Windows Home Server FAQ

Ockie said:
1) If I'm only hitting 50% network utilization, I may need a faster landing drive correct?

No. Drive speed is not the issue here. The real issue is your network performance and your desktop network cards. Most desktops sees 300-500mbit/s utilization. Upgrading your network components (nics and switch) to higher grade material will improve your performance substantially (easily 600-900mbit/s). There are a lot of other factors, but drives are very seldom the cause of performance bottlenecks when hard drives are involved.
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This is not true. At least not entirely. Yes networks obviously play a role here but drive speed is certainly a factor.
You will get faster network transfer rates when the data being sent over is going to faster drives. If your WHS machine has a variety of drives like mine does you would see this.

On some drives I get a network transfer speed of 60MB/s sustained. If the data goes to a different drive I can get 30MB/s. Hard drives are rated at burst speed but will never get that speed in a sustained transfer. Obviously a gigabit network is capable of higher speeds. It's the drives that are the limiting factor here.
 
Archer75 said:
This is not true. At least not entirely. Yes networks obviously play a role here but drive speed is certainly a factor.
You will get faster network transfer rates when the data being sent over is going to faster drives. If your WHS machine has a variety of drives like mine does you would see this.

On some drives I get a network transfer speed of 60MB/s sustained. If the data goes to a different drive I can get 30MB/s. Hard drives are rated at burst speed but will never get that speed in a sustained transfer. Obviously a gigabit network is capable of higher speeds. It's the drives that are the limiting factor here.
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I don't agree with your disagreement. You can't use crippled drives, usb drives, or any other very low performing media to further this argument because stumping your drive or using a crippled drive to begin with is obviously not accounted for in this argument. As for your 480mbit speeds, you are most likely capping out on your network performance if you have regular network gear and onboard nics, so therefore, network speed is the issue. Secondly, you can have multiple sessions pulling from various drives which will also limit to your network performance.

And yes, I have several big WHS systems with many drives each of all types, network is ALWAYS the performance bottleneck. Once we see 10gbit on WHS then I'll change my stance.
 
EnderW said:
what do you use in your machines? looking at your pics of Galaxy, I didn't see any discrete NICs
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Depends which logs you look at. In galaxy 5, there are pics of dual quad port PT server nics.
 
right now my whs has 4 identical seagate 500gb 32mb cache sata2 drives.

i mainly store movies photos and music, and have folder duplication on.

first drive (landing zone) is pretty much emtpy
second drive is almost full (around 90%)
third and fourth are both around 40%. im assuming the 3rd and 4th drives are being used for duplication. my question is this.

if the 2nd drive becomes full, will whs reorganize the files to be shared among the other drives, or will i start getting problems?
 
Can you go from the 120-day evaluation period to a full version without having to reinstall?

This was obtained from Microsoft. I'd like to know that if after 120 days are up, can I use a new serial number and have a fully legit copy running, so that I don't have to reinstall.
 
Archer75 said:
This is not true. At least not entirely. Yes networks obviously play a role here but drive speed is certainly a factor.
You will get faster network transfer rates when the data being sent over is going to faster drives. If your WHS machine has a variety of drives like mine does you would see this.

On some drives I get a network transfer speed of 60MB/s sustained. If the data goes to a different drive I can get 30MB/s. Hard drives are rated at burst speed but will never get that speed in a sustained transfer. Obviously a gigabit network is capable of higher speeds. It's the drives that are the limiting factor here.
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Well, that’s the thing, I was thinking to get a faster "Landing" drive since it would be writing, and reading before writing to other drives. However if there is no longer a true "Landing" drive and the data is directly pushed to my other 5400RPM drives I'm not sure that I would see any benefit in having a faster OS drive other than boot times?

Is this correct? I was just thinking you were taking my questions lightly out of context (although not entirely : it would possibly be faster only when writing to the landing drive)

This is assuming I have PowerPack1 installed.

