Windows Home Server FAQ

[NO1B4ME]

The 500gb drives will be fine. The system "volume" is divided into two partitions during install: 20gb for the actual system, the rest of the drive (or volume, if you are using a raid) for file tombstones and, sometimes, actual data. The tombstones take up very little space. With the latest version of WHS, data won't be stored on that second partition unless all of your other pool drives are full. In prior versions, that partition acted as a "landing strip" for all files that were copied into the pool. I use a 300gb drive and it is more than enough.

I've not set up raid1 for my whs system disk yet, but I plan to if I need to rebuild it before Vail (WHS v2) comes out. Most people seem to have no problems doing so. Just use your on board mobo controller and you shouldn't have any difficulties.

The equipment you already have will be more than adequate for serving movies. Having a gigabit network with a decent switch and nics is the next thing you should focus on.

Well I tried the install with Raid1 and it was a nogo. I gave up and just installed the OS like normal. My only problem is that trasnfering files to it I only get 15MB.

My SERVER setup consists of:

Motherboard: Asus P5K-Deluxe
Ram: Corsair 2GB
CPU: E6400
HD: Seagate 7200.12 500gb hard drive
NIC: Intel Pro GT

Client PC:
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-Pro
Ram- 4GB of G.Skill
CPU: Q9300
HD: Intel SSD 80GB X25M
NIC: Onboard but also have another Intel NIC

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also installed WIndows Vail and was able to see 50-60MB transfer to the server. IT is only when I Installed WHS that I see the slow transfer speeds.

 

[__Miguel_]

Well I tried the install with Raid1 and it was a nogo. I gave up and just installed the OS like normal.

RAID with WHS is usually a tougher nut to crack than with XP, but you might want to try going with a software RAID1 array from within WHS itself...

My only problem is that trasnfering files to it I only get 15MB.

Well, THAT is weird... I manage to average ~60MBps writes (small files can go up to 100MBps!) over Gigabit between my WHS and W7 client, with standard Realtek embedded NICs on both sides of the connection...

My first troubleshooting step would be to install WHS and manually update it on 10-15 update cycles (like so: PowerPacks, individually; critical updates, maximum 20 at a time, then other updates, also maximum 20 at a time; reboot between each update cycle), and let it idle for a couple of hours, if possible, before trying to upload something to it.

That will make sure that 1) WHS is not busy doing other stuff while you're writing to it (it just LOVES to kick the Migrator, or backup services at the oddest times) and 2) you're up to date with patches correcting potential speed-hogging bugs.

Also, right after you're updating, I'd update any and all system drivers (chipset and NIC, but also GPU), since standard drivers can bit a bit old (pre-Vista systems don't even have GPU drivers, so that might have a severe hit on performance, as I've pointed out a couple of pages ago). I'd advise to update drivers after updating everything else (it's my strategy, I've had no problems to this day).

Oh, one other thing: make sure your GPU and NIC are NOT sharing an IRQ (Asus manuals usually have an IRQ table printed out, so you know which slots will share an IRQ with what other system components). That't THE fastest way to have VERY low transfer speeds (I've been there, and trust me, that's a COLOSSAL headache). IRQ sharing between the NIC and the SATA ports (both controllers, ICH and 3rd-party) is also best avoided.

And, while you're at it, do check the health status of the HDD (probably not an issue, but still...), especially for damaged, reallocated or pending sectors, and also DMA mode (I've had an HDD drop back to PIO mode, and that's a major pain...).

Cheers, and good luck.

Miguel

 

[Forceman]

Well I tried the install with Raid1 and it was a nogo. I gave up and just installed the OS like normal. My only problem is that trasnfering files to it I only get 15MB.

I had slow transfer speeds on mine until I installed updated NIC drivers - have you tried that?

 

[Dad_of_Three]

I've noticed a new install of WHS will always have slow transfer speeds if you put alot of data on it at one time. WHS will have slower transfer speed if it doing background work.

I get anywhere from 60MBS - 100MBS transfers on wired network. Intel NIC on Server, Netgear router, gigabit switch, Realtek onboard NIC on workstation.

 

[Impulse]

Whoa, I read a Vail preview/review that stated disks are not readable anymore when they're taken from the WHS system and plugged into any regular Windows rig... Is that true or was the reviewer just off his rocker?

