Windows Home Server Questions?

Based on what I've read here, would it be advised to installed WHS on one of my single 250 GB WD drives, and then add the other two drives in after the fact? I'm assuming WHS will make it's 20 GB partition for itself and allocate the rest for storage, and then I could add in the remaining two drives.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Based on what I've read here, would it be advised to installed WHS on one of my single 250 GB WD drives, and then add the other two drives in after the fact? I'm assuming WHS will make it's 20 GB partition for itself and allocate the rest for storage, and then I could add in the remaining two drives.
Click to expand...

Any drives in the machine during the initial setup will be formatted. So, if they have data on them, leave them out. If not, put them in and WHS will be ready.
 
Slowly, slowly, slowly getting my WHS all built up. Installing 1 HDD at a time, transferring data to WHS, adding drive to the pool; rinse, repeat. Taking at least 4 hours per 500GB drive. But I'm getting close.

 
I am sure this will open up a can of worms, hope it doesn't but I guess why I was wondering about mirroring is just losing data. Obviously to protect that you either mirror or just build a server and have 1 dump in to the other one. Though in this case it seems that if you have 4 - 500s in the 'pool' as WHS calls it, one of those starts failing or the health begins to fail of the drive, the system keeps going but starts pulling data off that drive so when you get a new one it just moves the data on to the new drive?
If that is the case then that does seem rather efficient, no longer having to worry about 1 drive in the pool bringing the whole system down, just pull it out and throw in another 500 or if need be possibly a 750 or 1Tb.
 
1 - Yes. You just tell it to un-mirror and that's the end of it. It will free the space on the second drive automatically.

2 - That's a damned fine question :) I suspect it may depend on the drives used.

3 - There would definitely need to be BIOS support for this (mainly for the turn-on part). Frankly, I don't know that a 4 hour power-down window is worth the effort or complexity. I do not recall reading anthing about this being an available feature howerver.



Toytown said:
After looking at getting another NAS device, my mind is now changing to WHS. Could anybody be so kind to answer these 3 questions for me please.

1. Regarding the mirrored shares, can i choose to break and remake the mirror on shares at will (taking into account theres enough space in the pool to remake a mirror)?

2. do the drives spin down when not used?

3. Can you tell WHS to turn off from say 2am - 8am?
Click to expand...
 
Not a direct answer, but a couple of points to help you make your decision...

1. WHS, when installed, has no option to choose which drive to install on. It will automatically grab whatever drive is identified as 0:0 (drive C) and use that. Make sure whatever drive you want to have WHS installed on is identified as 0:0 (drive C).

2. When installed, WHS will also gobble up ALL remaining drive space on all drives and make them part of the JBOD.

3. You can add drives later. Just attach them, boot up, then go to the drive manager and add them to the JBOD. It's very easy. You may have to log in locally or via full RDC first to use the drive manager to format them as I don't know if WHS will format automatically. All of my drives were prepped and ready when I added them, so it took about 10 seconds per drive to add them to the JBOD.

In short, there is no harm in setting up with just one drive if you want to be safe.



DeaconFrost said:
Based on what I've read here, would it be advised to installed WHS on one of my single 250 GB WD drives, and then add the other two drives in after the fact? I'm assuming WHS will make it's 20 GB partition for itself and allocate the rest for storage, and then I could add in the remaining two drives.
Click to expand...
 
I don't follow 100%, but I have been through a drive failure with WHS and here is what transpired:

1. RAID Card (running drives as separate volumes) emailed me and notified me that drive 6 of 6 was issuing smart failures.

2. Opened the WHS console. Right-clicked on the bad drive and removed it from the JBOD. WHS automatically moved any data, including mirrors, off that drive and onto other drives in the JBOD.

3, Left system in this configuration, with drive 6 just sitting there unused, until replacement came from Seagate.

4. Replacement arrived. Shut down and replaced bad drive.

5. Rebooted, and brought up the WHS console again.

6. Added the new drive to the JBOD and WHS re-balanced the storage, using the new drive as needed.



Sparkyy said:
I am sure this will open up a can of worms, hope it doesn't but I guess why I was wondering about mirroring is just losing data. Obviously to protect that you either mirror or just build a server and have 1 dump in to the other one. Though in this case it seems that if you have 4 - 500s in the 'pool' as WHS calls it, one of those starts failing or the health begins to fail of the drive, the system keeps going but starts pulling data off that drive so when you get a new one it just moves the data on to the new drive?
If that is the case then that does seem rather efficient, no longer having to worry about 1 drive in the pool bringing the whole system down, just pull it out and throw in another 500 or if need be possibly a 750 or 1Tb.
Click to expand...
 
