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What is your preferred server OS for home use? And Why?
JavaJones:
Well, I speak from personal experience. This is exactly what I do with my media server. I actually run 2 "servers", one for media which doubles as a media playback and cataloging machine (it's in my living room hooked to my flat screen TV), the other is a more general data storage system that handles other (non-"media") data sharing, backup/syncing for all the other systems, cloud backup (it backs up all the other systems to its own drives, then backs *those* up to a cloud service), etc.
Anyway, Win7 on both machines, works great. No RAID for the internal drives, Libraries functionality is ideal for the media folders. I use an off-board RAID unit at the moment (the Lacie mentioned in my "Not backing up will cost you" thread) on the non-media server, but probably not for long given my experiences with it.
- Oshyan
Stoic Joker:
Let me make this simple... Technology Totally Sucks ... When Applied Badly.
Windows 7 Libraries Do Not Work over the wire. Period. So if you include network share folders X, Y, and Z in a Library on one machine, then go to a different machine you will have to recreate in again, and again, and again ... There is a word for that, it's called stupid.
A Windows Server... Will give you the full set of file sharing services, like DFS (Distributed File System) which is a "Library" for folders from disparate locations pulled into a single shared location for consistent easy access from any location...And you only have to do it once. No you don't get the spiffy indexing features with DFS, but you also don't get them with the Win7 Libraries over-the-wire either. So nothing is "lost" but major constant headaches.
IIS, AD, DHCP, DNS, and etc. are all services that Can Be Added to a Win2k3 server. They are not compulsory, or even there by default. It does just fine as a bog stock workgroup server. However IIS is a kick-ass web server if you know how to setup and manage it properly.
With 10TB of data to keep track off if you go with proper commercial hardware, then RAID (1+0 as well as a backup strategy) would truly be the best configuration. But if you just want to hang a bunch of independent drives off a RAID controller then DFS will be your best bet to keep things organized and accessible. Either way a true server OS will handle the access of the data much better by not wasting it's resources on themes & multimedia nonsense.
Note: Commercial RAID controllers have on-board repair features that work (both manually and transparently) quite well. Not to mention that multiple configuration can be used for the various drives so you're not locked into the all or none crap of the consumer lever stuff.
superboyac:
Oh man...
OK, I think I'm going to have to set aside a couple of weeks in the next few months to explore all of this. I have no idea what is going. i don't know the differences in all of these things, i don't get it. I'm hearing all sorts of contradictory things, I'm not going to be able to make a decision this way. It's ok, I appreciate the help, but I think this is going to take a lot of legwork and time on my end until I know what I'm doing.
JavaJones:
Libraries work fine for what I'm using them for, but I do not attempt to combine multiple *remote* network folders into one library, I'm going the opposite direction, taking multiple local folders and presenting them as a single share. It sounds like suberboyac wants to do the same thing.
What exactly is the advantage of RAID in this situation? If you're not using AD, IIS, etc. then what's the point of using a more expensive server OS? Not having skins enabled? Turn them off in Win7. Server-tuned process scheduling? Set priority in your Windows system settings to services. Yes, of course, these are not quite the same thing, but for 90% of the benefit they're worth not bothering with the expense and, yes, added complexity of Windows Server IMO.
- Oshyan
Josh:
SBAC, The big question is what is the ultimate purpose of the machine in question? That can help us tailor an OS/Solution to your needs :)
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