I have a mss ex487 running whs 1.0 and I am in the process of building a similar system running whs 2011. My mss is the primary server and all client machines should connect to it for personal folders, media(music, photos, etc) as well as backup. The purpose of the secondary machine is to run vmware, sql server and web hosting. I am guessing whs 2011 is probably the wrong OS choice but seemed the simplest and the cheapest. Any advice?

It sounds like you have a plan that should work ok for you, I'm not sure what advice you're asking for, do you have any specific questions?

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Alex Kuretz
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Thanks for the reply. I guess my concern is I dont want to create conflict with the current setup. Is it necessary for me to install the connector software? Do I need the console, or can I just remote in using rdp for maintenance? I basically want this machine to sit on the network as another machine but running on a server OS. WHS seems more geared towards data storage and backup and that's exactly what I dont want out of the secondary machine. I guess you can say I have a plan, but a little confused on how I should setup WHS 2011 to interact with my client machines. I almost rather the server do nothing except what I request it to do. In this case, support SQL server, vmware server and web hosting. I dont want it checking my client machines for health, etc. The primary server takes care of all that.

Many of us have multiple servers in their homes doing a wide range of tasks. You do not need to install the server software ie connector for WHS v1 or Dashboard for WHS2011 for the clients to be able to access there servers. So leaving your existing server to do what its been doing is not an issue.

Only thing that comes to mind is Remote Access. If you want both servers to have remote access from the same network then it gets abit tricky mostly with the HP Media Software in your existing server but if you do not use Remote Access now then your task will be only setting this up on the new server.

I run 4 servers using a custom domain and subdomains but not every server I have has remote access turned on rather two run specific software and dedicated ports makine all 4 servers accessable from the internet. In terms of Remote Access between I simply manipulate ports External to Internal so I can access the servers as they were intended to be accessed.

As for your specific task at hand I really can't comment all that much. My point in all this is simply to point out multiple servers can co-habitate on a single network and be accessable by the clients on the network.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

comp1962 gave you good info. Also, the site search feature will turn up numerous discussions on this topic, here's one to get you started: viewtopic.php?t=6924

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.