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PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 11:44 am 
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Digging around I can't see any error messages. I need to read up on the mobo manual to see if there are any alarm settings which will give me a much better idea.

Right now I have a 1TB WD Black drive (O/S), 4 3TB Red drives, and a 4TB Seagate drive. Been transferring data over since yesterday, transfers are blazing fast. I am out of hard drives now, goal now is to start using the drives in Shawshank, so probably tonight I will start the process of pulling a drive out once I clear up some space.

Drive temps have been around 40C, but that is with only one fan in the case (at the back by the PSU)

Tested the opening scene of Quantum of Solace on my Dune player from Redemption, played flawless (opening scene is a great one to test out since bit rate jumps).

Another interesting note with data transfer to Redemption from Shawshank. If I initiate the transfer while logged in to Redemption I get great speeds (I will typically see between 70-110MB/s). However, if I initiate the transfer from my desktop PC (i.e. have both the Shawshank and Redemption shares open in Windows Explorer) my transfer speeds go much slower (20-40MB/s)

I need to start digging into the WGS manual as well. One other item, supposedly there is some SMB service you want to disable that may cause conflicts with devices connected via SMB. Haven't done this yet, but can't hurt to do

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 3:43 pm 
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Your making good progress. I would work to see about getting those drives to run cooler. Imagine when the enclosure one day is fully populated. Big improvement on the Transfer Speed and that's a sign of progress for sure. As you know I am not into that Hi Def Bit Rate stuff hell I don't even turn the surround systems on anymore but they are very attractive room ornaments. Much like those Sony 400 Disk CD and DVD units which got retired when WHS took over my media collection.

I will not be working on my WS2012 Server until the weekend I am basically exhausted from work and when your tired its no time to be playing with your toys.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 8:39 am 
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Well, beeping happened again last night. Both times it happened was when I was trying to transfer a large amount of files at once. When I remote in to WS2012E my pooled drives are missing, so for whatever reason they drop off and sound an alarm. To confirm I need to read up on the manual for the mobo and WS2012E. Otherwise, I will continue transferring files over.

Stablebit seems to be dong its thing so far. The GUI right now is a little basic, so hopefully once it is out of beta we get a more advanced UI.

Interesting, Seagate 4TB drive is running about 5 degrees cooler then the WD Red drives (could in part by related to the fact that the seagate drive is at the bottom, so no heat from drives below would be affecting). I hope to get another case fan installed, and then order a few more to install later this week.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 3:34 pm 
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Do you have another control card you can install to connect the drives too or can you relocate the controller ? If the controller or the drivers for the controller are the issue now is the time to find out. Also are there any PCI setting recommendations in the controllers documentation which indicate that adjustments may need to be made to resolve controller issues or conditions?

To have one drive drop out is one thing and easier to troubleshoot but to have all your drives drop out really points to the controller or an issue with the PCI Bus which could be a wide range of things like drivers, conflicts with other cards and such. Regardless of what is causing the issue its better to find these things out early on when its easier to RMA things.

Initial testing of a build and trying to push it to its limits trying to seek out failure early on is critical because if you can not kill the beast then you should be in for a good long run. Imagine if these things went undetected and you became heavily reliant on the server and then the issues started.

When I built Highlander I had an issue with one of my MV8's where the drives would drop out but I did not have a cool alarm to warn me just lots of email so I replaced it and no issues since. I did have a 2 TB WD Black Fail too and sent that sucker back. The other thing I experienced was not a failure of one of my backplanes but a failure of one of the LED's so it went back and NORCO replaced it promptly. I recently had another backplane LED Fail and Norco replaced that backplane but with a totally different backplane which I chose not to install.

It does such to see you having these issues but on the other hand better to have issues early on then later down the road. Attempt to kill the beast and if it survives then you will be in better shape.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:18 am 
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I do have a second RocketRAID controller card that I haven't installed yet.

What I am doing right now is transferring over a large majority of my tv shows to Redemption and only a handful of Blu rays. The rest I will keep on Shawshank. This will allow me to keep both servers up and running, and I will be able to continue testing Redemption (streaming playback, any stress testing, etc...). I would also like to have it where Redemption is running 24/7 for at least a few days without having massive amounts of data transferred over in case that is what caused the hiccup (I have been literally transferring over thousands and thousands of files). The good thing too is that the jukeboxes I use to manage playback on my media players aggregates all my media over various shares into one view, so from a family friendly standpoint this will have zero impact on them.

More testing to go ...

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 3:27 pm 
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Sounds like you got a handle on things and the fact it will be somewhat transparent to your family members is a good thing as it eliminates confusion issues. I would keep the data on both servers during this process and while you may want to move drives from one server to the other I would be conservative in this. At best I would move data in groups out of the WHS v1 shares then turn off duplication to free up drives to be moved. This would maintain data redundancy between the two servers and allow you to still move drives.

