By on August 28th, 2014

Updating the WD DX4000 to WS2012 R2

WD Sentinel DX4000 Front

Troy Walker a WD DX4000 owner updated the device to Windows Server 2012 R2 and decided to do some testing:

Troy’s post highlights the subsystem and the latest RST drivers from Intel:

There are a few things to mention that are potential headaches. The script that I created to send system vitals to the LCD does work; however, there are a few metrics that are a tad buggy at the moment. The NIC readings are not functioning correctly. I know the reason for this and plan to provide an update when I can. The cause is that with the update to 2012R2, there are currently no drivers available from Intel for the 82754L Ethernet adapters. Only the Microsoft drivers are available that are built into the installation, which also means that the teaming has to be done differently and so the WMI containers have probably changed. I’m using the Microsoft teaming features built into 2012R2, and honestly… it’s working just fine.

You can read the full post here.

News
Full Story
By on August 27th, 2014

Video: Installing & Cooling a Radeon HD6450 on the MicroServer

John Stutsman

Another couple of videos from John Stutsman for MicroServer users.

The first is John installing a Sapphire Radeon HD6450 Graphics card in his HP ProLiant Gen8 MicroServer providing him with HDMI and DVI Output to two Monitors with Sound playing through the HDMI connection monitor:

This second video is John testing the impact of adding supplemental cooling to the Sapphire Radeon HD6450 Graphics card:

Tutorial • video
Full Story
By on August 26th, 2014

Add-In: Drive Bender v2.1.7.0

Drive Bender Logo

Drive Bender has has a couple of updates in the last few days.

Here is the change log for these latest versions:

Release v2.1.7.0 release (2014-08-26)

  • [Bug fix] When opening the Duplication Manager, an error is generated in the file list.
  • [Bug fix] The client sort menu is not refreshing correctly.

Release v2.1.6.0 release (2014-08-25)

  • [Update] Further improvements to the upgrade start up issue.
  • [n] Added registry switches to allow a mount point to mount as a non PnP drive.
  • [Bug fix] The health monitor scan can fail on folders containing certain string formatting characters.
  • [Bug fix] File balancing cab start while a drive is being removed. This can result in multiple primary files being created.
  • [n] You can now specify the "drive full" values (i.e. when a drive is considered full). This value is used for both cascade balancing and landing zone.
  • [Bug fix] When performing a file system check, or scanning drive to be balanced, the task can hang if a directory junction point is found.
  • [Bug fix] Fixed how the client is displaying the non-pooled value, it should no longer corrupt the pie chart.
  • [Bug fix] Deleting a notification does not always work.
  • [Bug fix] A number of minor interface fixes and updates.
  • [Update] The Drive Bender tray notification application uses less resources.

The download is available from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
Full Story
By on August 24th, 2014

Enable Verbose Logging for Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials

The Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server Blog have an article on how to enable verbose logging for Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 Essentials, which will help for troubleshooting purposes.

Enable Verbose Logging for Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials

A great read, which can be found here.

Tutorial • WS2012e
Full Story
By on August 19th, 2014

Video: The Home Server Connector Explained in 7 minutes

home tech tips logo

The average guy network have a new podcast called Home Tech Tips, and on this week’s edition John Zajdler (@Dieharder) explains in 7 minutes the different ways the Windows Home Server and Windows Server 2012R2 Essentials client connectors work.

video
Full Story
By on August 18th, 2014

Add-In: My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials v5.10 Pre Release 4

My Movies for Windows - Home and Essentials

The pre-release version of My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials has been updated to 5.10 Pre Release 4.

Here is the change log for this release:

  • Added: The export database to XML function have been updated, and now includes options to export TV Series, Movies and, all graphical parts used in the database.
  • Added: Check for missing movies for disc titles with IMDB set. The check is done on update of all disc titles.
  • Added: New groups to allow for tracking of digital media and watches in cinema: Digital, Interested, Seen.
  • Change: Settings on how to display movie and tv series discs are displayed in WMC.
  • Fix: Files that were read-only could not be picked up by monitoring.
  • Fix: Update of movie profiles had some errors that could break the movie.
  • Fix: Changing the IMDB id on a disc title, will update its movie connection.
  • Fix: File existance checks was done in a dumb way, which could lead to issues such as file tagging problems when copying music.
  • Fix: Ratings on disc titles was not handled correct. They displayed the global rating, and stored it as the users own rating when saving the title.
  • Fix: Movie connection is now updated on disc titles when a disc title is saved, if it is relevant to update it.
  • Fix: Some data and icons were not updated correctly after contribution of a new movie.
  • Fix: Change og country or language on not contributed movies, will now leave the data in the fields, and not try and download data.
  • Fix: Bug with box set contributions made all contributions seems as if the box set content had changed.
  • Fix: Copy of disc titles with connected movies didn’t work correctly.
  • Fix: Attempt to let refresh rate changer to produce an error when reverting refresh rates.

As always more information can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
Full Story
By on August 16th, 2014

Entertainment 2.0 Talks iHomeServer

Entertainment 2.0 Logo

Episode 290 of the Entertainment 2.0 podcast has an interview with Ed, the developer behind iHomeServer and rtRemote, who joins the show to discuss his fantastic applications for WHS, WS2012 Essentials and Windows desktops.

PS The interview with Ed starts at approx. 43 mins in.

You can find the podcast here.

podcast
Full Story
By on August 14th, 2014

Add-In: My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials v5.1- Pre-Release 3

My Movies for Windows - Home and Essentials

The pre-release version of My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials has been updated.

Version 5.1- pre-release 3 has the following change log:

  • Change: The image view dialog now shows the resolution of the image.
  • Fix: There was a problem reporting incorrect data for movie posters and backdrops.
  • Fix: Contribution history for movie images did not work correct.
  • Fix: Minor bugs with poster/backdrop selector not showing the right color on the imageframe.
  • Fix: Database restore could in some situations not upgrade the database, causing a log in issue after restoring.
  • Fix: Cache backdrop function made some calls that were no longer needed, and which could overwrite user selected images.
  • Fix: The image selector checked for moderator status too many times, causing a delay in getting images to appear.
  • Fix: Update Movie menu link was missing, but was still run when updating.

Additional information including the download link can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server • WS2012e
Full Story
By on August 14th, 2014

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 266

home_server_show_small

After a break the Home Server Show is back with episode 266:

The Home Server Show is back after a little time off. Thanks for coming back too! Jim and I discuss unlimited backup to cloud services, news, 6TB Drives, and a whole lot more.

All good stuff as usual which you can find here.

podcast
Full Story
By on August 13th, 2014

Office 365 and Azure AD Can Now be Enabled in a Multi DC Environment

The Windows August update released this patch Tuesday includes a patch for WS2012 Essentials R2 which now allows Office 365 and Windows Azure Active Directory to be enabled in a multi domain controller (DC) environment.

Office 365 and Windows Azure Active Directory can be enabled in a multi DC environment

Here are the details from Microsoft:

In Windows Server Essentials 2012 R2, all of our online services integration features, including Azure Active Directory and Office 365, are supported only in environments that have a single domain controller. In environments with more than one domain controller, integration of these services is blocked due limitations in the user account and password synchronization mechanism in Windows Server Essentials.

I am happy to announce that with the recent Windows August Update released on (8/12/2014, PST), this limitation has been removed.  This update adds support for both Azure Active Directory integration and Office 365 integration features in domain environments consisting of a single domain controller, multiple domain controllers, or Windows Server Essentials as a domain member server.

News • WS2012e
Full Story