that works with several of the Synology NAS servers to add up to 5 additional drives to your NAS. The DX510 works with the DS1812+, the DS1512+, the DS712+ and several other Synology NAS servers.

The video is almost 20 minutes long - so sit back and enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6nc6GKU_8E

I have two of these DX510

Synology Expansion Unit DX510

Amahi Ubuntu Edition Now Live

Amahi, the linux home server distribution and service recently announced the immediate availability of its 6.1 Ubuntu edition. Amahi has officially supported only Fedora until this release. This release is its first official Ubuntu edition. The Amahi web site describes some of the features:

Here are some of the features in Amahi 6.1, Ubuntu Edition (but not limited to):

Latest storage pooling technology with the latest Greyhole 0.9
Reliability fixes and updates, including

Amahi Ubuntu Edition Now Live

Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 Review

Techwarelabs.com has a nice four page review of the Western Digital Sentinal DX 4000 NAS. This NAS is a four bay NAS, which befitting a hard drive maker, only comes pre-configured with Western Digital drives with several size options. There is no diskless version available.

The NAS comes configured with an Intel Atom D525 1.8 GHz Dual-Core and 2 Gigs of RAM. One of the most unusual aspects of the Western Digital Sentinal DX 4000 NAS server is that it comes with Windows Storage

Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 Review

Turnkey Linux - File Server Appliance

One free NAS distribution that I hadn't thought of in a while is the one from Turnkey Linux. When thinking of purpose-built NAS server software that is free, the three that usually come to mind nowadays are FreeNAS, Openmediavault and Openfiler. While these are all great NAS software distros, one other one that is readily available and kept up to date is Turnkey Linux server edition.

The Turnkey Linux appliance is described:
Simple Network Attached Storage


An easy to use file server

Turnkey Linux - File Server

Western Digital Red Drives for NAS Servers

Western Digital has introduced a new line of drives said to be specifically optimized for use in NAS devices. Known as the Red drives, these drives are specifically targeting NAS devices with one to six drives.

Storagereview.com has already performed tests and has provided a review of the new drives. As storagereview.com states:
WD has several features that they're touting as critical for the NAS user including; NASware specialized firmware, Intellipower low power spindle,

Western Digital Red Drives for NAS Servers

Akitio Cloud Hybrid Review

This is one I hadn't heard of before - the Akitio Cloud Hybrid NAS. The Akitio Cloud Hybrid NAS is a single drive NAS enclosure with some pretty intriguing features, including USB 3.0 direct connection alternative to the also included gigabit ethernet port. In other words, you can use this device either as a NAS connected to your network (LAN) or as direct storage to your computer. This sort of flexibility is quite unusual.

Over at GeekNewsCentral.Com, there is a short review

Akitio Cloud Hybrid Review

QNAP TS-669 Pro Review

Techpowerup has provided a comprehensive multiple page review of the QNAP TS-669. In 16 pages the review goes through the TS-669 from A to Z in great detail.

Speed and features are top-notch:
We recently tested the QNAPTS-419P II, the top of the line NAS of QNAP's Home & SOHO category. In today's review we will evaluate the TS-669 Pro, a NAS that belongs to a higher category and is suitable for Small and Medium-size Business environments. The TS-669 Pro offers all

QNAP TS-669 Pro Review

Backup to FreeNAS from Windows Using Rsync

For those of you familiar with the Linux/BSD file backup tool, Rsync, you know that it is among the speediest tools available to synchronize directories whether on the same machine or across a LAN to another computer or NAS. FreeNAS, of course, is a full featured NAS distribution that can turn your old computer (or a new build) into a full featured NAS in minutes. Windows, however, does not have a native version of Rsync. Windows has similar tools such as Robocopy, but if you want to backup

Backup to FreeNAS from Windows Using Rsync

QNAP TS-469 Pro NAS Server Review

Nikktech.com has provided a comprehensive review of the QNAP 4 disk TS-469. The QNAP TS-469 NAS is a four drive device running an atom dual core processor at 2.13 GHZ. It is provided with 1 GB of DDR3 RAM. As we have seen in other reviews, this is a powerful NAS device with a strong software installed that truly makes it a capable multi purpose server, not just a file server.

The device is described:
Appearance wise the QNAP TurboNAS TS-469 Pro is almost identical to the

QNAP TS-469 Pro NAS Server Review

Drobo vs Synology

J. Michel Metz has a long post on his blog discussing the Drobo vs Synology NAS boxes. Specifically, he talks about his experience dealing with Drobo's support team vs the Synology support.

Not surprisingly, his experience is that the Synology support is much better. About the customer service he received when he had questions after he received his Synology box:
But the best part was the customer service.

