Microsoft Windows Home Server - WHS will automatically backup and restore your PCs and allow you to share and access files from any machine in the house as well as giving you remote access to those files and PC’s as well. This site will guide you on your journey of discovery with WHS.
Thanks to Paul Scott who sent us the link to an article about running both Linux and Windows Home Server on a HP MediaSmart Server.
The guide goes through the 14 steps necessary to accomplice this using a free copy of Microsoft Virtual Server and a Linux distribution of your choice.
How would you like to synchronize files that are not located on your network with your Windows Home Server?
In my case I use the online FolderShare service to “backup” my brothers photos and documents from his PC back to my WHS
With the Foldershare software running on both the home server and on his client machine, the folders are kept in sync. And although my brothers computer is a PC, it could had also been a MAC, because the FolderShare software is available for that to, allowing an easy way of syncing the Mac to Home Server.
Privacy is not an issue with Microsoft’s FolderShare service, since none of the files are hosted. It’s just like sending a file to someone over Windows Live Messenger, except it is done automatically. Any file type can be transferred and the web management screen works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera.
Since the FolderShare software will only work when a user is logged in, we will have to turn it into a Service. This is easy enough to do but be sure that you have already downloaded and configured FolderShare and that data is being synchronized before proceeding and be sure to shutdown FolderShare before performing these steps. Courtesy of Chris Blankenship’s Ramblings:
- You will need instsrv.exe and srvany.exe from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools.
- Copy instsrv.exe to c:\program files\foldershare
- Copy srvany.exe to c:\program files\foldershare
- execute “c:\program files\foldershare\instsrv.exe” FolderShare “c:\program files\foldershare\srvany.exe”
- execute c:\reg ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FolderShare\Parameters /v Application /d “c:\program files\foldershare\foldershare.exe”
- execute c:\reg ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FolderShare\Parameters /v AppDirectory /d “c:\program files\foldershare”
- execute c:\reg DELETE HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v Foldershare /f
- execute c:\net start Foldershare
More Information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890
A couple of things worth mentioning. First, you can’t run a Windows Service with Interactive Desktop support if you want that service to access the Internet; Windows won’t let this happen. So this means you should never click the service properties checkbox to make Foldershare interactive with the desktop. Second, because you are running Foldershare as a service you will receive an error during your login indicating that Foldershare is already running. Ignore this error and things will continue to work great. If you try and remove the registry entry that causes Foldershare to launch during your login process the service will re-add the entry the next time it restarts, so don’t even bother removing the registry. I have tested this with Windows Server 2003 and Windows Home Server without any trouble.
As you can see Foldershare is a great tool and is handy for syncing small amounts of data. It allows syncing of up to 10,000 files, which is around 40 GB of mp3 files.
Fixing Database Inconsistency errors is a great post by brubber in the Windows Home Server Forums. In his guide brubber explains how to recover from database inconsistency errors as well as how to fix the client backup database as well as how to fix the backup service not running.
Read it here.
Matthew Miller has written about running Windows Home Server as a Subversion Server which is an open-source version control developer tool which can run under Linux or Windows.
So, if your into really techie stuff (not for the faint hearted), then head over to the details here.
How-To: Install phpMyAdmin on your Windows Home Server is a new tutorial posted on We Got Served. phpMyAdmin allows you to easily manage your databases for your websites, including creating new databases, tables, entries and even deleting or editing them.
Over the last few days WHS enthusiast site We Got Served has published a series of how to’s for those wanting more from their Home Server’s. These include how to install Forum Software phpBB 3 on Windows Home Server, how-to install MediaWiki on Windows Home Server, installing PHP for IIS on Windows Home Server and how-to: install WordPress on Windows Home Server. Great stuff!
As I am sure you are aware, you do not need a DVD drive in your Windows Home Server case as the operating system is headless (no mouse, monitor, keyboard etc). So how do you install Home Server if their is no DVD drive? Easy, if you follow the guide on We Got Served. Turn Your USB Flash Drive into a Windows Install Disk explains how to install Windows Home Server from a USB flash drive, which I am sure many of us have lying around.
Introduction
Windows Home Server uses Volume Shadow Services (VSS) to support Previous Version functionality for files stored in Shared Folders on the home server. The Home Server normally triggers a snapshot every 12 hours, enabling users to access previous versions of files stored in Shared Folders on your home server. This is archived through the Previous Versions functionality available in Windows client operating systems introduced with XP with SP1, Server 2003 and in all releases of Microsoft Windows thereafter.
What is VSS?
The feature VSS, also known as Shadow Copy or Previous Versions takes snapshots of files and folders either on a scheduled basis, or at the request of a program.
What is it used for?
VSS has several uses. First, it can be used by a program to “freeze ” the state of all files on a disk in order to get a consistent slice while other programs are potentially writing to the disk. This is particularly useful for software like backup programs, as it is very important that a backup be consistent in order for a restore to be successful. Second, it can be used to take a snapshot of a file at a point-in-time, in order to roll back to that point to a later date. This allows “undoing” a change, such as modifying or deleting a file or folder. This is called “Previous Versions” functionality.
What about Windows Server?
The WHS backup tool uses VSS on a client PC in order to obtain a consistent slice as described above. On the server, VSS is used in the shares to support the ability to “roll back” changes in the shares.
What about the recent FAQ posting
it turns out that there’s a bug in the way VSS is handled on servers with two or more drives. On such servers, it’s possible that “Previous Versions” will be shown, but will be inaccessible or a “Cannot copy <filename>: Invalid file handle” error message will be displayed when attempting to copy or restore a previous version of a file or folder.
There’s also a loosely related bug which only affects HP and other OEM servers. Because of the way the servers are prepared for duplication, VSS is turned off when they are shipped from the factory.
What can be done by WHS users?
Microsoft is aware of this problem and are researching it. While it’s possible for a user to turn on VSS, it’s probably not desirable because of the issue with multi-drive servers. For the time being, a WHS user should be aware of the issue, and not rely on “Previous Versions” functionality on the server.
Remember that the issue only occurs if certain conditions are true (see the FAQ: Previous Versions for files on Windows Home Server Shared Folders may not function correctly on the WHS Forum by Ken Warren).
If VSS is turned ON, how do I turn it OFF?
On the HP MediaSmart Server VSS is turned off for all partitions. To turn it off on other hardware you will need to Remote Desktop into your Home Server and start regedit. (WARNING: If you don’t know what regedit is, then do not follow these guidelines as you could render your WHS inoperable)
Open the following location in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Home Server\Storage Manager\Volumes
You will find a GUID for each volume. Turn it off by setting the SnapPeriod key for that volume to 0 from the default 43200000 (milliseconds is 12h) . By default, it’s only enabled for the D: partition.
Finally a re-boot of the server will be required.
Many thanks to fellow WHS MVP Ken Warren for additional information for this article.
The site Home Server Hacks have posted a tutorial on how to upgrade the processor in the HP MediaSmart Server EX470/475 from the supplied 1.8GHz Sempron, which is a Socket AM2 to a low power (45W) 2.6GHz processor with 1MB of L2 cache (from 256KB in the Sempron). And all for the bargain basement price of only $55.
All the details including test results are available to read here.
Have you ever wished that your Windows Home Server would tell you when it’s about to shut off due to a power outage?
Well it can be done. Blogger Sean Daniel shows us by using a UPS, configuring the alerts in the power management control panel and by using 1 of 2 VBS scripts. All the details are in Sean’s article I can’t do it Captain, I just don’t have the power!
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