What is Windows Home Server?

In-depth review of the HP MediaSmart Server LX195 Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 30, 2009

There have been rumours floating around for the last few weeks about a new HP MediaSmart Server, known as the LX195. Well, these rumours are true. HP today announced the impending release of their next HP MediaSmart Server, and yes, it’s called the LX195, which is a departure from the EX series that are currently available.

The specification of the LX195 is a little different to that of any of the EX series. For a start, you will notice that it is visibly smaller. This is partly because it only contains a single hard drive, and doesn’t have the capability to add additional internal hard drives, but also because there is an external power supply, compared to the built-in power supply on the EX series.

Also, you will notice that is doesn’t have the sleek shiny black surface that the EX series had, but instead it has a series of ridges which help with the cooling, and the box itself is a dark gray. Below is a picture of the 3 different HP MediaSmart Servers – from left to right, the EX475, the EX487 and now the LX195.

SPECIFICATION

The actual specification of the LX195 is as follows:

PROCESSOR	Intel Atom 1.6 GHz Processor 230
MEMORY	1GB of DDR2 DRAM
NETWORK SUPPORT	Built in 10/100/1000 RJ45 Ethernet
INTERFACES	4 USB 2.0 ports (on the back)
INTERNAL HARD DRIVES	1 SATA 7200 RPM 640 GB drive

So HP have decided for this smaller variant to go with the Intel Atom processor. And yes, there is only room for a single built-in hard drive in the chassis, which is a definite departure from the EX series. However there are 4 USB 2.0 ports on the back of the LX195 which you can use to connect external hard drives to (make sure that the minimum size drive you connect is 100 GB though as anything less is not supported).

Those of you reading this who know Windows Home Server will immediately realise that with just a single drive you cannot have Folder Duplication enabled. So, the first thing you will want to do is get yourself a decent external hard drive if you want your shared files protected.

UNPACKING AND CONNECTING

The box itself is quite small with everything coming very well packaged inside.

The contents of the box include the LX195 itself, the power cable and power supply (a change to the previous models), an Ethernet cable, some software CDs, a warranty book and the setup poster.

Plugging it in all shouldn’t take more than a few moments, now it’s time to switch it on and get it working.

INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING

There is not manual as such with the LX195, but when you run the installation CD you are given some online instructions, and you also have the now familiar HP MediaSmart Server Setup Poster to help guide you through what needs to be done.

The first thing that needs to be done after you have connected up the LX195 to both the power and your home network, and switched it on, is to install the Client software on one of your computers. This performs two functions, the first of which is install the Windows Home Server Connector software on your computer but also to enable you to configure your new Windows Home Server, with details such as the server name and admin password (but more on that in a moment).

After you pop the Software Installation CD in the drive, you then follow the usual steps to install the Windows Home Server Connector software. I won’t walk through all those steps again in this article, but I have included the screenshots for those of you who might be interested. Note the LX195 image on the installer.

So once you have go to this stage, then its time to configure the Windows Home Server itself. You have to do it via this method because there is no facilities available on the LX195 for you to plug in a mouse, monitor and keyboard.

Again, I won’t bother with going through each and every step, although again I have included the screenshots, but the one interesting thing to point out though which is a change from HP’s other models is that the server name is already entered as HPSERVERLX instead of the usual HPSERVER. You can of course change this if you so wish.

Once you have completed these steps then you can log in to the Windows Home Server Console as normal.

Before you can access the Console though, you are prompted to perform a check to see if there are any HP MediaSmart software updates available.

At the time of writing, the version of the software that comes preinstalled, 2.1.1.25860 is the latest version to work on the LX195, so before anyone asks, the 2.5 Update for the EX485 and EX487 is not found and installed for you.

USING THE LX195

One thing you will notice, or rather you won’t notice is the noise. The LX195 is extremely quiet, in fact it is so quiet you will barely hear it, which cannot really be said about the EX series, although to be fair, the EX series had more hard drives and different power requirements. And the EX series wasn’t really that loud either!

Having a look around the LX195 version of the Windows Home Server Console, you will see the MediaSmart Server tab, with specific additions provided by HP, including an update Welcome screen.

By clicking on the Server Summary button you can see at a glance the status of your server.

Those of you familiar with the HP MediaSmart Servers will know that they come with additional software, and the LX195 is no exception.

You basically get the same software you did with the pre 2.5 Updated EX485 and EX487 series, so that is:

HP Photo Publisher which enables you to publish your photos to various online photo sharing sites.

HP Media Collector which automatically copies and organises media files from any of your computers.

Features for Mac, which basically includes support to use Apple’s Time Machine to backup files on your Apple Mac to your Windows Home Server and also to access shared folders from your Windows Home Server on your Mac.

Server for iTunes which enables you to store and publish your iTunes library and playlists on your network.

HP MediaSmart Server Online Backup which enables you to use an Amazon S3 account to backup your data outside of your home or office. But for this you do need an Amazon S3 account, so it is not free.

TwonkyMedia is used to stream your digital media on your home network to devices such as an Xbox 360 and also to provide remote streaming.

All of these additional features can be enabled or disabled depending on your own needs.

Having a look at the Shared Folders tab and the Server Storage tab reminds you that you only have one hard drive out of the box, which means no Folder Duplication, so maybe now is a good time to plug in that external drive you have available?

There are also the usual settings tabs for various HP specific options.

The LX195 also comes preinstalled with two add-ins – the TwonkyMedia add-in as mentioned earlier, and also the HP MediaSmart Online Backup add-in, again, as mentioned earlier.

There is also an add-in available to install that is not installed by default – the McAfee Total Protection Service. So if you want to be protected by Antivirus you can easily install this add-in or use one of your own choosing.

As the LX195 comes preinstalled with Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, you will need to update to Power Pack 2 before doing much else.

Just go to the Settings tab, and click on Update Now to retrieve that, and any other updates that are available.

CONCLUSION

It is very interesting to see a single drive Windows Home Server, mainly because you don’t have the ability to enable Folder Duplication out of the box. However it is very easy to add a USB drive to enable this. I think that more and more people want a cheap, simple solution just to back up their computers and may not want to share their content, in which case a single drive Windows Home Server is just fine.

The price point for the LX195 is $399 which is very good, and obviously is the cheapest of the HP MediaSmart Server series. The next current model up, the EX485 retails at $599 before rebates and other discounts, although you can get it at least $50 less at the time of writing from the HP Store, and possibly cheaper if you search around online. So the question is really is it worth paying that little bit more to get a more internally expandable server, and also one with the new 2.5 Update software for video conversion and support for iPhones? Well that is a question that only you can answer. Do you need those additions, or do you want a cheap and cheerful Windows Home Server?

I have to say I really like the LX195, it’s small, quiet and cheap. It does everything I need to do within the confines of it’s hardware. If I want to do more, then I have the option of buying a bigger Windows Home Server. The only thing I would add though is that I think HP should have shipped it with 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB, but that is easily resolved!

The other point to note is that Acer are currently launching their Acer Aspire easyStore Windows Home Server, that will also retail for $399, but includes double the amount of storage, with the ability to add more internal storage as well. So which will do better? Frankly I think it is a great thing that the price of Windows Home Server’s are coming down and that the choice of hardware is increasing, well done!

The HP MediaSmart Server LX195 Windows Home Server will be released next week (1st week of May) in the US for $399. Once again, no word on a European release so watch this space.

In-depth look at the HP MediaSmart Server 2.5 Update for Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 29, 2009

14

A few weeks ago I posted an article on the then forthcoming HP MediaSmart Server 2.5 Update. Well the update was released last week for all HP MediaSmart Server EX485 and EX487 owners and so I thought it was time to do a more in-depth look at this new update.

Again, unfortunately this update is not available for owners of the HP MediaSmart Server EX470 or EX475 as HP state the hardware requirements for this update are greater than that of the those machines, even if you have updated the memory and processor yourself.

Before we getting into the in-depth look, let’s just have a quick reminder what this update actually includes:

The 2.5 Update brings remote video streaming and automatic video conversion to unprotected content. What this means is that your EX485 or EX487 will be able to automatically convert videos and unprotected DVDs into two different resolutions. These include a high resolution file that you can steam to PCs, Macs and even your Xbox 360 or PS3. The other resolution is aimed at mobile devices, such as the iPhone and iPod Touch. The supported video types are AVI (DivX, Xvid, MJPEG), MOV (MJEG), DVR-MS (MPEG2), MP4 (MPEG4), WMV and unprotected DVD VOB. Unprotected DVD VOB files are automatically stitched together resulting in a smooth stream.

