I just upgraded my server from an EX495 to a HP Microserver N54L w/8gig ram. The install went fine with activation being the only problem, more on that later. The server comes with a 250 gig drive and I added an old 320gig drive to get the install going and I installed Stablebit Drivepool with this drive and the remaining part of my C:. Everything seems to work, until I loaded a movie and started watching. The movie started stuttering something awful. I wanted to see if Drivepool was the culprit here, so I put the same movie on the Drive itself, not the pool, and on the 2nd partition of the C drive. I got the same stuttering. I never had these kinds of problems with my EX495. I have both servers hooked up to the same switch right now and there is no stuttering on the EX495, but there is on the new N54L. I am viewing the movies through my popcorn hour C200 and the file is an ISO rip of a DVD.
Because of these performance issues, I have held off on converting all of my drives to server 2011. The other issue that I have is that there is no product code for me to activate my copy of Server 2011. I got the copy from Amazon.com and they are going to send me another copy, but it bothers me that I didn't get one in the first place. Has this happened to anyone else? I tried calling Microsoft, but they wouldn't even talk with me, they just said I had to go through Amazon.
I would appreciate any advice anyone else has had regarding either the performance issue or the activation issue. I also might mention that one of the reasons that I upgraded is that something happened to my EX495 when I got home one night and it was frozen. I restarted it and it would not boot, so I did a server restore and all went well until I found out I didn't get any updates from Microsoft. NO power pack 1, 2 or 3 or any of the bug fixes, which is one of the reasons that convinced me to upgrade in the first place. Since there is no way to save off the server, if you have to do a restore, you do lose quite a bit.

First the OS is not being activated is not the issue. Microsoft does not limit what you can and can not do with WHS2011 when you first install it and it will allow you a period of time to run it unrestricted before requiring you to activate the software.

The EX495 with its dual core Intel E5200 if its a stock unit is way more powerful then the HP ProLiant Microserver N54L with its AMD Neo processor so your streaming experience with the EX495 is going to be a better experience. I do not mean to imply that you should not be able to stream content from the N54L just pointing out the EX495 is a more robust server.

You mentioned using an old drive but is that drive actually in good health? Even if WHS indicates its healthy it may not be so download and install HomeServerSMART2013 for you WHS2011 server and see if the drive your using is in good shape or not.

http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/HomeSe ... T.html#all

Now if stream a movie from the N54L and while doing so also be on the Server and look at the servers task manager you can view the CPU and RAM Utilization. I will tell you that my experience streaming from WHS2011 was that it only used just over 2GB of RAM so I would expect you would see the same but the CPU Utilization is the key indicator to look at and if the processor pegs out then you may have to look for an alternate solution to streaming your content. If the processor is not pegged out then I would look at the drive you used closely. Also check the network connection to make sure your running 1.0 Gbps and if not then that could be the problem too. Of course I am assuming your network is gigabit but a connection of 10 or 100 Mbps would not be ideal for streaming media.

As for not having the Product Key it may not be so bad since they are sending you a new one because if you deem the N54L as unsuitable for your needs the key being used would sort of be only good for that one piece of hardware or so it says for the license requirements.

I am honestly hoping that the issue your experiencing is either with network connectivity or the hard drive your using as it would be a shame to find out the N54L can't handle streaming media but I would think if this were the case many people would be out there reporting this issue and I honestly do not recall this to be the case but a google search might prove that out.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Comp1962, thanks for the reply. I checked the server while streaming, it was at or very close to 0%. The stuttering only seems to occur when there are big scenes in the movie. To me, this points to my network, not the server. The fact that it streams well on the EX495 and not on the N54L is somewhat of a mystery to me, but I do have a managed switch at my TV and I am thinking that it may be cutting off the movie at the higher levels, other movie rips that don't go to the higher levels seem to play all right. The DVD rip that I had problems with is Star Trek Into Darkness. The first 10 minutes of the movie was complete stuttering with no sound, later on in the movie it got a little better.
However, I had a new issue crop up, I tried to play around with taking my 2nd hard drive out and now it will not even boot to the bios. It seems to be dead to the world. I need to check and see if I undid some connection or another. It sounds more and more like I am going to have to send it back to Newegg for refund. One other point that you made, if the N54L could not stream movies, I have to believe that other people would have reported that here. You should be able to stream movies from a NAS unit, which just have those little atom processors.

Actually it comes down to where the transcoding is being done. If its on the server end then it will be more of a challenge but if the transcoding is being done by a device other then the server then it should not be a problem. The other thing that comes to mind is the condition of the file or files for the movie and the condition of the drive the movie is stored on so there are other factors to look at as well.