Of course the longer you run the new server and your confidence in the solution sets in you can then begin to take a more aggressive approach. For me the protection of the data is my #1 priority and with any new build and server OS I am always ultra conservative because I anticipate issues and if they never occur then great but when they do the last thing I want to experience is regret.

Its all good stuff and I wish you well in finishing your task and hope this solution you have chosen works out well for you which I think it will.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:50 am 
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Well, so far everything is running smooth. I transferred over about 50% of my TV shows to Redemption (I actually deleted them from Shawshank b/c honestly not too concerned if something happens and I lose them, this frees up more then enough space that I can start pulling a few drives out of Shawshank and over to Redemption). I went to play a show on my Dune player and it was unable to connect to the server. I then manually connected to the server on the Dune (typing in IP address, Username, Password, etc...) and once I did that everything was working. It then dawned on me that I hadn't set up a guest account on Redemption yet, so that is the reason why it wasn't working at the start, so later today I will get my guest account set up. One interesting note, my media files seem like they start up faster on my Dune from Redemption then from Shawshank.

I just ordered 3 120mm PWM case fans and 2 more 4TB drives, so hopefully that should be it on the hardware side. I have a spare PSU lying around so I am going to install that in the case (not b/c I plan on using but right now it is the only way to close up that hole in the back).

Stablebit seems to be working well so far. Not too crazy about the UI as I feel it is rather simple/basic right now, but hoping it is just because it is beta.

I have LogMeIn running and have had no issues remoting in to Redemption.

More testing to go ...

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:09 am 
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You seem to be plowing through this and by the end of the week you will be running only one server the new one. As for Stablebit Drive Pool I really wish they had the same or similar UI as WHS2011. I have full confidence this will be the case and since your beginning to entrust your media collection to it well it means I can sit back and let you run it through its course because I don't have any hair left to pull out.

What if anything did you find about your drives dropping out?

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:18 am 
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I never used Stablebit on WHS2011 to compare against but I may test out on that small Lian Li server that I will be using as backup.

So far I haven't found anything on the dropped drives yet. I am hoping that now that I am done transferring large chunks of data for a bit I can let the server run 24/7 for a week and see if the issue pops up again. I am running HDSentinel to check the Smart Data of my drives and everything checks out as well, so as of now no drive related issues that could have caused the problem.

I feel like there is so much that I could learn with WS2012E, just debating whether or not I spend the time with or just make sure I get the essentials covered (which for me is data storage, reliable streaming, and PC backups). It is just nice that it is so snappy/responsive when I remote in to (WHSv1 is just a dog to move around in)

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:09 pm 
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That small Lian Li enclosure is and excellent enclosure for a small server. I moved my primary WHSv1 server to it to reduce the power consumption. You know the best thing I like about WHS v1 is the Landing Page which I list all my server links to make finding things easier for my friend and family.

I have a 180GB SSD for the Server Drive in Highlander which if I were to say move Highlander to that same enclosure would fit nicely on the bottom tray in the middle allowing for a total of 8 drives including the system drive which is more than enough for a small server. I believe you have a motherboard which has 2 expansion slots and 6 SATA ports which you used for an HTPC build which I believe would make a nice fit for that enclosure and allow some expansion capabilities.

As for Hard Drive Sentinel I have never used it as I continue to use HomeServerSmart which I am running on WHS v1, WHS2011 and WS2012E. If you install HSS2013 in either WHS2011 or WS2012E please let me know what your thoughts on both. I am always looking for the best solution and while I do like HSS2013 I am curious about Hard Drive Sentinel but not interested in taking it for a test ride at the moment because everything is working way too good.

As for getting to know an OS the best approach is to tackle things on a need basis. I now have 3 books to review for things I may want to do in the future. Your current needs are exactly the same as mine and typical for most who use a server in their home. Still there is always something interesting that comes along. I really wish they had a similar low cost solution for the home user but it is what it is and in two words being from New England its WICKED AWESOME. Notice I left out the expletives but being in Georgia has almost changed that part of me.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 8:21 am 
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The reason I use Hard Drive Sentinel is because Home Smart Server has issues getting SMART data off of some of the RAID cards. For example, on Shawshank it can get the SMART data off of my SAT2-MV8 but not my SASLP. HDD Sentinel works like a champ getting my SMART data, so I just got used to using it. Actually, this is another reason why I wanted to move to a new build. With Shawshank to get more storage I needed to add an eSATA enclosure, and none of the programs can read the SMART data off of the attached drives, I don't like the idea of being blind to my HDD health, so Redemption will allow me to keep everything contained in one enclosure.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:44 am 
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That's strange because HSS has been able to read all my drives in all my servers with exception to my Intel SSD which is does read but not properly. I am assisting another forum member troubleshoot drive drop out issues in a Port Multiplier so I moved 4 Drives to my MSS Port Multiplier which uses the same backplane as the Sans Digital and Rosewell Port Multipliers. Also I am running 3 Supermicro MV8's and HSS is reading every drive connected to them. I did run several Port Multipliers with WHS v1 and HSS was able to read the SMART Data off all the drives unlike the WD utility which only reads some drives.

