Great job and appreciate your progress updates, Ripstop; thanks for sharing your light driver too. I have not had time to do much yet, but I should have mentioned that the backup options show up after a successful backup! Even though this is an unsupported config I just can't see returning to Server 2016 or *shudder* 2012 R2. 2019 is the first time since 2011 where everything feels snappy and responsive, though my E8400 dual-core CPU and 4GB RAM is really pushing the minimum hardware limits. I still miss that magic of WHS v1, but 2019+Essentials is probably the last stop for my old EX490. Now that I've played with Windows' ReFS, Linux's BTRFS and BSD's ZFS I have found ZFS to be the best long-term data storage due to its bit-rot-resistant design. However, it REQUIRES ECC RAM (and lots of it, at least 8GB). I use my WHS for client backups, my Linux NAS for Plex Serving/transcoding and my N40L FreeNAS (BSD) for backing-up/archiving my data and the other servers. I'll give the light-drivers a shot this weekend and report back.

Thanks for keeping this thread alive @Ripstop & @MusicLover2112. I've been seriously considering dropping the cash on this as a long term option instead of simply going to WHS11.

Any progress worth noting?

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Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod

I have been using Server 2019 successfully so far and had 1 client restore that worked. The issue is WHS2011 will no longer be supported by 2020, since it is based on Windows Server 2008 R2, which shares code-base with Windows 7 SP1. Officially Windows Home Server has been unsupported since April 2016, as extended support was never offered. The problem with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials is that it's supported only until October 2023, and I experienced a variety of issues with that OS on my EX490. Windows Server 2016 Essentials is probably the "safest" bet, since it's officially supported until 2027. However, that OS was based on a very slow build (1607) of Windows 10 - that build has known issues with performance, especially when it comes to updates (I also experienced memory issues on my EX490). Windows Server 2019 performs MUCH better for me on my EX490 - however, the issue here is three-fold:

1. The Essentials version of 2019 is a much-limited version that removed the core capabilities of Essentials - this means one needs to use the Standard version to support the Essentials hack
2. The Essentials Dashboard is not officially approved/tested by MS for Server 2019, which could make support challenging (Ripstop already pointed out some issues he encountered)
3. The cost of officially licensing Windows Server 2019 Standard is much higher

If one is OK dealing with the speed/performance issues of Windows Server 2016 Essentials that may be the way to go, since 2027 is still 8 years away. By then the hardware in these servers will be very out-dated and may not even be functional (power supply, DDR2 RAM, etc.). Since this server is just for my home and not "mission-critical" I am OK with 2019 since I prefer the improved speed, memory management and update performance compared to 2016 (and it's supported for another 10 years).

And to add to that, if you can stomach the essential (No pun intended) technical tweaks that are required to make it work aka WHS2011 style like mixing SMB v1 and v2 and playing with workgroups and domains and changing DNS addresses then I am pretty sure it will be patched until 2028. I can live with the assorted local and domain accounts I need to make it viable and I have purchased DrivePool to get the folder duplication back and it works really well. I mainly use it for streaming to my Popcorn A-400 and keeping my pictures and music safe. I also run Ubuntu 16.4 LTS on another EX490 as my 3rd level backup for those files but that's a rather difficult machine to manage as Linux isn't my native language

The past 3 weeks have seen me get more confident in the latest build I made from an MSDN source and I have started to migrate from my old WHS2011 media farm.

The speed improvements over Server 2016 Essentials meant that I couldn't go back. Its now surprisingly slick even on the EX490 but I admit I have a selection of Quad Xeon's and Core 2 Duo CPU based units to choose from. The problem was then paying for a licensed version which I have avoided by having access to MSDN which is very fortunate for me.

All in all its been a journey to get this working but the little EX490 Homeserver from HP lives on again until probably the hardware fails.

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X510, Xeon Quad L3360 2.86GHz Server 2019 + Essentials 2016,SANS DIGITAL TR5M
EX490, E8400 Server 2019
EX490, E8600 WHS 2011
EX490, E8400 Ubuntu server 16.04
EX475 Athlon BE-2350 2.1GHz WHS v1

Hey Guys, Haven't been around for awhile, still running WHS v1 but was playing with Win2012E. What a piece of trash, twice windows updates broke on it and that is when I decided to try 2016E,
WoW!!!
What a difference, installed it on my DIY machine (2012 MiniITX board) and it is working Great!!! 5-6 updates for about 30 mins and a couple of reboots and it is snappy.

I am going to Demote AD and get it back on the wordgroup, but I think I may have a real upgrade path when I can't use my WHS v1 anymore.

I have been reading about the 2019/2016E splice and don't feel like it would be worth the work for me, 2016 is running great compared to 2012 (waste of money)

Anyway, for those that still pop in might give 2016E a try, they have the eval version....

Everybody take care and enjoy..

P.S. if somebody gets those lights working that would be very cool, I have (4) X-510 and I would love to put 2016E on one with the lights working, That would be the Cats behind lolololoolol

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[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2012E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
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