Gavin’s Digital Diner

I’m somebody’s perfect demographic. No doubt about it. I like gadgets. My house is wired top to bottom with CAT5, and I’ve somewhere between four and eight computers, servers, PCs, various other weird devices, along with all sorts of digital appliances in various stages of construction or deconstruction. That’s not counting the two phone systems and the rest of the white-elephant graveyard in my basement. [I did finally get rid of my PDP 11/70, thank you very much.]

However, let me throw in one caveat before you think I live in a house furnished in early “Home Shopping Network.” I like gadgets that work; I like the elegance of fine technology, not just any old junk. Mark my words; I don’t own a vegematic^* or a robot dog. I do lust, however — in my heart — for an Xbox360. I’ve lusted for three years now. I just can’t bring myself to get one for fear I’ll lose too much of my life to Halo and Gears of War. I’ve lost whole months before. Some months are important to me.

Packrat problems aside, given my propensities, I wasn’t too surprised when I “qualified” as a beta tester for Microsoft’s new “Windows Home Server” or WHS. I was intrigued enough to apply. To be honest, I wondered just what it might look like. More than that, I wondered just what features and functions a “Home Server” might meet, in the minds of the Microsoft minions.

You see, for the gadgeteer, there are lots of options already. Take for example, the so-called NSLUG (AKA: NSLU2). It’s a terrific little NAS device made by Linksys for the home market. I’ve got one sitting on the edge of my desk supporting about a terabyte of storage. (See the picture below — there’s the Slug next to the two MadDog enclosures, each housing a 500GB drive. Yes, that is a CRT next to it. No laughing.)

‘da Slug has been running without problems for a couple of years now. As you can see, it’s about the size of a paperback. It runs Linux, costs $85, and provides an easy storage alternative for a SOHO network. You can be brain-dead and still get it to work without much trouble. I’m serious; a slightly drunk zombie could set up an NSLUG. The biggest challenge is to ignore all the technical mumbo-jumbo in the docs, and just plug things together and turn it on.

Admittedly, though, my Zombie-installed “Slug” doesn’t do much but hum. Occasionally, it gets confused and I have to reboot it. That’s it. Supposedly you can flash the bios with alternative versions of Linux, make it dance and sing, even apparently make it run Trixbox. But so far, mine just hums and holds my music, my photos, lots of virtual machines, and all my email since 1985. (Now that’s some fun readin’!)

Then, there’s the Ubuntu box I’ve got tucked under my other desk. It too offers shared storage to a network. Any Linux distro will. Ubuntu makes it especially easy. But, Linux takes a geek. Say what you will. It does.

WHS, on the other hand, does not require heavy geek creds. And, I admit it, I wanted to see just how WHS might stack up against the Slug and against using Linux on some old hardware as a shared storage device. I was curious what WHS was to be. So, too, I wondered if it might have application beyond the home market, perhaps for small organizations, specifically small non-profits. Hey, if I were lucky, it might just be useful in my offices in London or Johannesburg or Chicago. I’m just not happy with their current backup/shared solutions. It’s either overkill for four people, or not “enterprise-grade.”

For the small nonprofit, you see, SBS is too big and Linux has too high a geek quotient; for many, their internet infrastructure is just too shaky for any sort of web-based approach. IF WHS were brain-dead easy — and if provided just a few functions (like automated backup) — and if the price point were right; well, it might just be the sangraal. There’s lots of need out there for a small, automated shared storage and backup system. Lots.

The price point, by the way, is rumored to be “less than $500.” That’s for a complete appliance, including the software, enclosure, probably a couple of hundred gigabytes of storage, and all the necessary other stuff in a box. It’s also rumored that Microsoft is not going to sell the software by itself. I think that’s a mistake, and I find it hard to believe. Others say they will. I do think the appliance price is about perfect for the SOHO market, but a little high for the home market… unless the feature set were right. That’s what I wanted to know.

Looking Under the Hood

The hardest part of the beta test was downloading the 4GB ISO file, and then getting a good burn to a DVD. Once that was accomplished, the setup was a breeze. I popped the DVD into an old Dell I had been using for a Win2003 Server/MOSS trial. Nothing spectacular: single core, 2.4 GHz, 500MB RAM, and 80GB 7400 RPM drive.

Here’s where it gets interesting. The underlying OS is obviously Windows Small Business Server 2003. How do I know? Well, that’s what it said on the splash screen during installation. In fact, when it’s done installing (about 40 minutes total), you’re on an SBS server looking at a familiar desktop (assuming your familiar with SBS 2003). It even says “Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server” on the desktop once you login. So, I guess they aren’t trying to hide it.

