Microsoft Windows Home Server Beta 2

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
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Apr. 26, 2007

Specifications

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Setup - Installing Server Software

Microsoft provided a 1.4GB ISO file along with two other CDs for the client software. They also came with a warning, just like with the Vista betas, to burn the install DVD at a slow speed or you risk corrupting the data written on the DVD. So after burning a copy at 2.4x I proceeded to boot from the DVD and install WHS.

Setting up Windows Home Server Beta 2 was a tedious process which took me about 45 minutes. There was one problem during the installation of the operating system which took me about 15 minutes to solve. However, the underlying error turned out to be my fault, so I didn't count it in the time above. About 15-20% of the install time was accounted for by rebooting. I rebooted nine, count "em, nine times during the install. This should go down in the final release, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Microsoft provides three warnings at the beginning of the operating system installation that this is a destructive installation. I don't know if this is related to the beta status of the software or a permanent fixture, though if I had to guess I bet it is a permanent "feature." This is due to it being based on Windows Small Business Server 2003 and that most users don't have an upgrade path from Windows Server 2000 or 2003. The Windows Small Business Server name still appears in some parts of the installation.

One feature that I appreciated during the install was the ability to install drivers stored on a USB flash drive. I'm unaware if this feature is supported in Vista (I don't recall it from my experience with RC2), but it is most certainly a welcome addition. The downside however, is that since WHS is built on Windows Server 2003, some old hardware you cobble together for your server might not have drivers written for Windows Server 2003.

Setup - Installing Client Software

Installing the client software was easy. I should note first that the WHS client software will only run on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It will not run on anything else, Windows 2000, ME, 9x, or even a Mac (though it would be really cool of MS to create a client for the Mac, even if it wasn't full-featured).

The client installer would install the necessary client software, and then search out on the LAN inside my house to discover the server. I needed to have administrative privileges on my local computer to add it to the server's list of registered computers. From the client software I then activated my Windows Home Server installation, which is a pretty neat idea - remotely activating computers.

Once my computer was registered I had to configure how the software would back up my computer's local drives. Now this was the tricky part due to the fact that I have about 1TB of local disk space in my computer, and only 1.5TB across two 750GB drives in the server. I made sure that I told the client software to only back up my C drive (50GB partition, about 30GB used) so that I didn't overwhelm the server to backup all 1TB of my computer and then not have much free space left over for other things.

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Page 2 of 7

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Page 1: Introduction & Hardware Configuration
Page 2: Setup - Installing Server and Client Software
Page 3: Testing - Client Console & Restore CD
Page 4: Testing - File Sharing and Backup & Windows Media Connect
Page 5: Testing - Remote Access & Running Other Applications
Page 6: Upgrading to CTP & Upgraded Remote Access
Page 7: Conclusion

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