I did this a few days ago, installed Firefox on my WHS and now I have my always on Web box. The question is, is this a bad idea? after all, WHS does give you a nice warning when you first boot regarding using the PC directly i.e. not via the connector software.

There are other options of course, I could install Sandboxie and run the browser in a Sandbox, or even install a virtual OS, both of these options should protect WHS from harm.

Anyway, any thoughts on using WHS (or any server for that matter) as a web box?

I installed Win 7 build 7000 on an old Shuttle SN41G2, this is very old tech by today’s standards:

• NForce 2 motherboard
• Athlon 2200
• 1Gb RAM
• NVidia GeForce MX440 onboard graphics

Windows 7 runs very well on this hardware, although some of the Aero effects don’t seem to be enabled, probably due to the onboard graphics not supporting DirectX 9 (not even sure it supports v8).

The first thing I did was to browse to my WHS home page, when you do this with a networked PC that does not have the WHS connector installed you are directed to install the Connector from your server, I did this and the Connector installed with no issues. I then performed a manual backup, which worked without any issues. After backing up Win 7 I logged onto WHS via the console and noticed that it’s listed as “Windows Vista Ultimate Edition”.

I then turned off the PC, placed the WHS restore CD in the drive and booted, I then simply followed the prompts (see images below). The one issue I knew I would have would be due to the lack of certified Vista drivers for my PCs network card. I was prompted to insert a USB stick or floppy with the relevant drivers, I did this and then the restore continued. I was then prompted for my WHS password, and then asked which PC I wanted to restore (the default was This PC, i.e. Win 7). In all the restore took about 40 mins, it would have been quicker but I’m using 100mbit LAN. Then it was done, I rebooted and Win 7 was back. As far as I can tell there have been no issues at all.

It’s holiday time, and my usual diet of US Sci-Fi has all but dried up, there’s nothing but tat on the telly, so I’m planning on installing some add-ons and writing some blog posts. Any suggestions?

Cost

The Wind Desktop is not available in the UK, so I had a mate buy it in the US, and another mate bring it back for me, the cost of the barebones system was £92 (purchased from NewEgg). The system then required memory and some storage, I opted for a 2GB SODIMM for the RAM, this is overkill for WHS, but as I might use the Desktop for WinXP in the future I decided to go for 2GB. I also bought a 500GB SATA HD from a mate for £20, and then borrowed an identical HD so I could test the WHS with 2 drives. The Wind Desktop only has 2 SATA channels, one for a HD and one for an optical drive, I wanted to make sure there were no issues when 2 HD’s were used. The hardware details are listed below (all prices include VAT and delivery)

The DVD drive was only required to install WHS, so this can be deducted from the total. The total is therefore £235 (Hardware £140, Software £95). You can see from this that if you wanted to build a Linux server, or just a Linux desktop, the MSI Wind Desktop is a nice cheap platform. It’s a pity that WHS costs so much.

Power

To test the amount of power being used I run with a single Hard Disk and with 2 Hard Disks, for both configurations I tested it idling and while performing a backup.

Initial Conclusions

After doing some reading online I was expecting the power when idle to be closer to 20W, even so, it’s using about a 1/3 of the juice as my old WHS. I think my next step will be to have a look in the bios and in Windows Power Management to see if I can shave a few Watts off.

Photos

WHS console showing 2×500GB Hard Drives

Open case showing the Motherboard and the 2nd Hard Drive

Closed case running with a single Hard Drive, sitting on top of my 2 Shuttle SN41G2s

A side effect to the recent Netbook craze is the recent appearance of Nettops (20W – 30W PCs typically based on Intel’s Atom CPU), in particular the $150 (£80) MSI Wind barebones desktop has the potential to be a small, low power, and almost silent WHS. Currently not available in the UK, I’m hoping to get my hands on one from the US during September.

I’ll be planning on keeping the build as cheap as possible so will be buying just RAM (probably 2Gb just in case I eventually use it as a browsing PC), I’m hoping that the parallel IDE will be suitable for my two existing hard drives. Looks like I was getting my motherboards mixed up, I was working off an image of the new Shuttle X27 board which does indeed have an IDE connector, but the Wind does not, so it looks like I’m on the scrounge for a couple of SATA drives. I’ll use an optical drive to install WHS and then remove this once the install is complete.

If anyone has used their Wind desktop with WHS, or even with 2 parallel SATA HD’s I’d like to hear how you got on.

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What did the OWL tell me? Well, when my home is in “standby” mode, i.e. overnight or when I’m away, it was using about 260W. The OWL also told me that of this 260W about 90W was due to my Windows Home Server. Not bad I thought, that’s less than a typical light bulb. The problem is of course that it’s using this power all day, everyday. Time for some maths (or “math” if my mate Jason is reading this):

The assumptions:

1. Electricity costs 10p per KWh.
2. WHS uses 90W.
3. WHS is always on.
4. Annual usage for a home is 3500KWh.
5. Annual bill for a home is £350 (3500KWh@10p/KWh).

