Migrate from WHS 2011?

[AustinBike]

OK, I am apparently one of the few WHS fans out there, just heard that they are killing the product next year, so I will eventually need a replacement. Someone recommended FreeNAS and I have been reading a lot about it.

I have the hardware covered.

What I do like about WHS are the following. In all of my reading I have not been able to get a completely clear picture of the capabilities so I figured this is the best place to ask.

1. Client backup. I love the WHS just does a silent backup every morning when my clients log in. It takes only a couple of minutes. It is spurred by the PC hitting the network, I don't have to require a user to do anything.

2. Client restore. When I am in China and my wife has a problem she knows to put in the USB key, follow the 6-7 directions that I wrote down and magically a fresh image is back on her PC from the day before (or two days ago if it was a virus).

3. Remote access. I can get to my files from anywhere in the world. However I cannot edit them in place, I have to download then upload. Would love an edit in place feature (don't need journaling/locking as much rarely would have 2 people on the same disc.

Currently today I have a server and a NAS (DLink DNS-323), I use the NAS for offsite archiving. Clients are copied to server, server is copied to NAS, NAS drives are rotated off site (2 sets of drives). Ideally I would love to have a RAID setup for the server and then additional hot pluggable drives that could be swapped out so that I don't need the DLink any more (one less device to worry about). All I care about for the offsite is data (music, pictures, video, etc.)

Also, is it best to setup FreeNAS on an SSD and then use rotating media for the storage? Is it best to have the system and data seperate or does that not matter?

 

[jlpellet]

Here is my view, having used WHS for years & migrated to FreeNAS completely. YMMV.
1. FreeNAS does not support any image bu. Win7 Home does not support image bu to the network. I address this by having Win7 bu system disk image to a 2nd HD locally then copy the image directory to FreeNAS for bu. The image bu is about 30 GB. The copy to FreeNAS server takes ~5 minutes.
2. Client restore is the same unless the local file is damaged but it is on a separate HD.
3. FreeNAS server visible outside is something I've never done. I would do so only via a VPN. But is supports CIFS/Samba, APN, & 'nix access paths & I edit locally without any problem.
4. I have not tried drive swapping but believe this is not supported without manual action.
5. FreeNAS works great from a 4~8GB flash/USB drive. It writes very infrequently. I see no benefit to an SSD. OS & data should be on different disks.
Hope this helps.