Just a quick one this evening.
For those of you who are interested, Windows Home Server “Vail” (for home or home office use) and “Aurora” (for small business use) have been released on Microsoft Connect.
What has really got me excited are some of the new features, specifically:
- the ability to natively backup MacOS X computers through the use of Time Machine (previously you had to fudge things with a sparse file and obtain Ethernet MAC addresses to make it work),
- a new Windows Home Server connector for MacOS X computers (so you can manage your Windows Home Server from a Mac),
- the ability to restore your computer using a USB flash drive (I hated having to burn discs on the odd occasion I would need them as I kept losing them).
Other features which have become a staple of the original Windows Home Server operating systems are still intact such as the add-ins functionality, single instancing backup and the storage pooling technology.
Of course, this software comes with warnings plastered all over it (which should be taken seriously) with regards to discouraging use in a production environment as there is a possibility for data loss under certain conditions. For instance, using the “Storage Check and Repair” tool can ironically chew up your data in certain scenarios.
One thing that is disappointing is that the upgrade path still seems to be impossible. Putting aside the fact that upgrading from a 32-bit operating system to a 64-bit operating system just won’t happen (as WHS v2 is 64-bit) there has been no mention of a data migration tool or anything to make the process easier. What this means is that if you do want to upgrade you’ll need to:
- pull the drives out of your existing Windows Home Server,
- whack in some newer drives (hopefully larger ones and fewer of them),
- install WHS v2,
- reconnect each disconnected drive but not allocate it to the storage pool and manually copy everything over.
Depending on how much data you have, this could take a while so a few movies, popcorn and coffee may be in order.
I’ve not yet tried it myself but may give it a go in a virtual machine when I get some time. I’m not going to do anything more than have a play with it and use a copy of my data to prevent any problems from cropping up. I dare say that the timing is good though as I have had hard drives spinning 24/7 in my current Windows Home Server for the last few years and may decommission them in favour of some brand new drives.
Keep your eyes peeled though, I think Microsoft was on a winner with the original and the sequel is shaping up to be a worthwhile update.
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