Amahi on Virtualbox

[stangdaman]

I have a Windows 7 PC with a massive amount of storage (6.5TB). When I built it I had considered going with something like WHS and had actually tested a trial version of that but decided against it because I wanted Mediacenter to be able to use the extender feature that go along with that and to play media and have access to things like hardware acceleration from my video card. I did like some of the features though and have been looking for some solution where I can have Windows 7 running but have some similar home server functionality running on the same system. Sorry for my long explanation. Here's the question. Can I run Amahi in Virtualbox on my Windows 7 PC?

[bigfoot65]

You can run it, but the functionality may be limited. Amahi is intended to be the DHCP and DNS server on its own box. So that may require manual configuration of VirtualBox and Amahi to get full functionality.

Not sure how the Windows 7 box would get its DHCP lease from Amahi when its running on the same box. Since the router DHCP server is turned off, only one device will get the connection.

[stangdaman]

Could those features, possibly, not be used. My primary interest in this is for NAS features serving files over my home network to other clients and backing up the other PCs on the network. I really don't know a lot about servers though so maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing.

[bigfoot65]

I would say that is all you want is a NAS, Amahi may not be the best fit. Mostly because it needs to be the sole provider in the network as a home server.

You might consider FreeNAS if that is all you desire. Amahi is an awesome home server and can do so much more if you can dedicate a machine to it. The apps along with NAS and storage pooling features make it hard to beat.

[stangdaman]

Ok, I have been considering FreeNAS as well. I do have another box I could put Amahi on but it doesn't have room for the storage. If I did want to go with Amahi is it possible to have it installed on one box but save to the drives on another?

[bigfoot65]

It may be possible, but adding them as USB drives would be better. To get the real benefit of Amahi and Greyhole, you need the drives in the same box.