Downside of Switching to WHSv1 form Win7?

[alton987]

I may dust off my WHSv1 install disk and install it on my main HTPC instead of Windows 7. My reasoning is that I am going to go extender only so I will no longer be hooking up the PC directly to the TV. P

Is there any down\up side to installing SageTV7 directly on a WHSv1 box?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by alton987

I may dust off my WHSv1 install disk and install it on my main HTPC instead of Windows 7. My reasoning is that I am going to go extender only so I will no longer be hooking up the PC directly to the TV. P

Is there any down\up side to installing SageTV7 directly on a WHSv1 box?

I would stay windows 7 if i were you. WHS has some advantages but the read/write is just bad under the pool imho and with the DE technology not presesnt in vail that says allot. I used WHS for over 2 years and recently switched my server to w7 64 bit much much improved perfomance all around. (especially multiple commercial skips).

I run 5 extenders fwi.

cheers

[alton987]

My thinking was that I wasn't going to put my Recored TV Drives in the drive pool? That way I can still have the others features I like about WHSv1.

I'm more concerned about plugins\codecs issues with my extenders.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by alton987

My thinking was that I wasn't going to put my Recored TV Drives in the drive pool? That way I can still have the others features I like about WHSv1.

I'm more concerned about plugins\codecs issues with my extenders.

Codec's have nothing do to with extenders as they use an internal decoder. Also, sagetv for whs is intended to be used with extenders so plugins will function the way they are supposed to. The only time the server's os becomes an issue is if it is actually a server os like windows server 2003, or 2008 and even then it is usually just a driver issue.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Codec's have nothing do to with extenders as they use an internal decoder. Also, sagetv for whs is intended to be used with extenders so plugins will function the way they are supposed to. The only time the server's os becomes an issue is if it is actually a server os like windows server 2003, or 2008 and even then it is usually just a driver issue.

FYI whs has driver issues as well ad it is basically a stripped down windows server 2003.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

FYI whs has driver issues as well ad it is basically a stripped down windows server 2003.

It can. Basically if it doesn't have specific Windows 2003 server drivers the drivers from Windows XP should work. Sometimes you will need to find a workaround for some installation routines that pre-check what OS you are on and refuse to install Windows XP drivers on Windows 2003 server. An extraction of the actual driver files from the installation can usually do the trick.

Gerry

[alton987]

Originally Posted by gplasky

It can. Basically if it doesn't have specific Windows 2003 server drivers the drivers from Windows XP should work. Sometimes you will need to find a workaround for some installation routines that pre-check what OS you are on and refuse to install Windows XP drivers on Windows 2003 server. An extraction of the actual driver files from the installation can usually do the trick.

Gerry

Yeah I've dealt with the drivers issues before with WHSv1.

I am correct in my memory that you can not add a hard drive to the pool right? I was going to leave my RecoredTV drive outside of the storage pool.

[gplasky]

I record to my WHS pool without an issue. I've added drives without an issue. I added drives back when Sage wanted them formatted in 64k blocks with a procedure in one of the forum threads here. People do it both ways- with the TV Recorded drive in or out of the pool.

Gerry

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I record to my WHS pool without an issue. I've added drives without an issue. I added drives back when Sage wanted them formatted in 64k blocks with a procedure in one of the forum threads here. People do it both ways- with the TV Recorded drive in or out of the pool.

Gerry

If you are in the pool you are going to hit the DE limits when trying to run commercial skip and it can/will bring system to a crawl.

Personally after 2 years of WHS I havn't looked back since going to W7 for the server everything runs so much smoother and better now using raid to and couldn't be happier. Although it is a more expensive option.

[jptheripper]

Believe it or not, i run a script that disables drive extender from all but 2am to 8am. It makes a HUGE difference in performance, and the 6 hours are plenty to duplicate anything i have loaded during the day.

[Fuzzy]

I guess the question would be what are your trying to gain by downgrading to WHS? Personally, I'd stick with win7. performance will be much better. IO and network performance, as well as memory usage, are greatly improved in win7.

[jptheripper]

Geez and i was thinking "why downgrade to win7" (says the guy still on vista).

