Windows Home Server

Kevin Royalty – SBS MVP

Total Care Computer Consulting, LLC

kroyalty@totalcarecc.com

A few questions …

• Do you have broadband at home?

• Do you have 2 or more PCs at home?

• Do you have important “stuff” on your PCs?

• How often do you backup your home computers?

What monetary value would you put on your

documents, photos, videos, digital music and the

time it took to setup all of your PCs?

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Households with Broadband and 2 or more PCs USA: 18+ M, Globally: 50+ M and growing

Source: IDC – Worldwide Home Networking 2006-2010 Forecast (#203605)

Who needs a home server?

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Region 2005 2009

USA 15.5 23.4

Asia/Pacific 12.9 26.6

Western Europe 11.4 21.7

Rest of World 2.2 7.4

Totals 42.1 79.2

Who is the customer?

2 Distinct Personas Oliver - the “Enthusiast” / Early adopter

Jeff - “Likes technology when it works”

Goals Excite the “Olivers”

Ensure the “Jeffs” can be successful

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Incredibly powerful, yet easy-to use (simple)

Enabling the Platform for the Home

Windows Home Server helps you simplify the way you keep and share your family’s photos, videos and music, by providing a familiar, easy and reliable way to protect, connect, and organize what’s most important

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Windows Home Server Key Theme: Connecting Your Family Windows Home Server helps you simplify the way you keep and share your family’s

photos, videos and music, by providing a familiar, easy and reliable way to protect,

connect, and organize what’s most important

Protect Connect Organize Grow

With Windows®

Home Server your

family’s files and

computers are

backed up

automatically

every day, so you

can have peace of

mind.

Windows Home

Server easily

expands so it will

grow with you as

your needs grow.

With Windows

Home Server you

can connect to

your family’s

documents,

photos, videos

and music

virtually wherever

you are.

Windows Home

Server simplifies

your family’s

documents,

photos, videos

and music,

storing them in

one shared

location.

Analyst Comments

The New Digital Home

Internet

Home Server

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Laptop Xbox 360 Media Center PC

Hardware Concepts

Hardware Partners

To date these partners have announced intentions to

launch a Windows Home Server powered product

Additionally, there are 30+ hardware partners

who are evaluating Windows Home Server

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Day 1 Experience

Connect and Power On

Install the Windows Home Server Connector software

7 Simple Steps

Technical Details

V1 Design Decisions

• Limit the number of “Knobs & Buttons”

– Fewer options are better – make the product as easy-to-use as possible

• Focus on end-to-end scenarios driven from customer

research findings

– Don’t try to do 1000+ little things …

• No Active Directory / Group Policy

– Consumers have Windows XP Home, Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium that cannot “join a domain”

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Home Server Connector

Establishes relationship between home

computer and home server

– Automated Backup Configuration

– Password Synchronization

– Tray Icon Health Notifications

– Security Center Health Reporting (Windows Vista)

– Checks to see if Connector software is up-to-date and using the same version as the Windows Home Server software version

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Home Server Tray Icon

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Home Server Connector Tips

• 1:1 relationship between PC and home server

– Re-install Connector or run Discovery.EXE to establish a new relationship from a home PC to your home server

• Password synchronization

– Notifies user if password on home PC and password on the home server for a given user are not the same

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Windows Home Server Console

• Accessible from any home PC

• Easy to setup & configure your home server

• Tab-based, acronym free user interface

• Server Settings for system-wide options

• Built-in Password Recovery option

• Extensible – new tabs & server settings

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Home Server Console Tips

• Only trusted people should know the Windows Home

Server Console password

• Maximum number of users is 10 + Guest

• Logon names on Home Server should be the same

names used on the Home Computers

– On Windows PCs, user can change the ‘description’ of the user without changing the underlying logon name

• Uses Remote Desktop

– Enables reuse of Windows Server UI components

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Automated Backup Benefits

• Automated Daily Image-based Backups

– Supports up to 10 PCs running Windows XP or Vista

• Simple to Restore an Entire PC

• Simple to Restore individual files & folders

• Uses very little disk space on your home server

– Each unique cluster across all PCs is stored once

– Home Server keeps track of which PCs had each cluster for each backup date & time

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How Automated Backup Works

1. When a computer is backed up, a snapshot (VSS) is taken of

each volume that is configured for backup

2. The client software then determines which clusters (typically

4KB in size) on the volume have changed since the last backup.

3. A hash is calculated for each changed cluster and sent to the

Home Server.

4. The server performs a lookup into the central backup database

to determine if this cluster is already being stored.

5. If the cluster does NOT exist in the backup database, the server

asks the client component to send the entire cluster. Otherwise,

the location of the cluster in this snapshot is recorded and on

to the next cluster …

6. This is repeated until all changed clustered on the client PC

have been evaluated.

