Microsoft has announced beta testing of a new version of the popular product Windows Home Server, also known under the code name «Vail». The software is based on the new server platform, Windows Server 2008 R2 and is designed for deployment on 64-bit systems. Home server can be used to provide users with 10 client computers backup data and to give access to multimedia data.
Many users of WHS Vail can be disappointed by the lack of some important functions of Windows Server. For example, the proposed solution has no built-in printer support. Vail is also not intended for use as a terminal server, providing remote access to applications. But the proposed Beta Windows Home Server Vail allows decoding video data, and its transmission on remote machines. Users also can interact with personal music library and digital photo archive with a remote connection to the server.
One of the most significant improvements shown in the new version is the updated system data storage. The mechanism of Drive Extender, which provides the possibility of expanding the storage, wasn’t successful in the previous versions. Users often had problems with getting patches and updates; the mechanism wasn’t good at handling defective or damaged disks. Modified Drive Extender ensures more rapid and effective identification and error handling, and also provides an opportunity to remove and replace hard disks, without suspending the server.
To avoid problems in the process of testing the product, the beta testers have to follow the proposed recommendations. It is advised to perform installation on a “clean” system and do not use beta version as the main production server. Also, it should not be installed on a computer with previous version of WHS.
