How to Build Your Own Windows Home Server System (Part Two) Putting Your Homemade Windows Home Server System to Use Joseph Moran
Last week we showed how to repurpose an unused PC as an alternative to buying a $500+ Windows Home Server storage appliance. Now we'll show you how to put your homemade WHS system to use by joining your Windows PCs to it, setting up user accounts and shared folders, and adding and configuring storage.
After you've verified your WHS is up and running properly you can log off, as any further server configuration or monitoring can be done over the network. If space is tight, you don't have to keep the
monitor, keyboard, and mouse connected to the system. (After all, store-bought WHS devices don't even include these peripherals.)
You'll probably still want to keep I/O devices handy in case your WHS loses network connectivity and you need to troubleshoot, and a few systems may not boot without I/O devices connected. (Some may require BIOS adjustments to allow it.)
Install the WHS Connector
The next step is to install the WHS connector software onto each of your Windows systems. The software is compatible with any 32- or 64-bit version of XP or Vista (or the Windows 7 Beta, for that matter) and you can install it on up to 10 systems. The simplest way to install the connector is to pointing a system's Web browser to http://SERVERNAME:55000 (where SERVERNAME is
the name you gave your WHS system).
If you downloaded your copy of WHS, the connector software can also be found on your disc; go to the WHS folder and run setup.exe. (If you got WHS from Microsoft by mail, the connector software comes on its own disc.)
The first thing the connector setup wizard will do is locate your server on the network and spend a few minutes retrieving the latest version of the software. Eventually the wizard will prompt you to enter the password you created when you first set up the server and ask whether you want updates to the connector software to be automatically downloaded and installed and whether the system should be roused from sleep or hibernate mode in order to do a backup.
Once the connector software is successfully installed on a PC, you'll see a new WHS icon in the Windows tray. To configure or get status on your WHS, double-click the tray icon on any system and enter the server password to enter the WHS Console.
The console can only be open on one system at a time; you can still access it if it's already running on another system, but it will close there before opening on the new system.
System Backups
Upon logging into the WHS console you'll be in the Computers & Backup section and greeted by a list of connected computers, with each entry showing the computer's backup status. By default WHS automatically makes nightly full backups (initial backups will take a while but subsequent ones will go much quicker since they only deal with new or changed files) of all connected systems between Midnight and 6:00 AM.
If you want to change that time window or any other backup options, click Settings, then Backup. To modify backup settings for a particular system, right-click it and choose Configure Backup. (Note: Microsoft says there's a bug in WHS that may prevent some connected to UPS systems from automatically backing up. For the moment, the only solution is to back up such systems manually — right click and choose Backup Now.)
To restore individual files and folders from a backup, select a system, click View Backups, then Open, and follow the prompts. Should you ever need to do a full system restore, you can download a Restore CD from here that you can use to boot your system, connect to the WHS, and restore entire drives.