I could be completely off base here hence my question. Do I now have an understanding of how WHS works with PowerPack1? The Improving the Landing drives speed will not really help since nothing is being written to the landing drive during backups. In other words the Data sent from my PC to my WHS box over the network is being copied directly to the storage drive, skipping past the landing drive completely?

However, if I had gone will ALL faster drives (storage drives were also faster) then I could get faster transfers assuming the network is not holding me back (maybe it is? maybe it isnt?).
 
EnderW said:
can you post some results vs onboard gigabit NICs?
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What about having dual onboard 1Gbit nics? My DFI X48 board had dual Gbit. Since my WHS box has a sinngle onboard would it not be more cost efficient to buy another Cheap NIC and tether join them together? yes? no? Maybe?
 
tgabe213 said:
Can you go from the 120-day evaluation period to a full version without having to reinstall?

This was obtained from Microsoft. I'd like to know that if after 120 days are up, can I use a new serial number and have a fully legit copy running, so that I don't have to reinstall.
Click to expand...

A reinstall is necessary but you won't lose your data.

You will lose the OS settings, updates, and plugins just like a repair install of XP.
 
Justintoxicated said:
Well, that’s the thing, I was thinking to get a faster "Landing" drive since it would be writing, and reading before writing to other drives. However if there is no longer a true "Landing" drive and the data is directly pushed to my other 5400RPM drives I'm not sure that I would see any benefit in having a faster OS drive other than boot times?

Is this correct? I was just thinking you were taking my questions lightly out of context (although not entirely : it would possibly be faster only when writing to the landing drive)

This is assuming I have PowerPack1 installed.

I could be completely off base here hence my question. Do I now have an understanding of how WHS works with PowerPack1? The Improving the Landing drives speed will not really help since nothing is being written to the landing drive during backups. In other words the Data sent from my PC to my WHS box over the network is being copied directly to the storage drive, skipping past the landing drive completely?

However, if I had gone will ALL faster drives (storage drives were also faster) then I could get faster transfers assuming the network is not holding me back (maybe it is? maybe it isnt?).
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Correct on all counts.
 
is it normal for my drives to be showing usage like this when I'm not doing anything?
also, how are these temps? I have the fans down pretty low

312w6td.jpg
 
It's just balancing so yes, it's ok.

Some of those temps are a bit high. Especially those in the 40's.

My hottest drive is 35c. Several are in the 20's.
 
yeah, according to google, the seagates have a max operating temp of 60 C, I never like to see my drives over 50 C
really shows how cool the WD are, they are crammed in a Supermicro cage, compared to the Seagates that are spaced out

another question, on the wireframe, is there a way to make really small adjustments in the positioning?
I turned on advanced and it let me click on arrows to move the drives around, but I couldn't get them right in the middle like I wanted
then I click next and it shows the exact values for the position and size of the drive but they are greyed out

edit: and one more question
while ago, I switched the bootdrive down to the 5.25 bay and put the drive that was there up in the boot drive's previous location in the SM bay
when I booted back up I forgot to connect the boot drive
then I figured it out, connected, rebooted and it comes up but says my backups are damaged or something
I restart and now it's fine
WTF?
 
EnderW said:
another question, on the wireframe, is there a way to make really small adjustments in the positioning?
I turned on advanced and it let me click on arrows to move the drives around, but I couldn't get them right in the middle like I wanted
then I click next and it shows the exact values for the position and size of the drive but they are greyed out

edit: and one more question
while ago, I switched the bootdrive down to the 5.25 bay and put the drive that was there up in the boot drive's previous location in the SM bay
when I booted back up I forgot to connect the boot drive
then I figured it out, connected, rebooted and it comes up but says my backups are damaged or something
I restart and now it's fine
WTF?
Click to expand...

Not sure on the wireframe config.

Sometimes if one the services does not get started it will throw weird errors like that.

Happened to me once but i didnt connect a data drive.
reconnected it, rebooted and all was fine.
 
Intel 1000pt's work.

