nitrobass24
[H]ard|DCer of the Month - December 2009
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2006
- Messages
- 10,465
First off I want to give all the credit to ymboc over at MediaSmartServer.net.
He is the brains behind this and many other features that have been unlocked for WHS.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6826
For some reason or another people have been led to believe that you cannot rebuild your WHS after cloning the system drive due to the "tombstones" that point the FS to your files across your various drives across the storage pool.
Definition below is slightly dated, but it gets the point across of what Tombstones are for.
I have tested this myself 3 times and it has worked everytime. I performed it once in a VMware WHS with PP2, and Hyper-V WHS PP3, and on my production WHS with PP3.
Although i have had great luck using this process, I am not making any guarantee to your success and am not responsible for damage you may cause to your WHS.
Now with that out of the way, heres the part you came to read.
Background:
WHS uses Unique DiskID numbers found in the partition table of each disk to help identify them. The WHS Storage Manager stores these DiskIDs and other important information about its disks, folders and volumes in the windows registry.
When using disk imaging software to migrate an operating system from one disk to another disk, these DiskID numbers are typically not cloned during the disk imaging operation. When the destination disk is of a different size (typically larger) the volume geometry and as a result the volume identifier will also change.
A newly imaged WHS system disk with mismatched DiskID number, volume geometry and/or volume identifiers will still boot normally but the server will not be able perform its functions. The WHS console will exhibit a number of Critical Health Warnings the most easily identifiable of which is the "Backup Service is not Running" warning.
For WHS to function properly, the DiskIDs, volume geometry and volume identifiers saved in the registry must match that of the newly imaged system disk. These instructions show how to obtain and clone the DiskID when performing an imaging operation as well as update the windows registry with the system disk's description, new volume geometry and volume identifiers.
Tools Needed:
1) A 'Workstation' running Vista SP1 or newer OS.
2) Disk Imaging Software
3) Destination Disk (the disk you're upgrading to)
4) Appropriate hardware/cables/etc to connect harddrive(s) to your workstation.
(I recommend USB or eSATA connection for simplicity).
5) Either:
. a) Second set of hardware/cables/etc to connect a second hard drive to this system
or
. b) Enough free hard drive space to fit the entire contents of your WHS system disk
He is the brains behind this and many other features that have been unlocked for WHS.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6826
For some reason or another people have been led to believe that you cannot rebuild your WHS after cloning the system drive due to the "tombstones" that point the FS to your files across your various drives across the storage pool.
Definition below is slightly dated, but it gets the point across of what Tombstones are for.
As you probably already know data does not go to the primary drive and then get moved. Since PP1, it goes to its final destination initially. Either way this tombstone file is created and is what allows DE to work like it does.Tombstone – When a file is copied to the server it will land into the data partition on your primary drive, and over time it will be moved out to make space for new files. After being moved out a special pointer ("tombstone") is created in the data partition, pointing to the actual file in the storage pool.
I have tested this myself 3 times and it has worked everytime. I performed it once in a VMware WHS with PP2, and Hyper-V WHS PP3, and on my production WHS with PP3.
Although i have had great luck using this process, I am not making any guarantee to your success and am not responsible for damage you may cause to your WHS.
Now with that out of the way, heres the part you came to read.
Background:
WHS uses Unique DiskID numbers found in the partition table of each disk to help identify them. The WHS Storage Manager stores these DiskIDs and other important information about its disks, folders and volumes in the windows registry.
When using disk imaging software to migrate an operating system from one disk to another disk, these DiskID numbers are typically not cloned during the disk imaging operation. When the destination disk is of a different size (typically larger) the volume geometry and as a result the volume identifier will also change.
A newly imaged WHS system disk with mismatched DiskID number, volume geometry and/or volume identifiers will still boot normally but the server will not be able perform its functions. The WHS console will exhibit a number of Critical Health Warnings the most easily identifiable of which is the "Backup Service is not Running" warning.
For WHS to function properly, the DiskIDs, volume geometry and volume identifiers saved in the registry must match that of the newly imaged system disk. These instructions show how to obtain and clone the DiskID when performing an imaging operation as well as update the windows registry with the system disk's description, new volume geometry and volume identifiers.
Tools Needed:
1) A 'Workstation' running Vista SP1 or newer OS.
2) Disk Imaging Software
3) Destination Disk (the disk you're upgrading to)
4) Appropriate hardware/cables/etc to connect harddrive(s) to your workstation.
(I recommend USB or eSATA connection for simplicity).
5) Either:
. a) Second set of hardware/cables/etc to connect a second hard drive to this system
or
. b) Enough free hard drive space to fit the entire contents of your WHS system disk
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