 

[nitrobass24]

Whoa, I read a Vail preview/review that stated disks are not readable anymore when they're taken from the WHS system and plugged into any regular Windows rig... Is that true or was the reviewer just off his rocker?

Well we wont until its released.

Also this thread is for WHS v1.If you have a WHS v2 "Vail" question please post in one of the Vail threads or start your own.

 

[Impulse]

Sorry, just figured there'd be some discussion about it here since they started the open beta, even tho it was leaked months ago AFAIK.

 

[tgabe213]

We have a thread pretty dedicated to this in this section.

 

[Impulse]

Again, my bad, I was subscribed to this thread, so I posted that in passing, sheesh.

 

[rpkelly]

Is there any reason not to install WHS on a 1tb HD? Will it install WHS and use the rest for storage?

 

[nitrobass24]

Yes it will use the rest for storage.

 

[NO1B4ME]

I had slow transfer speeds on mine until I installed updated NIC drivers - have you tried that?

Yes I did upgrade the drivers. I even installed a dual Intel NIc server nic and still seen the same 10-18MB/sec transfer speed.

The weird thing is I grabbed a second new Seagate 500gb 7200.12 and reloaded WHS on my Asus P5Q motherboard and it is transferring 60MB/sec from my Latitude E6400. Sad that my laptop is faster than this PC ..

I spent some days on this and just ordered a new MOtherboard Asus P6T6 , I7-920 and 6gb of ram to build a newer WHS on. I have 12TB of hard drives for Mymovies and am wondering if going with WIn 7 would be a better bet. The only reason I was going to WHS was because allot of people on Mymovies forum use it. But what a PITA it is ..lol

 

[NO1B4ME]

RAID with WHS is usually a tougher nut to crack than with XP, but you might want to try going with a software RAID1 array from within WHS itself...


Well, THAT is weird... I manage to average ~60MBps writes (small files can go up to 100MBps!) over Gigabit between my WHS and W7 client, with standard Realtek embedded NICs on both sides of the connection...

My first troubleshooting step would be to install WHS and manually update it on 10-15 update cycles (like so: PowerPacks, individually; critical updates, maximum 20 at a time, then other updates, also maximum 20 at a time; reboot between each update cycle), and let it idle for a couple of hours, if possible, before trying to upload something to it.

That will make sure that 1) WHS is not busy doing other stuff while you're writing to it (it just LOVES to kick the Migrator, or backup services at the oddest times) and 2) you're up to date with patches correcting potential speed-hogging bugs.

Also, right after you're updating, I'd update any and all system drivers (chipset and NIC, but also GPU), since standard drivers can bit a bit old (pre-Vista systems don't even have GPU drivers, so that might have a severe hit on performance, as I've pointed out a couple of pages ago). I'd advise to update drivers after updating everything else (it's my strategy, I've had no problems to this day).

Oh, one other thing: make sure your GPU and NIC are NOT sharing an IRQ (Asus manuals usually have an IRQ table printed out, so you know which slots will share an IRQ with what other system components). That't THE fastest way to have VERY low transfer speeds (I've been there, and trust me, that's a COLOSSAL headache). IRQ sharing between the NIC and the SATA ports (both controllers, ICH and 3rd-party) is also best avoided.

And, while you're at it, do check the health status of the HDD (probably not an issue, but still...), especially for damaged, reallocated or pending sectors, and also DMA mode (I've had an HDD drop back to PIO mode, and that's a major pain...).

Cheers, and good luck.

Miguel

Miguel,

I have been up alot of nights in the last week and read alot of your posts in this thread and you are a pretty sharp knowledgeable guy. I will try what you posted and see how I fare. Thnaks for all the advice. I will go back and try a few.

 

[nitrobass24]

Yes I did upgrade the drivers. I even installed a dual Intel NIc server nic and still seen the same 10-18MB/sec transfer speed.

The weird thing is I grabbed a second new Seagate 500gb 7200.12 and reloaded WHS on my Asus P5Q motherboard and it is transferring 60MB/sec from my Latitude E6400. Sad that my laptop is faster than this PC ..

I spent some days on this and just ordered a new MOtherboard Asus P6T6 , I7-920 and 6gb of ram to build a newer WHS on. I have 12TB of hard drives for Mymovies and am wondering if going with WIn 7 would be a better bet. The only reason I was going to WHS was because allot of people on Mymovies forum use it. But what a PITA it is ..lol

mymovies for WHS sucks

MyMovies Server is much better IMO
And better yet is MediaBrowswer.

