By on September 23rd, 2011

Windows Home Server Client Backup Notifier 1.0.0.12

The Windows Home Server Client Backup Notifier has had an update.

whsclientbackupnotifier

This WHS tool allows you to receive email notifications of the current backup state of each client joined to your Windows Home Server. It can be run from a command line, or as a Scheduled Task.

Changes in v1.0.0.12:

  • Added SSL/TLS support (for smtp.gmail.com)
  • Added XML documentation to config file
  • Added conversion from UTC to local time for Last Good Backup
  • Added exit codes for success and failure conditions
  • Improved error handling

More information on Windows Home Server Client Backup Notifier can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on September 23rd, 2011

Drive Bender License Renewal

If you are running the current version of Drive Bender then the license is due to expire the end of September.

Drive Bender Logo

If this affects you, then head over to Drive Bender to get a new license.

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By on September 22nd, 2011

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 153

home_server_show_small

Episode 153 of The Home Server Show podcast is up and ready for you:

This episode contains two big debates.  The first is should you use an SSD drive as your Windows Home Server operating system drive.  The second is running Windows Home Server in a virtual environment or running other servers in a VM on your WHS 2011 server.  There might not be a right answer to these debates but that won’t stop us from talking about them.

You can catch episode 153 here.

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By on September 22nd, 2011

Drive Extender Implemented more Reliably in Server 8

Paul Thurrott has stated that although Drive Extender was a good idea, it’s implementation wasn’t exactly enterprise-ready:

…after testing this technology on its new-generation small business servers, Microsoft discovered it wasn’t compatible with many server apps and didn’t work reliably. So it was scrapped, to the chagrin of Windows Home Server fans, many of whom have ignored the second-generation (and Drive Extender–less) Windows Home Server 2011 release.

But there was a reason behind this madness: Over in the core Server group, Microsoft engineers were working on storage innovations of their own. And although these changes might seem conceptually similar to Drive Extender, they’re better and more reliably implemented in Server 8

And that’s where Jeff James comes in as he has written a Windows Server 8 Storage Feature Overview article where he goes into storage pools, CHKDSK and data deduplication.

Its an interesting read which you can find here.

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By on September 21st, 2011

DVBLink TVSource v4 Patch

DVBLink v4 has a patch for TVSource which fixes jerky TRL4 (HD) playback and some server stability issues.

DVBLogic Logo

Full fix list:

  • DVBLink server crashes in tvsource.dll or tvsource_info.dll when system has more than 8 tuners
  • RTL4 (HD) jerky playback
  • Weak TVSignal / dvblink server crash when one or more sources are playing TV and another TV source is started or web browser about page is opened

Additional notes and patch installation details can be obtained from here.

Other Software • Windows Home Server
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By on September 20th, 2011

Mac OS X Backup for WHS 2011 Users

The Orbital Backup Configuration Add-In is a Mac OS X Time Machine Backup for Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials users.

The free add-in eases the configuration burden of setting up an Apple Mac computer’s Time Machine to use a backup location on the server

Orbital Utilities Lauchpad

The server becomes a a target disk for the Mac OS X Time Machine Backups.

Orbital's Backup Configuration Utility

More details on this add-in for Mac OS X users can be found here.

add-ins • News • Windows Home Server
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By on September 19th, 2011

Windows Home Server works great with Windows 8

Its great news to hear that Windows Home Server both v1 and the 2011 version both support Windows 8 just fine.

windows_8_logo

If you have tried Windows 8 with Home Server, what have been your experiences backing up Windows 8 to your Windows Home Server?

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By on September 19th, 2011

BYOB Podcast Episode 59

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Episode 59 of the BYOB podcast is available:

“This week our guest is Greg Welch (Welchworks).  We go over his extensive and impressive home network that include WHS servers, Hyper-V virtual machines, HTPCs, Home Automation and more on this weeks BYOB Podcast.”

You can find this weeks episode here.

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By on September 19th, 2011

Add-In: Drive Bender 1.1.8.4

Drive Bender version 1.1.8.4 is here which hopefully puts the folder locking issue to bed.

Drive Bender Logo

Here’s the change log:

  • Bug fix: When adding, merging or removing a drive to / from the pool, the process could hang and not complete.
  • Bug fix: When upgrading an XP x64 platform, the drivers may not get updated correctly.
  • Bug fix: Repairing a pool’s configuration was not working correctly and did not update the registry correctly.
  • Update: File security performance has been improved through the use of caching.
  • Bug fix: File / folder deleting, rename and modifying (i.e. attributes and security) has been improved.
  • Bug fix: If a file is denied access (because of an access check), the service could crash under some conditions.

You can download version 1.1.8.4 beta released 18th September from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on September 17th, 2011

RAID 0 and RAID 1 Explained Using Sandwiches!

Using Turkey Club sandwiches as examples, D-Link explain the difference between RAID 0 and RAID 1.

If you have a hard job defining these two different RAID systems then this D-Link video is a must see…oh and by the way, I will never look at a Club sandwich in the same light again!

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