There are also some updates to the mobile streaming user experience, updates to the HP Media Collector, improved configuration for Apple Time Machine and the ability to create public and private albums in the photo viewer.

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION

By the time you read this article it’s a good chance that you have already got the update installed, but in case you haven’t, or you have only just got your EX485 or EX487, here is what you have to do.

First, launch the Windows Home Server Console, click on Settings and then click on HP MediaSmart Server. Then click the HP Update tab. Here you will see the version installed, in this case 2.1.7.24261 which means I don’t currently have the 2.5 update installed.

Click the Check for updates link and your Windows Home Server will go and check to see if there are any updates available.

If there is an update available, in this case the MediaSmart Server Update 2.5, ensure it is selected and click Next.

The update will the be downloaded – be patient though it is over 200MB in size, although if you have a fast connection it will be quicker 🙂

When the update has finished downloading, it will be launched automatically.

The installation process will also start automatically.

Click Next to continue.

Click Install to continue.

The installation will take place and won’t take very long, when prompted click Finish. It it also a good idea this point to reboot your Windows Home Server.

When your click on the MediaSmart tab, you will be presented with the new 2.5 screen, as shown below. We will look at the new features in a moment.

There is also an update Windows Home Server Connector, which you need to install. Unfortunately this process is not automatic like that of the Windows Home Server Power Pack 2 update, so you will have to perform this on every home computer you have.

Open up the Windows Home Server Software Shared Folder, and then open the Home Server Connector Software folder. Double-click on the Setup.exe file to launch the installation file.

If you already have a previous version of the Windows Home Server Connector software installed you will be warned that the setup process will uninstall the current version and then reinstall the new version – so click Yes to do start this.

You will see the installation Wizard appear – click Next to continue.

Read the licence agreement, click on the I accept…. radio button and then click Next to continue.

The installation will now take place as usual.

Remember to do this on each and every one of your client computers.

If you double-click on the HP MediaSmart Server icon on your desktop, you will also see an updated Control Console.

THE NEW FEATURES AND IMPROVEMENTS

There are a few new features and some improvements delivered with the 2.5 Update. So let’s take a look at them.

HP VIDEO CONVERTER

The video converter monitors selected shared folders and attempts to perform video conversion (also known as transcoding) on files with common video file formats. The video converter also supports DVD file system conversion, for DVD files that are commonly used in camcorders.

The results of the video converter tool are of a single file format: an MPEG-4 video file using an H.264 video codec and AAC stereo audio codec. Currently, devices supporting this format include

Microsoft Xbox 360
Sony PlayStation 3
Sony PlayStation Portable
Apple iPod (newer iPods with video support)
Apple iPhone
Microsoft Zune

The Video Converter will not transcode copy protected DVDs or electronic videos with Digital Rights Management Technology built into digital media, such as music and movies.

By default, the HP Video Convertor is switched off. To switch it on, just launch the Windows Home Server Console, click on Settings, then click on HP Video Convertor. Then all you have to do is check the box marked Enable Video Convertor.

Once you have enabled the HP Video Collector, you can easily select which of the Shared Folders you want to have video files converted from.

By default, only the Videos folder is selected and also both the Full and Mobile options are selected for you. You can of course easily change this by checking the relevant boxes.

When selecting a shared folder to perform video conversion on, there are two options for the output of the video converter: Full resolution and Mobile resolution.

Full resolution keeps the source video’s screen resolution, and basically just creates an output file with the new format for the provided input. Video and audio quality should be very similar to the source material for Full resolution videos. You may notice some differences between the original and Full resolution output, but these differences are minimal in most situations.

One benefit of using the Full resolution output settings is that older video formats like MPEG-2 videos are often much larger in size than the format used by the video converter. The output of a Full resolution video conversion can be approximately 25% the file size of an original DVD (MPEG-2). This significant reduction in size can make streaming via 802.11G less problematic (although many factors impact streaming videos wirelessly, results may vary widely).

The Mobile resolution creates a video that is suitable for mobile devices and remote video streaming (the video will be no larger than QVGA: 320w x 240h). This is to make support of mobile devices easier, and to provide videos suitable for remote media streaming.

Once you have chosen your folders, if you click on the HP Video Converter button on the MediaSmart Server tab, you will be able to see the status of the conversion process.

As you can see from the screenshot below, I have one active, one cancelled and a number of videos pending. Note that each video you want converted will have an MQ (Mobile Quality version) and a HQ (High Quality version) assuming you selected both versions.

It is important to note that depending on how many videos you want converted, the quality of those videos selected, and the length of the videos, this conversion process can take some time. My advice would be if you are planning on converting a lot of videos, have them running overnight.

You can also see when they are all complete.

You will also notice a new folder called Converted Videos, this is where all the converted videos are stored – obvious really!

One last thing on this subject, in order for the streaming to work, and this goes equally for the Photos and Music, as well as the Videos, you must ensure that you have enabled Media Sharing from the Settings area of your Windows Home Server Console.

HP PHOTO PUBLISHER

The big addition here is the ability to now have both public and private photos albums, meaning that you now have photo albums that only those who you deem worthy can see.

Whilst this is certainly a useful feature, I am a firm believer in not publishing anything to the Internet that you don’t want people to see in the first place. If you have private photos that you only want a selected few to see, why not give them access to a shared photo folder on your Windows Home Server itself instead of publishing them for all to “possibly” see?

FEATURES FOR MAC

There are a number of improvements to the Mac Backup feature, including the ability to resize the backup disk.

You need to update the Windows Home Server software on your Mac. To do this, perform the following steps (this assumes you have already got a previous version of the software running – if you don’t just skip the Uninstall step):

Click on your WHS as listed within the Shared area.

Open the Software folder.

Then open the Mac folder and launch the HP MSS Client.dwg file.

As mentioned earlier, if you already have the software installed, you need to uninstall it first, so click on Uninstall HP MediaSmart Server Software.

Follow the prompts to remove the software until you see the Uninstall Succeeded message and then click Close.

Now you have to reinstall the software so click on Install HP MediaSmart Server Software.pkg and follow the prompts to perform the installation.

At the end of the installation the Preferences screen will open and you will need to type in the Server Name and Server Password to reconnection to your Windows Home Server.

And that is it, the software is now up to date.

You will also notice a new Control Center which enables you to perform certain functions.

You can also launch this Control Center by clicking on the MediaSmart icon.

The main new Mac feature as mentioned is the ability to change the size of the Backup Disk.

To do this, click on Preferences in the Control Center, then click on the Backup tab.

You will need to click Stop in order to Stop the Backup Disk before you change the size, depending on what is happening at the time, this make take a few moments.

Type in the new Backup Disk Size, in GB and then click the resize button and then click Resize to continue.

You will be warned that you cannot cancel or undo the resizing operation, and so remember that all previously stored backup data will be lost. If you are happy, just click Continue.

And that is it – the Backup Disk size will be changed and then restarted for you.

REMOTE MEDIA STREAMING

When you want to access your media content remotely, you will be presented with a number of options. It is important to note here that you need to have Adobe Flash installed to see the options, but don’t worry if you don’t have it installed, you are given the option to install it.

If you select the Media Streamer icon you will be taken to the Music area where you can stream your music and search for songs by album, artist, etc. You will also see any cover art and information displayed here as well.

The Photos button will take you to all of your shared photos, and again you can search for whatever you are looking for by date or in folders.

Lastly you have Videos. You will be presented with a list of available videos.

You can look in folders and even choose to only display Converted Mobile videos.

If you click the Status button you can see what is currently being converted, or in my case as I am not converting anything at the time of writing, what has been converted. You can even click on a specific file to find out about the conversion.

iSTREAM

One of the other new features is called iStream and it is an application that works on your iPhone or iPod Touch in order to stream your digital content to those devices. It is not part of the 2.5 Update, but it does require the 2.5 Update to work. For more information on iStream, including a walk-through, click here.

OTHER FIXES

The following defect fixes and enhancements are included in this update:

Fixed a number of TwonkyMedia server issues, including the case where songs would not play all the way through.

Improved the HP Media Streamer interface, including adding support for streaming video files, column sort functionality, and new album art views.

Improved Media Collector by displaying progress details, status information, and client connectivity to shared folders.

