WHS help required

antc

antc

antc

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Hi,

I am just setting up my windows home server. But i now seem to be running into some issues that have me stumped so i am wondering if anyone could help

The config for my server is as follows

Amd x2 4200 cpu
2 gig ram
Asus mb (cant remember model)
highpoint rocketraid 2310 (all storage drives connected to this)
80 gig wd drive for os (c: and d: as it likes to split it)
4x500gig wd drives added into the storage pool making 1.82tb of storage

Now what i have done so far is i have been working directly on the server. I have gone into the windows home server console, into shared folders and created 3 folders in there called

1. tv series
2. sd movies
3. hd movies

No i have copied quite a bit of info onto the server from my external hdds to the point where the 1.82tb storage has now become 1.13tb. Now its at this point where it doesnt want to let me copy any more data onto the server at all for some reason keeps telling me there isnt enough space left?

Now going into my computer reports the c: as being 20 gig total size with 12.5 gig free.

It reports d: as being 54.5 gig total size with 54 gig free.

Anyone have any ideas as to what my problem is here?
 
Its to do with the drive migrator, It will copy all the data to your primary drive and then take a bit of time shifting it to other drives.

What ever you do. Dont start messing about with directories on the other drives and such. Always work on the server via its network path to the drives.

Ie \\Home Server\Vids

Dont just goto d:\ and create a folder and start putting stuff onto it.

WHS is a good bit of kit, but its very easy to trash if your using it as a normal server.
Its designed to be turned on and then used via the console on the network and thats it. But as long as you dont go accessing the drive directly you'll be ok,

Enough of the lecture lol. As i said, it would be the drive extender software taking its time.


Hope thats of some use, sorry if it sounds crap, busy at work :(
 
Thanks Datamonkey, it makes perfect sense and is very similar advise to what i got on another forum. Also one other thing that has been pointed out to me is that my system drive is too small. As WHS splits the system drive into two (c: and d:) the d: is used as the landing pad when you transfer data onto the whs and then it distributes the data onto the drives in the storage pool.

Anyway this is how the storage looks currently.

whs%20storage.jpg
 
The reason why they say WHS does not support RAID is that you end up in your position.

Copy all the data off the system, de-register your raid and then add each drive separately - this will give you the maximum space available for duplicated folders.

For preference I would agree with the suggestion to ghost the 80gb drive to a 500gb drive. I had a 74GB Raptor as the system drive and I got fantastic transfer rates for 30 seconds and then it paused while it moved the data. I now have 3*1TB drives which are slower that the Raptor but give a more responsive system.
 
Exactly as mentioned above. My server is also stored on a RAID card, but the difference is each drive is a seperate JBOD volume. It appears as 2 scsi arrays (Sata) of 1tb each as well as 3x500gb drives, 1 being a system disk.

Thats why WHS always tries to install to the largest disk.
 
Bomag said:
The reason why they say WHS does not support RAID is that you end up in your position.

Copy all the data off the system, de-register your raid and then add each drive separately - this will give you the maximum space available for duplicated folders.

For preference I would agree with the suggestion to ghost the 80gb drive to a 500gb drive. I had a 74GB Raptor as the system drive and I got fantastic transfer rates for 30 seconds and then it paused while it moved the data. I now have 3*1TB drives which are slower that the Raptor but give a more responsive system.
Click to expand...

PhillyDee said:
Exactly as mentioned above. My server is also stored on a RAID card, but the difference is each drive is a seperate JBOD volume. It appears as 2 scsi arrays (Sata) of 1tb each as well as 3x500gb drives, 1 being a system disk.

Thats why WHS always tries to install to the largest disk.
Click to expand...


Although my drives are connected to a raid card they they are connected in JBOD mode. Its only when i get into WHS that i add them into the storage pool that they show as one large drive.
 
Yes, because its pooled all the drives into 1 disk. What it should really be is 2 seperate JBOD arrays. Then it would show as 2 volumes. This way you can use WHS duplicate featuer.
 
While on the WHS subject..

What happens to your data if 1 of the drives fail? It sounds like the space from all the drives is merged so do you lose everything if 1 drives fail or just whatever it put on that drive?
 
I can only echo what the others have said,

You should be seeing all your drives listed there, not hte jbod.

Time to start from scratch i think, Also as you correctly stated, you need to use a large drive for the os/landing pad drive.
 
All the drives did show as individual drives until i added them into the storage pool.