TechLarry said:
Yes, but given your statement you are not their intended customer.

The intended customer is someone who wants a server that provides the most commonly needed services with near zero maintenance.

That ain't Linux :)
Click to expand...

maybe for you it's not but my linux server requires zero maintenance.

WHS is a waste. before some ass calls me a linux fanboy let me just say I use windows xp (pro sp2) and will recommend it because it doesn't hog resources and is stable if you use it wisely.

with a little common sense anyone can set up a simple linux home server that works very well for them. In whs you can't even delete the pre-made pre-named shares. There is idiot proof then there is just plain idiotic.
 
TechLarry said:
1. RAID Card (running drives as separate volumes) emailed me and notified me that drive 6 of 6 was issuing smart failures.

2. Opened the WHS console. Right-clicked on the bad drive and removed it from the JBOD. WHS automatically moved any data, including mirrors, off that drive and onto other drives in the JBOD.

3, Left system in this configuration, with drive 6 just sitting there unused, until replacement came from Seagate.

4. Replacement arrived. Shut down and replaced bad drive.

5. Rebooted, and brought up the WHS console again.

6. Added the new drive to the JBOD and WHS re-balanced the storage, using the new drive as needed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the steps that you did, I've seen first hand that with JBOD, if one drive just crashes out then you lose your data on the whole JBOD. Maybe WHS can't prevent that? At least you were able to see the drive failing and could react before it did fail though.
 
I heard file transfers to WHS machines are reaaaaaalllllyyyyy slow even on gigabit networks. Like, sub 100mbps speeds.

What are your experiences with cross network file transferring?
 
so what Im hearing is that if you have, say, a 4 drive 2.25TiB R5 array and no way to back that up seperately, there is no way to transition to WHS?
 
Korialstrasza said:
I heard file transfers to WHS machines are reaaaaaalllllyyyyy slow even on gigabit networks. Like, sub 100mbps speeds.

What are your experiences with cross network file transferring?
Click to expand...

I've had no problem with "gigabit" speed transfers on mine.

GLSauron said:
so what Im hearing is that if you have, say, a 4 drive 2.25TiB R5 array and no way to back that up seperately, there is no way to transition to WHS?
Click to expand...

I guess that depends on how you plan on bringing the array over. If you wanted it to host the OS, WHS will want to wipe that logical drive clean. If instead you built the OS on another drive and then added the RAID card and it's drives AND did not attempt to integrate it into the WHS drive pool, it might recognize the new logical disk. I haven't tried anything like that but it seems resonable to me. Something to else to try when I get home.
 
Choder said:
I guess that depends on how you plan on bringing the array over. If you wanted it to host the OS, WHS will want to wipe that logical drive clean. If instead you built the OS on another drive and then added the RAID card and it's drives AND did not attempt to integrate it into the WHS drive pool, it might recognize the new logical disk. I haven't tried anything like that but it seems resonable to me. Something to else to try when I get home.
Click to expand...
yeah it would have a different boot disk. The question is can I use that joy of an OS for backup and the like without having the array get wiped (which would annoy me greatly).
 
So if a drive straight up dies, no warnings or anything, the data is still safe?

This is sounding like an awfully convenient setup. No more worrying about finding correct drive sizes, etc.

If a 300gb drive dies, can you replace it with a 500gb?
 
long as the data was marked to be mirrored and you had space, yes.
and yes.
but by default it doesn't mirror everything.
 
So, it's raid 1, not 5?

Theoretically, if I have these HDs:
10gb, 20gb, 30gb = 60gb

and I turn on mirroring, I have 30gb of space? Then if say, the 20gb dies, and I throw in a 40gb making it 80gb, I now have 40gb?
 
roughly. Its turned on per folder or share or something. Seeing as I dont HAVE WHS....
But thats the basic idea, yeah.
 
It has nothing to do with WHS. Network performance has everything to do with your network connection, drive speed, controller speed.

WHS is built off of Windows 2003 Server Small Business Edition, and I've not read of any issues with it.

However, if you have mirroring on for a share, it would reasonably take longer to write to that share than others.

I have gigabit and have seen transer rates that would easily saturare a 100mbit connection (28-35MB/Sec).

Average is around 18-20MB/Sec



Korialstrasza said:
I heard file transfers to WHS machines are reaaaaaalllllyyyyy slow even on gigabit networks. Like, sub 100mbps speeds.

What are your experiences with cross network file transferring?
Click to expand...
 
IF the data on it is set up as a mirror. At least that's the way I understand it.

And yes. I did indeed replace a 300GB drive with a 500GB drive.