EDIT: Also why are you building your WHS on an i7 platform. That is obviously not going to fix your speed issue.
The transfer from the laptop proved that your PC is problem and not the WHS.
the P5Q is a great WHS board.

 

[NO1B4ME]

mymovies for WHS sucks

MyMovies Server is much better IMO
And better yet is MediaBrowswer.

EDIT: Also why are you building your WHS on an i7 platform. That is obviously not going to fix your speed issue.
The transfer from the laptop proved that your PC is problem and not the WHS.
the P5Q is a great WHS board.

MyMovies server. Is this what you mean? http://www.mymovies.dk/

I am having a problem with the P5K Pro. What a pita that board is. I have tried reinstalling WHS on it several times with minor errors. I go and try to install it on the P5Q with no perrors and the transfer is 3x that of the P5K. GO figure huhh...lol

 

[Forceman]

I spent some days on this and just ordered a new MOtherboard Asus P6T6 , I7-920 and 6gb of ram to build a newer WHS on. I have 12TB of hard drives for Mymovies and am wondering if going with WIn 7 would be a better bet. The only reason I was going to WHS was because allot of people on Mymovies forum use it. But what a PITA it is ..lol

Seems like a hell of a lot of computer for just WHS. What do you intend to do with it besides serving movies?

 

[bastage]

oh wow.. I Get 60-70mb consistently to & from my WHS. & its running an atom d510 & a few Samsung Eco Drives. I Cant imagine what WHS on an i7 would be like.. I Also think it would be defeating my purpose in the server as a whole with as much juice as it will suck up.

 

[NO1B4ME]

oh wow.. I Get 60-70mb consistently to & from my WHS. & its running an atom d510 & a few Samsung Eco Drives. I Cant imagine what WHS on an i7 would be like.. I Also think it would be defeating my purpose in the server as a whole with as much juice as it will suck up.

Wow that is pretty good then. Can you post yur system setup? I am curious as I am replacing my work station as well.

 

[__Miguel_]

Miguel,

I have been up alot of nights in the last week and read alot of your posts in this thread and you are a pretty sharp knowledgeable guy. I will try what you posted and see how I fare. Thnaks for all the advice. I will go back and try a few.

Oh, please, you'll make me NOT fit through ANY doors from being bloated with pride, and I need go through quite a few of them each day...

Seriously, now, thank you for the compliment.

Also, from what you've said after my last post, you might have a rather serious problem with that client PC OS. Are you running Vista or W7? If you are, you might have a problem with your storage controllers working in PIO mode (it happened to me with my laptop, it's a software hiccup AFAIK), which SUCKS MAJOR A** (HUGE CPU usage and VERY low transfer rates). Check your Device Manager, and, if needed, take a peek here.

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[NO1B4ME]

Oh, please, you'll make me NOT fit through ANY doors from being bloated with pride, and I need go through quite a few of them each day...

Seriously, now, thank you for the compliment.

Also, from what you've said after my last post, you might have a rather serious problem with that client PC OS. Are you running Vista or W7? If you are, you might have a problem with your storage controllers working in PIO mode (it happened to me with my laptop, it's a software hiccup AFAIK), which SUCKS MAJOR A** (HUGE CPU usage and VERY low transfer rates). Check your Device Manager, and, if needed, take a peek here.

Cheers.

Miguel

Miguel,

I am trying to figure out the best way to backup my 400 blurays and 600 dvds to watch on a server in my house to serve 4 Samsung LED tv's and maybe 3 more LCD's. Soo far I am running the Asus P5Q with a quad cpu with Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Mymovies3 installed. It works pretty well. At first I was using 3 XBOX360's in my house to watch movies through the pc and it worked out well, but it has its limitations. So i decided to try out building 2 mini-itx pcs and wam they have been excellent for watching movies inn 1080p over the network.

I know people will say that is too much power blah blah blah but we all know power=fast in pc's . So my new mini itx boots up Very fast and I can watch a movie quickly from it.


At this point I have 8x 2TB hard drives to use but need to figure out what kind of card to use for raid. I onlt have experience with the ntel matrix raid as it is what I have always used. Noe I am looking for a hardware raid card.


What kind of raid card would you recommend to use 8-10 2tb drives in a raid pool?

