HP EX470 -- WHS console
Besides hardware which really suits to use as NAS, does Windows Home Server do the job? Windows Home Server (WHS) is based on Windows Server 2003 and added some features like Windows Home Server console, WHS add-on features, remote desktop for client, automatically client backup (up to 10 clients) and storage pool management. It might sound like you might consider using Windows Server 2003/2008 or even any Linux distro instead, but if you think WHS is just Windows Server with some GUI console and backup utility, you’d better read this to the end and reconsider again. Well, I was using Linux as my NAS before, I know that is great; WHS just offers a bit more comfortable in the right area for job like NAS in home.
Purchasing HP EX470, WHS is pre-installed; you don’t have to do anything yourself as expected and by the fact that it has no built-in CD, it’s almost impossible that HP would let you do that—too many hassles for them to take care all support side. As a result, it’s like you purchase NAS box with a bit more advanced feature, but basically all you need to do is turning on and off (if you ever want to do so) For the first time and first time only, you are required to install WHS connector to set some information on your server such as name, domain, username, password, bla bla bla. Once it’s all set; you can choose whether to use WHS connector. Moreover, WHS has a nice portal for easily downloading this too, what you have to know is server's IP or name which you can look up in your router pretty easy. Then http://{server-name-or-IP}:55000, indicating port 55000, is the way to go =) Windows Home Server Connector Setup page will give a file/info you need to setup.
#### WHS server and client
By the fact that WHS just shares folder via SMB protocol which is the standard file sharing protocol for Windows. You don’t need to do anything special in order to use it. If you ever want to configure in the server, remote connection is the way to do so. However, there is a client named WHS connector which lets you have extra more features than just being a NAS—that’s why it’s called Windows Home Server. What you get is the following:-
* Remote WHS console – only WHS console access
Network Health notification – I find this rather annoying than being useful since I don’t have any anti-virus on any system and always turn Windows Defender off.
As far as I know, WHS will not allow any client in different subnet which is not likely to be a problem with home network + regular people much. Remember folk, home server for home network :-P It should be pretty basic network.
#### Add-on features
This is the most wanted feature of many people since Microsoft never bundles anything in one package or wants to do on their own, so they let developers do. I used to be the ones who want to have only 1 24/7 computer doing all purposes such as NAS, Media Center, and Web server. I, however, found that this idea would never work properly. YMMV—choice is yours though. By the way, I highly recommend some add-on programs for WHS.
* Disk Management 
* PVConnect – I found it performs better than stock’s one. This add-on including in EX470 though.
For you information, add-on program is like regular program, but it will have an interface in WHS console instead of its own, so you can access from everywhere.
#### demigrator.exe
This is where all magic occurs in WHS in my opinion. You might not know it is existed since it works only in background. It works like XRAID from Netgear—that’s the only one comparable feature so far. If you know more, please let me know I would love to know if there is anything similar available on Linux. Basically, demigrator.exe is a process which takes care of load balancing between all drives in storage pool. demigrator is running all the time, trying to transfer data back and forth between drives. Practically it wants to have equal used space on each, not including system drive which is supposed to be free of data.
#### No RAID support! Duplication instead
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo L7700 @ 1.8GHz |
| Operating System | Vista Business 32-bit |
| Chipset | Intel GM965 + ICH8-M |
| Memory | 3GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM |
| Network | Intel 82566DM onboard gigabit |
| Hard drive | 120GB 5400rpm 2.5" Hitachi |
| CPU | Intel Pentium E2180 @ 2.00GHz |
| Operating System | Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
| Mainboard | XFX MG-63MI-7159 |
| Chipset | Geforce 7150 + nForce 630i |
| Memory | 3GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM |
| Network | nVidia nForce 10/100/1000 |
| Hard drive | 500GB Seagate ST3500630AS 7200rpm 16MB Buffer |
iozone -Rab .\ex470-1000.xls -i 0 -i 1 -+u -f z:\x.tmp -y 64k -q 64k -n 32M -g 2G –znote: 64k record size is the typical record size that Windows use when transferring the file larger than 64kB
The throughputs which are over the theoretical limit are due to memory cache. I’m note quite sure why read performance over 2GB file size was dropped like that and the result with larger file, i.e. 4GB file size were similar. I suspected that Windows usually use larger record size when transferring much larger file like 2GB or more; that’s probably inappropriate record size for the job.
Then robust copy (built-in utility in Vista) came to play the role; we have tested 2 file size; 350M and 4.3GB; this was tested on system 1.
The result from robocopy could answer the drop performance in previous test quite good; Windows must use different record size block to transfer very large file to get this result. Additionally, I include a test with ATTO disk benchmark too to see how it performs on smaller file size.
As you see, the performance we got from HP EX470 is quite good as you can expect from this specification. However, it could achieve a bit better over very large file by upgrading processor; at this point 2GB RAM have showed to be pretty worth upgrade. Stay tuned for Shuttle K45 test if Celeron dual core could eliminate the wall on very large file or not.
###Summary
Although some might not like this MediaSmart server, I think it’s really worth buying considering the price I got—only about $260. It may be overprice if you talk about street price, but for your information, HP always gives such a nice coupon and promotion. Price, however, you can grab regularly is about $399 which is going to tough decision between homegrown NAS. This form factor, this beautiful one, is such a worth. In addition, by the fact that HP does offer plenty of expandable storage choice like eSATA and many USB ports on MediaSmart series, it could guarantee that this would be able to handle short-storage problem without a big investment in near future.
### Pros:
* very nice and attractive appearance
* very flexibly expandable storage
* backup/restore clients automatically
* file duplication
* good range of expansion choice
### Cons:
* noisy due to grilled perforated design
* not very green
* required complex password for remote access [I know it’s not very safe to use easy password, but I just hate typing long one]
* RAID unsupported
* no security solution for data