Improved the HP MediaSmart Server dashboard functionality.

The User’s Guide was updated to match HP MediaSmart Server software changes.

CONCLUSION

This was a very long article on the new update, so if you are still reading, thank you and well done!

Is the update worth having? Yes, very much so, and considering it is free and gives you a lot of additional functionality you really cannot go wrong. Its very simple to set-up, just a few clicks to choose what you want to use and then it just works. In terms of streaming, as long as you have the available bandwidth it works great and it’s certainly nice to see that HP have put a lot of effort into make digital media content even more accessible.

It is very unfortunate that owners of the first generate HP MediaSmart Servers cannot take advantage of this update, but as HP have stated, this is because of the hardware requirements on the update, even though there are a lot of owners who have upgraded both the ram and the processors themselves. Bottom line guys I don’t think that HP will release the software no matter how loud we shout and I think we have to accept that if we want this functionality on our EX470s and EX475s then we will have to look to third parties to release add-ins that could do something similar.

iStream for Windows Home Server

Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 27, 2009

15

So, for those of you who have been following the recent release of the HP MediaSmart Server 2.5 Update, you will be aware of the application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, called iStream, that enables you to connect to your Windows Home Server and stream your digital content.

This assumes that you have already installed and configured the HP MediaSmart Server 2.5 update and have enabled remote access and media sharing.

INSTALLING iSTREAM

So, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch (2nd generation, not the 1st generation model), there are two ways you can get the iStream application.

The first is to launch iTunes on your computer, click on the iTunes Store and do a search for MediaSmart. You will then see the HP MediaSmart Server iStream application (as shown in the screenshot below).

Click Get App to start the download and then just connect up and sync your device to install it.

You can also read more about it by clicking on it.

The other way to get iStream is to do a search in the App Store directly from your device.

CONFIGURING iSTREAM

Once you have installed iStream via whichever method you choose, just select it from wherever it has been placed on your device.

Then you need to tell it a few details about your server, specifically the server details, the user account name and user account password used to access the shared content.

For server, you will need to type in the full domain, for example WHATEVER.homeserver.com (where WHATEVER is the name you used when you configured remote access for your Windows Home Server. If you only want to stream internally on your home network you can just type in the name of your Windows Home Server, but remember that outside of your network that just isn’t enough information to connect!

If you connect to more than one Windows Home Server, you can press the History button to see the servers you have already connected to, making it quick and easy to reconnect.

The details you enter will then be verified, and if successful you will see the 3 familiar shared folders – Music, Photos and Videos.

If you want to change the settings at any time, just press the icon in the bottom left hand corner and then press Open Settings to return to the settings page, or Go Home to return to the 3 folders page.

If you press the About button on the Settings page you can see information on the iStream application.

So let’s take a look at each of these in turn and see what you can do.

MUSIC

If you want to listen to your music, just press the Music button. You will then have the choice to display your music by Album, All Tracks, Artist/Album, Folder, Genre/Artist/Album or Playlist.

So let’s say you want to see all the albums, just press Album to see what you have available.

Select the album you want to listen to and you will see a list of song titles and information, plus the ability to shuffle them and listen to them in a random order.

When you have chosen the song you want to listen to it will start playing and you will see information on the song, artist, duration and more.

If you click on the List Music button on the top right hand corner you will see a view of all the songs on that album.

One thing you need to remember is that because you are streaming the songs from your Windows Home Server, over the Internet (if you are listening to it outside of your home network) that bandwidth plays a really important part of the process.

I was very happy to see that I was given a warning message and the song would not play because I was on a low speed connection. I would much prefer this than think it will work fine and have the song stopping every few seconds – so well done HP!

The Playlists menu is interesting as it shows you what you have most played, last played, recently added or even highly rated. This makes it very quick to find something specific that you might want to listen to.

PHOTOS

If you want to look at your photos, just choose Photos and you will see a menu offering you All Photos, sorted by date, folder and also playlists again.

Choosing All Photos will list all of your photos in a small thumbnail list with the photo title. As you can see from the screenshot, my photos are not called anything useful so it is difficult to find something specific without scrolling through the whole list.

This is where the little icon in the bottom right next to Refresh comes in very handy. If you press this the view is replaced by a page of thumbnails, making it much easier to look through and select something.

To look at a picture, just press one! Depending on your connection speed it may take a moment or two to load.

Then the picture is displayed for you in all its glory.

You can then choose to look at photos before or after that particular one, or even press the button on the bottom right to start a slideshow of all your photos.

You can also rotate your device to show the pictures in landscape or portrait mode, which is nice.

You can also view photos by date or folder, and then there is the playlist option, exactly as you had with Music, just with less choices.

You can also look at your photos at the same time you are listening to music, which can make for a nice effect.

VIDEOS

So now that we have looked at streaming your music and your photos, that only leaves your videos.

When you press Videos from the main list, you have the option of All Videos, a specific Folder or Playlists yet again.

Selecting All Videos takes you to a list of all the available videos. You can just choose which one you want to watch. As you can see, you are offered the “mobile” quality videos by default. It is important to remember that only videos that have been converted by the HQ Video Converter that came with the 2.5 update will be displayed here. This means that only H.264 encoded videos, those in .mov and .mp4 format.

If you choose the Folder option you can see all of the folders available.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So that was a look at the iStream application. Is it any good? Well simply put, yes. This is a must have add-on if you have an HP MediaSmart EX485 or EX487 Server and an iPhone. Its easy to install, asy to use and is great for showing off with 🙂

Just remember that your streaming experience is reliant on your available bandwidth and your Mobile connection.

Whilst I know that non EX485 and EX487 owners out there are not happy that this update is not available to them, I would imagine it won’t be long before someone releases software and add-ins that do pretty much the same thing. Just hang in there.

Add-In Review : Drive Balancer for Windows Home Server

Phil Bevan

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Apr 26, 2009

2

Introduction

Windows Home Server is a fabulous product, the way it stores your data across multiple hard drives in order to provide resilience and a measure of ‘peace of mind’, unfortunately from time to time checking the distribution of your data across these disks using the Disk Management Add-In you may see that newer hard drives, that you’ve added, are not being made full use of when storing your data.

This is where Drive Balancer comes in, it is Home Server Add-In that is designed to evenly distribute your data across your WHS pooled hard drives regardless of the space or number of drives available. It is not a WHS Add-In in the traditional sense in that it does not integrate into the Windows Home Server console instead it is run from directly on the Home Server in a command prompt window.

Perhaps future releases will result in this being a true Add-In as but the application is fully functional and that’s exactly what it says ‘on the tin’ as is.

First a little background, when I built my Windows Home Server, way back in November 2007, I used three 320 gigabyte hard drives as the storage pool. However since that time and I have added two 750 gigabytes and two 1 TB hard drives too much storage pool.

The image below shows the distribution of data on my Home Server before running Drive Balancer, as you can see most of the data was spread across disks 1, 2 and 3, with some data spread across the disks 4 and 5 but it isn’t the best distribution as Disk’s 1 and 2 are nearing their capacity.

Installation

Unpacking Drive Balancer to “C:\TEMP” from its distribution zip file (like I said it’s not your typical WHS Add-in) I then connected to my Home Server via Remote Desktop (I could have also used the Advanced Admin Console to get a command prompt connection instead of Remote Desktop) and navigated to the “C:\TEMP” folder where I ran the Drive Balancer executable.

Usage

Drive Balancer asks a couple of questions before it starts and it uses the answers to establish whether it should include the Landing Zone in its work but also how it should distribute or balance the data in the pool.

Now before we proceed any further I’d like to try to put any concerns about what Drive Balancer is doing to rest. When I first saw the Add-in I was concerned that it was modifying data, moving things around and that something COULD go wrong that would result in the loss of data. From my testing and my investigation into how Drive Balancer works I am confident that it doesn’t actually modify your data, instead it creates temporary files and then calls upon the WHS Drive Extender Migrator service to do the actual work moving files around.

Safer with this knowledge that my data SHOULD be safe (remember things CAN go wrong (as with anything in life) and as a result you should heed the warning that running this Add-in is done at your own risk and that neither is the author nor Using Windows Home Server responsible if something goes wrong.) I pressed the ENTER key and let Drive Balancer do its thing.

Rumours that I ran and hid behind a heavy wooden desk at this point in a Pratchett-esque way are unfounded and just not true, I was in fact hiding from my wife who was not happy I had hidden the remote controls for the audio/visual centre so I could prevent her watching Twilight for the millionth bloody time.

