

- Windows home server 2011 backup to nas install#
- Windows home server 2011 backup to nas series#
- Windows home server 2011 backup to nas windows#
Windows home server 2011 backup to nas install#
Growth Potential – whilst my unit came with 2 x 2TB drives in it, I elected to install an additional 2 drives to it.
Windows home server 2011 backup to nas series#
The drives used in the WD Sentinel are from Western Digitals RAID series drives – not the cheaper desktop drives that many low end NAS units use. The big thing here is that your data is protected from the start from a single drive failure. If you purchase a unit with 4 drives, it’s automatically configured as a RAID 5 array. My unit had 2 x 2TB drives in it and this was configured as a RAID 1 or mirror set from the factory using the on-board RAID controller. Depending on the unit that you purchase, you will have either 2 or 4 drives in it. In addition, the 2 Network connections are teamed automatically to provide redundancy and will automatically use whichever one is connected without user intervention. Redundancy – the unit comes with a single power supply, but you can optionally purchase a 2nd unit and therefore provide a degree of fault tolerance not seen on low end NAS devices like this.
Windows home server 2011 backup to nas windows#
Once it’s done, for the diehard SMB IT Professionals, you can connect to the server via RDP if you like and see it like a normal Windows Server. You get access to the WSSe console from the desktop and can then see all the configuration options for it including setting up user access, shared folders and even monitoring things like the CPU temperature on the system.


You can then add this to your domain if you have an SBS network or similar or leave it in it’s own workgroup – either way it’s easy setup. It takes around 26 minutes to setup from this point, and once it’s finalised, it’s ready to go. The paper quick start guide that is in the box works seamlessly guiding you through it. Simply connect the DX 4000 to your LAN, plug in power and within a few minutes it will acquire an IP address and display it on the front panel. This is where it gets “tricky” as most SMB IT Professionals will expect to connect these things to it. That’s because it’s designed to operate as a headless device from the start.

In fact there’s no where to plug any of those things in. Out of the box, the DX 4000 requires no monitor, keyboard or mouse. There is also a reset button that can be used as part of the process to restore this unit back to factory defaults. On the rear of the unit, you will find 2 power supply ports (only one power supply comes as standard), 2 LAN ports and 2 x USB 3.0 ports. In fact, Western Digital have even built in an eject mechanism into the drives to cleanly disconnect them should you need to remove a drive due to failure. The hard drives can be easily removed and installed without the need for any tools at all. It’s designed to support up to 25 users for file access to the server as well as a pretty cool backup facility for up to 25 PCs or Laptops.įrom the outside, the WD Sentinel DX 4000 has an LCD panel on the front with up / down controls, a power button, a few LEDs for status of the unit and the individual drives and a door to protect the hard drives. It’s based on Window Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials (WSSe) and includes all the cool things that WSSe has to offer. The WD Sentinel DX 4000 is basically a NAS on steroids. I’ve been given the DX 4000 model which has 2 x 2TB drives in it to review although they have other models as well. The WD Sentinel was released late last year by Western Digital as their first device focused around Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials. I’ve had the pleasure of having a WD Sentinel running in the office network here for the last 2 months.