Korialstrasza said:
So if a drive straight up dies, no warnings or anything, the data is still safe?

This is sounding like an awfully convenient setup. No more worrying about finding correct drive sizes, etc.

If a 300gb drive dies, can you replace it with a 500gb?
Click to expand...
 
No.

Mirroring is not all or nothing. It is done on a SHARE basis. Whatever shares you set for mirroring will be mirrored. By default no shares are mirrored.

You are not mirroring at the drive level in WHS. You are mirroring at the share level.

Korialstrasza said:
So, it's raid 1, not 5?

Theoretically, if I have these HDs:
10gb, 20gb, 30gb = 60gb

and I turn on mirroring, I have 30gb of space? Then if say, the 20gb dies, and I throw in a 40gb making it 80gb, I now have 40gb?
Click to expand...
 
Sparkyy said:
Thanks for the steps that you did, I've seen first hand that with JBOD, if one drive just crashes out then you lose your data on the whole JBOD. Maybe WHS can't prevent that? At least you were able to see the drive failing and could react before it did fail though.
Click to expand...

If you lose one drive you do not lose the whole JBOD. It's not truely a JBOD setup, more of a "dynamic software JBOD".

I invite cornfield to start a new thread on a Linux alternative to WHS. I have minor experience with Linux, but if there is a guide somewhere how to do this I'd be interested to at least read it.
 
100BaseT networks max at 12.5MB/s. (100/8) if you are seeing 18MB/s you are seeing lower range Gb speeds.
 
so what is this about not being compatible with x64? Do you mean there are only 32bit versions of whs, or that for some reason it is incompatible with vista x64. Because if it is the latter, that is definitely a deal breaker.

So I used google like a good boy, and got my answer. Any idea when power pack 1 is due out? all I see is q1 2008, which is dubious at best
 
Correct. You have to keep in mind the cache levels of controller cards as well.

Also, I'm using Vista.



GLSauron said:
100BaseT networks max at 12.5MB/s. (100/8) if you are seeing 18MB/s you are seeing lower range Gb speeds.
Click to expand...
 
It doesn't have anything to do with the server. It's the connector software for the client PC's.

Currently it is only for XP and Vista 32-bit. There is a "PowerPack" update coming early this year that is stated to include 64-bit connector software for clients.



zmjone2992 said:
so what is this about not being compatible with x64? Do you mean there are only 32bit versions of whs, or that for some reason it is incompatible with vista x64. Because if it is the latter, that is definitely a deal breaker.

So I used google like a good boy, and got my answer. Any idea when power pack 1 is due out? all I see is q1 2008, which is dubious at best
Click to expand...
 
I've been using WHS since the beta. I couldn't be happyer with it. I've been able to move most of the HD's out of my client PC's on my network at home and stick them in the server. I've been so sucessful in doing so, I ran out of sata ports in my server, so I ordered a cheep 2 port pci-e sata raid card, and 2 5-1 sata port multipliers. We'll see how well that works when it gets here.

I'll have to get another PSU in my server at this rate :)
 
Also all the Drive Voodoo that WHS does also applies to FW and USB, esata drives etc. So you can add those to the pool too.
 
Anyone have any thoughts on the uTorrent plugin? I'd love to be able to offload my seeding to a server such as this, and get all the benefits of WHS.
 
I'm thinking of using it too, but having it run on a drive that isn't in the pool or it would never stop balancing.
 
[LYL]Homer;1031952519 said:
If you lose one drive you do not lose the whole JBOD. It's not truely a JBOD setup, more of a "dynamic software JBOD".

I invite cornfield to start a new thread on a Linux alternative to WHS. I have minor experience with Linux, but if there is a guide somewhere how to do this I'd be interested to at least read it.
Click to expand...

I am going to start work on a guide today. I'll make it clear and simple :)
 
So I installed WHS last night. The installation ran fine, but once the very last screen (after everything had booted) came up - The Setup Wizard - it tells me the following
-------
An error occurred in Windows Home Server.

Windows Home Server. Setup encountered an error.

Click back to retry. Or, click next to close the Setup Wizard and run setup again. To restart the Setup Wizard, reboot your home server.

If the problems continue, please contact Product Support.
-------
Every time I reboot I get the same issue. I assume no one else has encountered this?
 
neomits said:
So I installed WHS last night. The installation ran fine, but once the very last screen (after everything had booted) came up - The Setup Wizard - it tells me the following
-------
An error occurred in Windows Home Server.

Windows Home Server. Setup encountered an error.

Click back to retry. Or, click next to close the Setup Wizard and run setup again. To restart the Setup Wizard, reboot your home server.