Using the above assumptions, we get the following results for running a WHS for a year:

1. It uses 788KWh.
2. It costs £79 per year.
3. It’s responsible for 23% of the total electricity usage.

It’s quite a surprise to think that something that uses less power than a typical light bulb can be responsible for nearly a 1/4 of your electricity bill. Of course this case is specific to my WHS, which runs on an old Shuttle PC. A system built from scratch could be designed with low-power consumption in mind.

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In the office servers are kept in the “server” room, with the noticeable exception of probably only a handful of people (Mr Gates?) most people don’t have a server room at home (we can only dream). Given that the home server is meant to be used but not really seen it makes sense to hide it away somewhere, as I use a Shuttle for my WHS there is some fan noise so I don’t like to have it in my study where I keep my desktop PC. There is one snag with hiding it away in a far away room, and that’s that WHS has to be connected to the router via a cable, wireless is not an option. I could of course also hide my router away with the WHS, but I’m an old fashioned guy and I like my desktop PC to be connected via cable to the router. So, I like my PC to be connected via a cable, and WHS has to be connected via a cable, so that kinda limits where it can go, the wife would not be pleased with network cable trailing up the stairs to the server room….sorry, the spare bedroom.

There is another option, and this involves using HomePlugs. HomePlugs allow network devices to communicate using the existing power lines within your home. You’ll need a pair, and they’ll set you back about £45 ($90). Before I splashed out the cash I borrowed a pair of HomePlugs (eConnect Turbo) from my mate Tony, if you don’t know a Tony, then try other friends, the geekier the better (try an Andy, or a Dave), don’t bother asking any girls, at best you’ll be wasting your time, at worst you’ll spend 1/2 a day trying to explain the technology behind network transmissions over power lines, and how cool you think it is (by the way, this will not help you pull).

Anyway, I managed to get my hands on a pair of HomePlugs, spec’d to work at 85Mbit/s. I knew they were never going to reach this transfer rate, but I was still interested in seeing if it worked at all. My main concern was the fact that I wanted to put my WHS in my annexe, which had a separate consumer unit to the main house, so not exactly on the same ring main. To my surprise it worked, it was truly plug and play.

As for the transfer rate, it was not great, typically around 1.2MB/s (about 10Mbit/s, so quite a bit below the maximum of 85Mbit/s), but more than enough for streaming a Divx Movie (typically less than 0.3MB/s). Not really a perfect solution for moving around large files though. I’m using WHS as part of the 120-day trial, if I finally decide to take the plunge and buy WHS then I think it will be time to get out the drill and buy some cable (assuming Tony doesn’t have any spare of course)

As for the answer to my own question, “where do you keep your WHS?”, I keep mine on the kitchen floor in my annexe.

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These little annoyances (5 week delivery, pain-in-the-butt upgrade path and this latest piece of misinformation) spoil what is basically a very good piece of software, ironically they have all been faults of the evaluation version and would not have occurred if I had bought the retail version.  A little odd really when you consider that people who are using the evaluation version are basically………well….kinda evaluating it.

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I applied for a 180-day evaluation version of MS Project 2007 yesterday, and guess what? No 5 week wait for the DVD’s to arrive, I could just download and burn the image file to CD, and……during the install I get the nice message “You can upgrade to the full version at any time”. So, why do WHS users have to reinstall an entire OS, when MS project users don’t even have to reinstall the program? That was not a rhetorical question by the way, I’d really like to know.

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It turns out that there is no big upgrade button, ok, so what’s the worst case?…. I buy the retail version and simply use the serial number, enter it into my 120 evaluation version and Bob’s your uncle…..well….no, you can’t do that either. This is how it works:

1. Order (and pay) for free evaluation copy.
2. Wait 5 weeks for delivery.
3. Install…..realise WHS lacking required Ethernet drivers….find compatible drivers.
4. Realise UPnP not working…..fix problem.
5. Install Addins.
6. Make tweaks to suit.
7. Setup accounts for other users.
8. After 120 days, buy retail version and repeat steps above.

I’m a little confused, do MS want people to upgrade after using the evaluation copy? If so then why not make it easy for them? Considering the effort involved in getting it all working the way I wanted it, I’m now tempted just to try building a Linux server.

The only way to move from the evaluation version to the retail version is to install the retail version on top of the evaluation version, this does retain your data, but requires any users to be recreated, and any settings to be reapplied (source).

Of course there is one way to minimise the effort required when installing the retail product, and that’s to buy it sooner rather than later i.e before too many settings/tweaks/addins are made….a cunning plan!

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