Access the Server Remotely is a new article from Paul Thurrott in his series on WS2012 Essentials.
Paul shows us how to enable remote access and tells us about the various options available to us including the VPN and Remote Web Access features.
Paul also gives us a couple of free alternatives to use if you cant get the Anywhere Access wizard to complete without errors.
You can find the article here.
Joe Beernink had a red blinking light on his HP EX490 MediaSmart Server which turned out to be a failed Home Server.
Luckily for Joe he followed an article at ServeTheHome to recover his data off of his failing hard drive, but this does highlight that you should have a backup of the backup. So Joe has now altered his current setup to include a sync copy of his data and a cloud backup copy too.
You can read the full article here.
Its a big one – Episode 200 of The Home Server Show!
We bid farewell to Johnny Z in this, the 200th episode of The Home Server Show podcast. Jim dials in from the West Coast and Dave is crying in his coffee about Windows Home Server or the lack thereof. No really, it’s a great show!
You can listen to episode 200 here, or you can watch the video below:
WSE RemoteApp 2012 is an add-in for users of Windows Server 2012 Essentials.
Here’s the details:
WSE RemoteApp 2012 makes it possible for administrators to deliver remote applications (referred to as “RemoteApp programs” or simply “RemoteApps“) to their users. Specifically, WSE RemoteApp 2012 enables a straightforward publishing process that allows applications installed directly on the server to be provided to users, allows RemoteApp programs to run side-by-side with local programs, and offers integration with a custom “launcher” application to make it simple for users to find and launch RemoteApp programs.
RemoteApp programs are programs that are accessed remotely through a special type of Remote Desktop Connection, and appear as if they are running on the end user’s local computer. Instead of being presented to the user in the desktop of the server, as with a traditional Remote Desktop Connection, the RemoteApp programs are integrated with the client computer’s desktop, running in their own resizable window, with their own entry in the taskbar. If the programs use notification area icons, the icons appear in the client computer’s notification area. Any popup windows are redirected to the local desktop, and local drives and printers can be redirected to appear within the RemoteApp programs. Many users might not be aware that a RemoteApp program is any different than a local program.
WSE RemoteApp 2012 provides administrators the ability to group and personalize RemoteApp programs and make them available to individual end users via the WSE RemoteApp Launcher application. WSE RemoteApp 2012 improves the user’s experience, opens new avenues for program deployment, and reduces the amount of administrative effort required to support these programs.
Users can run published RemoteApp programs in two different ways:
- Locally from the server’s Launchpad application that is installed on their computer.
- Remotely from almost anywhere using the server’s built-in Remote Web Access (RWA) website.
More information on WSE RemoteApp 2012 is available from here.
WHS RemoteApp 2011 is a new add-in for users of Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials or Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.
Here are the details:
WHS RemoteApp 2011 makes it possible for administrators to deliver remote applications (referred to as “RemoteApp programs” or simply “RemoteApps“) to their users. Specifically, WHS RemoteApp 2011 enables a straightforward publishing process that allows applications installed directly on the server to be provided to users, allows RemoteApp programs to run side-by-side with local programs, and offers integration with a custom “launcher” application to make it simple for users to find and launch RemoteApp programs.
RemoteApp programs are programs that are accessed remotely through a special type of Remote Desktop Connection, and appear as if they are running on the end user’s local computer. Instead of being presented to the user in the desktop of the server, as with a traditional Remote Desktop Connection, the RemoteApp programs are integrated with the client computer’s desktop, running in their own resizable window, with their own entry in the taskbar. If the programs use notification area icons, the icons appear in the client computer’s notification area. Any popup windows are redirected to the local desktop, and local drives and printers can be redirected to appear within the RemoteApp programs. Many users might not be aware that a RemoteApp program is any different than a local program.
WHS RemoteApp 2011 provides administrators the ability to group and personalize RemoteApp programs and make them available to individual end users via the WHS RemoteApp Launcher application. WHS RemoteApp 2011 improves the user’s experience, opens new avenues for program deployment, and reduces the amount of administrative effort required to support these programs.
Users can run published RemoteApp programs in two different ways:
- Locally from the server’s Launchpad application that is installed on their computer.
- Remotely from almost anywhere using the server’s built-in Remote Web Access (RWA) website.
More information on WHS RemoteApp 2011 is available from here, whilst a tutorial on its use can be found here.
Want to know the difference between WS2012 Essentials and WS2012 Foundation?
Paul Thurrott looks at the differences between these similar offerings in the following areas:
…you should choose Foundation only if you have at least some in-company IT staff and/or are comfortable outsourcing management to a Microsoft partner or solution provider. (And, of course, if that company has 15 or fewer employees.) Essentials makes more sense for those organizations with no IT staff at all…
You can read Paul’s full post here.
Steve Streza has built a storage box using FreeNAS.
Using RAID-Z2 which is based on a technology called ZFS, (a modern file system that supports "storage pools") and 8 3TB Seagate hard drives, Steve takes us through installing the OS, sharing your data, keeping the box healthy and how to extent FreeNAS with Plugins.
A good read for those of you after using something different for a storage server.
"The Windows Server Essentials and Small Business Server Blog" have an article on getting started with the Dashboard in WS2012 Essentials.
For the new Dashboard we are taken through the new home page and are shown tasks which have now been simplified, health monitoring and client monitoring as well as new features and extensibility via add-ins.
You can find the post here.
The beta build of StableBit DrivePool has had an update.
Version 1.2.0.6962 BETA for WHS 2011, SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials has the following changes:
[D] = Driver was modified (reboot required after update)
More information on StableBit DrivePool is available from here.
Service Pack 3 for the add-in Lights-Out has been released and it brings support for Windows Server 2012 Essentials.
This latest release works for Windows Server 2012 Essentials, Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials and Windows Home Server 2011, and has the following changes:
New client context menu command for backup
This command performs a server wake-up, a backup and executes the action after backup with a single mouse click!
That comes in handy if you want to run a backup after you finished your work.
Additional bug fixes and changes
More details on Lights-Out are available from here.