Drive Balancer will then just run and it does take some time to run, the drive balancing of my WHS took about four hours to complete but the whole time the HDD Balancer Command Prompt on the server was telling me what was going on, not that I really understood what it was saying but so long as it was doing stuff and the percentages reported were increasing I was happy.

During the run you may see your Network Health change to Yellow/Red as well as the loading on the WHS Pool drives showing all of your disks filling up as the balancing is progressing. There is nothing to worry about this is expected behaviour, towards the end of my drive balancing my WHS showed the following:

And before I took a trip to the do the shopping and hit the local computer stores the Used indicators were slowly increasing.

I returned from my shopping expedition to find that Drive Balancer had completed and I was missing a few hundred dollars as my wife had managed to find my wallet. Drive Balancer was a very polite Home Server Guest and cleaned up after itself by deleting all temporary files/folders it needed/used and checking the Disk Management add-in I was greeted by the following view of my newly balanced Windows Home Server:

As you can see Drive Balancer did a very good job of evening it the data that I have across all of the disks in my WHS Pool. I’m more confident now that should I lose a disk or two that my WHS will cope without loss of data.

Conclusion

Drive Balancer is not your everyday tool or utility, it really needs to be run by a technically competent person and it would be nice in the future if the Author or Microsoft would make this more user-friendly and remove the requirement to connect to the Server to run. That said, Drive Balancer does exactly what it says it does and does a very good job of it.

My shopping trip procured me a couple of Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB Green SATA-II hard drives and it’ll be an interesting task to add these to my Windows Home Server and then run the Drive Balancer again…. keep an eye out for a review of the hard drive and an update on the Drive Balancing when it occurs.

Drive Balancer, version 1.05, by Beefcake, available to download from here.

Using Windows Home Server to upgrade your client hard drive on a Friday night

Timothy Daleo

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Apr 25, 2009

16

Most of us have a laptop that probably came with an 80GB or 120 GB hard drive. It has almost certainly crossed your mind to upgrade the drive when a company like Newegg has 250GB to 500GB laptop drives for $79.99. I know for me, upgrading seems like a pain and I do not want to take the time to mess with it. Please read on to see how WHS can make your hard drive replacement as painless and as fast as possible.

Equipment Needed:

Replacement Hard Drive

Recent WHS backup of the PC

Windows Home Server Restore CD and CD drive

USB Drive (with network drivers, optional)

3 Beers (discretionary but recommended as always)

A recent “Lost” episode

Background

I am going on a short holiday tomorrow to see my sister and taking her 13 year old step-daughter an old Dell GX60 SFF OptiPlex that I have had sitting around the office. Sounds simple enough right? Not quite. It only has an 30GB hard drive. WTF? Her iTunes music alone is probably going to be over 30GB! Why the small drive Uncle Tim? I have never needed more drive space since it was connected to the network and WHS hosts my music and videos. It is a small form-factor so there is no room for a second drive inside the case. What else do you want for free? Oh, you want a monitor, keyboard and mouse too? Crap.

I want to take one of my 500GB IDE drives out of one of my old (and now obsolete?) NAS drives and drop it in the case. The hardware replacement will be easy but what about all of the software? What about the settings, drivers and programs? Service Pack 3 takes about an hour alone to upgrade. No way! I am leaving in the morning and I am running out of time. In addition, the wife is packing the car by herself tonight for the trip tomorrow so I need to do this the fastest way possible!

Hard Drive Replacement and Data Transfer Solutions

If I replace the drive I will have four choices for the existing data and programs:

Load Windows and reformat, install programs, files and updates.
Use the File Transfer Wizard (but I have to load Windows on the new drive).
Use the Backup Wizard to transfer (but I still have to load Windows on the new drive to restore from the Backup).
Use the Windows Home Server backup feature and Restore CD.

I’ll take door number four Monty. Viva Windows Home Server!

Backup Verification

Ok, so the GX60 is running and connected to the WHS network. It has been a while since my last backup but we know that WHS only tracks the changes so it should not take that long to run one more backup before I begin. I will start the backup and head to the fridge for a cold one. Where is that damn mini fridge?

Mental note: Make some noise and move a few things towards the garage so the wife will know I am helping pack and not cramming to finish this article before we leave.

The backup is done in 8 minutes. Thank you WHS!

Drive Installation

Now that the back up is complete I will power down and replace the drive. You can see that with the GX60 the case is easy to open and the drive replacement is very simple. Your installation will be different of course.

It might look like this:

Or this:

Make sure if you are using a drive that had prior data on it that you delete ALL of the data and any partitions that may have been on the replacement disk. If you have not done this you can do it when we get to the Disk Manager during the Restore process. We will verify this AGAIN when we get to the Disk Manager during the Restore process. If your replacement drive is new then you should not have any issues.

Mental note: Put the Restore CD in the drive before I power it off so I am ready once I turn back on the PC.

Booting from the Restore CD

I have replaced the drive and am ready to boot up. I have the Restore CD in the computer and I press the power button. Here we go…power on and F12. F12 again. Flippin F12. F12 yet again. Good job with the F12 cause I am at the boot screen. Choose the CD Boot option.

Make sure you know if your PC has over 512 MB of RAM. WHS will ask you before you start the Restore process.

Let the Restore process begin.

The Restore Process

Follow the prompts on the screen to start with the actual Restore process. The Restore process is interactive until you actually start to copy data.

It is possible that your PC will not find the network or your server once you start this process. This may scare you at first but it is ok. You may be able to click on Continue and go ahead with the process. If it does not let you continue then you will need to have the network driver. I had to install the drivers on my Restore. When WHS asked me for the network driver I went to another computer on my network, looked up the Dell website, downloaded the driver for the GX60 and put it on a USB drive. If you do not have another computer to use during this process you may want to do this as a precaution ahead of time.

I copied the drivers to a little USB drive on another computer. I then took the USB drive, plugged it in to the GX60 and clicked on the Scan button.

WHS found the drivers and continued on as expected. Make sure you unzip or decompress the driver files before you put them on the drive so WHS can find the drivers.

My drivers installed without any issues.

Once you can connect to the server the Restore can start.

Enter your WHS password and click on Next.

Choose which computer to Restore.

Choose from which backup date you want to Restore.

If your drive is brand new then continue to read on, if not then skip to the next section.

If the Drive is NOT Initialized (a brand new drive)

While I am Restoring the GX60, I am at the same time replacing the drive on my laptop with a brand new drive. This section is for the new drive. If your drive is new you will get the following error:

You can then click on the Run Disk Manager button to format the new drive.

Once in the Disk Manager application you should see your new drive. Right mouse click on the drive and do a Quick Format.

Mental Note: If you choose a full format be prepared to add another hour to your Restore experience.

Once the format is complete you can continue on with the Restore process. Verify the Source Volume and the Destination Volume and click on Next.

If Drive was previously Initialized (or came from another device)

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT – If your drive had already been formatted or in another device you should still need to run the Disk Manager. Look at the Destination Volume on the right. If it shows “New Volume” then you should be good to go. If it shows anything else use the Run Disk Manager button and view any additional partitions that may be left on the drive. The drive must be new or reformatted with Disk Manager for the computer to boot up after the Restore. Please check this before continuing. Seriously.

Once you have deleted any old partitions and formatted the drive you need to verify the Source Volume and the Destination Volume similar to what is shown below:

Click on Next one final time to verify the Source Volume and Destination Volume.

Click on Next, relax and let the good times begin.

Now that WHS Restore is on autopilot it is time for another beer. Expect about an hour to complete the Restore. I would not rely on the timer as any real indication of time. My timer and progress bar seemed to be possessed. I am going to go watch my latest recorded episode of Lost. Be back in an hour.

Upon my return the GX60 is ready to go with the larger hard drive. In addition, due to the intricacies of time travel while writing, I have also completed my laptop Restore to a new drive. Viva Window Home Server.

Notice the difference on the two Restore Dialog Boxes below. Besides the fact that they were done two weeks apart (love that time travel) you will see the Restore Summary Volume notations are different. The laptop was a new drive while the GX60 was from another device. Even though the Restore completed if you did not format the drive the computer will have issues starting up and you have to use your Windows CD to fix it. This will take hours and defeat the purpose of using WHS to Restore to a new drive. It happened to me. Seriously.

