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Questions On Building A Windows Server

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DigitalMonkey

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Location
Chicago, IL
Do you need a video card for the home server?

Do I need a network card or is the mobo's built-in network good enough?

What wired network switch would you guys recommend?

Besides routers, what other network hardware do I need for my home server?


Thanks
 
Home networks vary greatly based on need. WHS should be behind the router, which router you need depends on your configuration. Wireless, Gband or nBand (might as well go Nband now), the stock comcast all in one unit works well enough for stndard PC uses but does not allow advanced network configurations.

You will need a videocard to setup the server, but you can run headless later as long as your motherboard supports it. (you can usually set BIOS not to stop on any error though).

All configurations of WHS later will be done remotely through another PC/laptop.

Onboard NIC is fine unless you are planning a heavy load, in which case a decent expansion NIC might be a good idea. You can always start with onborrd and upgrade later if you have having congestion issues.
 
I want to stay wired instead of wireless. Any recommendations on wired switches?

Also, what NIC do you recommend?

How will do all the configurations remotely for my server?
 
you still need a router, switches are used in conjuction with routers to get more ports.

Intel makes a bunch of gigabit expansion cards that work very well.

I havent run windows home server before, so cant say for sure how to do the remote config. Should be something simple like either a downloadable app or browser based through internet explorer and a local IP address.
 
It depends on how advanced of a firewall you need. If you aren't going to do anything but forward ports, an all-in-one unit will be more than enough. If you wanted to start adding heavy loaded features, such as quality of service (QoS), then you should probably build your own firewall using operating systems like pfSense, Astaro, or Smoothwall. Personally, I prefer pfSense. If you want to make your own router/firewall, you can use an old desktop system. Currently, I'm using a Gateway desktop with a single core Pentium 4 with 2gb of RAM. Previously, I ran it on a Pentium 2 and a Compaq DL360 dual socket Pentium 3 server.
 
Well the reason I asked this, is because Im using my server for file storage, backup's, and media streaming. So I was wondering if hardware firewall was needed or not.

I really dont want to build my on firewall. I might get into that later on down the line. So, I'll just stick with the all-in-one setup if I need it.
 
Technically, there really isn't a difference between "software" and "hardware" firewalls. They are both just operating systems that follow a set of rules. I think it comes down to buying an AIO unit compared to rolling your own.
 
For RAID, Im thinking of using RAID 5 or 6. What type of RAID is recommended for file storage, backup's, and media streaming for my home server?
 
If you are using more than 5 drives, I would suggest RAID 6. 5 or less, RAID 5.
 
It is up to you, but I wouldn't trust that to RAID 5 if you are using 2tb+ disks. The uncorrectable read error rate for drives today are 1 in every 12 TB of data. If your array is bigger than that, you will likely hit at least one error while rebuilding -- which is not good. RAID 6 will prevent that. The only time that rule isn't relevant is if the data is original. Meaning, movies off of DVD/Bluray are re-creatable; you just re-rip them. Documents that you create are original and could never be recreated, and thus more important.
 
I prefer dat areplication to relying on RAID arrays. IE, use your server for backing up important data that is on your desktop.

BUT leave a copy on both machines, this ensures that should one PC or the other fail you still have your DATA.

OBviously for ripped DVD/BDroms this is not a big deal you can always rerip them... and also I really wouldnt want to replicate Terabytes of storage on my network lol . But a 100GB of home movies and family photos gets 2-3 copies on my network. With external storage solutions being so cheap, getting a TB or 2TB drive to put data on then have it sit on a shelf somewhere unpowered is not a bad idea either, just refresh it once in a while.

In fact if it is a small enough amount of data backing up to a solid state solution is an excellent idea as NAND flash (be it a solid state drive or even an Secure digital card) is expected to be immensely longer than magnetic storage. Although no one really knows yet as it is a newer format.

Magnetic storage has been used for well over a hundred years, so its a more known entity.
 
I prefer dat areplication to relying on RAID arrays. IE, use your server for backing up important data that is on your desktop.

BUT leave a copy on both machines, this ensures that should one PC or the other fail you still have your DATA.

OBviously for ripped DVD/BDroms this is not a big deal you can always rerip them... and also I really wouldnt want to replicate Terabytes of storage on my network lol . But a 100GB of home movies and family photos gets 2-3 copies on my network. With external storage solutions being so cheap, getting a TB or 2TB drive to put data on then have it sit on a shelf somewhere unpowered is not a bad idea either, just refresh it once in a while.

In fact if it is a small enough amount of data backing up to a solid state solution is an excellent idea as NAND flash (be it a solid state drive or even an Secure digital card) is expected to be immensely longer than magnetic storage. Although no one really knows yet as it is a newer format.

Magnetic storage has been used for well over a hundred years, so its a more known entity.

What do you mean by megnetic storage? HDD?

I know this is lil off the topic, but Im using a SSD for the OS. Is it ok to keep the OS separated from the RAID'ed 6 HDD's?
 
yes it is okay.

magnetic storage is a hard drive but it predates that in floppy disks (reel to reel or audio cassettes are also a means of magnetic storage)
 
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