By on January 05th, 2015

6TB Seagate Enterprise NAS HDD Reviewed

Seagate Enterprise NAS HDD

AnandTech have a great review on the 6TB Seagate Enterprise NAS HDD:

The 4 TB variant of the Seagate Enterprise NAS HDD seems to be priced around $236 and the 6 TB variant around $420. These prices don’t have DRS included. The 4 TB variant costs the same as the equivalent WD Red Pro, but comes with extra cache capacity. This makes it perform better in a number of workloads, making it easier to recommend. The 6 TB variant really doesn’t have any competitor in its price-to-performance ratio range. While the WD Red retails for less than $300, the Seagate Enterprise Capacity v4 retails north of $500. At the $420 price point, the Enterprise NAS HDD strikes a nice balance.

The full 8 page review can be read here.

Hardware • News
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By on December 29th, 2014

Storage Replication in the next version of Windows Server

If you would like a sneak look at what Storage Replication will look like in the next version of Windows Server, then Channel 9’s the Edge Show have a video just for you.

The 37 minute video has Symon interviewing Claus Joergensen (Principal Program Manager) and Ned Pyle (Senior Program Manager) about replication enhancements coming in the next version of Windows Server. Claus first talks about Shared-Nothing Storage Spaces, which provides storage for a failover cluster using direct-attached storage, rather than a SAN. Next Ned talks about the new Storage Replica feature which provide a native synchronous replication solution for multi-site clusters and disaster recovery.

Storage Replication in the next version of Windows Server

You can find the video and accompanying notes here.

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By on December 27th, 2014

Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials

The Microsoft Windows storage Server team give us a closer look at Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials.

Thecus N5200 NAS Server

In a blog post the team explain why we should consider it and what hardware the software is currently being used.

You can find the article here.

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By on December 19th, 2014

Add-In: Lights-Out v1.5.7 Build 2284

Lights-Out for Windows 10 and Windows Server Technical Preview

Lights-Out for Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Server Essentials 2012 (R2) has been updated to version 1.5.7 Build 2284 (Hotfix)

Here are the 2 issues fixed in this release:

  • Fixed: Loading ProviderFramework.dll on Windows 7 if system is not installed on c:
  • Fixed: Missing backup detection if "Always on during backup" is disabled

More info including the download link can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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By on December 18th, 2014

Add-In: Drive Bender v2.2

Drive Bender Logo

The add-in Drive Bender has been updated version 2.2.

Drive Bender presents multiple hard drives to be used as a single pool of storage and release 2.2 has lots of under the hood fixes.

Drive Bender can be downloaded from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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By on December 17th, 2014

Add-In: My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials v5.12 Pre Release 2

My Movies 5 Pre Release Dashboard

The pre release version of My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials has been updated to version 5.12
Pre Release 2.

This latest pre-release has the following change log:

  • Added: Tracking of watched marking and progress on "Play all episodes" and other playlist based watching in MediaPlayer Classic.
  • Added: Option to hide season level on TV Series with only one season.
  • Added: Remote event handler for Samsung TV’s.
  • Added: Auro 3D audio track types
  • Added: Option to tag two main movies in the meta-data for disc titles containing two editions.
  • Added: Option to tag two main movies in the meta-data for disc titles containing two editions.
  • Change: Various improvements and adjustments to using MPC-HC or MPC-BE as main player for all titles.
  • Change: Facebook login updated to support new Facebook API’s, to avoid deprecation.
  • Change: Including AnyDVD’s disc.inf file when copying a BDMV folder.
  • Change: disc.inf from AnyDVD used to play correct main movie when playing titles with MPC.
  • Fix: A bug in the path check for disc titles could report a change to a title even though nothing had changed.
  • Fix: Collection number for TV Series wasn’t registered on webservices when contributing a new tv series.
  • Fix: Change source through folder import for TV Series didn’t show the correct dialog, and didn’t fill in the correct fields.
  • Fix: Media information was not displayed for discs inserted into drives.
  • Fix: Time improvement on disc title load in Collection Management. Check of complete percentage is now done in the background.
  • Fix: Reading of chapter structure on blu-ray had some issues in a few specific circumstances.
  • Fix: Informative message is now returned, if user tries to add a monitored item to converter, and the item is not in a supported format.
  • Fix: Disc id not passed correct to edit episodes dialog, meaning that it may say that the disc was not found.
  • Fix: AnyDVD state was not always read correct on X86 devices.
  • Fix: The service could crash due to a notification object being run through and added to at the same time.
  • Fix: Cover type did not display correct in preview.
  • Fix: Settings could break if a previously selected cover style was no longer available.
  • Fix: There could be a problem in the response from the API when requesting play options, if title had multiple discs, with one having play options, and the other not.
  • Fix: columns for episode editing are now set to best fit the content.
  • Fix: Chapter times for blu-rays needed to be read differently in some scenarios.
  • Fix: Issue that could cause BDMV playlist folders to be added as video folder.
  • Fix: Some internal dates on connected movies where not updated on title delete, which could result in an indication that the movie wasn’t in sync with the server.

