Microsoft announced that it is going to amputate the Drive Extender feature from a few Windows Server products, including the next major iteration of Widows Home Server.
Although this change impacts
Windows Home Server Codename “Vail,” it will also affect releases such as Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.
No Drive Extender means that users will no longer be able to leverage Windows Home Server Code Name “Vail” for pooling together multiple hard drives together in a simple volume.
The decision also has repercussions on redundancy in the case of HDD failures and also that users should embrace drive letters as they’re not going anywhere.
While customers that will use Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials or Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials in the future will also not have DE, my feeling is that Home Server users have the most to lose.
Microsoft’s
Michael Leworthy explains the decision by noting that customers can buy 1TB HDDs relatively cheaply and that the availability of storage at low prices makes Drive Extender functionality somewhat unnecessary.
“When weighing up the future direction of storage in the consumer and SMB market, the team felt the Drive Extender technology was not meeting our customer needs,” he stated.
“While this removes the integrated ability for storage pooling of multiple hard drives and automated data duplication, we are continuing to work closely with our OEM partners to implement storage management and protection solutions, as well as other software solutions.
“This will provide customers greater choice as well as a seamless experience that will meet their storage needs. Customers will also have access to the in-built storage solutions Windows Server 2008 R2 provides for data protection.
“We are also still delivering core features such as automated Server and PC backup, easy sharing of folders and files, Remote Web Access and simplified management without any expected changes.”
Leworthy underlines that the decision was not an easy one for the Redmond company. However, Windows Home Server Codename “Vail,” while a standalone product, is at the same time sharing code with other server offerings.
This is why a decision that seems to be generated by SMB customers also impacts users running Windows Home Server.
A new Beta development milestone of Windows Home Server Codename “Vail” will be offered to testers in early 2011.
According to Microsoft, Windows Home Server Codename “Vail” is planned for release by mid-2011.
“While support for hardware RAID solutions, application compatibility and data portability are definitely key scenarios for SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials, for Windows Home Server users these areas may not seem as important,” Leworthy
added.
“However, as our development for these products is very closely tied, a decision like this affects all three. We continue to look at ways to provide solutions for features such as data duplication, and are working with partners and OEM’s on extending both their hardware and software solutions for Vail.”
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