The GX60 completed with the used drive.

The laptop completed with the new drive.

The “entire” process for the laptop hard drive took 86 minutes while the GX60 took a little longer with the network drivers. The Window Home Server saved hours of time in this upgrade. Viva WHS!

I hope this article was helpful and I wish you luck on your drive upgrades!

See you next Friday night.

Timothy Daleo

Creating a Slideshow Screensaver using Photos stored on your Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 25, 2009

1

How many of you reading this have a screensaver enabled on your computer? And for those of you who do, how many use pictures and photos you have taken as the screensaver? Are you storing those photos on that computer in order to run the screensaver?

Well, did you know that you could easily store those photos on your Windows Home Server and have that computer, in fact, any of your computers, run a slideshow screensaver from your Windows Home Server?

It is actually quite nice to see some of your photos appearing when your screensaver kicks in, kind of reminds you of good times.

So, here is what you need to do in order to make this happen (for this walk through I have used Windows 7, but it is the same principle on earlier versions of Windows).

On the Desktop, right click anywhere there is free space and then click on Personalize.

Down in the bottom right hand corner you will see an icon called Screen Saver – click it.

In the Screen saver selection box, choose Photos.

By default this will use any images that are stored in the Photos folder on that computer. Because you want to use photos stored on your Windows Home Server click the Settings button.

Click the Browse button.

Click on the box at the bottom currently with Pictures in. You need to replace that with the \\servername\Photos (where \\servername is the name of your server). This will point the screensaver at the Photos shared folder on your Windows Home Server. You can use any folder you want to if you don’t want to use Photos. Click OK when you are done.

You will now see the screensaver will use picture from Photos (\\atlantis) (which is the name of the Windows Home Server I am using for this article). You can also choose the speed that the pictures change and also if you want them shuffled. Just click on Save when you are done.

All you need to do now is set the time you want to wait before the screensaver kicks in and then click on OK.

And that’s it. You can now enjoy viewing photos stored on your Windows Home Server as a screensaver.

The Home Server Show 41 Out Now

Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 24, 2009

0

Dave over at the HomeServerShow.com has released the latest edition of his podcast, The Home Server Show, number 41.

This weeks show is all about the HP update and the backlash from owners and is worth a listen – as usual.

You can get more information here, and download it from iTunes or your other favourite place.

1st UK Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server Usergroup Event

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 23, 2009

2

Earlier this week saw the 1st UK Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server Usergroup event being held in Birmingham.

It was a really good night, with sessions on Media Center, Windows 7 and of course Windows Home Server presented by yours truly. Fellow WHS MVPs Phil Churchill and Terry Walsh were on hand to heckle me as well.

Each of the presentations that were given can be downloaded from here. If you are just looking for my slides on Windows Home Server, then click here.

Just wanted to say a big thank you to Ian Dixon for inviting me to speak, and also to Paul Foster of Microsoft for sponsoring the event and getting the pizzas in, even if they did turn up late and half way through my presentation! Seriously, no one is interested in anything when pizza arrives 🙂

Add-in Review : Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer Edition and Giveaway

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 23, 2009

4

The Diskeeper Corporation have been around now since 1981, so you have probably heard of them before. They have produced many different versions of their disk defragmentation software, including previous versions for Windows Home Server.

This review concentrates on the latest version of Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer edition, which was released earlier this year. The review will cover why you need it, some of it’s key features, how to install it and the conclusions.

WHY DO I NEED IT?

You might ask yourself why you would want to buy disk defragmentation software. Well the answer is that you may not want to. What do I mean by that? Well, put simply it is a matter of personal preference. Disk defragmentation software is one of those topics that often gets one of two similar responses – either “I must have it” or “I don’t want or need it”.

Personally I must have it. If you don’t know why you might want it, put simply, as files are stored, moved, deleted, updated and so on, over time they can be potentially stored on different areas of the disk rather than in a single block. This is called disk fragmentation. There could be thousands of parts of files scattered all over the disks on your home server. What this means is that it takes longer to read and write those files than it would do if they were all in the same place. That annoying delay waiting for that Word document to open? Could be disk fragmentation.

This is where disk defragmentation software comes into play. The software examines the disk and all of your files, figures out where the parts of the files physically on your drives are and attempts to move them together to make things run faster and smoother. This is a good thing – just imagine having hundreds of gigabytes of files scattered all over the disk.

So, are you convinced that you might benefit from defragmentation software? If so, one thing that is very important to understand is that no matter what software you use, it MUST be Windows Home Server aware because of the way that Drive Extender works in WHS.

KEY FEATURES

So, what are some of the key features of Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer I hear you ask? Well, even if you didn’t ask I am going to tell you, or at least, I’m going to repeat what Diskeeper say:

InvisiTaskingtechnology —InvisiTasking is the foundation for Diskeeper to eliminate fragmentation in real time without affecting system resources. The InvisiTasking Technology monitors resource use, and makes sure only idle, untapped resources are used when Diskeeper HomeServer 2009 is running. Diskeeper with InvisiTasking never interrupts system productivity and keeps your server running at optimal speeds.

Terabyte Volume Engine 2.0 — Powerful defragmentation for high capacity and high traffic servers with disk volumes containing hundreds of thousands to millions of files.

Real-time defragmentation — automatically handle fragmentation as it occurs, providing maximum speed and performance at all times.

Complete file and free space defragmentation —in the most extreme of conditions—even if your systems have only a one or two percent of free space left available, or a files has millions of fragments, Diskeeper 2009 can restore lost performance and save the applications reliant on those files from major reliability failures.

Frag Shield 2.0 — boosts reliability and availability by automatically preventing crash-inducing fragmentation of critical system files.

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Compatibility mode —only Diskeeper 2009’s new VSS-compatible mode affords you the ability to leverage the data protection of VSS and the performance and reliability of automatic defragmentation.

TRY IT FOR FREE:

If you would like to try it for free for 30 days, you can do so by clicking here.

INSTALLATION & CONFIGURATION

To install Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer edition, once you have obtained the program files, perform the following steps on the computer you downloaded them to (this assumes that you have the WHS Connector software installed as well) :

Right-click the WHS tray icon and click on Shared Folders.

Double click the Software folder and copy the Diskeeper HomeServer Edition folder to to it.

The next part of the process may be new to you – you need to actually install the software on your Windows Home Server – and to do that you need to be on the actual WHS desktop itself. To do this you can either use the Remote Desktop Connection software that comes installed with Windows if your WHS is headless (for example an HP MediaSmart server) or you can just log into your WHS if you have a mouse, keyboard and monitor attached (for example if you built one yourself).

Start the Remote Desktop Connection software on your computer – it can be found at Start, Programs, Accessories, Remote Desktop Connection (if you are running Vista) or Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, Remote Desktop Connection (if you are running XP).

Type in the name of your Windows Home Server and when prompted type in the Administrator password. This will launch the Remote Desktop Connection and you should then see your WHS desktop once you have closed Internet Explorer – remember to be very careful here!

Double click on the Shared Folders on Server icon and then double click on the Software folder.

You should see the folder you copied earlier – double click it to open it.

Double click Diskeeper2009_HomeServer.exe to start the installation.

Click Next to continue.

Confirm that you accept the licence terms – you did read this, right? 🙂 Then click Next.

Set any preferences that you want – by default they are all selected for you, then yes, click Next!

You can choose to change the installation directory, but you may as well leave it as it is, and click Next.

Click Install to perform the installation.

The installation itself should only take a few moments, in fact, it probably took longer to read these few lines that it will actually take to install.

You are then presented with the various registration options, such as Registering Online. Select the one you want and click Next to continue.

And that is it, so just click on Finish.

All you need to do now is close down the Remote Desktop Connection – and you can do this simply by clicking the X in the top right corner of the screen.

Ok, so when said it was installed, it was sort of true. You still need to do something in the Windows Home Server Console to get it up and running.

You will also notice on any machine that has the Windows Home Server Connector software installed a message bubble appearing advising you that the Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer Console is ready to install.

So, launch the Windows Home Server Console as you would do normally.

Click on the Settings button, then on the Add-ins button.

You must then click on the Available tab in order to install the Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer Console. Just click the Install button to continue.

The installation only takes a few seconds and then you you will be told the Console will now close. Click OK to continue.

You will lose the connection to your Windows Home Server – don’t worry, this is perfectly normal and is supposed to happen. Just log back into the Console as normal.

You will notice that there is now a new tab called Diskeeper.

The first thing you see is a box asking you if you want to check for any product updates – Click OK to check if any exist.

You will see that there is quite a lot of information crammed into the Console view.

Don’t worry if there is too much there for you, you can change what views are displayed.

As you can see, the screen layout is made up of 3 distinct areas.

The Quick Launch Area

The is the area on the left hand side and contains additional groups of options – Getting Started (which provides guides and help information),

Volume Properties (which enables you to choose specific volume options),

Analyse and Defrag Now (which is as it sounds, the facilities to analyse your hard drives and perform defragmentation),

and finally Configure Diskeeper (which includes configuration options, updates and information on Diskeeper).

You can close this area if you wish as the main options are available as icons to choose above the three areas.

The Computer Area

This area contains the breakdown of your disks – including their size, free space, and the type of defragmentation that is currently configured.

From here you can select a drive, analyse it and perform a defragmentation pass, and even look at the properties of a drive.

As you can see from the analysis of one of my drives, whilst there is very little fragmentation, performance could certainly be improved.

however on another of my drives the story is quite different.

If you decide to perform a manual defragmentation, depending on the size of the selected volume, the amount of free disk space (as long as you have at least 1% free Diskeeper will do its magic) and the amount of file fragmentation, this process can take a while.

You can watch the process in real-time, which will quickly lose it’s appear after about a minute. If you are defragging a large drive, such as the one I am doing in this example, the usual volume map is replaced by a simple list in order to reduce CPU load, which I think is a great idea.

You can continue to use your home server while this is happening, but the more you use the files on that volume, the longer it will take to perform the pass.

After it has completed you can view a report and make sure that you are happy with the results.

The Volume Area

This contains the logs, history and dashboard, which enables you to view and edit the automatic defragmentation schedule.

CONCLUSION

So, in conclusion, Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer edition is a very easy to use product that once you have installed and configured to your personal preferences (if you choose) can be left to run in the background and forgotten about. Personally I think the installation is a little complicated for the average user, although not overly so, and if people follow the installation instructions, or the walk-through in this review, they will be fine. It would be nice in the future if Diskeeper could do something to remove the need to remote desktop to the Windows Home Server itself though. I also liked that there was a lot of configuration that could be performed, if I wanted, or I could just leave it with the default settings and it would work perfectly fine.

Again, if you think back to the start of the article, I mentioned that there are two camps when it comes to defragmentation software. I am still convinced that defrag is a necessity on any computer. I didn’t notice any performance hit from running Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer edition, even when I performed the initial analysis and defragmentation.

Given the fact you can try it for free for 30 days, why not give it a go and see what it can do for you? And if you want to buy it, the cost is $69.95.

For more information on Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer edition, and the other Diskeeper editions, click here.

WOULD YOU LIKE A FREE COPY?

So, would you like a free, fully licensed copy of Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer Edition? Continuing our tradition of giving away cool stuff, our friends at Diskeeper have given us 5 full licences of Diskeeper 2009 HomeServer to give away to you lucky readers.

To win a copy, all you need to do is send an email to giveaways @ usingwhs.com (remembering to remove the spaces) with the title Diskeeper 2009 Giveaway, and tell us your name and where you are located, and a suggestion to improve UsingWindowsHomeServer.com or an article you would like to see by Friday 1st May 2009. Winners will be picked at random and announced on the site on Saturday 2nd May. Good luck!

HP MediaSmart 2.5 Update Now Available

Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 22, 2009

8

Yesterday, HP released the iStream application for the iPhone and also for the iPod Touch.

Today, in fact, in the last few minutes, HP have released the HP MediaSmart Server 2.5 Update to the web.

In order to get it click on the Check for updates link on the HP Updates tab in the Settings area on your Windows Home Server Console.

It should then check for the update, and if it is found, you will see the MediaSmart Server Update 2.5 selected. As you can see, it’s just under 218MB in size.

A full review will follow shortly, but for now go and start the download 🙂

And remember, this update is only available for the EX485 and EX487 owners!

Review of Samsung’s F2 Series EcoGreen Hard Drive – HD502HI

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 19, 2009

5

It could be said that the most important component in any Windows Home Server, or desktop computer for that matter, is the hard drive. The hard drive is what WHS uses to store all of your data and the more hard drives you have, the more storage you have available.

Samsung have released a new set of hard drives called the F2 Series EcoGreen hard drives. They come in either 500GB, 1TB or 1.5TB variants – and all of them are SATA drives. For this review I am looking at a 500GB model.

Samsung’s new eco-friendly hard drive utilises its low noise operation technology SilentSeek and NoiseGuard to achieve a quiet operation system. A reinforced flying on demand (FOD) technology controls the distance between the disk and the head, a safety measure to protect the head and raise the stability of data stored on the disk.

So, what does that actually all mean?

SilentSeek and NoiseGuard is the name of the technology that Samsung use to to minimize the mechanical excitation generated by any resonance, virtually eliminating the source of seek acoustic noise. So basically, in simple terms, it means that the drive is quiet during operations such as read and write. Very quiet!

The “Green” drive lowers the amount of power required to run it, hence the “green” status. So if you are trying to reduce your spending on electricity, or you just want to do you bit to protect the environment, then going green won’t compromise your needs. Samsung claim that the drive consumes 43% less power in read/write and 57% less in idle than competitor’s 7200rpm drives. Which is quite a statement to make.

Adding the drive to my Windows Home Server was as simple as you would expect. The only disappointment was that out of the 500GB on the drive, Windows Home Server would only “see” 466GB, but I think we are also used to not quite getting the amount of hard disk space advertised with ANY hard drive, so it’s not really a failing just on this drive, or on Windows Home Server.

Overall I am very impressed with this drive. It is very quiet and the temperature was a good 15 degrees lower than the Seagate drive I also had in my test Windows Home Server. And even though the drive is only 5400 rpm, it still appears to be very fast. Samsung state that it actually performs at current 7200 rpm drive speeds, and to be honest, I can believe it. I can’t wait to get my hands on the 1.5 TB variant.

The 500GB variant I tested can be purchased for less than £50 in the UK, and even cheaper if you look hard enough.

This is a very good, low cost addition to any system, and I will be using it when I build my next Windows Home Server in order to keep the costs down.

Well done Samsung, you have a new fan!

FEATURES

• Formatted capacity : 500GB
• Environment friendly product with RoHS compliance
• Serial ATA 3.0 Gbps Interface Support
• Improved performance with dual-ARM based firmware
• Improved recording stability over temperature with PMR
• ATA S.M.A.R.T. Compliant
• Advanced dynamic FOD control for best data integrity
• ATA Automatic Acoustic Management Feature
• Intelligent compensation of external disturbance
• ATA 48-bit Address Feature
• SATA Native Command Queuing Feature
• ATA Device Configuration Overlay Feature
• Device Initiated SATA Power Management
• NoiseGuard
• Rotational vibration sensor
• SilentSeek

Technical Details:

Product Description	Samsung SpinPoint F2EG Desktop Class HD502HI – hard drive – 500 GB – SATA-300
Type	Hard drive – internal
Form Factor	3.5″ x 1/3H
Dimensions (w x d x h)	10.2 cm x 14.6 cm x 2.5 cm
Weight	450 g
Capacity	500 GB
Interface Type	Serial ATA-300
Data Transfer Rate	300 MBps
Average Seek Time	8.9 ms
Spindle Speed	5400 rpm
Buffer Size	16 MB

How to install or remove an Add-in for Windows Home Server

Andrew Edney

-

Apr 19, 2009

40

Add-ins are additional features or functionality that can be easily added to Windows Home Server. The additional features or functionality can even make changes to the look and feel of the Windows Home Server Console, which may include adding new tabs for you to control the application. Add-ins effectively extend the capability of your Windows Home Server, and the possibilities for new add-ins are endless.

However, it is not always simple to install an add-in if you don’t know to do it – it’s not just a case of running an .EXE file, so in this walk-through I will explain how to add and also to remove an add-in from your Windows Home Server.

VIEWING ADD-INS

Click the Settings button on the Windows Home Server Console and then click Add-ins to open the Installed Add-ins screen.

As you can see, there are two available tabs, Installed and Available. The Installed tab lists all of the add-ins that are currently installed and operational on your Windows Home Server.

The Available tab lists any add-ins that are available to install. In this example, the TwonkyMedia Server for HP MediaSmart and also the HP MediaSmart Server Online Backup add-ins are currently installed.

INSTALLING AN ADD-IN

In order to use an add-in, you must first install it. For this example, I am installing the Windows Home Server Disk Management add-in by my friend Sam Wood. This particular add-in is designed for users who need more detail about their server’s storage status than what the standard WHS Server Storage interface provides. For more information on WHS Disk Management, including the download link, visit http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/WHSDiskManagement/

Installing an add-in is fairly straightforward, although the specific steps required for each add-in might be slightly different, so make sure you check the documentation that comes with the add-in, just to make sure you don’t miss an important step.

1. Download a copy of the add-in for Windows Home Server that you want to install and use, and save it wherever you usually save your downloaded items, or insert a CD or DVD with the add-in on any computer on your network that has the Windows Home Server Connector software installed.

2. Right-click the Windows Home Server task tray icon and click Shared Folders

or double-click the Shared Folders on Server icon on the Desktop. Either method connects you to the Shared Folders area on your Windows Home Server.

3. When the Shared Folders window opens, as shown in Figure 13-4, double-click the Software folder.

4. In the Software folder, double-click the Add-Ins folder.

The Add-Ins folder contains any add-ins you currently have installed on your Windows Home Server.

As you can see I have a copy of files already there along with a ReadMe.txt file.If you are curious about what the ReadMe.txt file contains, this is it: Copy Windows Home Server Add-in files (.msi) to this folder. For more information about Add-ins, open the Windows Home Server Console Help and search for “Add-ins.”

5. Copy the add-in (it is likely to be called something.msi) to the Add-Ins folder. Before you continue, make sure that you can see the add-in or add-ins in the Add-Ins folder.

6. Close the Add-Ins folder when you have confirmed that the add-in appears in the folder.

You may also receive a message about an add-in being ready to install, similar to this.

7. Launch the Windows Home Server Console.

8. Click the Settings button on the Windows Home Server Console to open the Settings screen.

9. Click Add-ins in the left pane.

10. Click the Available tab. You should now see the new add-in listed.

Before continuing, check to make sure that the add-in or add-ins listed are the ones you expect to be there. For example, I am installing the WHS Disk Management Add-in, and that is what is listed, along with a couple of other add-ins, so I am happy to continue the installation process. If the add-in or add-ins that you copied to the Add-Ins folder are not listed on the Available tab, try restarting the Windows Home Server Console, because that refreshes the list on the Available tab.

11. Click the Install button on your chosen add-in to install it. Depending on the add-in you are installing, the installation process may take a moment or two.

12. You are then presented with the Installation Succeeded dialog box and you just click OK to close the Windows Home Server Console.

13. After the Windows Home Server Console closes, you see a message advising you that your computer has lost its connection to the Windows Home Server.

Don’t worry, this is supposed to happen; just click OK to clear the message.

14. Reconnect as usual to the Windows Home Server via the Console.

15. Click the Settings button and choose Add-ins; you should see the new add-in appearing on the Installed tab.

If the add-in does not appear on the Installed tab, click the Available tab and see if it is still appears there. If it does, then just repeat the installation process and try again.

16. Click OK to close the Settings window.

If the new add-in includes a new Windows Home Server Console tab, it should now be visible and selectable.

For example, the WHS Disk Management add-in has added a new Disk Management icon.

Now that the add-in has been installed, you can start using it. You may need to perform additional configuration steps on the add-in before you can use it, so make sure you read the instructions that came with the add-in.

UNINSTALLING AN ADD-IN

To uninstall an add-in, following these steps:

1. Launch the Windows Home Server Console.

2. Click the Settings button on the Windows Home Server Console to open the Settings screen.

3. Click Add-ins in the left pane.

4. On the Installed tab, click Uninstall for the add-in you want to remove.

Depending on the add-in you are uninstalling, the uninstallation process may take a moment or two.

5. In the Uninstallation Succeeded dialog box click OK to close the Windows Home Server Console.

6. After the Windows Home Server Console closes, you see a message advising you that your computer has lost its connection to the Windows Home Server. Don’t worry, this is supposed to happen; just click OK to clear the message.

7. Reconnect as usual to the Windows Home Server via the console.

8. If you now click the Settings button and choose Add-ins, you should see that the add-in you chose has disappeared from the Installed tab. If you click the Available tab, it now reappears there, giving you the option to reinstall it at a later date.

9. Click OK to close the Settings window.

You should now see that any additional tabs that may have been included as part of the add-in have also been removed.

If you do not intend to reinstall the add-in in the future, you should delete the MSI file from the Add-Ins folder in the Software shared folder on your Windows Home Server. Not only will this keep the list of available add-ins to only those you may want to reinstall, but it will also save disk space on the Windows Home Server itself.

Add-In Review : Task Viewer

Phil Bevan

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Apr 19, 2009

0

Introduction

Have you ever heard the cooling fans on your Home Server kick into noisy mode and not known why or is the performance of your Home Server not as snappy as you expect it should be? Well here is an Add in that might be able to help you resolve those issues without having to Remote Desktop in or connect a keyboard/mouse/display to your Home Server.

WHS Tasks Viewer presents the running processes in a simple two pane view within the Home Server Console along with some spiffy little graphs showing various metrics over time.

Installation

Installation is as simple as simple can be, at least in computing, copy the Tasks Viewer MSI into the Software\Add-ins folder on your Windows Home Server then, using the Home Server Console install it as you normally would an add in.

Installation takes a couple of seconds and then the Home Server Console will restart and voila a new Tasks Viewer tab to play with.

Impressions

Tasks Viewer isn’t the most beautiful of applications but it is functional. The left 70% of the Tasks Viewer tab displays a list of running “Tasks” on your Windows Home Server with six columns of data showing the ID, Process Name, Session ID, Private Memory Usage, Virtual Memory usage and a nice little graphical view of how much of the CPU time each “Task” is using.

The remaining 30% of the Tasks Viewer tab shows up to five graphs, arranged vertically, showing CPU Usage, Free Physical Memory, Free Virtual Memory, Disk Activity and Network Activity over time. These are pretty basic views with no legend or markers on them so it can be at times a little taxing to read them.

At the top of the screen, below the Windows Home Server tabs, is a single toolbar that contains a Kill button, a list of the total number of running processes, a refresh button (if the refresh isn’t fast enough for you as is you can click this) as well as some very basic information on your Windows Home Server (Number of CPU Cores and Total Physical and Virtual Memory).

Configuring Tasks Viewer

Clicking on the Settings button followed by the Tasks Viewer button will display some configuration options that allow you to specify how often the Process List and Graphs update as well as enabling/disabling the various graphs and altering their colours and a couple of other properties.

Usage

Tasks Viewer is a very simple application to use, look at the Process List and find the process using the most CPU Time or Memory and then determine what you’re going to do about it.

For a non-technical user this is the problem with this add in, showing the information is one thing but knowing what to do with it is another. The Kill button is a very dangerous word to have here and even Microsoft use “End Process” instead in Task Manager, pressing this button will ask for confirmation that you want to end the selected process but in doing so it may damage your computer and there is no additional verification by the add in or Windows Home Server that what you’re doing is not going to be dangerous.

I did discover an issue with the Kill button, when the kill confirmation dialog appeared I selected No to killing the process and got myself into an infinite loop where I had to quit the Console in order to get out of the loop, nil points for Tasks Viewer there.

Turning off the graphs is something I did straight off the bat, they’re a little crude for me and actually don’t tell me much of anything without points of reference, a legend or even scale lines. Doing this was simple but I discovered that the 30% space that the graphs occupied remained a big white space afterwards, the add in did not reclaim the space and use it to present the Tasks list in a wider space. A disappointing User Interface design there but one I can appreciate as many times I’ve forgotten or had trouble writing the resize code for applications myself 🙂

The default Tasks Viewer columns for each process is very basic and it would be nice to remove some of columns or add other ones in their place, unfortunately there is no way to customize this that I have found or change the default behaviour of the CPU Usage column to be a number instead of the progress indicator.

One thing that has bugged me majorly is the mixed usage of Process and Tasks, personally it is not tasks but processes that run on a computer and in a few places Process is used but the name of the application is Tasks and it can be a little confusing, hopefully we’ll see this addressed in later releases where a single term will be used consistently in the add in.

You’re sounding rather biased and negative

This review does sound like I’m really not enjoying this Add in and I’m “doing a job” on it but that’s not what I’m intending. Feedback is an important thing in ANY development and this is my feedback, in all honesty I actually have found a use for this add in and when I do use it I’ve enjoyed the simplicity and presentation of it.

It has saved me on three occasions just today using Remote Desktop, checking the Tasks list I was able to see that my Anti-Virus solution was using a little too much CPU time and slowing my WHS down, a quick kill of the A/V process and all was good again.

The User Interface is simply and functional, I’ve said that and that is a good thing. I can find information quickly and without any hassle, updates from the WHS occur quickly and the add in is just “snappy” which I really like. I think the developer has built functional and in later releases they will address issues that are raised.

I can see a use for this in my WHS toolkit and I hope that the developer does take what I’ve written as feedback and continue developing it.

Conclusion

Tasks Viewer is could be a very useful tool for the WHS Administrator’s Toolkit, what it presents isn’t new but it does so in a way that would save time in having to connect via Remote Desktop or finding a Keyboard/Mouse/Display to plug into your WHS.

There are issues with the add in as I’ve stated but it is functional and works very well. If you’re an intermediate/advanced knowledge of computers then this add in could be very useful for you to have available.

You can download the Task Viewer Add-in from here.

Installing the Disk Management Add-In on Windows Home Server on a Friday night

Windows Home Server

Timothy Daleo

-

Apr 19, 2009

1

Welcome back to another article in the Friday night series. This is how it works: I do “stuff” to my Windows Home Server, writing as I go and hopefully you learn a little something from my experience. Well maybe a laugh…

Background

Over the last few weeks I have been seeing a lot of super big crazy large uber-servers on some of the WHS sites. Some of these systems have dozens of drives and multiple cases. Most of these users post a very cool “Wireframe” screen shot of these mega-behemoth WHS systems that are on shelves across the world. Jealous much? Now, while I am humbled by their size and cost (24 drives x $100 average 1.5TB drive = $2,400?) I am never going to have the need, or the courage to convince my wife, for that much storage. What I do find the need for is a way to get more performance information from my drives and to make one of those cool Wireframe skyscraper looking things for my WHS.

Equipment Needed:

Windows Home Server Disk Management Add-In

2 Beers (optional as always, but recommended)

The IT Crowd – Season One playing on Netflix

Add-In Description

Windows Home Server Disk Management Add-In was created by Sam Wood at Tentacle software. If you have a few minutes you might want to read over the blog before you start. Since the only thing I have ever developed was some film a long-ass time ago at Costco (even then I messed up the envelope) I found it interesting to see how the Add-In was developed and grew. The Tentacle website is at:

http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/

According to the website it features:

Detailed information for each disk in your Windows Home Server
Real-time temperature and activity monitoring
Capacity indicators for individual disks
Customizable disk names
Customizable 3D wireframe representation of your server

This sounds cool. I want to be able to view my WHS as a multicolored monolithic tribute to the MS gods instead of the dusty cable-laden heater box humming inside the closet.

Lets set this pig on fire.

Download and Installation

The version I am installing is 1.0.9.8. This is the latest version and can be found at:

http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/whsdiskmanagement/

Before you just download the file and get started make sure you scroll down and see if your system is one of the Pre-configured Server Wireframes they have available. I have a feeling this could save us some time later during installation. Since my Dell PowerEdge is not listed I am out of luck. I am going to get the HPMSS EX47X template for my parents while I am here and then create theirs using the import.

Also, I see some references to PP1 so check your system resources to make sure your WHS is compatible. The Tentacle website has a great FAQ section on the same page if you need additional information.

Follow the standard WHS Add-In instructions by downloading the file to your Add-Ins folder on your WHS.

I have also saved the XML file for the HP MSS to a folder so I can copy it along with the Add-In to my parents via remote after I do the installation on the Dell.

Install through Settings>Add-Ins in the WHS Console.

Configuration and Setup

I installed the Add-In and the WHS Console has restarted. I now have a new Disk Management “gear” icon at the top. I also see all of my drives listed very neatly underneath. Sweet.

This layout is cool since the regular Server Storage view only shows you the total of all of your disks and does not break them out by name. I really like the temperature and activity columns. Nice touch. It would be a nice addition to this Add-In to have the total hours on each drive on a future release. Well, now that I can see all of my drives, lets make one of those cool diagrams of the server!

On the right side it says “Click here to begin wireframe setup” so lets try that.

It takes me back to Settings. Um ok.

I see the Create New Wireframe button and I see an Import / Export Wireframe option. I want to make my own anyway so I probably would not have used this option even if my PowerEdge was on the list. Time to create a new Wireframe! The wife is getting ready for bed so I had better do this fast.

Follow the steps below by working through the Create New Wireframe program:

Add, Edit or Remove a drive bay – Click on “Add new drive bay” click the arrow and NOT OK.
Drive Bay Type – Click on the bay type LOV (List of Values), make your selection and click on the right arrow
Drive Bay Position – Click on “New” and click on the right arrow
Drive Bay Contents – Click on the LOV and I see all of my drive paths here. I am going to pick the system drive first and then add the rest of the drives in order later. I like the way it adds the disk information once you select the drive path. Right arrow again.
Confirmation – I guess I can add a drive name but it says it is only available in the wizard. I wonder why. Anyway, all of my drives are Seagate. I just named the first one SG1. That is so flippin cool. Right arrow again.

Done with the first one. I have a little blue drive on the screen now. Sweet.

I will repeat the process for all of the additional drives and also include the DVD and CD drives. Do not worry about ways to rotate or move your drives. We will come back to that!

Time to get that second beer.

You can always walk away or stop and start by using the “Edit Current Wireframe” button.

As I have been adding the remaining external drives I have to keep remembering to check the “external drive bay” box. It would be nice to have “External” in the list of values and dump the check box. Also, to have another option for 2.5” drives that are connected would be cool. Overall the creation of the Wireframe is straight forward. Once your Wireframe is complete just use the Wireframe Orientation rotation axis boxes to adjust the view. You can also right click. I used 45, 45 and 45. My system looks like this so far:

Hey, what the flip? Where is my fourth external drive? There are supposed to be four external bays to the right of the server. Let me investigate this…ok back. So this is a little harder to understand and explain, and hard to see, but the first drive to the right is darker than the rest. I think I doubled up on the first drive.

I clicked on the darker drive and removed it and then it became light again. I did not realize I could add more drives to the same space. Is it supposed to do that? Interesting.

I guess I need to be more careful when I add drives. There is only one drive path for each framed box so be careful. Here is the new layout with the fourth drive added.

I have finally figured it all out and got used to how this Add-In works. Had to open another beer though.

Once I click on OK it takes me back to the Disk Management interface and updates the Wireframe. Very nice! You can see my PowerEdge two drive system and the external drives to the right.

Now, once you have got all of your drives in the right order you can go back and use the Advanced Mode to change the rotation and position of each of your drives. You could also use the Advanced Mode during the initial creation of your Wireframe but I would suggest waiting until after you complete the basic setup. I select the CD drive as shown below and click on Advanced Mode:

Now I will use the Movement buttons to move the CD drive up as shown below:

I have also moved the DVD drive up and am now rotating the Seagate Free Agent Pro drives to match their actual orientation. If you set your system up correctly then each box you click on should already match the drive path and disk name. I hear the wife coughing. Is that a hint?

I have finished all of the changes and my system is looking like it does in the closet. Well, without the dust and cables. I really have to work on that.

The Advanced Mode takes some getting used to but once you get oriented it is quite easy. Here is my final final version:

Sweet.

Importing the Wireframe XML file

Now that I am a “pro” with this Add-In it is time to upload it to my parents HP MSS. They are so lucky to have a son that cares so much. Seriously.

To import the Wireframe I downloaded at the start of this article I use the Import button and find the file:

Since their HP MSS is stock I do not need to make any changes to the Wireframe. Here is the result:

That was easy. I am finished with their HP MSS so I click on OK and get back to the Disk Management Add-In.

Cool red. It makes me want to add a couple of more drives. Maybe on another Friday night.

Conclusion

I am very happy with this Add-In. It has some good information about the drives and a cool Wireframe creation tool. You cannot tell from the amount of screen shots I had to take but the Wireframe is pretty easy to set up. I would like to see future revisions offer some different options for the external drives we all use and maybe even some additional name labels. Again though, overall this is a good Add-In and I am glad that I installed it in my Windows Home Server.

See you next Friday night

Timothy Daleo