Windows Home Server Power Pack 1: This Thing Rocks!

[Jason Dunn]

<p>One of the biggest changes that the <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/90000/windows-home-server-power-pack-1-released.html" target="_blank">Power Pack 1 update</a> ushered in was the way <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx" target="_blank">Windows Home Server </a>deals with file duplication. Prior to the Power Pack 1 update, a few seconds after a file was copied over to the server, it would kick off the duplication process, copying the file to multiple locations. Seems good for protecting your data right? It is, but it had the nasty side-effect of dragging down the overall server performance. I'm running Gigabit Ethernet to and from my Windows Home Server, yet I'd often see read/write file speeds in the realm of 4 MB/s, which is brutally slow. After applying Power Pack 1, I've been seeing performance 10x faster - the screen shot below shows performance in the 40 MB/s range.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//dht/auto/1217272833.usr1.png" border="0" /></p><p>I've also seen improvements in the integrity of the backup database; I used to have a problem with the backup database getting corrupted, and my backups would cease to function properly. That problem hasn't recurred, and it's also fixed a user name/password login problem I was having. So, overall I'm quite happy with the performance of the update.</p><p>The one thing that hasn't gone smoothly is the Connector software update: there's a new version of the Connector software with the Power Pack 1 update, but the version of the software in the Home Server Connector Folder is still the old version. I've spent some time trying to sort the issue out, but no solution so far. Anyone else applied the Power Pack 1 update and seen this issue?</p>

[freitasm]

Lucky you... My speeds were 12 MB/s from a USB 2.0 drive to the server - within the server. Perhaps because USB 2.0 is involved, but even so still very low.

[bleeman]

I updated the one we use at the office for desktop backups last night and had no problems. I am not that "WHS Fluent" so I just followed the prompts and let it do its thing. When it was done I was prompted to update the connectors on each of our desktops and it worked fine.

I'll be getting more knowledgable on WHS later this week. Office Depot has a sale going on right now where they are including an additional internal 500GB SATA drive when you buy the 500GB model, so I took the plunge and purchased one for our home. The other cool thing is, Office Depot price matched Office Max's $549 sale they are running this week. So we got the EX470 for $598.46USD after tax and delivery charges with two 500GB drives!

[John London]

After upgrading to PP1, everything except the connector is working better. The connector is suppose to support x64. So far the connector connects randomly. On the x86 computers the connector works with out any problems.

[DocGolden]

I downloaded PP1 the first night it was available. Ran through the full setup, and then installed the connector software as prompted. No issues for me. Now, I'm running all XP machines, so that might be a contributing factor.

Also, I didn't download direct from the shares. When the existing connector install told me there was a new version, I logged in via the connector, and used the link to the new version that popped up in the Network Health panel. This popped open a web page to the server, which I dutifully clicked on. Might be worth a try to go this route...

[Jason Dunn]

I downloaded PP1 the first night it was available. Ran through the full setup, and then installed the connector software as prompted.

Something just occurred to me...when you downloaded PP1, did you download it to your local computer and run it from there? I did a remote desktop session into my WHS and downloaded and ran PP1 from there...which is maybe not the way I was supposed to do it... :confused:

...used the link to the new version that popped up in the Network Health panel. This popped open a web page to the server, which I dutifully clicked on. Might be worth a try to go this route...

Yeah, I tried that but when I click on the install link I get an error - essentially a 404 error because the file/path is wrong.

[bleeman]

Something just occurred to me...when you downloaded PP1, did you download it to your local computer and run it from there? I did a remote desktop session into my WHS and downloaded and ran PP1 from there...which is maybe not the way I was supposed to do it... :confused:


No you took the right approach. When I did my research it stated it would be available via Windows Update in the near future, but if you wanted to download it direct from the Microsoft Download Center you were to do exactly what you did. That's the approach I took.

Just out of curiousity what is the address of the page you are getting the 404 error on?

[redjessie]

I had similar issues. If i tried using the link from within the Network Health warnings, then I got the 404 error.

But I could access the WHS connector folder directly in the software folder, and it looked to be new versions, as the date on the install program was July 2008, so I installed it manually on my Vista laptop & desktop and 2 XP desktops. All seemed to go OK.

How can I tell that I did get the connector upgrade?

Thanks

[Jason Dunn]

Just out of curiousity what is the address of the page you are getting the 404 error on?

When I log into the Windows Home Server Console, it gives me a link to upgrade the Connector software:

http://dojo-server:55000/

The DOWNLOAD NOW button links here:

http://dojo-server:55000/setup/WHSConnectorInstall.exe

When I click it, I get this:

The page cannot be found

The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. <hr> Please try the following:


Make sure that the Web site address displayed in the address bar of your browser is spelled and formatted correctly.
If you reached this page by clicking a link, contact the Web site administrator to alert them that the link is incorrectly formatted.
Click the Back (javascript:history.back(1)) button to try another link.

HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

[Jason Dunn]

But I could access the WHS connector folder directly in the software folder, and it looked to be new versions, as the date on the install program was July 2008

My problem is that the version of the software in the /software folder is the old client software. Apparently the new software is in the C:\WHS folder, but that folder is full of files, so I can't just copy them all over and hope it works. I'll get this figured out, but it sure is a pain and I don't know how this got past beta testers.

How can I tell that I did get the connector upgrade?

If you're not getting warnings about upgrading the connector software, you have the latest version. ;)