 

[__Miguel_]

I am trying to figure out the best way to backup my 400 blurays and 600 dvds to watch on a server in my house to serve 4 Samsung LED tv's and maybe 3 more LCD's.

First of all, at your 4-7 endpoints (remember WHS has 10 client limit, especially on the backup side of things), and at the MASSIVE collection.

Soo far I am running the Asus P5Q with a quad cpu with Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Mymovies3 installed.

A bit over-specced on the CPU side, but if it works for you, great!

At this point I have 8x 2TB hard drives to use but need to figure out what kind of card to use for raid. I onlt have experience with the ntel matrix raid as it is what I have always used. Noe I am looking for a hardware raid card.

What kind of raid card would you recommend to use 8-10 2tb drives in a raid pool?

Hmm, this is the WHS thread. WHS and RAID are on the opposite end of the spectrum, in the sense WHS can duplicate the share contents (just like RAID1, but at the file level) and grow with different-sized HDDs while maintaining full HDD space usage (which only JBOD can do, while loosing redundancy). Also, RAID of ANY kind is a non-supported configuration on WHS (though it generally works).

So, I'd recommend you ditch the RAID card idea, and go for a multi-port SATA/SAS card, sticking to "plain" WHS (though if you feel safer, RAID1 through the Intel controller is probably fine for most usage scenarios, RAID1 is not that CPU-intensive, after all...).

If you want a "dumb" solution (that is, no RAID support whatsoever on the storage controller), the Supermicro cards have received rather good reviews in this thread (though there seem to be some problems), and I think it's the cheapest way of adding 8 ports to your server. Other options would be multiple SiI-based controllers with port multipliers (up to 5 HDDs per controller port), though that might be a wee bit taxing on the links, since you'll be cramming up to 10 HDDs over a PCIe 1x link (or 20 over a PCI link!).

Keep in mind, though, that I don't have ANY experience with storage controllers other than standard ICHx/ICHxR-based arrays, and most of what I know comes from reading about stuff.

As for high-end hardware RAID cards, Areca seems to be a good choice, their RAID6 cards are quite impressive on paper, and I've read interesting things about them, too. But again, I don't know much about them.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[pjkenned]

Miguel,

I am trying to figure out the best way to backup my 400 blurays and 600 dvds to watch on a server in my house to serve 4 Samsung LED tv's and maybe 3 more LCD's. Soo far I am running the Asus P5Q with a quad cpu with Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Mymovies3 installed. It works pretty well. At first I was using 3 XBOX360's in my house to watch movies through the pc and it worked out well, but it has its limitations. So i decided to try out building 2 mini-itx pcs and wam they have been excellent for watching movies inn 1080p over the network.

I know people will say that is too much power blah blah blah but we all know power=fast in pc's . So my new mini itx boots up Very fast and I can watch a movie quickly from it.


At this point I have 8x 2TB hard drives to use but need to figure out what kind of card to use for raid. I onlt have experience with the ntel matrix raid as it is what I have always used. Noe I am looking for a hardware raid card.


What kind of raid card would you recommend to use 8-10 2tb drives in a raid pool?

I'm guessing those are not all ISO's (400 x 40GB each = 16TB) If you want a good (fast) card, either get an Adaptec 5xxx or Areca 1680 based. Somewhat slower (but OK if you are only using 1-3 GigE NICs) tend to be LSI based cards. Another option is to get something that is compatible with a HP SAS Expander if you see yourself going to a 20+ drive setup in the somewhat near future.

With HW raid, you have to remember that every port is costing you well over the $12-15 of a non-raid HBA. Other considerations involve how many expansion slots you have open and etc.

My advice is to figure out what you will need port wise for the next 2 years and build a system to handle that, adding a SAS expander or HBA as necessary down the road. Heck, if you don't need >400MB/s writes and 600MB/s reads, you can use Adaptec 3xxxx series cards and they are super cheap.

I made the mistake of building a system with a E6420 two onboard Realtek NICs and room for only 16 drives through the Adaptec 31605. That server lasted me less than a year and I ended basically re-using the drives and power supply.

As for Win 7 v. WHS. Both are great with MyMovies.

 

[NO1B4ME]

First of all, at your 4-7 endpoints (remember WHS has 10 client limit, especially on the backup side of things), and at the MASSIVE collection.


A bit over-specced on the CPU side, but if it works for you, great!


