I'm currently running a Windows Home Server 2003 that is near end of life, so I am looking at creating a new server this fall. My current setup includes 13tb of storage and it's almost at capacity.
I don't currently use the duplication feature of the WHS, I actually keep an offline backup of all of my data on a number of external drives (I always figured the external drives are safer sitting on a shelf, then having them running 24/7 alongside the original) I do however appreciate the drive pooling feature of the original WHS, it makes copying files to the WHS easier by letting it decide how to distribute the data.
I know that I want to run some variant of Windows for my next server, looked at various Linux distributions, and I'm just more comfortable using and administering a windows based server. I was looking at FlexRaid, but if really the only feature I'll be using is drive pooling is it worth spending $30.
The big question is do I really need drive pooling? I'm thinking that since XBMC can handle organizing data from multiple sources, do I necessarily need the pooling feature, can't I just tell XBMC that the Movie source sits on multiple drives? (I could keep my television shows to just one drive, they are about 1.5tb)
I don't currently use the duplication feature of the WHS, I actually keep an offline backup of all of my data on a number of external drives (I always figured the external drives are safer sitting on a shelf, then having them running 24/7 alongside the original) I do however appreciate the drive pooling feature of the original WHS, it makes copying files to the WHS easier by letting it decide how to distribute the data.
I know that I want to run some variant of Windows for my next server, looked at various Linux distributions, and I'm just more comfortable using and administering a windows based server. I was looking at FlexRaid, but if really the only feature I'll be using is drive pooling is it worth spending $30.
The big question is do I really need drive pooling? I'm thinking that since XBMC can handle organizing data from multiple sources, do I necessarily need the pooling feature, can't I just tell XBMC that the Movie source sits on multiple drives? (I could keep my television shows to just one drive, they are about 1.5tb)