By on December 06th, 2012

Add-In: StableBit DrivePool v1.2.3.7217

Stablebit_drivepool_M4_logo

StableBit DrivePool has had another release.

Version 1.2.3.7217 has miscellaneous fixes and progress for background tasks.

  • [D] Key areas of virtual disks can be written to by the OS in order to allow it to update virtual on-disk structures, for example to resolve signature collisions.
  • [D] New pools will be GPT disks (not MBR) in order to avoid possibility of signature collisions. Legacy pool will continue to be MBR disk.
  • Extended the UI to support multiple pools (too many changes to list individually).
  • Updated the service to support multiple pools (too many changes to list individually).
  • [D] Added multiple pool support (too many changes to list individually).

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

You can download this release from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on December 05th, 2012

New HP N54L MicroServer On the Way

It seems an update to the HP Proliant MicroServer is on the way.

HP ProLiant MicroServer

Two new versions have been spotted on the web, with the model number of N54L. One version offers a 250GB hard drive whilst the other is diskless. The diskless model ships with 4GB RAM, whilst the second ships with only 2GB RAM on board.

Both have the AMD Athlon NEO processor running at 2.2GHz.It’s a massive CPU bump. The original N36L was 1.3GHz whilst the N40L is 1.5GHz.

  • 704941-421 MicroServer AMD Athlon NEO N54L (2200-2M) Dual Core 2GB, 250GB NHP SATA
  • 708245-425 MicroServer AMD Athlon NEO N54L (2200-2M) Dual Core 4GB, Diskless NHP SATA

The 704941-421 version is listed as $491 CAD, whilst the 708245-425 version is listed as $444 CAD.

UPDATE: The two models are now showing up on HP’s UK site for £269 ex VAT and £309 ex VAT respectively.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on December 05th, 2012

Add-In: Drive Bender v1.4.2.5 RC2

Drive Bender Logo

The beta build of Drive Bender has had an update.

Version 1.4.2.5 RC2 has the following change log:

  • Bug fix: During a pool initialization or pool restore, Drive Bender can hang on Windows 8, Server 2012.
  • Bug fix: On Windows 8 / Server 2012 (can also apply to older O/S’s), Windows can throw recycle bin corrupt error messages (cause by permissions issues).
  • Update: When creating a drive letter mount point, the default "drive" permissions are now set to "Everyone". This is to prevent some users experiencing the message "You need permission to perform this action".
  • Update: Some interface additions and tweaks.

You can download this beta release from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on December 05th, 2012

Video: WS2012 Essential Features from HP and Microsoft

Microsoft and HP’s joint Coffee Coaching video series have just released four videos highlighting features in Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

The first 6 minute video is on Anywhere Access which tells us about Remote Web Access, the Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps and remote domain join:

Quickly connect to the server and computers in your network to access all your files, even run applications, from virtually any location just as if you were sitting in the office.

The next video is on Core Improvements, which highlight Dashboard enhancements, extensibility via add-ins and how to grow your business:

Quickly identify the tasks that need to be completed when first starting the server with a redesigned homepage that, after initial setup, provides you with clear, actionable status information on the servers, network and PC’s.

The third video is on Data Protection. Highlights include information on server and client computer backup, Storage Spaces and File History integration and Windows Azure online backup:

Enjoy peace of mind with daily, automatic, backups of every computer on your network and the Windows Server 2012 Essentials server itself.

Finally the forth video highlights Email Integration with details on Office 365, Exchange Server and Hosted Exchange:

Enjoy the flexibility to choose the hybrid solution that fits best your business’ needa, with seamless integration of cloud services and on-premises applications.

A great bunch of videos from HP and Microsoft to get you up to speed with the features in WS2012 Essentials.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on December 04th, 2012

Working – eSATA Port Multiplier on the HP N40L MicroServer

Alex from Covecube, the company behind StableBit DrivePool has posted a few pointers on his experience with the HP MicroServer N40L not supporting an eSATA port multiplier.

HP ProLiant MicroServer

With Alex’s tips and workaround you will be able to get a port multiplier working over the eSATA port on the HP MicroServer N40L – A great piece for N40L owners

You can find Alex’s post here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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By on December 04th, 2012

My Server for Windows Phone App for WS2012e Users

If you are a windows Server 2012 Essentials user then don’t forget that the My Server for Windows Phone app is available from the Windows Phone Marketplace:

“My Server for Windows Phone is an application designed to help you keep seamlessly connected to your server resources through Windows smart phones. With My Server, you can manage users, devices, alerts, and access shared files in Windows Server 2012 Essentials.”

My Server App for WS2012e

You can get the app for free from here.

