Hello all! I am a developing IT professional just beginning to experiment with windows servers. I have built and used several Home Server v1 servers which work wonderfully. I currently use my home server for storing several TBs of data and I also use the remote access feature. I have an FTP server setup for a public file server also. I am fairly confused by the different flavors of Server 2008. I need to setup a domain and use Sharepoint, Exchage, Forefront, WSUS and possibly host a website in addition to what I already have setup. I have been considering using Home Server 2011 for my file storage and remote access and then setting up Small Business Server 2011 Standard for the rest on a separate machine. I have 9 client PCs currently running and more may possibly be added later. Here are my questions: 1. What is the difference between Home Server 2011 and SBS 2011 Essentials? 2. My understanding is that Windows SBS is Windows server but with exchange, sharepoint, etc. preinstalled. Is that correct? 3. How could Windows Storage Server 2008 factor in to my setup, if at all? Also, what functionality does this provide? 4. Will having 2 windows servers on the same network conflict with each other? 5. Would it work to have a website running on one server and the home server remote access running on another? 6. What hardware recommendations do you have for a server doing the things I listed above? 7. Anything else I should be considering or that should be changed in my hypothetical configuration? Thanks in advance for everyone's input! Daniel

You do not need Home Server in that setup, SBS 2011 can do all those things for you (if you require SQL Server consider purchasing SBS 2011 Premium. >> 1. Go to microsoft website and read description of both products (too many differencies to describe in single forum post >>2. My understanding is that Windows SBS is Windows server but with exchange, sharepoint, etc. preinstalled. Is that correct? Almost, but SBS has several limitations that does not come with normal Windows Server for example number of users (75 in SBS), you cannot do trusts in SBS, also the SharePoint included in SBS is SharePoint foundation which does not come with all possibilities included in higher sharepoint editions. >>3. How could Windows Storage Server 2008 factor in to my setup, if at all? Also, what functionality does this provide? Storage Server is only selled with hardware, you cannot purchase it separetelly I think for 9 users you do not need adittional piece of hardware for storage >> 4. Will having 2 windows servers on the same network conflict with each other? No, you can have as many servers as you want (of course when we speak about properly choosen servers, you cannot have two SBS'es in same network). IF you want to have two servers go with SBS 2011 PRemium (two servers) - or SBS 2011 Std. and Windows 2008 R2 Std/ >>5. Would it work to have a website running on one server and the home server remote access running on another? If you setup NAT correctly on your router -- it will work >>6. What hardware recommendations do you have for a server doing the things I listed above? Depends on workload, but something with 16 GB RAM (24 - 32 is better but more expensive), six Hard Drives ( so you can build 3 x RAID - 1) [if you want to cut costs 4 hard drives - 2 times RAID -1] (if you can try to find a controller which allows for hot-spares) >>7. Anything else I should be considering or that should be changed in my hypothetical configuration? In my opiniion you do not need home serverWith kind regards Krystian Zieja http://www.projectnenvision.com Follow me on twitter My Blog

I appreciate your detailed response. It answered most of my questions but I have a couple more now. I also forgot to mention that I use the PC backup features of home server currently as well. In light of this, I am thinking of doing this: 1. Using SBS 2011 Essentials as the domain controller. 2. Setting up a second server to run windows server 2008 for my sharepoint, forefront, etc. needs. From my understanding, these would not conflict and would still provide all of the functionality I need. Do I have this right and does this sound like it would work? Or could I run all of this from one server with the same functionality? Thank you!

Hi, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials does not include Sharepoint, Forefront and etc, so you need to install it on the second server as you planed. For more information regarding Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, please refer to the following links: Compare Features http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/compare-features.aspx Editions Overview http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/editions-overview.aspx Regards,Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.