Most people have heard of Windows Home Server. This new OS is made specifically to be a server for the home, home office or small business. I have not had anytime to do anything with this new technology. Santa decided our home needed one though and yesterday a new HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server
The first thing was the size the box was a mere 15"x15"x9.5". I then opened the box to find the server and a box.
The box contained some manuals, power cord, Ethernet cable and 3 CDs. The big surprise was the server small, black, dense and heavy. It sports a 64-bit AMD Sempron and 512 megabyte of memory. Opening the front I found 4 drive sleds. 2 had 500 gigabyte drives and the other two sleds were empty. This gives the server a total of 1 terrabyte of storage.
This is the most interesting thing about the server pluggable but not hot-swappable drives. Over time I can put two more drives in to the empty bays probably 1TB drives. Then if more space is needed you can replace the 500 GB. In the process the contents of the drive can be offloaded to the other drives if you have enough space before swapping the drive.
Enough looking at the hardware lets turn this thing on. So I slotted back the drive bays. Next I plugged in the power cord and an Ethernet cable. Plugged the power cord into an APC 750 ES. OK it is overkill but then why not. Press the power button and I am rewarded with blue and purple lights. I also was surprised by what I did not get, sound. The server was quiet. My laptop admits more noise than it. I then went to my office and got on my Vaio SZ and popped in the software installation disk.
I could go into gore detail on installing the software. It is not that the install was hard or even tedious. In fact if I had not stopped to take screen shots on ever screen it was actually fast. I would estimate that if you were just interested in getting setup it would take under 15 to 20 minutes from starting unpacking to fully up and running. Setting up each additional computer is probably 5-10 minutes including installation of the client software and creating the user account. Now I fired up the Home Server Console and after entering my administration password was presented with a very good looking status and control window.
I have a quick status screen. I can see the following
- Software updates - enabled and last time updated
- LED Brightness - allows you to change the brightness of the server lights
- Remote Access - a website that allows SSL access to the server over the Internet
- iTunes Server - shows if iTunes server is running
- Photo Share - shows if photo sharing has been enabled
The first two are self explanatory. The next three are very interesting. Remote Access allows you to setup a secure website. The website can be used to give users access to files and even remote into computers. Photo share allows you to setup a site that friends, families or business associates can go to see photos. The last is very cool, the iTunes Server. The iTunes Server is an addin. Addins allow you to add in additional capabilities. The iTunes Server scans the server looking for iTunes files. From my iTunes I see my server as a shared library. When I click on music in this library it is streamed to my laptop. The great think is that now my wife and I can have a single consolidated music library. True we still have to keep copies when we are on the road. However I don't have to take the whole library just a part of it. And if I am traveling I can always go grab more music.
In addition to the status screen there are four more tabs. The four tabs allow you to configure users, access backups from computers, manage shares, and manage disks. In addition, a network health icon tells you if there are any issues.
I setup to have various computers backed up nightly. In addition, I had it exclude some folders like my music. Since I rarely add music there is no point in backing up this file. In addition since I wanted to have a consolidated library I just manually copied over my music to the music share folder. The iTunes Server eventually discovered the files and now my family can all recieve streaming music from the server.
I am totally amazed at this little server. It was easy to setup, manage and just works. And then there are addins and a whole community growing up around developing and using addins.
Now it turns out that a friend of my also add a TB of storage to his network. However he chose to use a NAS. So would you buy a NAS or Home Server, tell me what you think?
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