Anyone who has lost some data, whether it be important files such as online receipts or just plain text documents knows a backup is a painless process, but its always the last thing you want to bother with when you are at the PC.
So HP has designed a cute lil server names the HP MediaSmart Server, based on the MS Windows 2003 Server OS, and marketed it as the tool for automated home backups, as well as many other tasks.
Lets see just what this thing will do:
* Centralized Backup - Allows backup up to 10 PCs, using Single Instance Store technology to avoid multiple copies of the same file, even if that file exists on multiple PCs.
* Health Monitoring - Can centrally track the health of all PCs on the network, including antivirus and firewall status.
* 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.
* Printer Sharing - Allows a centralized print server to handle print jobs for all users.
* Previous Versions - Takes advantage of Volume Shadow Copy Services to take point in time snapshots that allow older versions of files to be recovered.
* Headless Operation - No monitor or keyboard attached to the device itself.
* Remote administration - Allows a client UI to remotely perform administrative tasks. Also allows Remote Desktop connections to the server.
* Remote Access Gateway - Allows access to any PC on the network from outside the home.
* Media Streaming - Can stream media to a Xbox 360 or other devices supporting Windows Media Connect.
* Data redundancy - Guards against a single drive failure by duplicating data across multiple drives.
* Expandable Storage - Provides a unified single and easily expandable storage space, removing the need for drive letters.
* 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.
Well, thats about as wordy as can be, but all in all, very functional in its purpose. How functional you say ? Functional enough for me to spend $600 to never have to worry about lost data again !!
I picked it up last weekend and spent a few days getting it dialed in. At first, 600 smackers sounds like a bundle, but keep in mind this is a full PC that houses as many as four hard drives. I bought mine from OfficeMax, who was tossing in a second 500gb HD for free in the deal. 1tb of storage is juuust about right for my needs.
After unboxing it, I kept thinking how small it was compared to what I was expecting. Its about 9" high and 7" deep, and due to its low power draw, it sips electricity rather than guzzle it like the rest of my PCs.
Here's a view of the front with the panel opened up, and you can see one HD on the bottom with the trays above to add more drives.
Here's a side view, showing a cage popped out. The drives are set up in a JBOD config (Just a Bunch Of Drives, so that once you add another drive, it simply adds it to the total available space, rather than adding another drive letter.
The back view shows the 3 available USB ports, as well as eSATA for additional external storage, and of course the network jack.
Here's the server tucked away under the workbench, where it backs up four of my PCs every night at 12 AM. That 500gb drive is now holding over 375gb of data, including all of my movies.TV shows and a whole passel of MP3s, as well as full system backups of each PC. Even if a drive were to completely fail, I can simply pop another drive in and the server will dump an image to it via a bootup CD that provides the info for each PC on the network.
This is a headless unit, so the work done on it occurs on any PC attached to the network. Just right click on the system tray icon and select log in:
Here's a view of one of the basic screens that you can use to configure the server to meet your needs:
There are sooo many other things you can do with this thing that make it cool, including streaming your iTunes from it, all of your media, including music and movies .... it also provides you with a domain and webhosting built into the unit, so here's my domain via Homeserver:
https://wtslair.homeserver.com/
BTW, yea .. that's me at age 4 in the pic linked above. A future techno.geek in training at that time.
I have to set the server with a static IP address yet, but so far everything has been relatively easy to deal with. There is currently a nasty bug for these servers that have two HDs in them, so I am patiently waiting for MS to fix this (latest news is June !?!?) but, all in all, I am happy that I have full backups of everything.
There is even an Easter Egg built into the OS that changes the LED display on the front of the unit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jif2NQQ03es
So, does anybody else have a solid backup solution they want to show off ?? Post away and show how you deal with the always scintillating world of PC backups !! Ohhhh, sexxayy !!!
So HP has designed a cute lil server names the HP MediaSmart Server, based on the MS Windows 2003 Server OS, and marketed it as the tool for automated home backups, as well as many other tasks.
Lets see just what this thing will do:
* Centralized Backup - Allows backup up to 10 PCs, using Single Instance Store technology to avoid multiple copies of the same file, even if that file exists on multiple PCs.
* Health Monitoring - Can centrally track the health of all PCs on the network, including antivirus and firewall status.
* 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.
* Printer Sharing - Allows a centralized print server to handle print jobs for all users.
* Previous Versions - Takes advantage of Volume Shadow Copy Services to take point in time snapshots that allow older versions of files to be recovered.
* Headless Operation - No monitor or keyboard attached to the device itself.
* Remote administration - Allows a client UI to remotely perform administrative tasks. Also allows Remote Desktop connections to the server.
* Remote Access Gateway - Allows access to any PC on the network from outside the home.
* Media Streaming - Can stream media to a Xbox 360 or other devices supporting Windows Media Connect.
* Data redundancy - Guards against a single drive failure by duplicating data across multiple drives.
* Expandable Storage - Provides a unified single and easily expandable storage space, removing the need for drive letters.
* 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.
Well, thats about as wordy as can be, but all in all, very functional in its purpose. How functional you say ? Functional enough for me to spend $600 to never have to worry about lost data again !!
I picked it up last weekend and spent a few days getting it dialed in. At first, 600 smackers sounds like a bundle, but keep in mind this is a full PC that houses as many as four hard drives. I bought mine from OfficeMax, who was tossing in a second 500gb HD for free in the deal. 1tb of storage is juuust about right for my needs.
After unboxing it, I kept thinking how small it was compared to what I was expecting. Its about 9" high and 7" deep, and due to its low power draw, it sips electricity rather than guzzle it like the rest of my PCs.
Here's a view of the front with the panel opened up, and you can see one HD on the bottom with the trays above to add more drives.
Here's a side view, showing a cage popped out. The drives are set up in a JBOD config (Just a Bunch Of Drives, so that once you add another drive, it simply adds it to the total available space, rather than adding another drive letter.
The back view shows the 3 available USB ports, as well as eSATA for additional external storage, and of course the network jack.
Here's the server tucked away under the workbench, where it backs up four of my PCs every night at 12 AM. That 500gb drive is now holding over 375gb of data, including all of my movies.TV shows and a whole passel of MP3s, as well as full system backups of each PC. Even if a drive were to completely fail, I can simply pop another drive in and the server will dump an image to it via a bootup CD that provides the info for each PC on the network.
This is a headless unit, so the work done on it occurs on any PC attached to the network. Just right click on the system tray icon and select log in:
Here's a view of one of the basic screens that you can use to configure the server to meet your needs:
There are sooo many other things you can do with this thing that make it cool, including streaming your iTunes from it, all of your media, including music and movies .... it also provides you with a domain and webhosting built into the unit, so here's my domain via Homeserver:
https://wtslair.homeserver.com/
BTW, yea .. that's me at age 4 in the pic linked above. A future techno.geek in training at that time.
I have to set the server with a static IP address yet, but so far everything has been relatively easy to deal with. There is currently a nasty bug for these servers that have two HDs in them, so I am patiently waiting for MS to fix this (latest news is June !?!?) but, all in all, I am happy that I have full backups of everything.
There is even an Easter Egg built into the OS that changes the LED display on the front of the unit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jif2NQQ03es
So, does anybody else have a solid backup solution they want to show off ?? Post away and show how you deal with the always scintillating world of PC backups !! Ohhhh, sexxayy !!!
Comment