Maybe the difference is I pray over my servers before turning them on for the first time.

Just curious my MV8's are AOC-SASLP-MV8 are you using the same version because I know there are 2 versions of that controller? I just call it an MV8 because its a widely used controller. Also I am running updated drivers which I had to request from Supermicro but I do not recall no ever having an issue with reading the SMART Data off the drives. I also agree that running drives blind is not a good thing.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:16 am 
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I have made the decision to migrate my Highlander Server running WHS2011 with Stablebit Drive Pool over to WS2012E.

My game plan is to disconnect all the drives in the server and install a new 256 GB SSD to install the new OS. I will then deal with all the drivers, updates and initial configuration. I will then install another drive to backup the OS and test that part out to make certain that's working fine. Then I will install Stablebit Drive Pool v2.x shut the server down, connect all the drives and if Stablebit Drive Pool picks up the existing storage pool drives I will be good to go and apply my license to keep the software running past the 30 day trial.

I will have to sacrifice the client backups but I am ok with doing that but I need to make certain that WHS2011 files on the drives do not come in conflict with WS2012E which is an unknown to me so I have some initial reading to make certain I can remove the proper files from the storage pool drives.

It will be interesting to see where this takes me but I am hoping its not something I will regret but I have been debating this process for the past couple weeks. If it fails then I will have to play move the data but the storage pool is huge and while I do have funds allocated for a new build I really do not want to spend the funds when I have the toys to accommodate the new Server OS and I have way to many servers running here and its time to start downsizing the server compliment but I want to keep my current servers for the time being because I still have projects I need to wrap up and things I need to extract from them before I can fully retire them or send them off to family members to help them backup their clients and to enjoy having a server.

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 3:39 am 
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:banana: I am very happy to report that Stablebit Drive Pool v2.x Beta did pickup the storage pool from WHS2011! :banana:

This is how I started the migration from WHS2011 to Windows Server 2012 Essentials:

(1) Disconnected all the existing drives from the server & removed all the controller cards and Intel CT NIC
(2) Installed a new 256 SSD for the OS Install
(3) Installed WS2012E
(4) Checked and found no missing drivers - Very Nice
(5) Shut the server down and installed the 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 Controllers and Intel CT NIC
(6) Booted the Server, the Intel NIC Driver loaded but not the MV8 drivers so I loaded the v4 64 bit drivers with no issues there
(7) Installed HSS2013, Stablebit Drive Pool v2 Beta and the Health Notifications ADD-IN then shut the server down
(8) Reconnected all the drives & rebooted the server
(9) Installed my license for Stablebit Drive Pool which took
(10) Had to set WS2012E to show hidden files and folders so I could verify the drive pool was working.
(11) Started adding the Storage Pool Folders to the Server Folders.
(12) Checked to see if the contents of the folders was still in tack with a client and its all good to go.

This was by far the easiest migration I have ever taken and while my task is not complete it will be later today. Moving forward I will not initially setup Nic Teaming because I have a couple of Intel Dual Nic Cards coming so I plan on using one of those in this server and will configure teaming then. Since I will not be using any of the NICs currently in the server I will not be setting up Remote Web Access or the VPN until the new NIC cards arrive.

This is the 2nd server setup with WS2012E I have done and its been a very easy process to get the OS installed and working.

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 11:04 pm 
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Well I completed the adding all the Storage Pool Folders to the files and started installing the Client Software which went fine until I went to install it in my Win7 client which failed for some unknown reason. No matter how I phrase it in Google or while on Microsoft its futile. I suspect either something is left over from WHS2011 or something on my computer is causing a conflict with the installation. I even tried it in Safe Mode and it got a bit further along but the end result was the same.

What turned out to be easy is now annoying but if I can figure this on out I am sure I will be able to use the experience to help others just wish the answer was readily available. Heck I even thought about upgrading to Windows 8 but I really like my desktop running Windows 7 so if I can not resolve this issue soon then I will have my WHS v1 server resume the backups for this client and be done with it but I would really like to get all my client backups on one server.

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