Hmm, this is the WHS thread. WHS and RAID are on the opposite end of the spectrum, in the sense WHS can duplicate the share contents (just like RAID1, but at the file level) and grow with different-sized HDDs while maintaining full HDD space usage (which only JBOD can do, while loosing redundancy). Also, RAID of ANY kind is a non-supported configuration on WHS (though it generally works).

So, I'd recommend you ditch the RAID card idea, and go for a multi-port SATA/SAS card, sticking to "plain" WHS (though if you feel safer, RAID1 through the Intel controller is probably fine for most usage scenarios, RAID1 is not that CPU-intensive, after all...).

If you want a "dumb" solution (that is, no RAID support whatsoever on the storage controller), the Supermicro cards have received rather good reviews in this thread (though there seem to be some problems), and I think it's the cheapest way of adding 8 ports to your server. Other options would be multiple SiI-based controllers with port multipliers (up to 5 HDDs per controller port), though that might be a wee bit taxing on the links, since you'll be cramming up to 10 HDDs over a PCIe 1x link (or 20 over a PCI link!).

Keep in mind, though, that I don't have ANY experience with storage controllers other than standard ICHx/ICHxR-based arrays, and most of what I know comes from reading about stuff.

As for high-end hardware RAID cards, Areca seems to be a good choice, their RAID6 cards are quite impressive on paper, and I've read interesting things about them, too. But again, I don't know much about them.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Miguel

Miguel,


I gathered all that after going back in this thread. So NO raid for me as I will use Mymovies3 as I paid 100 for it and use the drives in a pool fashion as you mentioned. I did buy the AOC-MV8 SAS card mentioned in another thread with the breakout cables to 8 sata drives for now and it is working with no issues.


I just installed Win 7 64 on the Asus P5K-Pro motherboard and can transfer a 20 gig file over the network at 60-80MB a sec. So it is not the motherboard. It is WHS .

I am on the pc at the moment.

 

[NO1B4ME]

I'm guessing those are not all ISO's (400 x 40GB each = 16TB) If you want a good (fast) card, either get an Adaptec 5xxx or Areca 1680 based. Somewhat slower (but OK if you are only using 1-3 GigE NICs) tend to be LSI based cards. Another option is to get something that is compatible with a HP SAS Expander if you see yourself going to a 20+ drive setup in the somewhat near future.

With HW raid, you have to remember that every port is costing you well over the $12-15 of a non-raid HBA. Other considerations involve how many expansion slots you have open and etc.

My advice is to figure out what you will need port wise for the next 2 years and build a system to handle that, adding a SAS expander or HBA as necessary down the road. Heck, if you don't need >400MB/s writes and 600MB/s reads, you can use Adaptec 3xxxx series cards and they are super cheap.

I made the mistake of building a system with a E6420 two onboard Realtek NICs and room for only 16 drives through the Adaptec 31605. That server lasted me less than a year and I ended basically re-using the drives and power supply.

As for Win 7 v. WHS. Both are great with MyMovies.

Well I own all of hte blurays so no rush to rip them all to the hard drives. I figured that my current collection alone would take alot of drives . So I guess starting with WHS is not a bad idea at this point. I have been using Mymovies for the past month and really like it.

 

[__Miguel_]

My advice is to figure out what you will need port wise for the next 2 years and build a system to handle that, adding a SAS expander or HBA as necessary down the road. Heck, if you don't need >400MB/s writes and 600MB/s reads, you can use Adaptec 3xxxx series cards and they are super cheap.

Damn, is there ANY WHS implementation (remember the 10 client limit) that actually NEEDS more than Gigabit speeds for regular usage? And, for that matter, are there any consumer-grade switches with port bonding?

I mean, even 10 simultaneous 45Mbps streams are only about half a Gigabit pipe (probably a bit over, with overhead), and while a single HDD might not like that kind of abuse (60MBps+ sustained with 10 data streams seems pushing it), if you really have that many simultaneous viewers consuming 1080p content you're probably already outside a WHS usage scenario.

Though, if available from within WHS, a 2-node cluster should be a blast (I don't think clustering is available with WHS, however, and managing that one would be challenging, to say the least).

That kind of speed (which IS very nice, btw) seems better directed to more prosumer usage scenarios, where WHS isn't even the best OS for the job. That's my take on it, anyway.

I did buy the AOC-MV8 SAS card mentioned in another thread with the breakout cables to 8 sata drives for now and it is working with no issues.

