StableBit DrivePool Balancing Plug-Ins

The guys behind StableBit DrivePool have 2 balancing plug-ins available which further enhance their drive extender type add-in.

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Disk Space Equalizer is a simple disk space equalizer which equalizes the used space across all of your pooled disks.

It can work in 2 modes:

  • Equalize by free space remaining – It will try to make the free space on all your pooled disks the same.
  • Equalize by percent used space. – It will try to make the percent of disk space used the same across all the disks.

Archive Optimizer enables you to designate one or more disks as special Feeder disks. Feeder disks receive all new files created on the pool. It is the balancer’s job to move all the files from the Feeder disks to the Archive disks in the background.

You can use this plug-in to designate one or more fast disks as special feeder disks in order to improve write performance.

The download links to both of these plug-ins can be found here.

Mount an SSD in a HP MicroServer drive tray

If you want to know how to mount an SSD into one of the four drive trays on a HP MicroServer, then the Tenniswood Blog has the answer.

At £12 a metal tray with a pass through card that matches where the SATA pickups are on a 3.5inch disk is the solution.

HP MicroSerrver SSD Tray

More details are available from here.

DVBLink v4.5.3 beta 2

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For those of you using DVBLink, the guys have updated to version 4.5.3 beta 2 for all supported platforms.

This latest beta release includes the following changes:

General:
– (all) Added: Updated "Sources" tab of DVBLink web configurator
– (all) Added: Build number information and new version availability check
– (all) Fixed: no/corrupt stream if transport stream is delivered in chunks that are smaller than a single packet
– b2 (all) Added: log file size limit

DVBLink Connect! Server / DVBLink Server for NAS platform:
– (all) Fixed: incorrect DLNA presentation url
– (all) Added: built-in recorder periodically checks for and removes from database TV recordings without the actual file
– (all) Added: DLNA categories "by genre" and "by series"
– (all) Added: season/episode information to names visible in DLNA clients
– (all) Added: season/episode information to file names (SxxExx-name-….ts)
– (all) Added: retrieval of TV recordings list as m3u file
– (all) Fixed: streaming using m3u file or for boxee does not work with two or more clients at the same time
– (win) Fixed: unstable iOS transcoded streaming
– (win) Fixed: transcoded web and winphone streaming does not work because of missing Windows firewall rule
– (all) Fixed: Crash/no stream because DLNA function sometimes caused memory overwrite
– b2 (all) Added: Program search on genre
– b2 (all) Added: by genre and by series categories to display recorded TV items
– b2 (all) Fixed: DVBLink DLNA server does not support trick modes (FF/FB) on some DLNA clients

TVSource:
– (all) Fixed: no detection of sat>ip receivers if more than one network adapter is present in the system
– (all) Fixed: unstable streaming for some models of sat>ip receivers
– (all) Fixed: incorrect tuner type after importing settings from another TVSource instance
– (Synology/QNAP/NetGear x86 NAS models) Added: support for TBS5680CI tuner
– (Synology x86) Fixed: tuner driver incompatibility with DSM4.2
– (all) Fixed: incorrect Czech symbols in EPG and channel names
– (win) Added: support for diseqc and CI of DVBSky tuners
– (win) Fixed: Elgato DVB-S2 EyeSat does not work with TVSource v4.5
– (all) Fixed: NA Bandstacked DP (DSS) setting does not work
– (win) Fixed: Gigabyte U8300 tuner does not work with v4.5
– (win) Fixed: channels are found during scan, but never work in normal operations (PAT scanning has timed out)
– (nas) Added: support for Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-TD (dual DVB-T) tuner
– b2 (nas) Added: tuner insert/removal autodetection after the DVBLink package start-up
– b2 (win) Added: Unicable support for TeVii tuners (others may start working as well as generic mechanism was implemented)

More information is available from here.

The BYOB Podcast Episode 117

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Episode 117 of the BYOB podcast is up:

This week on the BYOB Podcast Keyboards, IP cameras and Lenovo’s Tablet2

Great stuff as usual, which you can find here.

WSUS for WS2012 Essentials

The HP and Microsoft Blog entitled Coffee Coaching reminds us that that WSUS is available for WS2012 Essentials.

WSUS for WS2012e

With Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), administrators can fully manage the distribution of updates released through Microsoft Update to computers on their network.

And for users of WS2012e, WSUS can be downloaded from here.

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool v2.0.0.225 BETA

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StableBit DrivePool for users of WS2012 Essentials Essentials has been updated to version 2.0.0.225 BETA.

Here’s the change log for this latest release:

  • [D] Fixed can’t create iSCSI target on Windows Server 2012.

[D] = Driver was modified (reboot required after update)

You can download this release from here.

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool v1.3.1.7541

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DrivePool for WHS2011, SBS 2011 Essentials and Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials has been updated to version 1.3.1.7541.

Here’s the change log for this latest release:

  • [D] Fixed IOCTL pass-through. Was not working correctly with disk filter drivers on our storage stack (port from 2.X).
  • [D] Added explicit driver date / version to CoveFS disk driver (port from 2.X).

[D] = Driver was modified (reboot required after update)

You can download this release from here.

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 219

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Episode 219 of "The Home Server Show" podcast is up and on this weeks episode:

Alex Piskarev, author of StableBit Scanner and Drivepool,  joins Jim and myself to talk about StableBit Scanner and Drivepool. You would think we knew all there is to these add-ins for Windows Home Server but I learned a lot on this show!

You can find episode 219 here.

£50 Cash Back on the N54L MicroServer

UK users can now claim £50 cashback on the new N54L ProLiant MicroServer.

HP ProLiant MicroServer

HP were offering £100 cashback on their last model, the N40L but have now currently lowered it to £50 for their newest model but Hopefully they will increase this in the not too distant future.

The claim form can be downloaded from here.

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool v1.3.1.7539 BETA

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The beta build of StableBit DrivePool for users of WHS 2011, SBS 2011 Essentials and Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials has had an update with a collection of misc. fixes:

  • [D] Added additional protection against special stream tag overwriting.
  • Added robust support for file IDs (disabled by default).
  • [D] Fixed inconsistent disk kernel path causing spontaneous missing disk warning.
    (observed on iSCSI drobo) (port from 2.X)

[D] = Driver was modified (reboot required after update)

This beta build can be downloaded from here.