I had wanted to know whether or not I should connect the Synology

Drobo vs Synology

Building a Windows 8 Home Server: Introduction

Now that Microsoft has announced that Windows Home Server 2011 will not be followed up by a new home server version of Windows and that both versions of Windows Home Server will have an end of support life, the question of what to do if you are building a home server and you want to use a variation of Windows has become more timely than ever. Thus, the first post of a new series on Wegotserved.Com is especially timely, since the series examines the steps and advantages to using the upcoming

Building a Windows 8 Home Server: Introduction

Synology 1812+ Power Consumption

Speaking of the Synology DS 1812+, I found a video that shows the power consumption for running the DS1812+ with four 2 TB hard drives for 10 days:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdlfYPDHB6w

The numbers are a bit hard to see in the video, but the total usage for 10 days was about 9.44 KWH - or about $1.40 for 10 days at .15 per KWH rate. This comes to about $4.20 per every four weeks or about $50 a year. This power usage is probably much less than you would get by turning an old computer

Synology 1812+ Power Consumption

Synology DiskStation DS1812+ Review at PCMAG

PC Magazine has published a review of the Synology DiskStation DS1812+. The Synology DS1812+ NAS is a feature rich and speedy NAS. PC Magazine's reviewer stated ist had:
...the fastest Write speed I've ever tested for SMB NASes at PC Labs, a sharp, responsive and— dare I say—fun to use DiskStation Manager 4.0 interface, and a rich array of features that range from consumer to business.

PC Magazine
With a speedy 2.13 GHZ processor and 8 drive bays, this NAS can provide

Synology DiskStation DS1812+ Review at PCMAG

Which NAS - Drobo FS or the QNAP TS-419P+?

Similar to its article comparing a QNAP NAS to a similarly equipped Thecus NAS, Computingondemand.com has done an article comparing the QNAP to the Drobo FS. The article compares a number of attributes of both devices and declares a winner (or tie) for each. For example, Drobo gets the nod for ease of use:
Ease of Use
QNAP enters this with a NAS that can be configured to do just about everything. Their products shouldn't really be considered Network Attached Storage, but instead should be

Which NAS - Drobo FS or the QNAP TS-419P+?

Thecus vs. QNAP

A fairly common problem when trying to decide which NAS to buy is the dilemma of choosing between the top brands. Computingondemand.com has done a comparison of two of the top brands, QNAP and Thecus, basing their comparison on the Thecus N4200PRO and the QNAP TS-419P+. In its analysis, QNAP and Thecus are compared side by side for such attributes as ease of use, performance, reliability and a whole lot more.

Typical of its analysis is the comparison of performance:
Performance
Your

Thecus vs. QNAP

What Hard Drive Is Best for My Synology NAS?

Synology has a detailed blog post that discusses the various options for hard drives for use in their NAS devices. While some of the information is Synology specific, the post answers some questions that should apply to all hard drives. For example, as to the question of whether a 5400 RPM drive vs a 7200 RPM drive makes a big difference in performance:
Often asked is whether different spindle speeds affect transfer speeds, to which the answer is not appreciably. This is because spindle speeds

What Hard Drive Is Best for My Synology NAS?

How to repair a volume on your DiskStation

Synology has an excellent tutorial on their site that walks you through diagnosing and repairing a volume in your Synology NAS should you get a warning light or beep.

Assuming that your Synology NAS is beeping, the first step is to turn off the beep so you can work without that warning beep in the background:
1. Beep off the DiskStation

To beep off the DiskStation, you can go to Main Menu > Storage Manager > Storage. Here you will see the Beep off button. By clicking on it,

How to repair a volume on your DiskStation

WD Sentinel DX4000 Review

Businesscomputingworld has a nice review of the WD Sentinel DX4000 NAS. This is one of Western Digital's more powerful NAS boxes with 4 drives installed running the unusual , for a small business NAS, Windows Storage Server 2008 software. Another other unusual design feature is that the fans run whether the unit is on or off (unless unplugged of course). A bit more standard are the 1.8GHz dual-core Intel D525 Atom, accompanied by 2GB of memory that power the

WD Sentinel DX4000 Review

Hitachi 4TB Hard Drives Review

I came across a post a few months old on Tomshardware where they did a comprehensive review of the Hitachi 4TB hard drives and compares it to the 3TB hard drives that are available from Western Digital, Seagate and Hitachi itself. As of this writing, the Hitachi are still the most available 4TB hard drives as far as I can tell. Toms reviews both versions of the Hitachi 4 TB drives - the 5K4000, a 5400 RPM drive, and the 7200 RPM Deskstar 7K4000.

Of course, no hard drive

Hitachi 4TB Hard Drives Review

Build an Uraid Server with 22 Drives in a CM690 Case - Thread With Screen Shots of Case Mods and More

A fascinating thread over at Overclock.Net showing the thread starter modifying a Cooler Master690 case to potentially house 22 drives for an Unraid server. The writer mounts the motherboard in a pretty unique way on the back-plane of the case. Look about half way down this page to see the motherboard mounted.

A couple of questions are answered on page two of the thread:

I assume you are going headless on this? Interested to see how this comes out. Why not do a mini-itx with a 24 port

Build and Uraid Server in CM690 - Thread With Screen Shots of Case Mod

How to turn old hard drives into a secure file server

This post has been around for a while, but there is a nice writeup at techradar.com about how to make a FreeNAS server using the ZFS file system. The post has good screen shots and deals with the issue of having old hard drives with different sizes, yet wanting to use them all for as an efficient a storage pool as possible:
The important part of creating your storage pool is working out how to arrange your drives for best effect. Despite the advantages of ZFS it's not magic, it still inherits

How to turn old hard drives into a secure file server