The toughest part of the installation is setting up a password and trying to decide what to name the beast. Creative juices flowing, I named mine “HomeServer.” Strong password requirements are turned on, so you need to use a mix of upper and lower case, numbers, or symbols. Not too onerous. I usually use one just out of habit anyway.

Once it was up and running and I was logged into the system, it looked just like Win2K3 Server, except for the BIG warning screen that says:

“Don’t muck about with the normal Windows-type administrative buttons and functions or your naughty bits will fall off…. If you don’t want that to happen, please use the “Windows Home Server Console.”

I’m paraphrasing, but you get my drift.

“Huh,” I thought, “Win2003/SBS and the equipment to run it on for less than $500. That’s nice. ” It’s not quite SBS however. There’s no Active Directory (that would be overkill), and none of the other integrated functions like DNS, DHCP, user management, quotas, etc. And, it’s limited to ten users.

Much of SBS seems to be there when I scanned through the running services. IIS is running a web site for remote access, terminal services is running and you can connect and admin the box remotely. In fact, the remote “Home Server Console” seem to be Terminal Services running in a single application mode. Of note: It was nice to see that the Windows Firewall service was on by default. Careful not to muck about just yet, I obediently opened the “Home Server Console” as instructed to see what could be seen.

Simplicity is the name of the game with WHS. The interface is simple, the controls are simple and easy to understand, and the design is perfect for a SOHO office that needs shared storage, automated backup, easy management, and no headaches.

Here’s a screen capture of the console. There are basically five buttons, labeled:

• Computers and Backup
• User Accounts
• Shared Folders
• Server Storage
• Network

 

The functions are pretty self-explanatory, and you can’t actually screw things up very easily. I know. I tried.

Computers show up in the list once you add the client software. The client software can be installed from one of the shared folders (the software folder) on WHS, or I had a copy on a CD. Simplicity again: the installation of the client software is a breeze. Of note: the Home Server suggests that you synchronize passwords between it and your PC. It also noticed that my PC’s password was not “Strong” and enforced that, seamlessly synchronizing the two passwords on both systems. Well done. Someone was paying attention.

Once the client software is installed, you end up with the following on your PC:

• A desktop shortcut labeled “Shared Folders on Server.” That takes you to a collection of six shares on the server, named: “Music,” “Photos,” “Public,” “Software,” “Users,” and “Videos.”
• A new icon in the system tray that looks like a little house on a green background. Clicking on it gives you a remote login to the WHS server, and you’re presented with the same five-button console. As far as I can tell, it can be completely managed remotely.
• A right click on the system tray icon also gets you a menu offering items like “Backup Now,” “Update Password,” and access to “Shared Folders.”

Oh, and by the way, that little system tray icon also turns red if something is funky. When I played around with adding drives and removing drives, it gave me various warning messages about running out of space, and about the backup system being off-line — another handy feature for a SOHO.

Brain-Dead Backup & Drive Extender

The “Computers and Backup” button displays a list of computers known to WHS. It’s from here you manage the backup. And what a backup. It’s automagically phenomenologically, epistemologically, amazingly, super-brain-dead easy. Remember my Zombie? Well, he could do it, no problem. For this feature alone I’d buy the damn thing. It sets up an automated three-month rotation, keeping monthly, weekly and daily backups. It was simple.

It works. I just left it alone and it promptly backed up my PC that evening. No muss, no fuss, no kitchen drudgery.

I briefly worried about what would happen the next night — since I had about 70GB of stuff on my PC. Would it do another full backup? The answer, I think, is no. At least the amount of space devoted to the backup files has stayed steady at about 70GB. So, it’s both compressing and doing an incremental backup. Now that I had filled up half the drive, I turned to the storage systems. It was rumored to use “drive extender” technology, perfect for the SOHO users.

What’s drive extender technology? Well, in WHS, instead of turning additional drives into additional volumes (D:, E:, F:, etc.), WHS simply “extends” the existing drive, appending new capacity onto the existing storage. If you have 40 GB and add a 200GB drive, you don’t end up with two drives. Instead, you end up with a 240GB of available storage – think of it as a single, virtual drive.

Adding storage is easy. I just plugged in a 160GB USB drive I had laying around, and voila, it popped up in a list as available. A simple click on the “Add” button and I had just tripled my available storage. One word of caution: It formats the drive so don’t use one that has data on it you want. If you do, it’s gone. It does give you fair warning.

