Windows Home Server (WHS) is one of the most reliable and feature rich network attached storage devices on the market. However, WHS 2011 removed some key features. If you’re looking for an upgrade without losing features; look not further than Amahi.

A few praised features of Windows Home Server when it launched in 2007 were:

• Drive extender: allows for multi-disk redundancy and combines multiple drives into a single shared space
• Remote access: access to the server from on and off your network
• Add-ins: adds functionality to your WHS without needing to figure out complicated configurations

Windows Home Server 2011 has recently come out but it removes the drive extender feature, requires a 40% faster CPU (1.4 Ghz), and 4 times the RAM (2 GB) as its predecessor. If you’re looking for an upgrade, but don’t want to lose the functionality you have now, the open source project Amahi may be the perfect solution for you.

Amahi is a Linux distribution built on Fedora (an Ubuntu based system is in the works) that makes setting up a home NAS easy. In addition to what other Linux/BSD based NAS distributions give you, Amahi has easy remote access with automatic dynamic DNS updates, drive extender functionality with greyhole, and one click install add-ins via their “don’t call it an App Store” repository.

We will walk you through the process of installing Amahi using the Express CD on an HP Media Smart Server. You can install Amahi on any spare computer you have, but the express CD is designed to run on headless hardware (a computer without a monitor). Because the HP MediaSmart Server is already a low powered, multi-drive server, it makes a great candidate for a free upgrade. Our next article will show you some of the basics of setting up and using your new Home Digital Assistant (HDA).

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