Windows 7 as a file share?
Can windows 7 (enterprise I believe) operate essentialy as a file share as well as Server 2008? What are the advantages/disadvantges between the two OS's as a file share? In my organization, I think the less machines running a server OS t'he better' (as a quantity of servers issue). I am in a large domain that I do not manage (AD, etc.).
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dmwynne
So yes it can act as one but it does have limitations since it is not a Server OS.
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Active Direty is managed by my domain administrators and so managing those accounts across multiple machines is a non-issue. I don't forsee more than 20 connetions, but you never know.... The less ervers the better is just a numbers game i.e. reports generate a number of machines running server and those up above want that number down. How does DFS provide location transpareny (and what is that?) and redundancy? Or I guess what does that mean, (to allow) shares in multiple different locations to be logically grouped under one folder? NAS devices are not very compatible with our network unfortunately. What other limitaions are there with using 7?
To explain what DFS is, you'll need over an hour to read what I want to say.
Below you'll find a MS blog about it. It explains the basics of it.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2009/03/10/the-basics-of-the-windows-server-2008-distributed-file-system-dfs.aspx
A short example for DFS. With DFS you have your data stored on multiple "file servers". So when 1 server faces issues with network connectivity, you won't notice it. Because you can still access the fileserver.
For the rest, all the limitations are told about Win 7.
1. Only 20 users can connect to it simultaneously
2. Can't create DFS
a. When your Windows 7 faces network issues, your fileserver won't be accessible.
b. When your Windows 7 crashes and you don't have a backup of it, your data is gone (figurly speaking).
c. With DFS, you can manage your fileserver shares more easily.
Below you'll find a MS blog about it. It explains the basics of it.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/josebda/archive/2009/03/10/the-basics-of-the-windows-server-2008-distributed-file-system-dfs.aspx
A short example for DFS. With DFS you have your data stored on multiple "file servers". So when 1 server faces issues with network connectivity, you won't notice it. Because you can still access the fileserver.
For the rest, all the limitations are told about Win 7.
1. Only 20 users can connect to it simultaneously
2. Can't create DFS
a. When your Windows 7 faces network issues, your fileserver won't be accessible.
b. When your Windows 7 crashes and you don't have a backup of it, your data is gone (figurly speaking).
c. With DFS, you can manage your fileserver shares more easily.
ASKER
Sounds like our WAN performance won't support DFS effectively. Still going with Server 2008 though. Thanks for the feedback.