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Backup Data is Stored Once

First home computer is backed up and data is stored on home server.

Each night, home server stores only 1 copy of each unique cluster that is found across all of the home computers.

If the 2nd PC has similar data, then the home server will not store a 2nd copy. Only unique data on 2nd PC needs to be transferred to home server

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Restore Entire PC

1. Windows Home Server ships with Home Computer

Restore CD

2. CD contains WinPE plus the Windows Home Server

Restore Home Computer wizard

• Can be used to restore all hard drives from a given backup or simply select a subset of the hard drives to restore

• Can be used to restore the primary hard drive to a larger disk if the primary hard drive fails

3. User needs to answer a few simple questions and

the restore process begins

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Restore Files & Folders

1. Open Windows Home Server Console

2. View Backup Details for a given PC

3. Click Open… to create a view into what that hard

drive looked like at that date & time

• Virtual Disk Driver that creates a Read/Only view displayed in Windows Explorer from the data on Windows Home Server

4. User can drag and drop files & folders from the

Windows Explorer window to their PC desktop

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Automated Backup Tips

• Turn Off Backups for PCs that you don‟t want to backup

automatically

• Remove PC will remove a PC that no longer exists from

the Windows Home Server Console and all backups will be

deleted

• Set a reasonable number of backups to keep, e.g. last 24

months, last 5 weeks, last 7 days

• Backup Cleanup is run once per week

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Drive Extender Benefits

• Easy to add additional hard drives

– Internal or External hard drives

– Any size hard drive (from 40 GB to 1+ TB)

• Redundancy at the „Shared Folder‟ level

– Protects against hard drive failure

• Easy to remove older hard drives

– Windows Home Server will move the data off of the hard drive to other hard drives on the home server

• Simplified Management

– Add, Remove, Repair

• Previous Versions enabled for Shared Folders

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32

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Drive Letters are Not Needed

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Windows Home Server Drive Extender creates a single storage pool from multiple disks:

SATA (100GB) USB (80GB) SCSI (500GB) 1394 (350GB)

Windows Home Server hides the complexity of volumes and disk allocation. Users simply create shared folders: \\Server\Music \\Server\Photos \\Server\Videos \\Server\Software \\Server\Public

1030GB

Shared Folder Duplication

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A new photo is saved to the Photos shared folder on the Home Server

\\Server\Photos

Within a couple of minutes, the drive extender service will create a duplicate copy of the file and update the reparse point to include the second location.

The Drive Extender file system filter creates the reparse point (pointer) for the new file and determines onto which disk the data should be stored

Flowers.jpg

Balancing Disk Space Usage

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A Windows Home Server with two disks that is nearing capacity:

User adds disks

The Windows Home Server Drive Extender service balances the files across the new disks:

Remote Access Benefits

• Access to Shared Folders on home server

• Integrated Search for quickly finding files/folders

• Remote Desktop Access to Home PCs

– Windows XP Professional, XP Media Center, and XP Tablet editions

– Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise

• Personalized internet domain from Windows Live

– <your_name>.HomeServer.com

• Built-in Dynamic DNS services

• UPnP based Port Forwarding configuration tool for

broadband routers

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How Remote Access Works

1. Remote Access is off by default. The home server owner needs to configure it via Server

Settings in the Windows Home Server Console

2. Windows Home Server will attempt to forward the following TCP ports from your

broadband router to your home server

• Port 80 – Web Access via http://<your_name>.homeserver.com/home

• Port 443 – Remote Access Login page via https://<your_name>.homeserver.com/remote

• Port 4125 – Remote Desktop proxy – so you can remotely connect to your home PCs that support Remote Desktop

3. Enable Remote Desktop on your home PCs so they are remotely accessible

4. Remote Access is granted per user, and each user that has remote access enabled needs a

strong password

Note: You cannot use the ‘Administrator’ account to logon remotely

5. Bruteforce dictionary attacks are mitigated by tracking requestor‟s IP address , and if the

number of logon attempts from an IP is greater than the threshold, in a given period of

time, the next logon attempt is delayed.

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Media Streaming

• Stream Music, Video, Photos to devices on

your home network using Windows Media

Connect

• Supported Devices • Xbox 360

• Windows Vista PCs

• Roku Soundbridge

• D-Link MediaLounge

• And more!

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• Health status – Green – “normal”

– Yellow – “at risk”

– Red – “critical”

• Health of home network is equal to the worst health state of any component

• Home Computer Health – Backup status of PCs running Windows XP and Windows Vista

– Windows Vista Security Center status sent to Windows Home Server

• Windows Home Server Health – Server is operational - Services are running

– Drive Extender status – hard drives, shared folders

– Windows Home Server Updates

– Etc.

