Readers to the Rescue
We started earlier in the week with a reader asking for advice and since then we have a few more questions from Windows Home Server enthusiasts, or a potential one at least.
First up is Michiel who asks:
What are the best settings for WHS “Power Options”?
Is it possible to turn the hard disks off after 30 minutes for instance?
As a satisfied beta-tester I plan to have WHS in my home-computer-infrastructure. I want to know what the best settings are for energy saving (without turning WHS complete off 🙂Regards,
and thanks in advance!
In this world of ever increasing electricity bills, good question Michiel. Next we have Scott who asks:
1) Can I use a Terminal Server client running on another PC on my LAN to get a “conventional Windows” interface coming from an WHS box? (ie, not the WHS admin interface)
2) From within Terminal Server, can I run Internet Explorer and install app’s like Windows Media Player — on the WHS box?thanks, -Scott
UPDATE 1: For those of you that don’t know about Terminal Server, Scott has pointed out to me that it is just a way to get a window on one PC that shows you what’s happening on another. You can use it to “make things happen” on another PC over a network. But the question is whether you can only get a WHS interface from a WHS box, or whether your can also get a “regular” Windows interface, and install/run other Windows applications.
UPDATE 2: Apparently, according to a thread on the WHS forums, using Terminal Server to control the desktop of a WHS device is a violation of the WHS EULA (however, I gather that may not apply to a handful of other specific tasks). So, that’s basically a deal breaker, which really is too bad.
This question is a follow on from the one Scott asked earlier this week which has now been updated and if you know your Terminal Server stuff then please give Scott a helping hand by leaving a comment.
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Michiel –
Energy use is on a lot of our minds nowadays, and rightfully so. When it comes to power option for WHS you can set it up, through Windows 2003 Server, for your system to power down your hard disks after a period of inactivity. The only drawback to this would be when a file is accessed you would experience a slight delay when they are “waking up”.
Out of the box, WHS doesn’t require a monitor — which is a big energy hog — so you are saving a bit there. Another energy saving tip for WHS is to put as many internal drives as you can into your server and cut down on the external drives with their “power brick”. Those bricks are known to be highly energy inefficient.
Keep in mind WHS is running server software and doing a lot of tasks in the background — so your drives may never really “spin down” as they may always have some activity going on.
Scott –
You can use the RDP client to connect directly to the Windows 2003 desktop in WHS. Just point your RDP client to your server name and away you go! Login as Administrator with the WHS master password.
You can also install apps, but be warned that installing apps under Terminal Services is not foolproof. Most applications nowadays check for a terminal services environment, but many may not and may have problems installing or running correctly.
Now Microsoft has warned that not all the functionality of Windows 2003 server is there — even though it may look like it is there. They highly advise against installing software on WHS and using it as a “desktop” machine because you could very well break WHS. I’ve seen a few cases of this myself where WHS throws a gasket after installing an app that has gummed up WHS internals. Something to keep in mind!
Robert
Michiel,
I have set the turn off hard disk parameter to 30 minutes with no problem. I do now make a test with 15 minutes.
I do not make power measure but i heard now the drives shut down from time to time …
Jacques
Hi Robert Stinnett,
Thanks for your comments, excellent advice.
Hi jackyred,
Let us know how the tests go.