StableBit, the guys behind StableBit DrivePool have just released a Fourth of July Fireworks add-in for WHS 2011 and SBS 2011 Essentials users.
The add-in will display a special message every year on the 4th of July and gives you an option to vary the fireworks intensity based on disk activity and CPU usage.
More details here.
Happy Fourth of July!
ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery is an ideal program to use if you are using a RAID array on Windows Home Server 2011 and your RAID array goes belly up.
The free software (with no adware, spyware or toolbars) is very simple to use and works with both RAID 0 (including RAID 0+1 and 1+0) and RAID 5 (including RAID 5E, and RAID 5 with delayed parity) arrays and also includes experimental support for RAID 6.
ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery recovers the following RAID parameters:
And once these parameters are recovered, you can:
ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery is a great piece of software which will work with internal and external hard drives, disk image files and both hardware and software RAID.
More details are available from here.
Another weekly episode of the BYOB podcast has just been published for all you Build Your Own Box enthusiasts.
Final resolution to the Vertex 3 saga, Tim talks about the Black Gold BGT3600 Tuner, Michael gushes over his R6970 again. Special Guest Tim Black @vinylfreak Talks about his HTPC that does double duty as his primary rig all on this weeks episode of the BYOB Podcast.
You can find episode 49 here.
It seems not many days go by without a release from the guys behind the Drive Extender replacement add-in, Drive Bender.
Release 1.1.5.5 from the 2nd July 2011 includes the following changes:
You can find the download here.
The HP Lights Management Driver for WHS 2011 has had an update.
The driver enables users of the discontinued MediaSmart Server from HP to get the LED’s back working when upgrading these units to WHS2011.
Version 1.0.4 release notes:
Tested compatible hardware
HP: EX48x, EX49x, X510, X310
Acer: H340Probably compatible (testers please)
HP: X311, X312Concerning the hardware compatibility I need to make sure that all LEDs are properly managed. I would like the users of X3xx hardware to make some tests and give me the results. I want these user to try the LightsTester app and test all the lights on their system. You will find the app in "C:\Program Files\HP MediaSmart Server" after installation with the setup. It is self-explanatory. You need to stop the "HP MediaSmart Server Service" before running the LightsTester. It is a very basic application. Let me know if all lights work.
I am very interested in knowing if the application works correctly. I wait for your posts…
Not compatible but maybe some hope in future version
Acer: H341, H342Not compatible
HP: EX47x (AMD based hardware)Known limitations and FAQ
3TB and/or GPT partitioned disks not properly detected
The problem is probably more GPT than 3TB (though GPT needed for 3TB). I will do some tests.Stablebit DrivePool and maybe DriveBender
The drives will blink if they are not managed by WHS because WHS tells me the drives are not allocated to WHS. I plan to make the lights configurable in the config file so users with special needs will be able to override the default light behavior.Windows OS compatibility
Only Windows Home Server 2011 has been tested. Should also be compatible with Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials. Other OS will not be supported and installation will fail. I will not reply anymore to posts that have install problems on unsupported OS.
Lights-Out
There were issues with Lights-Out but I made changes that should solve the problem.Windows Mirrored drives
The Storage Manager service will only give me a Data status for one of the mirrored drives. The other drive will be healthy but unallocated. By design the disk LED will blink. I plan to make the lights configurable in the config file so users with special needs will be able to override the default light behavior.Blinking LED drive
This is by design, the drive LED will blink if you have not assigned any partitions to the drive, it is not assigned as a backup drive, or the drive is mirrored or assigned to Stablebit DrivePool (and probably also DriveBender).
More information including the download are available from here.
With the release of Office 365, Microsoft have released a series of videos explaining how a small business can take advantage of O365 with SBS 2011 Essentials working together:
Together, SBS Essentials and O365 help improve employee productivity and business efficiency by merging the network security and data safety that the server provides, with the no-hassle, flexible productivity tools that the online suite provides.
Better IT means more time to focus on your core business, as David Whitener, of David Whitener Inc, experienced. In his words, “Now that we can depend on Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials for backups and a Microsoft cloud-based service for reliable e-mail, we can focus on building our reputation for great customer service.”
VIDEO 1 – See today how SBS 2011 Essentials and Office 365 can work together in your environment:
VIDEO 2 – See the SBS 2011 Essentials and Office 365 Integration Module working together:
VIDEO 3 – Manual Domain name configuration with Office 365 and SBS Essentials:
This fall Microsoft will also make available the Office 365 Integration Module for SBS Essentials; this module will provide customers with additional functionality to combine these two products without increasing complexity.
This integration module will enable small businesses to simply administer their users both local and cloud in one single place, for instance adding all local users into Office 365 and effortlessly using a single custom domain name for both SBSS 2011 Essentials and Office 365.
The Windows Server Solutions SDK has some great new functionality for deploying add-In packages, but these new functions come with added complexity. For Add-In’s to support in-place upgrades there are a bunch of properties that need to be changed whenever a new version of your Add-In is built, forget one and the upgrade process is broken.
Thankfully fellow MVP Sam Wood takes this pain away by demonstrating a solution which automatically builds WSSX files.
Sam gives an overview of the complete build process by deploying a sample add-in assembly project and wraping up the add-In’s files into a Windows Installer (*.msi) package.
A great read for Windows Home Server add-in developers, which you can find here.
StableBit DrivePool is now at build 1919, which includes the following changes:
[D] = Driver
More details on StableBit DrivePool are available here.
CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server (both v1 and WHS2011) has had an update.
Version 2.2 Features:
CloudBerry Backup for WHS leverages Amazon S3 storage and is available for a onetime fee of $29.99 per copy.
Further details on CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server are available from here.
Another update to StableBit DrivePool, and this time its version 1.0.0.1917 with the following fix:
More details on this Drive Extender replacement add-in are available from here.