Network Health Monitoring

Health Monitoring Notifications

Individual home computer

On the home server – to change

status for all home computers

• If the user accounts on the home computers have the same name and password as the accounts on the home server, then the users have transparent access to the shared folders on the home server

• We check for user accounts

– If your home computer user account is not known to your home server then you are prompted to create a matching user account on the home server

• We check for matching passwords

– If your user password on your home computer does not match the password on your home server then you can synchronize the passwords by choosing to keep one of the two.

Password Synchronization

Windows Home Server Updates

• Windows Home Server Updates

– Downloaded & installed automatically during the Backup Time

– Automatic reboot, if required

• Windows Home Server Connector Updates

– Automatically downloaded to the Windows Home Server

– Installed by the Windows Home Server Administrator

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Windows Home Server: A Platform

• New scenario possibilities:

– Family web site

– Home automation, home security

– Family information management (tasks, phone book, etc.)

– Integration with services in the cloud

• Look to our hardware and software partners, MVPs,

and hobbyists to help drive the innovation

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Windows Home Server: with SBS ?

• Additional possibilities:

– Back up your SBS Server (not officially supported so don’t do it!)

– Back up “key” workstations on your network

– Put this in Peer to Peer customer networks that aren’t ready for their first true server (SBS)

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Windows Home Server: with WSUS 3

• Install WSUS 3sp2 on your WHS server for small customers not ready for SBS

• Home customers you might want to manage

• In your own WHS network at home

Look for the informative How To on this now at http://www.wegotserved.co.uk

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Windows Home Server SDK

• WHS SDK Extensibility

– Add a Windows Home Server Console Tab

– Add a Console Settings page

– Add Websites hosted on the home server

– Send notifications to home computers

• WHS SDK is managed

• Leverage the Windows Server 2003 SDK

• Documentation on MSDN

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Software Opportunities

Windows API

Windows Server services

Windows Home Server SDK

3rd Party Add-in

3rd Party Service

Server recovery

System Builders

– Reboot from installation DVD

– Select “Server Reinstallation” option

Server Recovery

OEM device – OEM creates system image – User boots home server

device from flash ROM – Use Home Server Recovery

application from one of the home computers

Recovery can be used when: – Home Server primary hard drive crashes – Windows Home Server password is forgotten – Change of locale on the server

After Windows Home Server software is installed, machine needs

to be rebooted. Setup process will rebuild Drive Extender‟s primary

partition and start all services. The user will need to redefine their

home server settings.

Innovation Areas

Revolutionary simplicity and ease of use

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Unrivaled power and robustness

Why is it cool?

• Single-instancing of backup data across home PCs

• Simple restore of an entire home PC

• Saves time and disk space – once a home server has a copy of a given

piece of data, it just keeps track of which PC had that data on which

day; the data is only stored once on the home server

• Allows for remote access to PCs and files stored on server

• Allows seamless addition of storage

• Supports reliability by duplication of designated shared folders – so

important data will be stored on 2 separate hard drives

• Easily remove hard drives and have their contents moved to other

drives in the system – grow and clean out the old, inefficient drives.

• Works with both internal and external drives

• It is a platform for 3rd party hardware and software add-ins

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© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.

The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market

conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.

MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Begin NON OFFICIAL Slides

WHS Power Pack 1

• Announced 1/7/08 at CES in Vegas

• Public demos began 1/15/08!!!

• Shipped in the first half of 2008

• Made available to existing customers of

Windows Home Server via Windows Update

Updated Feature – Connector Software

• Windows Home Server Connector will be able to be installed on

home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions.

• Functionality is

added to detect

that the version of

the WHS

Connector

software is aligned

with the version of

WHS Server

software. Users will

be prompted to

update either the

home computers

or their home

server software

under certain

circumstances.

Updated Feature – Connector Software • You can also

install the

latest version

of the

Connector

software over

your home

network from

the Software

shared folder

on your

home server

via a handy

web

interface.

Updated Feature – Connector Software • Also, a new option has been added to the Windows Home Server

Connector tray icon that allows the user to enable or disable the

home computer from waking up for backup if it is in sleep or

hibernation mode.

Updated feature – WHS Data Backup

• While adding a hard drive to Windows Home Server, a user is now

presented with an option to use the hard drive for backing up the

home server.

Updated feature – WHS Data Backup

• Once this option is selected, the home server will appear in the

Computers & Backup tab - where a user can decide what

information they want to store on this hard drive.

Updated feature – WHS Data Backup

• Just like with your home computers, you can view the backups

stored on these hard drives and choose to restore the files, photos,

etc. back to your home server.

New feature – Database Repair

• If the backup database on the home server has a consistency error,

you can now use the backup database repair wizard to attempt to

correct this error. The repair wizard can be launched through the

Backup Settings page in the Windows Home Server Console.

Updated Feature – Remote Access

• When adding/editing a user in the Home Server Console, in addition

to enabling remote access for that user, there is now a drop down

list box that allows you to specify whether the user will have access

to the computers tab, the shared folders tab, or both tabs when

logged in with Windows Home Server Remote Access.

