Windows Home Server Add-in: Lights-Out Service Pack 3 Released

Martin Rothschink of AxoNet Software GmbH has been in touch to announce Service Pack 3 for Lights-Out, now formally supporting Essentials 2012 and Windows 8.  Read on for details.

Lights-Out Service Pack 3 has been released.  First, a little bit about the application:

Lights-Out enhances a Windows Server Solution in these areas:

• Power management, to run your server on demand
• Client backup, to run a scheduled backup and use Wake-On-Lan
• Uptime chart, to give a graphical overview of device activity in your network
• Client management, wake, suspend or reboot your client computers
• Mac OS X Support for WHS v1 and 2011!

Now for the release notes for Service Pack 3:

Current Version 1.5.3 Build 1803

• Fixed missing next calendar events for a task which spans midnight and runs every day
• Fixed high CPU load in client service if server is offline
• Fixed missing status for Apple Mac and mobile devices
• Fixed a problem with special characters in name of IP based devices
• Fixed a problem with identity mapping in Mac Agent
• Changed client standby action initiated from dashboard or Lights-Out Mobile App. Uses hibernation if configured as action after backup, standby otherwise.
• Changed network monitor to better handle pulsed transmission used for example by XBMC
• Changed uptime chart to suppress server if running 24/7 (Lights-Out configured to do nothing)
• Added official support for Window Server 2012 Essentials
• Added official support for Window 8
• Added official support for Apple Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)
• Added better support for mobile devices in computer properties
• Added detection for WebDAV issues in Mac Agent and Lights-Out Mobile
• Added different product titles
• Added backup command to client context menu (this combines wake-up, backup and action after backup)
• Added backup command to command line client
• Added correct sorting to all columns in computer tab
• Added Polish translation

Known issues

• Resizing the Dashboard to the smallest possible window size creates a distorted Status sub-tab. Workaround: resize the Dashboard
• You can’t load an existing Windows Home Server v1 Lights-Out license into this version. Lights-Out for WHS 2011 requires a new license file.
• Client GUI application is not started automatically after first client push installation. Workaround: Run via Start->All Programs->Startup, Lights-Out Client or log off and log on again.
• Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Server 2012 Essentials wake up every 30 minutes by Server Infrastructure License Service (silsvc). This bug is logged in Microsoft Connect. See ID 669083 (SBS 2011, closed), ID 761637 (Windows Server 2012 Essentials) and ID 757760 (WS 2012 Essentials, German) and vote for this bug!

If you are running Lights-Out, go head and get your upgrade.  And if you are deploying a new Server 2012 Essentials box, look into including this application to improve your control over server power management and WOL for clients!