    

I also have to say that the Server Storage screen is quite nice. As you can see above, it lists the available drives and their status. It also lists the total usage, by type, in the right hand pane. Above I show the “before and after” effects of adding the USB drive. It took about 3 minutes to insert, add, and format.

I looked deep inside of WHS. Like any Windows OS, it still has multiple drives under the hood. Looking at the Win2K3 Server Disk Management panel, it shows the volumes just like regular drives. But, for all intents and purposes, it’s a single monolithic drive. To the users, it all looks like one big bucket.

And… just ’cause I’m that way, I also tried removing a drive. After all, sometimes you might want to swap a drive, or some such. The controls are there, and it’s pretty easy. The one caveat: You get a warning that it might take a few hours. They’re not lying. WHS tries to consolidate your storage on the remaining drive(s). Consequently, it takes no small amount of time. I made tea, wandered around the house, and played Frisbee with my dog, came back, and it still wasn’t done.

Speaking of storage, there is a button… Something I didn’t expect and was pleasantly surprised to discover is a feature to “mirror” file storage. If you have two drives, you can click a button to request that WHS keep what it calls “duplicate” copies. According to the docs:

“…Folder Duplication is a technology that duplicates folders and files across multiple hard drives. If you enable Folder Duplication and then one hard drive fails, you do not lose any files that are stored in a shared folder. Any folder that has Folder Duplication enabled uses twice the amount of server storage.”

It’s that easy.

Shared Folder Storage

I suppose I should mention the shared storage. After all, that’s where we started. When installed, WHS sets up six folders, as shown in the screen cap below. You can add shares by clicking “Add” and you remove them by clicking “Remove.” Easy enough.

Folders have only three levels of access control. Basically you get:

• No Access
• Read Only
• Full Access

Access control is managed on a per-user basis. Hence, it’s easy enough to set up private “personal folders.” And, I should note that when you add a user, it automatically adds a Personal folder for that user.

Remote Access

Finally, there’s a host of Remote Access features. Some are kind of scary; useful, but scary. Once setup, you get browser access to your “Home Server” (via HTTPS) from the Internet. After login, you’re presented with a simple web-interface basically offering three options:

1. Browser-based access to the file shares located on the home WHS.
2. RDP (terminal services) access to the WHS Console.
3. RDP (terminal services) access to PCs on your home network if they have Remote Access enabled.

First off, the remote stuff requires a Microsoft “Live” account. [Strangely, I happened to have one, although I don't remember setting it up.] It uses your account to set up and/or register some sort of dynamic DNS entry. Once you plug in the “Live” ID and Password, you get to choose a sub-domain that will be used to form the unique URL of your home server. In the beta, you have a grand choice of one domain “Livenode.com.” You choice is <something>.livenode.com.

Second, it requires three forwarded ports, one for HTTP, one for HTTPS, and one for RDP. Easy enough if you know how. MS tries to make it easy by using UPnP. However, if your router doesn’t support UPnP, you’ve got a little router work to do. Me? Well, I turned UPnP off the minute I bought the router. Any sane person would. I had. [I am therefore, sane; Q.E. D.] Between you and me, I’m not about to let software mess around with my router(s), that’ll really make your naughty-bits fall off.

So, while WHS offered to configure my router automatically, it failed in the attempt. But, setting up port forwards on Ports 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS), and 4125 (RDP) only took a few minutes. Once done, WHS reported back that everything was hunky-dory.

There are a couple of good things in the implementation: First off, remote access requires strong passwords to be enabled. Second, in addition to web based access, WHS functions as a Terminal Services (RDP) gateway, allowing true remote login to PCs on the network (assuming they have remote access enabled.) Finally, the “Live” account is free, and so, apparently, is the DNS magic that associates your URL with your home router.

All in all, this beast is nicely done, an elegant implementation riding on Windows Server 2003. It also looks perfect for one or two of my SOHO offices… For the SOHO’s I get an easy to implement, easy to manage backup solution, and an easily expandable shared storage system. The gravy is remote management, and, for the SOHO staff, a brain-dead way to access files remotely or, perchance even login to their PCs while on the road.

For my home, depending on price, I’ll probably wait and see if they release a software only version. The backup service is what I want. It’s something even a zombie could love.

————————

* Note: Sadly, it appears the Vegematic is no longer available. However, the Ronco site still lists such favorites as the Pocket Fisherman and GLH – the spray on hair restoration system. It’s like Christmas tree flocking, but for your head!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS