I am currently in process of upgrading my storage server (server 2008R2) from my current setup which is:
- 2 500GB SATA drives in RAID 1 (2008r2 managed) for my critical data. (Also run a weekly backup to an external drive).
- 1 150GB IDE drive for the OS
- 1 300GB SATA drive to store VM images

Here's what I'm thinking for the new configuration:
- 2 2TB drives in RAID 1 for my critical data
- 1 150GB IDE drive for the OS
- 2 500GB and 1 2TB drives for storing movies/media. No redundancy required, but would like to ability to add capacity as my collection increases and only loose the 1 drive worth of content if a drive dies.

I've already bought 3 2TB Seagate 5900 drives, created the 2 TB RAID 1 partition, and copied by data from the 500GB RAID 1 parition. Next I need to get a PCIe SAS/SATA controller card (prob looking at an 8 port) so I can connect all my drives. After that I'd ideally like to be able to group the media drives into 1 logical volume (easier for sharing with the HTPC). At some point I might want to be able to have redundnacy for some select movies that I get.

I've been doing research about if I should change my OS to WHS or stay on 2008R2 and either use a sas/sata controller card that can group my media disks into a single logical partition or even something like flexraid. WHS was initially pretty attractive, but since Drive Extender is being depricated in the next release it doesn't seem like a good long term option.


Thanks!

With WHS v1 there is no need to setup or run a RAID configuration as it uses a very simple to use Drive Extender program that makes things easy for users to add drives to their storage pool and add drives of different sizes. The client backup function alone makes WHS very attractive in of itself.

While I do run WHS v1 on several servers and find them suitable for a wide range of tasks at hand I am not sure what bennifit you might achieve performance wise making the switch other then simplisity of operation of WHS v1.

What I would recommend you try out before making a final determination as to what you will do is download the WHS evaluation software and install it on a client and give it a test run to see if its right for you provided you have a client hanging around that can run WHS.

I personally would not switch my primary server over to another server OS without first evaluating if the OS in consideration is a right fit for my needs. Now with WHS 2011RC out for evaluation it adds another option to consider as well. I built a server to run VAIL and removed it when Microsoft decided to remove DE and then installed WHS v1 on it as I repurposed it to run a simple FTP site and some other tasks. Today I decided to repurpose it again installing WHS2011RC to evaluate what it may have to offer me and so I am in the process of moving my FTP and video confrence stuff to another server I had available which I previously used as a test server.

So you do have options available to you but the entire point in all this is to evaluate before jumping into another Server OS to make certain its right for you. For me WHS is great but whats good for me may not be for others.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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