Microsoft Close to RTM’ing Windows Home Server 2011

While I’m not too excited about the missing Drive Extender feature of Windows Home Server and Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011, it still has a small place in your home network or business. Microsoft is getting close to releasing the RTM and getting it out to manufacturers. I’ve already passed on the server and decided to go with a more robust and feature rich Server 2011 Small Business Edition with a RAID5 array. Currently, I am running a Windows Home Server 1.0 edition on custom hardware. The Drive Extender functionality makes it worth it to NOT upgrade to the newer version. But, I do desire more, so that is where Server 2011 comes in.

The software giant has started to compile RTM escrow builds of Windows Home Server and Small Business Server 2011, codenamed Vail and Aurora respectively. According to Zukona, an infamous leaker, Microsoft plans to finalize the RTM builds of both products on March 30. Microsoft compiled 8800.16385.110302-1330 on March 2.