Think i shall start again with a larger system drive. Got a spare 500 gig lying around so shall use that. Far as i can see adding them into the storage pool then enables the option for duplication. This is quite an important thing in my opinion. I am not going to duplicate everything of course, mainly just my photos as i have about 15000 of them. I am not silly enough to rely soley on whs data duplication, i have them burnt onto dvd and stored on an external hdd too.
 
server.jpg


Thats how mine appear.

the 2x1tb are both on an 8port card configfured as 2x jbod partitions. Duplication isnt a backup, just redundancy. What you have done is correct.
 
antc said:
Think i shall start again with a larger system drive. Got a spare 500 gig lying around so shall use that. Far as i can see adding them into the storage pool then enables the option for duplication. This is quite an important thing in my opinion. I am not going to duplicate everything of course, mainly just my photos as i have about 15000 of them. I am not silly enough to rely soley on whs data duplication, i have them burnt onto dvd and stored on an external hdd too.
Click to expand...

Great, thanks.

Duplication sounds like a good idea for files that aren't considered important but you'd rather keep than lose. I'd put films in that category. Photos are important (as you say) so should be properly backed up. Same as documents.

I've got a 3 month trial from MS so might give it a go.
 
PhillyDee said:
server.jpg


Thats how mine appear.

the 2x1tb are both on an 8port card configfured as 2x jbod partitions. Duplication isnt a backup, just redundancy. What you have done is correct.
Click to expand...

Sure its definately not a backup thats for sure. Going to back everything upto an external hdd and nuke the whs and begin again. I didnt know at the time of getting it setup (about 2 months ago) that i should use a large system drive due to the landing pad d:

Guv said:
Great, thanks.

I've got a 3 month trial from MS so might give it a go.
Click to expand...

No problem. You dont have anything to loose so give it a whirl and let us know how you get on.
 
Another question..

My current server/media centre has windows 2003 server on it currently. I have this connected to my TV (DVI-HDMI) and use media player or VLC to play the files on the TV. Can I still do this with WHS?
 
Yup. It does tell you not to use it from the desktop when you log in, but I do all the time. I used to fold on mine, and use mine as a media server with Twonkymedia anyway. I also use handbrake to backup all my dvd's to play through my PS3. Get a free trial and give it a go on another hard drive.
 
I've now installed WHS on a spare hard drive.

It seems to be quite good, although I'm still confused as to why it says you shouldn't use it from the desktop. You can do pretty much anything you want, so what's affected by using the desktop to play music/videos/download etc?

PhillyDee, have you noticed any problems yet?
 
None at all. Though I did bork my install using some of the server controls (Which they warn you about!). Only problems have been my fault . . .
 
Right so i have finally got myself in a position to do something with my homeserver now i have backed up the 800 odd gig of blue ray rips.

Now i have come across a slight problem unless anyone can advise otherwise. With regard to my hdds not showing up as individual ones as show in the screen shots above this is due to my rocket raid 2310 only working if you set it to some form of raid, either 0, 1, 5 or 10. Or jbod which groups all 4 drives connected to it into a single volume displayed in windows. So for example my 4x500 gig drives show as 1.82tb.

The other problem is i only have 4 on board sata ports, one taken up my my sata optical drive. I have 5x500 gig drives and 2x1tb drives now (hoping to use 1x500 gig for the os drive)

My question is what is the best way to get all thise drives setup in my server? My home server project was basically a cheap way to store my media to be available for steaming around to various devices around the house such as ps3 and xb360.

It wasnt meant to be a money no object machine so therefore i dont want to spend a fortune on fancy cards and so on, just need to have the ability to get all my current hdds in there and functions and if possible to ability to add a few more.

Can anyone suggest anything?
 
Have a 1tb as a boot drive, and duplicate things you want duplicated. You should be able to have 4xJBOD volumes of 1 disk each really. Then it will show 4 seperate drives.
 
PhillyDee said:
Have a 1tb as a boot drive, and duplicate things you want duplicated. You should be able to have 4xJBOD volumes of 1 disk each really. Then it will show 4 seperate drives.
Click to expand...

Right have just tested creating the 4xjbod volumes for the drives attached to the raid card and it works a treat! (dont know why i didnt think of that, its often the obvious things you miss when you spend too long looking at things i guess :o )

Anyway with regard to having a 1tb as system drive i think that maybe a bit wasteful and better off being used as storage?
 
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