I have 5 computers at my home and I use WHS to backup nightly.
It had some issues with a crazy corruption bug a while back which resulted in many corrupted MP3s from my collection. It has been fixed now and in general, using WHS is a positive experience. The two times I have really appreciated having it:
- Laptop HDD died; I was back up and running within an hour or so
- SO clicked on one of those messenger "Please see your pic on this link" spyware/trojan; reverted to previous night's backup rather than having to make sure the system was fully clean
Anyway, I don't have too much experience with the other aspects of WHS like xbox streaming etc but I do like the backup setup.
Two diferent products for two diferent needs
Copy pasted from wikipedia:
* Centralized Backup - Allows backup of up to 10 PCs,[7] using Single Instance Store technology to avoid multiple copies of the same file, even if that file exists on multiple PCs.[8]
* Health Monitoring - Can centrally track the health of all PCs on the network, including antivirus and firewall status.[8]
* File Sharing - Offers network shares for computers to store the files remotely, acting as a network-attached storage device. Separate categories are provided for common file types like Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos.[8] The files are indexed for fast searching.[9]
* Printer Sharing - Allows a centralized print server to handle print jobs for all users.[8]
* Shadow Copy - Takes advantage of Volume Shadow Copy Services to take point in time snapshots that allow older versions of files to be recovered.[10] However, after introduction Microsoft has recommended not enabling shadow copies on HomeServer for unspecified reasons, and had not fixed the problem by September 2008.[11] A web search in May 2009 did not locate a fix.
* Headless Operation - No monitor or keyboard is required to manage the device.[8] Remote administration is performed by using the Windows Home Server Console client software provided in the bundle. Also supports Remote Desktop[12] connections to the server while connected to the same LAN.[13]
* Remote Access Gateway - Allows remote access to any connected PC on the network over the Internet.[13]
* Media Streaming - Can stream media to an Xbox 360 or other devices supporting Windows Media Connect.[8]
* Selective Data redundancy - Guards against a single drive failure by duplicating selected data across multiple drives.[8]
* Expandable Storage - Provides a unified single and easily expandable storage space, removing the need for drive letters.[8]
* Extensibility through Add-Ins - Add-Ins allow third-party developers to extend the features and functionality of the server. Add-Ins can be developed using the Windows Home Server SDK, to provide additional services to the client computers or work with the data already on the server. Add-Ins can also be ASP.NET applications, hosted in IIS 6 running on WHS.[9]
* Server Backup - Backs up files which are stored within shared folders on the server to an external hard drive.
It had some issues with a crazy corruption bug a while back which resulted in many corrupted MP3s from my collection. It has been fixed now and in general, using WHS is a positive experience. The two times I have really appreciated having it:
- Laptop HDD died; I was back up and running within an hour or so
- SO clicked on one of those messenger "Please see your pic on this link" spyware/trojan; reverted to previous night's backup rather than having to make sure the system was fully clean
Anyway, I don't have too much experience with the other aspects of WHS like xbox streaming etc but I do like the backup setup.