More details including the download can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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By on December 13th, 2014

Add-In: Lights-Out for Windows Server Solutions v1.5.6 Build 2283

Lights-Out for Windows 10 and Windows Server Technical Preview

Lights-Out for Windows Server Solutions has been updated to version 1.5.6 Build 2283 for users of WS2012 (R2) Essentials, Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials or WHS2011.

This version adds official support for Windows 10 Preview and Windows Server Technical Preview and Apple Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite).

If you run a high resolution display or use a 4k Monitor you will notice that Lights-Out has now High-DPI support too.

Here are the full release notes for this release:

  • Fixed: Calendar issue introduced in build 2136. Server goes into standby 3 minutes before a calendar entry starts if server is already active and calendar entry has a forced end action
  • Fixed: Random silent service crash
  • Fixed: Idle detection for Mac Agent running on a headless Mac Mini
  • Fixed: Occasional crash in network scanner with multiple network cards
  • Fixed: Log file write access issue
  • Fixed: Domain user access detection
  • Fixed: Unexpected client count down window
  • Changed: Removed http prefix on wake domain to prevent a crash in windows store app
  • Changed: Task scheduler tasks are no longer hidden
  • Changed: Mobile web site shows active devices again
  • Changed: Mac Agent does no longer display missing license if run outside home network
  • Changed: Increased interval between pinging ip devices
  • Added: LightsOutCleanup Tool
  • Added: Support for Windows 10
  • Added: Support for Windows Server Technical Preview
  • Added: Support for High-DPI Displays
  • Added: Windows 8 icon set for client application
  • Added: Support for Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)
  • Added: Command line option to trigger client action after backup
  • Added: Popup message for new version information
  • Added: Client wakes server 2-5 minutes before a WHS/WSE backup starts

More details on Lights-Out can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
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By on December 12th, 2014

CloudBerry Backup v4.0 Released

CloudBerry Backup Logo (2)

CloudBerry Backup have just released version 4.0 of their cloud backup solution. This latest version comes with the following new features and updates:

  • Block-level across all cloud storages,
  • Block-level for Bare Metal / System State backup,
  • Multithreading restore,
  • Support MS SQL Server databases with FileStream and TDE,
  • SoftLayer – new data centers added,
  • Improvements to Amazon Glacier Inventory Retrieval.

Block-level Backup across All Cloud Storage Providers

From this moment we support block-level backup for all cloud storages. No exclusions for now. Learn more about this feature from the corresponding post.

Block-level Backup for Bare Metal / System State Backup

Now CloudBerry Backup also supports block-level backup for Bare Metal / System State backup that allows you to run system backups efficiently and faster. Learn more about this feature from the corresponding post.

Faster Restore with Multithreading

With CloudBerry Backup 4.0 multithreading is added to the restore process. Now files are transferred in multiple threads. That allows users to retrieve their data from the cloud much faster.

MS SQL Server Databases with FileStream and TDE

With CloudBerry Backup 4.0 we are introducing seamless and transparent support for SQL Server databases with Filestream and TDE. No additional settings are required.

SoftLayer – New Data Centers Added

We have added new SoftLayer data centers in to CloudBerry Backup. All data centers are now supported.

Improvements to Amazon Glacier Inventory Retrieval

Our new CloudBerry Backup version supports Range inventory retrieval, which makes it possible to divide large lists of files to parts. This means that the first 10 million files are available, then the next 10 million files, and so on.

The Server edition for Window Servers is priced at $79.99.

add-ins • WS2012e
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By on December 11th, 2014

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 274

home_server_show_small

Episode 274 of the Home Server Show podcast is about replacing CrashPlan with OneDrive.

Should you consider replacing your CrashPlan backup with OneDrive? …a ton of news items, new cloud services, Microsoft Band, portable batteries and streamers.

You can catch episode 274 here.

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By on December 10th, 2014

Cloud Xtender – Additional Info

Cloud Xtender from Division-M from the guys who bring us Drive Bender is storage pooling for the cloud.

Cloud Xtender supports a number of cloud storage provides out of the box, and also provides a third-party API to allow additional providers to be quickly added.

Cloud Xtender Cloud Connections Tab

On the Division-M blog, Anthony has shared some more detailed info on the upcoming Cloud Xtender, which is close to a beta release.

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