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Customer calls complaining about a clicking noise on his HP Data Vault X510 WHS server. I’m guessing it’s either a bad disk or the fan. I bring the server back to the shop … and sure enough, it’s one of the disks that’s making the noise. But, how do I determine which disk??? A quick search of the Internet and the WHS Home Servert SMART add-in comes to the rescue! I installed the latest version (1.1.36.6) and voila! it quickly identified the disk in question. This will be an add-in I will be installing on all my WHS servers!

I was working on a custom built Windows Home Server (not an HP or Acer) from a customer site that was not letting me log in or access it remotely. Once I got it set up on my workbench, I powered it up and logged in. When I went to start up the WHS console, the console displayed for the briefest of moments, and then it closed down. Checking the event log, I found an Event ID 5000 .Net Runtime 2.0 error. My first attempt tosearch for a solution indicated that a specific file might be missing. However, the file was on this server. I then found this … Continue reading WHS Console won’t run

I have been a huge fan of Windows Home Server (WHS) ever since it was announced back in January 2007. This past April (2010) Microsoft released a public beta version of the next version of the Windows Home Server product, code name VAIL. The big change (behind the scenes) is that VAIL operates in a 64-bit environment, and is based on the Windows 2008 R2 platform. For a more in depth list of features with VAIL, check out this post: http://homeservershow.com/the-windows-home-server-vail-feature-list.html There are several hardware vendors (e.g. HP, Acer) that sell headless WHS systems (HP DataVault X310/X510, Acer Aspire EasyStore H340) . I have had great … Continue reading Windows Home Server (V2) VAIL

One of the knocks on Windows Home Server (WHS) is that it contains the word ‘Home’ in its name. If that issue has kept you from selling or installing WHS in businesses, then check out the news from HP — they have released WHS with a new name: HP StorageWorks X500 Data Vault!  The equipment is almost identical to their HP MediaSmart Server models, except with a faster processor, and SKU’s with larger (1TB and 1.5TB drives) in them. I install WHS in all my business client offices — even those with SBS servers. Are you?

For more than a year I have been promoting the use of Windows Home Server as a local backup solution in a Small Business Server (SBS2003/SBS2008) environment (per these two blogs: blog1 , blog2). I already have WHS installed at most of my SBS customer sites. It now seems as if Microsoft is now willing to say “Yes” — that using WHS to backup your workstations and servers is a viable and supported scenario!  Read more on Microsoft’s Technet site.

I just stumbled across a new software product from Microsoft called SongSmith. I can see it now: WHS + SongSmith = Microsoft Karaoke Server!!!  

If you are a Microsoft Partner, there will be a 5W/50 webinar entitled “Business Opportunities with Windows Home Server – Updated with PowerPack 2 Content” today at noon (EDT) given by Grey Lancaster and Kevin Royalty. If you think WHS is only for homes, then you’re still thinking within the box! WHS is a perfect fit with SBS 2003/2008.

Talk about a deal too good to refuse! Acer recently came out with their WHS server, that competes straight up with the HP MediaSmart Server. For the rest of this post, I will refer to it as the ‘easyStore’. A week ago I stumbled on a deal through NCIX (USA) that was offering the easyStore for $399, with a 1TB drive and 2GB memory, and for a limited time was throwing in a second 1TB drive. I jumped at the chance. And it arrived by FedEx this afternoon. Within 30 minutes I had it unboxed, powered up, installed the WHS connector to … Continue reading WHS and the Acer Aspire easyStore H340

Microsoft released Power Pack 2 for Windows Home Server today (KB 956587). This is a free update that offers several new features. It does require you to already have Power Pack 1 installed.

One of my mottos has always been: “You cannot have enough backup!”. So, I am always investigating and testing backup software. When Microsoft first releasd Windows Home Server (WHS), I knew that this was a product I would be testing. Well, tonight, it saved my bacon! My own SBS 2003 server that has been running for years experienced a serious hard drive failure. Fortunately I do use Raid-5 disk configuration. So I shut down the server, replaced the drive, fired up the server to rebuild the Raid, and then rebooted. But apparently something else was amiss, as Windows would not boot up properly, reporting … Continue reading SBS, WHS and Backup Software