I downloaded the Broadcom Nic utility and it allowed me to team just random nics I had sitting around. It requires that you have at least one broadcom nic in the system or the software wont install.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Intel 1000pt's work.

I downloaded the Broadcom Nic utility and it allowed me to team just random nics I had sitting around. It requires that you have at least one broadcom nic in the system or the software wont install.
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Thanks!
 
Can I install add-ins from my desktop to the server? I don't want to bring out the keyboard/mouse and hook up a monitor to do it (I forgot to enable remote desktop).

Do we have a list of 'must haves'? Most useful at least?
 
A must have list would be nice, but the usage is so wide spread that I might end listing almost all of them at some point. I can add something, easily, if people want specific items added as "Best add-in" or something.
 
Well remote desktop is enabled by default on the server.

But you dont even need RDP to install addins.

Copy the addin to the Software/addins shared folder.
Open the console, go to settings, addins.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Well remote desktop is enabled by default on the server.

But you dont even need RDP to install addins.

Copy the addin to the Software/addins shared folder.
Open the console, go to settings, addins.
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I feel like an idiot. The question popped into my head as I'm here at work without access to my server (other than remote). But, here's what the text file says in that directory.
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”.
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Durr.
 
Anyone have an opinion on defragging WHS? I know the standard MS Defrag is not recommended, but do you use a 3rd party one?
 
I have defragged using disk keeper. It went well but I never saw a performance difference so now I just don't mess with it. Been running without a defrag for at least half a year of heavy usage without issue.
 
I just installed the PerfectDisk 10 WHS defragger, figured I'd use it for the 30 days and then try Diskeeper. I'm running 11 drives that are getting up to 95-97% that have never been defragged since I built this system about a year ago.

I've read arguments for and against defragging, we'll see if it does anything.
 
All of this talk about network speed is interesting and all, but it doesn't seem to address the issue that I have.

While transfering large files (4 gigs) to my WHS (onboard gig via gig switches, cat 6 cable) I often see transfer speeds of 15Mbps that then drops to 5Mbps and will fluctuate around. I've seen 30Mbps, but it's rare, so I know that the network can handle it...but what's the deal with falling well below 15? When I've noticed this happening I've gone around checking that nothing else was happening and found that to be the case.

Somewhat along these lines, the above comments have mentioned nic cards that are better than on-board...how about a list of above average gig switches?

Thanks.
-Kevin
 
KevinG said:
All of this talk about network speed is interesting and all, but it doesn't seem to address the issue that I have.

While transfering large files (4 gigs) to my WHS (onboard gig via gig switches, cat 6 cable) I often see transfer speeds of 15Mbps that then drops to 5Mbps and will fluctuate around. I've seen 30Mbps, but it's rare, so I know that the network can handle it...but what's the deal with falling well below 15? When I've noticed this happening I've gone around checking that nothing else was happening and found that to be the case.

Somewhat along these lines, the above comments have mentioned nic cards that are better than on-board...how about a list of above average gig switches?

Thanks.
-Kevin
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Are you talking Megabits or Megabytes? Either way that's pretty low for gigabit. What NIC's/Switches are you using?
 
Kevin

I dont know what issue you are talking about, but if its an issue with your particular setup, I think it would be better addressed in its own dedicated thread.
 
I was certainly talking about megabytes, sorry for the typos.

I guess I don't *know* if it's an issue with my particular setup, since I don't know if it is normal or not.

Does anyone else experience much lower than expected throughput on a regular basis?

As for what hardware I am using, I'll have to check when I get home tonight. The WHS is running on a Dell PowerEdge SC440 using the onboard gig nic. The primary computer that I copy files from is running a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 using the onboard gig nic. They are connected via 2 dLink gig switches. I'd have to check the model numbers at home. But one is an 8 port "gaming" switch that also has wireless G (unused). The other is a 4 port basic switch.

As far as a separate thread, there is already an old one on this topic...it hasn't been updated, but suffice it to say that the problem hasn't gone away.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1372851

Thanks!
-Kevin
 
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