WHS system advice

[drozwood90]

My only suggestion...multi-core.

If you want to do anything more then 1 thing at a time (maybe 2 IF the second is NOT tied to a processor's free time), you'll need multiple cores.

I went cheaper way back when the new dual core chips were coming out, and my Celeron (single core 2.12GHZ) is holing it's own. BUT, the system is doing what it was designed for. Serving files and running Homeseer. That's it. Can't really get it to do anything else. So, I've pieced together a second system. I'll control that through HS so it's only running when I want it to run. It was cheaper to do that, then to invest in a new system...although Telefragger seems to have outdone himself in this thread over on the HS forum:

http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=138567

Post 14 specifically.

So, that's why I setup my system. Just need to set XP or Win2k (I'm not sure which one I've got left laying around) to hibernate, instead of shutdown, so I can get it to boot back up as quickly as possible.

--Dan

 

[beelzerob]

Well, the only 2 things I'd have planned for it would be WHS and CQC, and I'm pretty sure CQC doesn't require a whole lot of horsepower to run. So those two should coexist fine. I'm going to do an inventory of what systems I have laying around tonight and see if I can find a reasonable one to play with during the evaluation.

 

[sic0048]

I've been running CQC on WHS for about two months now without any problems.

 

[standon]

My WHS is one of those first generation dual core systems (940 or something) and has about 1gb ram only. I have it as my CQC master server among other things. No problems with speed whatsoever. It does not run any IVs for me though. Log in from the console has always been a bit slow, but rdp is pretty fast so I'm thinking that's just the way the console is. Most of the drivers that actually connect to hardware are on another system though, mostly because of a lack of windows drivers.

Edit: I do have it backing itself up too, it's more of a manual process though. I have to specifically tell it to back itself up, and manually manage those backups.

 

[mustangcoupe]

Well, I found the WHS trial download, so I figure before I start plunking down money for hard drives and interface cards, I should see how it works with what drives I have, and then I'll have a better idea of what I need.

Rob,

Watch out, you can not go trial to live without a server HD wipe.... so dont run it with production machine/without a backups of data...

 

[beelzerob]

Good advice Todd, thanks...I was wondering if I could just install the real version over the trial or not. I'll make sure it's a REAL trial then. That overall isn't a big deal, since I'm not looking to use WHS for storing anything "permanently"....everything on there of importance will be backed up someplace more reliable (I hope).

 

[sic0048]

Log in from the console has always been a bit slow, but rdp is pretty fast so I'm thinking that's just the way the console is.

I see the same thing and my WHS is a beast (it doesn't lack the horsepower to do it fast). I think the console is just slow....

 

[networkcrasher]

Couple tidbits of wisdom from my WHS install a few weeks ago for HAI WL3 on WHS.

I built up an old dragon intrusion detection server (dual 1ghz P3) into an ESX server. Initially had 512mb of ram and 2 72gb drives in it at RAID1. Built it up, had ESX running, optimized the server a bit to only use 40 some odd mb of RAM, and built up the VM for WHS. Wouldn't install with the 40gb I allocated for it..

Turns out, WHS requires a minimum of 70gb for the boot drive.

So, changed some of my RAID around to a bigger RAID0 stripe (boot partition is RAID1, and copied the VMs to it after they were built) and got WHS installed. Figured out that WHS would die a slow death when I only get it 384mb of RAM. Bumped the ram to 1gb and gave it 768. Barfed again. Bumped the RAM to 4gb and gave it 2. Now it purrs like a kitten.

All of my external disk is on a fibre channel array, just wanted to keep all of the VM stuff on the internal drives. Running great now!

 

[beelzerob]

Ok, I'm *MOSTLY* pleased with WHS so far, but I've come across one very annoying thing....

I installed CQC on the WHS machine. I access that directory so often, that I've always Shared it so I can map it to a drive letter on all other PC's. However, no matter who I put in for permissions or how many times I reboot, I can not access the CQC directory from the WHS machine from a different PC. It gives me "Not accessible, Access Denied"

I can access the WHS shared dirs just fine...Music, Photos, etc. Just not the CQC dir I've tried to Share. There are a couple google pages about this issue, but their "fixes" aren't always clear as to what's needed.

 

[sic0048]

I find that if you bring up the Sharing Properties of the folder in question and manually add a user's name to the share, then it works. So even though the share is probably set for All Users, if you go in and add Beelzerob and give yourself full permissions, then you'll be able to access that folder from other machines as long as you log in as Beelzerob.

 

[beelzerob]

Well...to be able to add "Rob", I had to create an account on the WHS machine...I couldn't add it otherwise. And to create the account, I had to give it a password. At first, I still couldn't access the CQC dir, but then I rebooted my client machine, and when I tried to access it, it asked for my username AND password. (strange that it wouldn't know my username...). I put that in, and sure enough, it works.

but I have to be honest, having to use passwords is a PAIN. I deal with passwords so much at work, I can barely stand having to do it at home too. Just sayin....

 

[troymt]

You give yourself permission on the security tab as well?

 

[beelzerob]

Hmm...no, not explicitely. Like I said, I have access now....does adding myself to the security tab mean I don't have to enter a password?

 

[jmark71]

Hmm...no, not explicitely. Like I said, I have access now....does adding myself to the security tab mean I don't have to enter a password?

Actually, if you click the settings option on the WHS console, there is a section for passwords. If you set that to allow 'weak' passwords, that will let you have accounts without passwords at all. I'm doing just that to get my Popcorn Hour to see the WHS server and it works great.

 

[beelzerob]

Fantastic! I'll definitely try that when I get home. Thanks!