Yes, that was the one I was referring to. I think it's the cheapest, most reliable way of adding 8 SATA/SAS ports to a server.

I just installed Win 7 64 on the Asus P5K-Pro motherboard and can transfer a 20 gig file over the network at 60-80MB a sec. So it is not the motherboard. It is WHS .

VERY weird. I have no idea of what might be causing that one...

Just to be sure, though, you're not trying to move files over the network with WMC/7MC/WMP open on the Vista/W7 machine, right? Because those and WHS definitely don't go too well together when you're trying to move files over the network (bloody Vista/W7 network throughput cap because of "potential audio glitches derived from high CPU usage from network file transfers", even if the machine running WMP has a freaking Core i7 CPU! Sorry, had to get that one out.)

Well I own all of hte blurays so no rush to rip them all to the hard drives.

Well, even if ripping will take a long time if something happens, I guess you can put those files on non-duplicated folders on WHS. Duplicating data you can (more or less) easily get back seems kind of wasteful on HDD space.

Oh, right, I just remembered something: Do you guys use HDD spindown mode on WHS? I've tried it once, but uTorrent frequently complained about torrent errors (though at the time I did have a bad drive). Is there any easy way of making those two work together?

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[rpkelly]

Hoping someone can help me and this is the right place to post:

Just installed WHS on an old machine. Got it set up and running in my living room so I had a monitor to use. Ran the connection disc on my main PC and was able to log in.

Then I moved the server down to the basement, near the router. Now it won't connect, saying it can't find the server. I've tried plugging it into the router and the switch, neither will work.

EDIT: Can anyone tell me what steps to take next? I'd rather not have to move a monitor and mouse/kb to the basement, but I'm not sure if there's anything else to try.

 

[rpkelly]

Answered my own question. For some reason my computer kept freezing at bios during startup. Got it to start (finally), and now WHS works on all the comps in my house. Now to get off work and begin setting it up...

 

[NO1B4ME]

mymovies for WHS sucks

MyMovies Server is much better IMO
And better yet is MediaBrowswer.

EDIT: Also why are you building your WHS on an i7 platform. That is obviously not going to fix your speed issue.
The transfer from the laptop proved that your PC is problem and not the WHS.
the P5Q is a great WHS board.

I built the I7 for my new workstation and transferred the Asus P5Q over to the server case with the same seagate 500gb drive that had WHS installed and right back to 10-18MB a sec. The only difference is the video card. I highly doubt my Intel pro dual GT1000 nic is the problem. This has me scratching ym head ..


I have all my 2TB hard drives with 2 Athena 4in1 bays for now to play around with and cannot get past this slow transfer speed ..,.

 

[Kendrak]

Does anyone know if microsoft security essentials works with WHS?

 

[nitrobass24]

Does anyone know if microsoft security essentials works with WHS?

It did not work for me. So i do without, as of now on my WHS.

Certain AV's cause issues with WHS. (read: file conflicts, corruption) so i wouldnt get something that does not have a WHS version

 

[Kendrak]

It did not work for me. So i do without, as of now on my WHS.

Certain AV's cause issues with WHS. (read: file conflicts, corruption) so i wouldnt get something that does not have a WHS version

What options are there besides Avast?

 

[nitrobass24]

ive seen people use these before.
In no particular order
F-Secure
McAfee
Avira
Free Avira
Avast WHS Edition

EDIT: add BitDefender

 

[__Miguel_]

What options are there besides Avast?

ClamAV has a WHS version in the works, too.

I use the current beta Add-In, which is basically a WHS "shell" for the ClamAV antivirus. It still lacks scan on file access (just like ClamAV), and scheduling automatic AV runs (so you still have to do it manually), but it hasn't given me any headaches up to this point.

Now, one little question: have McAfee and BitDefender started being more user, memory and CPU-friendly lately? I've had so many problems with both in the past in terms of memory usage, virus-like behavior after installation, and overall system sluggishness (or crashes) with them that I wouldn't be comfortable using either one of them with WHS...

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[Metaluna]

I'm in the process of planning a WHS server migration to a new system that will run WHS in a virtual machine along with other VMs (under Hyper-V Server 2008 R2). I understand that reinstalling WHS in a VM will probably require me to reactivate my WHS key with Microsoft.

My question, though, is if I subsequently decide to move the VM to a different system with a new motherboard/CPU/etc., will I have to reactivate it again, or is the VM sufficiently insulated from the physical system to not cause a problem?