If the problems continue, please contact Product Support.
-------
Every time I reboot I get the same issue. I assume no one else has encountered this?
Click to expand...

Oh no, I did. Let me tell you. :mad:

Steps to solution:
Clean install (error)
Install drivers, set time zone.
Install again, do the upgrade option.
Works.
 
I was interested in WHS until I found out you can't specify which drives you want what data on. I like to know which physical drives hold what data, so that killed my interest. Too bad. Even with some of the data corruption problems it's having, it seems like a nice system--just a little too dumbed-down for me (not saying WHS users are dumb, but that the system is simplified to the point of restricting options for power users).
 
That's why I like it. I don't want to know what drive what data is on. I don't care. I have more data in my movies folder than can fit on any single drive and having the same type of content spread across many disks that show individually would be a mess. I like the one storage pool. I turn on duplication and no worries.
 
QFT, I'm kind of tired of file management at that level. WHS does simplify, but it can be a good thing.
 
Since everything I think I know about WHS I've learned from reading articles/reviews/etc. instead of interacting with WHS users, this is a good opportunity for me to find out more about operational details. Hopefully some of the obstacles I thought were present really aren't, because I really do want to like WHS. I'd appreciate any feedback from WHS users on these questions:

  1. A scenario where I think I'd want to know what physical drive holds what data is if I want to upgrade a particular drive. How does WHS handle this with regard to non-mirrored data stored on that drive? Do you tell it you're about to change out one of the drives and it automatically moves the data from that drive onto one of the others temporarily, so when you put in the new drive it just copies everything back onto it?
  2. Another is if you need to swap out the drive with the OS on it--say it dies on you. Does WHS automatically backup itself (the OS) onto one of the other drives in case of the OS drive dying? If not, what happens when you put in a new drive for the OS and you reinstall WHS? Does it know what data is mirrored and where it's mirrored? Doesn't seem like it would, but doesn't hurt to ask since I don't know that much about it.
Thanks for the input. Hopefully the answers will help a lot of others considering going the WHS route.
 
Can you run distributed computing applications on WHS without difficulty?
 
MentatYP said:
Since everything I think I know about WHS I've learned from reading articles/reviews/etc. instead of interacting with WHS users, this is a good opportunity for me to find out more about operational details. Hopefully some of the obstacles I thought were present really aren't, because I really do want to like WHS. I'd appreciate any feedback from WHS users on these questions:

  1. A scenario where I think I'd want to know what physical drive holds what data is if I want to upgrade a particular drive. How does WHS handle this with regard to non-mirrored data stored on that drive? Do you tell it you're about to change out one of the drives and it automatically moves the data from that drive onto one of the others temporarily, so when you put in the new drive it just copies everything back onto it?
  2. Another is if you need to swap out the drive with the OS on it--say it dies on you. Does WHS automatically backup itself (the OS) onto one of the other drives in case of the OS drive dying? If not, what happens when you put in a new drive for the OS and you reinstall WHS? Does it know what data is mirrored and where it's mirrored? Doesn't seem like it would, but doesn't hurt to ask since I don't know that much about it.
Thanks for the input. Hopefully the answers will help a lot of others considering going the WHS route.
Click to expand...


1 - you'd connect the new drive, add it to the storage pool, and then remove the drive you want to get rid of from the storage pool and wait untill it's finnished balancing storage again... WHS will migrate the data from the old drive you are removing to the new one, but i don't know how long it takes....

2 - if the system drive dies, all you loose is the system (that is, unless you are packing the storage pool so full of data, some is bleeding over onto the os drive's secondary partition) and all you have to do is reinstall WHS and all your stuff will come back... you will need to re-create users and all that jazz, but at least the data is still there...
 
1. Yes, It's my understanding that I could go power down my WHS box and pull any of the pool drives and boot them up in any other Windows PC and have full access to the data on the drive. Which data on which drive? I think it's a crapshoot, but it is all there. Also, BuBBa showed an example of adding then removing a drive. You can remove and then add as well. You tell the drive manager to remove a particular drive from the pool and it will remove all data from it (assuming you have enough space to move everything), then you can remove/replace the drive with a new one.

2. To expand on "all you have to do is reinstall WHS and all your stuff will come back", iirc as you plug pool drives in after a clean WHS install (with pool drives disconnected or it will reformat them! The installer will warn you of this) because of OS drive or mobo failure and it will recognize them as pool drives and add them automatically without affecting your data.

There is also something I started to read about a network reinstall of WHS but I'm a little fuzzy under what conditions one would do this. Can anyone explain?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top