Since your CPU load is low then the problem may not be with your server. Try moving the movie your having trouble with to a computer to see how the movie play there. This is only to rule out if the movie itself has an issue. Also if you can move the movie to the device your using to play it to see how it plays directly on the device would be helpful.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I finally got it working again, it seems like I unseated one of the connector to the motherboard when I was moving things around. It does boot and and everything seems to work. I went into task manager and the resource manager and I have the CPU, Network and DISK attributes showing when the movies started stuttering. The CPU load was under 10% and both Network and Disk activity were around 1%. I also did the same to my EX495, which does not stutter, and all of the activity was in line with what the N54L was doing. I played around with changing the ports that my PCH C200 was using and it seems to help a little bit, but that could just be me hoping that it was getting better. The C200 is in my living room and it is the one that is wired, but I also have a A210 in my bedroom that is wireless and it played OK in the bedroom, no stuttering. Could having both servers on the network at the same time cause some issue that I am not aware of?? Any router settings that I should look at? Since they work on one and not the other, I am thinking not.

I am kind of at a loss as to what I may even try...I still haven't done a full conversion, I just moved a few movies over to a test drive to see if things were going to work properly. I would hate to convert and not be able to fix this issue, conversion from WHSv1 to WHS2011 is a one way deal..Any other suggestions????

I have multiple servers on a single network running and its not problem streaming to the devices within my home. Any port forwarding you would need to do would be mostly for Remote Access for the servers and that's an entirely different thing.

If you play the same movie on each device and one plays fine and the other is having an issue then you would need to look closely at he device having the issue or the managed network switch you mentioned in a previous post. Is it possible to run a network cable from the hardwired device directly to your router to see if the problem goes away. Basically you want to go through a process of elimination be it the file on the server, the network connection, the device that's having difficulty etc, until your able to isolate the source of the problem. Would not be the first time a network switch caused an issue or a specific port on the switch. Don't rule out the network cables either. Also do not rule out the file quality on the server which is why I suggested to move the file to another location to see if it plays better or if the same problem occurs. Again its a process of elimination.

It appears the transcoding is being done on your media extenders so this should rule out the N54L as the problem as its only delivering the file to the device.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I changed the network cable between the switch and my PCH C200, no change. I moved the movie off onto another drive, no change. I even put a PCH A210 to see if was some kind of hardware problem, all a no go. The thing that gets me is that before the EX495, I had a EX470 with a AMD cpu and it ran fine also. I am literally using the same network cable that the EX495 was using in that I just switched it to the new H54L. I played the same move from the EX495 and it played fine, on the H54L is just stutters and stutters and not even during the high level parts of the movie. Sometimes even in the softer passages, it starts stuttering. I don't get it.
One of the things that I got when I bought my H54L is another stick of 8G of Kingston ECC ram. I put it together with the standard 2G that came with the unit. Windows Server says that I have 10 Gig of RAM but only 8G is usable. I took out the 2G stick and am now just using the 8G stick. It does seem to make a little difference, but certainly not much. I also went into Windows into advanced properties and under the performance tab, I made it a desktop computer instead of a server. This setting should just make the UI a little more responsive, it did do a little bit, but not much, I will probably change this back later. This just shows that I am ready to try anything. I even changed the resolution of the picture down to 480p in my C200 to see if that made a difference, it still stuttered. I don't get it. How can it play so perfectly on one machine and so bad on the other. I was hoping that there was some bios setting or another that might help streaming movies. I read from other forum's that I need to make this a AHCI computer and I set the SATA ports to MAX(3.0Gbs). I guess that I will just keep looking... Thanks again.

Can you check the network port speed on the PCH C200 to see if its running at the rated speed? I know you mention the PCH A210 is wireless and so what speed is that running at if it can be determined. Hardwire is typically the way to go but if the speed is reduced for some reason that would cause an issue with the stream.

Also moving the file from the N54L to the PCH C200 would help you determine any transcoding issues or issues with the file that the PCH C200 is having. Lets not muck with the N54L too much but look closer at the PCH C200.

I don't have nor do I need a PCH device here so I have no real experience with them but you do not need to have one to figure things out or to rule out possible issues so lets look at connectivity again in terms of the connection speed and at the specific file being played from the N54L which may save you tons of time scratching the hair off your head causing you to be bald like me.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Wow, I have a resolution. I am now looking at a stutter free picture and I am excited that my new server now works correctly. You will never guess what I had to change, I put a 10/100 network switch between my Gig switch and the PCH C200. You might want to read that again, I slowed down the speed of the wire going to my C200 and the picture got much better. I can't explain that, I really don't even understand it. It has to be something with my C200, but putting that switch in there made things suddenly work.

That's just weird huh. I actually looked up the C200 Specs and see it has a gigabit port on it so yes you actually slowed the speed down but I have a unit with a 10/100 port and it streams well except for the larger Blu-Ray files for that I have another that has a gigabit port to improve that stream and of course an HTPC.

Doesn't matter what you did actually because you resolved your issue but if you have a gigabit switch you can swap out and get the same results you might be better off with that especially if you plan on making additional connections to the switch in that area. For me I would be curious as to why the current solution is working and not a direct gigabit wired connection to your main switch unless of course your using a different port on that main switch to feed the 10/100 switch. The concern here would be if your primary network switch is running into issues with failing ports so keep an eye on it should you start to experience connectivity speed or reliability issues.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8