I ask because I'm in the process of building a new system but some of the hardware won't be here for several weeks. I have some free time right now though, so I was thinking of starting in on the VM migration right away. The idea would be to install a new drive in my current WHS hardware, put Hyper-V on it, and then either try to boot up my existing WHS partition in a VM, or just make a new WHS VHD installation from scratch and manually migrate the pool. Then, when I've got the new server up and running, I could just export the VHD and move it and the storage pool to the new system. But I don't want to have to reactivate twice inside of a month, or possibly more if I run into hiccups. Does Microsoft still allow the trick of installing WHS without entering a CD key and getting something like 120 days of usage before I have to activate?

 

[nitrobass24]

I'm in the process of planning a WHS server migration to a new system that will run WHS in a virtual machine along with other VMs (under Hyper-V Server 2008 R2). I understand that reinstalling WHS in a VM will probably require me to reactivate my WHS key with Microsoft.

My question, though, is if I subsequently decide to move the VM to a different system with a new motherboard/CPU/etc., will I have to reactivate it again, or is the VM sufficiently insulated from the physical system to not cause a problem?

I ask because I'm in the process of building a new system but some of the hardware won't be here for several weeks. I have some free time right now though, so I was thinking of starting in on the VM migration right away, and then just export the VHD and move it and the storage pool to the new system when it's ready. But I don't want to have to reactivate twice inside of a month, or possibly more if I run into hiccups. Does Microsoft still allow the trick of installing WHS without entering a CD key and getting something like 120 days of usage before I have to activate?

Dont do all that work.
I have moved my current install to 5 platforms now, without reinstall.
Xeon 3100 -> 680i -> hyper-V -> Xeon5500 ->hyper-v -> Vmware workstation.

Yes it requires you to reactivate, but that is minor inconvenience opposed to reinstalling and transferring all your data.

No you cannot install WHS without a CD-key, you never could AFAIK.
Also if the online activation doesnt work cause you did it too many times, a quick call to MS 1-888-571-2048 should clear it up

 

[__Miguel_]

My question, though, is if I subsequently decide to move the VM to a different system with a new motherboard/CPU/etc., will I have to reactivate it again, or is the VM sufficiently insulated from the physical system to not cause a problem?

AFAIK, Microsoft's VM implementation exposes a fixed set of virtual hardware to the guest OS. I believe this to be true with most VM host software, not only Microsoft's.

That means that migrating the VM to a new, radically different, host should, at least in theory, NOT cause the VM's guest OS to detect a significant (if any) difference in hardware. Heck, Microsoft even supplies VM images of some of their OS products for you to try, and those are pre-installed on the VM.

Do keep in mind I have never tried such a thing. You may want to check MSDN's database or forums, or other more specific forums about virtualization.

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[nitrobass24]

AFAIK, Microsoft's VM implementation exposes a fixed set of virtual hardware to the guest OS. I believe this to be true with most VM host software, not only Microsoft's.

That means that migrating the VM to a new, radically different, host should, at least in theory, NOT cause the VM's guest OS to detect a significant (if any) difference in hardware. Heck, Microsoft even supplies VM images of some of their OS products for you to try, and those are pre-installed on the VM.

Do keep in mind I have never tried such a thing. You may want to check MSDN's database or forums, or other more specific forums about virtualization.

Cheers.

Miguel

You WILL have to reactivate

 

[Metaluna]

No you cannot install WHS without a CD-key, you never could AFAIK.
Also if the online activation doesnt work cause you did it too many times, a quick call to MS 1-888-571-2048 should clear it up

Okay thanks, I must have gotten it confused with the Vista/Win7 installers, where you can do keyless installs. It's been a while since I've done it.

 

[danman]

I upped the RAM from 1GB to 2GB on an XP VM and I had to reactivate.

 

[__Miguel_]

You WILL have to reactivate

Thanks for the clarification.

I was honestly convinced the VM was sufficiently "standard" not to need that stuff... Probably it can sense the CPU change (and a couple more other stuff), especially if you move from Intel to AMD or vice-versa, causing the "too big of a hardware change" trigger to go off.

Now, wasn't it about time VMs behaved like that, virtual? I mean, virtualisation was created exactly to enable people to move guest OSes from one machine to another, as resources change over time? Reactivation in these cases only causes more unnecessary downtime, from where I'm seeing it...

Cheers.

Miguel