Other Software • Windows Home Server
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By on December 03rd, 2012

Add-In: Drive Bender v1.4.2.0 RC1

Drive Bender Logo

A new release candidate has been released of the add-in Drive Bender.

Version 1.4.2.0 has the following change log:

  • Bug fix: During a pool repair and rebuild operation, duplicated files with specific attributes may not be discovered during the rebuild scan, and therefore not restored (note these duplicate files remain untouched).
  • Update: The check disk function has been changed to ensure the balancing / health monitoring tasks are run while the disk is being checked.
  • Update: A number of interface improvements have been made to the duplication feature.
  • Update: Call trace mode is now switchable with out rebooting (although Drive Bender still requires a soft restart).
  • Update: A number of tweaks to Smooth Streaming have been made (mainly around memory usage).
  • Bug fix: Some minor changes and updates to the S.M.A.R.T. capability.

You can download this beta release from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on December 02nd, 2012

Add-In: Advanced Admin Console 2011 for WS2012e

Andreas M has announced that his add-in Advanced Admin Console 2011 is now been made available for Windows Server 2012 Essentials.

Advanced Admin Console 2011 for WS2012e

As announced two weeks ago a new release of the Advanced Admin Console 2011 AddIn is now available. This new release is fully compatible with Windows Server 2012 Essentials and also still supports earlier Windows Server Solutions operating systems (Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials).

The following changes have been made since the first final release (version 1.0.0):

  • CHANGED: Offline activation made easier.
  • CHANGED: Added “upgrade from earlier version” to the “Purchase License” functionality.
  • ADDED: Compatibility with Windows Server 2012 Essentials
  • ADDED: Access to Storage Spaces (Windows Server 2012 Essentials only).

The Advanced Admin Console 2011 AddIn has always been free for home users and business users have always been required to purchase a license after the initial trial period of 30 days had ended. Since Windows Server 2012 Essentials is targeted at business users by Microsoft the Advanced Admin Console 2011 AddIn now always requires a license on this platform when the trial period is over.

Users are eligible to purchase an upgrade license at a reduced price if they’ve purchased an Advanced Admin Console 2011 license for an earlier operating system and have either upgraded their server’s operating system or replaced the server they initially purchased the license for.

You can download Advanced Admin Console 2011 for Windows Server 2012 Essentials from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on November 30th, 2012

Add-In: CloudBerry Backup for WHS v3.1

CloudBerry Backup for WHS (v1, 2011, SBS 2011 Essentials and  Windows Server 2012 Essentials) has had an update.

Version 3.1 has the following features:

1. Archive Amazon S3 data to Glacier. Amazon has recently released the functionality that allows easily archive the data from Amazon S3 to Glacier low cost storage. With the latest release of CloudBerry Backup you can take full advantage of that functionality.  With the addition of this functionality you almost don’t need to perform any specific modifications to your existing backup plans and easily move existing data to Glacier.

http://blog.cloudberrylab.com/2012/11/how-to-archive-amazon-s3-data-to.html

CloudBerry Backup Archive to Glacier Settings

2. Restore in the background and scheduled restore

The latest version comes with the feature called Restore Plans, which allows you to run the restore process in the background and/ or by schedule.  It addresses two important use cases:

1. Run the restore process in the background. This is important for instance with the Glacier restore when you need to wait 4-5 hours for the data to become available.

2. Run the restore on another server periodically on schedule to make sure the other server has the recent copy of the data.

http://blog.cloudberrylab.com/2012/11/automate-data-restore-with-cloudberry.html

3. Detailed email report with the list of files successfully copied or failed.

The email notification has been one of the most popular feature of CloudBerry Backup for a long time. Over the time we improved the email report, added the ability to use custom SMTP server for the server edition and added the ability to report status to the Windows Event Log.  With the latest release you can an option to generate a detailed list of files copied with each back up

http://blog.cloudberrylab.com/2012/11/generating-report-with-list-of-files.html

More information on CloudBerry Backup for WHS can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on November 29th, 2012

Add-In: Archive Manager v2.10

Archive Manager Logo

The add-in Archive Manager has been updated to version 2.10

“Archive Manager is a fully featured data management software tool allowing you to safe-guard your digital life. Archive Manager will backup, archive, and recover your entire digital life.”

This latest version now includes integrated Microsoft Server Dashboard support for WHS 2011, Server 2012 Essentials, Storage Server 2011 R2 and Small Business Server 2011.

A fully functional 60-day free trial is available; as is the Standard version for $19.99 USD, and the Premium version for $29.99 USD.

More information on Archive Manager is available from here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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