Updated Feature – Remote Access

• A new ‘Views’ drop-down

list is added for the

Shared Folders tab in

remote access which

allows the files in a

shared folder to be

displayed either as a list

of files (‘Details’ view) or

as thumbnails (‘Icons’

view). In ‘Icons’ view, the

majority of the picture

files will be represented

as a thumbnails, and the

rest of the non-picture

files and folders will be

displayed as large icons.

Updated Feature – Remote Access

• File upload functionality

has been improved for

users of Internet Explorer

6 and 7. Users can drag

and drop multiple files

directly into an upload

area or select multiple

files in the open file

dialog for upload. Upload

progress reporting has

been improved, with the

addition of a progress bar

and individual file upload

status. Ability to cancel

the multiple upload has

been added as well.

Updated Feature – Remote Access

• When you download

multiple files, you are

now given the option to

package the files in a self

extracting executable

(.exe) file in addition to

being able to store them

in a ZIP file.

WHS Power Pack 2

• Announced 2/09 at CES in Vegas

• Shipped March 24th 2009

• Made available to existing customers of

Windows Home Server via Windows Update

New Features

Windows Media Center Connector

• Computers running Windows Media® Center can now view

recorded TV content that is stored on your home server by using the

recorded TV gallery.

• Windows Media Center music, photos, videos, and recorded TV

libraries are automatically updated to include the Music, Photos,

Videos, and Recorded TV shared folders on your home server.

• Media Center Extenders that are connected to a computer running

Windows Media Center can now access content on your home

server without using the guest account.

• You can control the shared folders on your home server that Media

Center Extenders can access by using the Windows Home Server

Console. To do this, on the console, click Settings, and then click

Windows Media Center.

New Features (cont)

Media Sharing

• Support for MP4 audio and video files is

added.

• Content that is stored on your home server

and that is shared via Windows Media

Connect, including files with extensions .mp4,

.m4v, .m4b and .m4a, now appears in the

music or video library with title, artist,

composer, album, and genre metadata.

New Features (cont)

New Features (cont)

Home Computer Backup

• When you restore files and folders from a Home

Computer Backup, the process may stop when it is 79%

to 81% percent complete. This update helps prevent this

issue.

Home Server Backup

• This update prevents you from unintentionally

overwriting newer versions of the Windows Home Server

Connector files. This could potentially happen if you

restore files and folders from a Home Server Backup to

the Software shared folder on your home server.

New Features (cont)

Server Storage and Shared Folders

• It is now easier to copy large files or folders from a home computer

running the Windows Vista® operating system to a shared folder on

your home server. Previously, the file size was limited by the free

space on the primary hard drive of your home server. With this

update, the file size is limited to the free space on the target hard

drives that are connected to your home server.

• The number of notification messages about files that are stored in

shared folders is reduced. Previously, these notifications may have

caused high CPU utilization on your home server for applications

that access these files. After this update is installed, applications

such as the software for the Microsoft® Zune® digital media player

no longer consume excessive processor resources.

HP MediaSmart Server Overview

• Automatically centralize your digital media for sharing with family and friends, and enjoy your digital media while at home or away, including iTunes music libraries.

• Streamline how you manage your photo libraries and publish photos to popular photo sharing or social media sites.

• Automatically backup multiple computers in your home, including both Windows PCs and Macs.

• Stream music and photos to your TV's or any internet-connected computer.

• Powered by Microsoft Windows® Home Server - a proven platform with the ability to support new, unique home server applications.

• 750GB and 1.5TB capacities available with room for massive expansion.

• Intel dual-core Celeron 64-bit Processor for fast file access and timely backups.

$549, 750GB, 3 empty bays

$649, 1.5 TB, 2 empty bays

HP MediaSmart Server

• Microsoft Windows Home Server OS

• Secure remote access

• Daily incremental back-ups with selected folder duplication

• HP “Smart” user interface

• Streaming of personal content

• Simple, consumer friendly interface

• HP Photo Webshare

• Server for iTunes

• Piano-black surface with perforated steel on front and back for whisper-quiet and cool operation.

• 4 drive bays, Tool-free, Cable-free

• accommodates any 3.5” SATA HDD

• 4 USB 2.0 ports

• 1 eSATA port

• Intel dual-core Celeron processor

• 1 10/100/Gigabit Ethernet port

Hardware Software

For More Information …

• Windows Home Server Website http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer

• Home Server Blog http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver

• Home Server Forums http://www.serverplayground.com

WHS MVP Terry Walsh (UK) http://www.wegotserved.co.uk

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Thanks!

• If you have any follow up questions I can

answer, feel free to email me!

Kevin Royalty – SBS MVP

Total Care Computer Consulting, LLC

kroyalty@totalcarecc.com