1. Introducing the Home Server
In late 2007, Microsoft's PC
maker and hardware partners began shipping specially designed home
server products based around a new operating system called Windows Home
Server. Code-named "Q" (and previously code-named "Quattro"), Windows
Home Server is just what its name suggests, a home server product. It
provides a central place to store and share documents, along with other
useful services for the connected home.
Windows Home Server is
designed to be almost diabolically simple, and after 2½ years of active
development, Microsoft decided that it had achieved an interface that
was both simple enough for the most inexperienced user and powerful
enough for even the most demanding power user.
Okay, maybe that's a bit of a
stretch; but given what it does—bring the power of Microsoft's server
operating system software into the home—Windows Home Server is pretty
darned impressive. And if you're in the Windows Home Server target
market—that is, you have broadband Internet access and a home network
with two or more PCs—this might just be the product for you. In many
ways, it's the ultimate add-on for Windows 7.
From a mile-high view,
Windows Home Server provides four basic services: centralized PC backup
and restore, centralized PC and server health monitoring, document and
media sharing, and remote access. We'll examine all of these features in
just a bit.
2. Windows Home Server Evolution
The initial Windows Home
Server generation, which is still current at the time of this writing,
is based on Windows Server 2003, a previous generation version of
Microsoft's enterprise-class server OS. In addition to the initial
release, Windows Home Server has also seen two major updates, Power Pack
1 (PP1) and Power Pack 2 (PP2).
The first version of Windows
Home Server provided all of the basics, which are still present in
today's product: PC backup and restore functionality, PC and server
health monitoring, document and media sharing, remote access, and, as
crucially, an extensibility model that enables developers to create
add-ins, small software updates that enhance Windows Home Server's
capabilities in fun and interesting ways.
Windows Home Server PP1
was released in mid-2008. This update includes compatibility for 64-bit
(x64) versions of Windows Vista (and Windows 7), server backup
capabilities, improvements to remote access, and a number of other
changes. Key among these is a fix for a data corruption bug that
affected almost no users but was widely reported by the press.
Windows Home Server PP2
debuted in April 2009 and included features that made this product more
interesting to the hardware makers that sell Home Servers. It adds
support for the Italian language (in addition to the currently supported
Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish languages),
improves the SDK for developers, and vastly simplifies the "day one"
experience (what used to be called OOBE, or out of box experience),
reducing the number of steps a new user has to complete from 23 to 13.
PP2 also includes a simplified and improved remote access experience,
and enhanced media sharing, especially for Media Center users.
Of course, Microsoft is also
working on a next-generation Windows Home Server code-named Veil, which
will ship after Windows 7. Windows Home Server v2 will be based on the
Windows Server 2008 R2 generation of server products that appeared
alongside Windows 7 and will no doubt interact seamlessly with Windows 7
features like HomeGroups. Sadly, that product wasn't ready for testing
at the time of this writing.
NOTE
In addition to
Microsoft's work on Windows Home Server, some key hardware partners have
been working over the years to steadily improve their Windows Home
Server machines with innovative hardware designs and interesting
software solutions that extend core functionality through high-quality
add-ins. Key among these is HP, whose MediaSmart Server line has proven
to be the customer favorite in the United States, and for good reason:
these machines consistently provide an even better experience than the
stock Windows Home Server experience documented here. And yes, both Paul
and Rafael rely on HP MediaSmart Servers in their own homes. These are
excellent servers.
HP currently markets two
different MediaSmart families of servers. The high-end MediaSmart EX
series is the mainstream Home Server and supports multiple internal hard
drives. It's shown in Figure 1.
The HP MediaSmart Server LX series, meanwhile, is a one-hard-drive
option that is aimed at the low end of the market. Shown in Figure 2, these servers can be expanded externally.
3. Windows Home Server Installation and Configuration
Depending on how you
acquire Windows Home Server, your one-time install and initial
configuration experience will either be long and reasonably difficult or
long and reasonably easy. Those who purchase new home server hardware
will have the simpler—and likely superior—experience, but configuring
the server is a time-consuming proposition in either case. That said,
it's a one-time deal. For the most part, you'll install the server just
once and then access it remotely occasionally after that.
NOTE
Some PC makers, notably
HP, have gone to great lengths to make the Windows Home Server initial
setup experience much easier than the Microsoft default. See Paul's
reviews of HP's MediaSmart Servers on the SuperSite for Windows (www.winsupersite.com/server) to see what we mean.
Once you've purchased a
Windows Home Server machine, you simply plug it into your home network,
turn it on, and then access it remotely from other PCs on your network.
(Check the server documentation for the exact setup procedure, which
varies from PC maker to PC maker.)
You won't normally sit down in
front of your home server with a keyboard, mouse, and screen, and
access it as you would a normal PC. Indeed, many commercial home server
machines don't even come with a display port of any kind, so you
couldn't plug in a monitor even if you wanted to. Instead, Microsoft
expects you to interact with Windows Home Server solely through a
special software console.
NOTE
You may not be surprised to
discover that you can bypass the Windows Home Server administrative
console and access the bare-bones operating system if you know the
trick. Here's how it works: on a Windows 7–based PC, launch the Remote
Desktop Connection utility (type remote
in Start Menu Search), type the computer name (hostname) of your home
server into the Computer field (typically something like HOME-SERVER),
and supply the name administrator
as the user name and the password for the master account that you
configured during home server setup. Ta-da! You can now access the
Windows Home Server Desktop, shown in Figure 3,
just as you would any other computer. Note, however, that Windows Home
Server is designed to be used remotely via the console, and not
interactively, so be careful about installing software or making other
changes via this remote desktop interface.
The initial configuration
of Windows Home Server involves first installing the Windows Home Server
Connector software, which comes on its own CD, on a client PC running
Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or 3 or any version of Windows Vista or
7. (You can also access the Connector software via your home network; it
can be found at \\{computer name}\Software\Home Server Connector Software\ by default.) The installer will "join," or connect, your PC to the server (see Figure 4) for later backup purposes and then complete the setup process.
NOTE
As is the case with any
other PC-like network resource, you must log on to the Windows Home
Server in order to access it remotely, and that's true regardless of how
you plan to access the server (via shared folders, the administrative
console, or the Connector tray software). While it's possible to
maintain different logons on your PC and the server, it's simpler to
make them identical. That way, you will automatically and silently log
on to the server every time you need to access it. In fact, Windows Home
Server will prompt you to do this, as shown in Figure 5,
if the passwords don't match. Note, too, that if you configure Windows
Home Server for remote access, the
passwords you use need to meet minimum length and complexity guidelines,
for your security.
