Hi Guys,

New to this forum and just starting out on a project to revive an old EX475.

Got my memory and CPU sorted, just need to try and upgrade to WHS2011 now.

Happy to pay for a product key (OEM) once tested but can't find an ISO for a trial - anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

_________________
Regards,
Chris Snape

MediaSmart EX475
Just starting out/...

Whilst waiting for a reply I thought about the fact I could upgrade to V3.0 of the original WHS.

Does anyone have any experience of V3.0?

I can't get the discs/ISOs from anywhere so any help would be appreciated.

_________________
Regards,
Chris Snape

MediaSmart EX475
Just starting out/...

You might have updates turned off on the server .
There is no need for a cd the updates should do it.

_________________
EX-490
WHS v1
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Q9450s CPU
Stock Ram
ESATA Sansdigital Towerraid TR5M-B
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

The problem with WHS2011 is Microsoft took it off the Retail Market. You can find it on eBay but its being sold for around $100 where as last year you could buy it for like $35-50. I am not quite certain installing it on an EX470 is a wise choice as it would be better installed on something more robust.

As for the HP v3.x software for the EX470 you can find it from time to time on eBay as well. The real benefit to the 3.0 is better compatibility with Win 7 clients when you need to perform a Server Recovery or Factory Reset but the added feature set in the 3.x can place a heavy load on the EX470 even with a processor and RAM Upgrade.

So it looks like your going to have to venture over to eBay to find what your looking for.

_________________
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

Thanks for the info, Comp1962.

In your opinion is it worth going to WHS2011? I imagine a lot more functionality with more modern devices.

Plus I have heard that it does away with Drive Extender which, as a RAID experienced person, worries me slightly.

Plus if I am going to setup a home server I want to make sure it gets support for as long as possible etc etc.

I see you have experience of WHS2011, what did you think over WHSV1?

_________________
Regards,
Chris Snape

MediaSmart EX475
Just starting out/...

Actually I really like WHS2011 its an OS which has given me far less grief then WHSv1 which is not to say I dislike WHSv1 but I do like it better.

What WHS2011 does not have is all the cool ADD-INs that WHSv1 has so if your addicted to WHSv1 ADD-INs you might not want to go the WHS2011 route.

While Microsoft saw fit to abandon DE in WHS2011 and that was at first upsetting to me at first but then the 3rd party solutions became available like Drive Bender and Stablebit Drive Pool. I use Stablebit Drive Pool and it works well for me but some say Drive Bender is better. Its like the old argument about the Atari ST vs the Amiga or in your country the Acorn Systems vs the Sinclair's. These DE Replacements work better then DE ever did and are more user friendly too. One thing I liked about Stablebit was that when I moved from WHS2011 to WS2012E I was able to move my Storage Pool easily making the transition easier and had it not been the case I think I might still be running WHS2011 on my Highlander Server.

Unlike WHSv1 when you need to perform a Server Recovery its actually easier to do with WHS2011 if you have configured an OS Backup Drive. The recovery takes less then an hour and no need to reconfigure the server or the clients and more importantly no need to install tons of updates but any updates released from the time after the backup would need to be downloaded and installed. Simply put once the recovery is done your done and this is a pure joy but you must setup the OS Backup Drive. I suppose you could also perform a new install and just add the user accounts, clients, grab the updates and then reconfigure and it will take time but the only drive WHS2011 works with in the install is the System Drive so that's the nice part about removing DE. Then you just reinstall your Storage Pool Software, setup the shares and done but a recovery from an OS Backup makes it much easier although this is not the case on a headless server so a DEBUG Cable is an absolute must have.

One thing I will mention about WHS2011 is that you can image the drive and pop in the imaged drive and run with it. You can do this with WHSv1 but its a lengthy process to make it work. Another Plus for WHS2011.

I know you have an interest in installing it on your EX470 something I would not recommend because I believe for WHS2011 to shine you really need something more robust. My preference for WHS2011 is a quad core processor and 4GB RAM although only about 1/2 of the RAM would be used so 4GB is a good fit. The reason I prefer a quad core processor is because I use my servers for Online Media Streaming and so the transcoding alone can put a heavy hit on a processor but for just a file server a single or dual core processor is perfectly fine.

Some including myself have installed WHS2011 on an EX470 but I never pushed the thing all that much and basically abandoned the project when HomeServerSMART did not work on the EX470 running WHS2011 at the time which by now may have been fixed. I know Matt fixed the WHSv1 version for the EX470 so he may have done the same for the 64bit version of HSS.

I will also tell you that the LED's on the EX470 will not function correctly when running an OS other then what HP released for it. I am uncertain if this has been corrected by others as is the case with the EX48x, EX49x and X510. This may be true for the X310 but I have never put WHS2011 on an X310 as I have elected to keep them stock.

I would be more then happy to answer any specific questions you may have.

_________________
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

I am about a week away from a WHS2011 upgrade on my EX470, waiting on the arrival of a 2TB HDD to replace my failing primary WHS HDD. Comp has already covered all of the relevant points to the upgrade, both pros and cons, and I can confirm that the LED workaround is pretty much at a dead end, as interest in making it work (I doubt it could ever work due to the hardware limitations) has waned.

I use my EX470 only for backups and storage, so for that purpose I feel it is adequate as it is. Note that I upgraded the RAM a long time ago and also have an X2 3800+, so that's about as good as it will get on an EX470. To be honest, I think the loss of the LEDs was probably what was keeping me from upgrading sooner !! In this last week, I now feel the need to take advantage of the MSS LED easter egg and have it display the lights in all of their flashing glory. They also provided night lights to my two Boxers who shared a laundry room with the WHS.

They will be greatly missed.

PS - I held off for years on the debug cable, but just like Comp had been telling me, if you keep that MSS long enough, you WILL need one !!

How's that upgrade coming along?

_________________
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

Thanks for asking.

In the end I didn't got WHS2011, I have stuck with V1.

Just in the process of moving music and videos to it now.

I know if and when it ever fails I will have to restore, but as long as my files are safe that's all that matters.

_________________
Regards,
Chris Snape

MediaSmart EX475
Just starting out/...

I happen to like WHS2011 more so then WHSv1 these days but that said if WHSv1 is working for you then great! WHSv1 served me well for 3 yrs as my primary server solution before I moved onto WHS2011 and then to WS2012E.

I would tell you honestly that if you one day decided to go with another solution I would leave your current EX475 running WHSv1 until your comfortable with your new solution and you can run both or eventually just change over to the new solution. When I first setup WHS2011 on Highlander I ran both servers for quite sometime before I started to reduce the size of my WHSv1 server which by the way is still in operation today because it runs certain dedicated tasks and holds important offsite client backups.

Its crazy here because today I run WHSv1, WHS2011 and WS2012E servers in my house and I have a WHS2011 server running at work and they all have a dedicated purpose. While I could get by with one server the thing is I do a lot of media streaming online so I have the different servers setup to spread the streaming load out so one is not doing all the heavy lifting when my family wants to stream media from my servers and it works out well. Plus I have my own custom domain and websites again for my family. There are times however I really envy those who can run a small server solution because the larger servers do get expensive over time.

Good Luck with your EX475 and should you need assistance please do come back and ask.

_________________
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