Adv and Disadv to Both.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I guess the question would be what are your trying to gain by downgrading to WHS? Personally, I'd stick with win7. performance will be much better. IO and network performance, as well as memory usage, are greatly improved in win7.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by jptheripper

Geez and i was thinking "why downgrade to win7" (says the guy still on vista).

Adv and Disadv to Both.

Man vista is like windows me get rid of it already

IO is so terribly win whs I consider it a downgrade as well

[alton987]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Man vista is like windows me get rid of it already

IO is so terribly win whs I consider it a downgrade as well

My thought switching to back to WHS was that..

I would have better long term stability. My Win7 box is good but it does go crazy every 3-4 weeks.

Does anyone think a WHSv1 OS would not be more stable than a box on Win7?

Is IO that big a deal with RecoredTV on a local drive not a pooled drive?

My other reasoning was that I would get better backups and remote access that comes with WHSv1.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jptheripper

Geez and i was thinking "why downgrade to win7" (says the guy still on vista).

win7 to WHS would without a doubt be a downgrade, moving from the win7/2k8 kernel to the winxp/2k3 kernel.

Originally Posted by jptheripper

Adv and Disadv to Both.

This is why i asked. What advantage are you looking for downgrading to WHS, what would be the Adv of WHS over Win7 as a sage server, other than cost?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by alton987

My thought switching to back to WHS was that..

I would have better long term stability. My Win7 box is good but it does go crazy every 3-4 weeks.

Does anyone think a WHSv1 OS would not be more stable than a box on Win7?

Is IO that big a deal with RecoredTV on a local drive not a pooled drive?

My other reasoning was that I would get better backups and remote access that comes with WHSv1.

For stability, there should be nothing different, everything else being considered equal. an untouched win7 box running the same tasks your whs box would be running would be crashless as well. In the event of a hardware failure though, the recoverability of a win7 system is far greater than a WHS system.

[kcjack]

I use both, but I started with WHS and quickly realized that I had issues with performance from my WHS. I moved all my blu-ray content and tv decoding to my HTPC W7 and playback issues and other stuff, just went away. I run 2 extenders and 3 other client pcs outside my server. I use the WHS for just DVD rips. No issues other than me tinkering with this setup and W7. Lots of performance issues using just WHS.

[jptheripper]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

For stability, there should be nothing different, everything else being considered equal. an untouched win7 box running the same tasks your whs box would be running would be crashless as well. In the event of a hardware failure though, the recoverability of a win7 system is far greater than a WHS system.

Well I disagee on that, to a point. I dont see one OS imaged or raided to be any more recoverable than another.

That being said, I recently lost all my WHS backups. google whs backup 81%. It is a frightening read. And i found remote access, well, less than elegant. I use logmein.

So if you WHS thinking is remote and backups, i would strongly recommend Win7. If it is the overall package of access, ease of setup, sharing, plugins, etc.. WHS is a strong platform with an excellent following and has some great tools.

[Fuzzy]

The difference is that WHS can't be reliably backed up (well, you COULD restore the system drive, but it will not recover the pool tombstones). The thing is, WHS is good for doing JUST what it was designed for, which is running a windows backup server and network storage volume on very low powered, inexpensive hardware. I certainly don't see the point in building a New WHS for sage. I'd only consider the WHS version of sage if, for some reason, i already HAD a WHS device on the network. It is nice that sage created a WHS install/control panel, but I wouldn't take that to mean it is a preferred solution.

[PLUCKYHD]

Agreed again with Fuzzy I must be drunk

The main drive not being backed up or easily restored is a big issue and don t fool yourself thinking your backups are safe on whs. I recommend acronis if you want a good client/server backup solution. WHS also liked to constantly tell me my drive was failing all though all other test told me it was fine outside of whs. It's parity in the pooled drives is also something of a odd duck as it doesn't stripe the drives evenly.

As far as stability goes w7 is much more stable these days IMHO even running 64 bit nowadays. Which is another limitation to whs the ram limit 4gb isnt enough for comskip and heavy sage with fanart usage IMHO.