I've posted the latest beta of Home Server SMART 2012 and its companion desktop version WindowSMART 2012! Version 2.2.3.8 code-named "Red Jumpsuit Apparatus" is now available!

Full details are available in the wikis of each. WindowSMART 2012 is just like HSS (without the BitLocker functions) and is designed to run on desktops and servers running Windows Vista, 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2, and will monitor the health of your desktops and servers! Unlike HSS, WindowSMART will ultimately be a shareware application but for now there is no fee. Both HSS and WS will run until 4/30/2012, after which they will stop working. This is done to ensure folks update to the latest beta; when HSS goes gold the time restriction will go away. WS will then have a 30-day time limit after which it must be purchased.

Some new features to both include instant notifications via Prowl and Growl, for iOS and Android devices, respectively. You can now also have emails sent to up to 3 email addresses, not just one.

WindowSMART 2012 Wiki / Download: http://wiki.dojonorthsoftware.net/WindowSMART_2012 (32- and 64-bit versions available)
Home Server SMART 2012 Wiki / Download: http://wiki.dojonorthsoftware.net/Home_ ... SMART_2012

Please log bugs at https://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/bugtraq

Thanks again to all those who have helped test!

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Just installed the new version. Very nice.

I also just noticed (is this new?) the snowflake in column one of the S.M.A.R.T. details grid. What does that signify? It's not on every row so I'm assuming it indicates something special about the corresponding detail.

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HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool

Am I doing something wrong, I thought I had the Stand Alone x86 would try it on my laptop.
It has vista 32 bit home basic.
It would not install the C++ but did install .net.
I did a right click (run as admin) on the C++, it installed, so it says.
Tried the program again, no C++.
Went to windows update, got updates on .net and C++, thought, ok here we go, rebooted and tried the program again, still can't find C++.

I'll check back later

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[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
Fear the Cloud

This indicates what I consider to be a "super critical" attribute, even if the manufacturer has not defined the attribute as being a "critical" attribute.

There's a flags field for every SMART attribute, and manufacturers can define whether an attribute is critical, an event counter, error rate, etc.

Home Server SMART/WindowSMART watches the super critical attributes more closely than the others, and will generate alerts when undesirable conditions on these are detected. My favorite example is bad sectors (on HDDs). Google Labs has conducted research that shows that the presence of bad sectors on an HDD is often an early warning sign that the disk is rapidly approaching its death. So HSS will warn you when even one bad sector appears, even if the number of bad sectors is well within the manufacturer's limits (the threshold).

You can, of course, choose to ignore the problem--HSS's way of offering "watchful waiting" as an option. If you have 10 bad sectors, and you choose to ignore them, HSS will stop bothering you about them, unless the problem worsens, at which point alerts will appear again.

Bad, or Retired, Sectors on an SSD aren't as serious, and therefore HSS allows a much higher number of them before sounding the alarm. This is because SSDs are not mechanical and sector retirement is a natural part of the media wearout.

Matt

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Please try the beta 2.2.3.11. You weren't doing anything wrong. The problem was a copy/paste of a line of code for when I added 32-bit support to the Setup.exe project. I neglected to take a "Wow6432Node" reference out of a Registry entry check. Wow6432Node doesn't appear in 32-bit Windows; that's a 64-bit only entry. That's how Windows 64-bit "virtualizes" 32-bit calls.

If that doesn't work, please shoot me a PM or send an email directly to the bug tracking email. Or, the preferred bug tracking method is to log it at https://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/bugtraq

Danke,
Matt

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Looks like the same bug existed in the MSI file itself. I've posted a new build that fixes this, and I've personally validated it in 32-bit XP. This is a new build, version 2.2.3.12, which also adds support for the popular Intel 320 series SSDs.

Please be sure to visit and Like us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dojo-Nort ... 8247247136

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Tried using WindowSMART 2.2.3.12 just now:

1. The "Quick Help" gave the following error message: Exceptions were detected loading the help file. Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files\Dojo North Software\Home Server SMART 2012\HSS2012QuickHelp.rtf'.
2. "Documentation" only displays "About" -- misleading if looking for real documentation!
3. RAID drives, specifically RAID 5, do not appear to be supported (which makes it relatively useless for this W7 unit).

I will try to test on a WinXP system tomorrow. Have downloaded WHS version but not yet installed.

PS: I attempted to submit this on the BugNet(?) system. I was able to register (after a HECK of a lot of problems reading the security code) but once logged in I could not see where to submit a problem

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....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Hi John,

Thanks for your feedback. I'm not sure why you had an issue reading the security code. I use BugNET because it's a freely available, open source bug tracking tool. I've used it for a few years and we even use it at work. Anyhow, once you're logged in, click on the HS2 project on the home page and then in the top menu bar there's an option "New Issue."

Now to answer your bullet points.

1. Exceptions were detected message - this should be fixed in the next build, which hopefully I should have posted tonight.
2. Documentation was something I had to write, so I put the About dialogue there rather than having a button that did nothing. The WindowSMART 2012 is mostly done, so for the next beta it'll be available in both HSS and WindowSMART. For HSS it won't be ideal, but better than the about dialogue appearing! True to engineer/developer form, the documentation gets saved until the end!
3. Hardware RAID arrays are a pipe dream for me. I would love to be able to support them, but these don't (typically) use standard Windows API calls (DeviceIoControl) to get the disk information. In a hardware RAID, Windows really only "sees" the array, not the individual disks. In order to talk to the individual disks, I would need access to each vendor's APIs -- what DLLs to call, what methods to access, what parameters they expect, etc. One would think this information would be readily available, but in reality it is not. I've sent emails to several different companies, including LSI and Intel, among others. Some of these went into black holes, and those that replied came back with what seemed to be a canned answer...I wasn't a "solution partner" and that them providing such APIs to me would benefit me only, and not provide a benefit back to them. Some said I could pay to become a solution partner, and it wasn't cheap. If I was a huge IT corporation, it wouldn't be a big deal, but as a freelance developer, I cannot afford it. Apparently these APIs are tightly guarded secrets, rather than being freely available.

So how the folks at HD Sentinel get RAID support into their product is beyond me. Perhaps they paid the hefty partner fees, or they just figured it out on their own.

If you know of a legal way to get access to vendor APIs, I am all ears. But it must be legal. I don't want to be committing criminal acts.

Matt

_________________
Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups