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Mixed WHS questions

F

Fjodor2001

Diamond Member
Hi,

I have some mixed Windows Home Server (WHS) questions:

1. Is it possible to run DeltaCopy (i.e. 'rsync for Windows', see http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp) on a WHS server? I couldn't find any WHS console add-in version of DeltaCopy, but perhaps it can be run outside of the console as a normal Windows application/service? Or could that conflict with the operation of WHS? :hmm:

2. Is it possible to tune or configure the WHS storage balancing functionality to not kick in when the drives are busy with other read/write operations (unless absolutely necessary of course, i.e. when one of the drives are running out of space). I wonder since apparently the storage balancing can have quite a negative impact on ongoing read/write transactions. More specifically, the file copy speed can go from ~50 MB/s to ~13 MB/s when the storage balancing kicks according to this review: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/reviews/2007/10/Windows-Home-Server-the-Ars-Technica-review.ars/6.

3. Is it possible to access the WHS server via a Remote Desktop Connection from a computer outside the LAN?

4. I've read that for WHS "The system also supports Terminal Services Gateway, allowing remote control of the desktop of any Windows computer on the home network.". But what does this actually mean? Let's say I'm on a computer outside my home LAN and want to access one of the client computers on my home LAN. Then why can't I just set up a Remote Desktop Connection directly to that client computer? What role does WHS have to play in this scenario? 😕

Thanks!
 
2) No, which is a shame. It's supposed to stop when things are busy, but I find that it goes right along anyhow. This is why WHS really needs Win6.xx's I/O prioritization.

3) Yes, if you know the right ports to unblock. But I'm not sure RDP is internet-safe.

4) RDP plays the role of a guarddog. Rather than exposing the client to the internet, only the server is exposed (and then only IIS on ports 80 and 443), which in turn has stricter security measures such as strong passwords.
 
Some more detail:

3) Yes, WHS has a DynDNS type service where you register a subdomain to homeserver.com (ie Fjodor2001.Homeserver.com). When you access this page you sign in with your credentials and are given options to control PCs on your LAN or access the file shares on your WHS. As for accessing your WHS directly (ie RDP) by default you are only given access to the WHS console screen and you are only allowed to do operations that the console provides. You can modify one of the config files in to change that behavior to be true RDP access to the WHS desktop.

4) As stated above, through the “portal” you can RDP other desktops on your LAN. One caveat is that they must be Pro or higher editions (ie no Home Premium). Though with time and effort you can make it work but its up to your morals to decide.

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

2) Unknown, currently my LAN is 100mb so I see no impact due to balancing.

1) Im not familiar with DeltaCopy, but I would imagine it would depend on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to duplicate data on the server for availability that is not needed as WHS supports duplication. If you are trying to sync the server to another computer on the LAN I don’t see why it wont work provided that it will support UNC\Share names. If you have a set of disks using drive extender in a pool you never want to access the file via the drives only via the shared folder.
 
Thanks for your replies. Some follow up questions:

1. I want to use DeltaCopy for its ability to perform incremental backups of folders in a 'Mac TimeMachine' or 'Linux rsync' style fashion. I.e. I want to be able to access the version of a file which existed in a folder on the WHS server e.g. 2 weeks ago. I don't know if WHS supports that by default (or if there is any add-in that does)?

2. Ok, that's really sad. But is there anything that can be done to limit the negative impact of this? For example can the storage balancing be scheduled? Or what triggers it to kick in? Is it an operation that is performed periodically (e.g. every hour), or when certain events occur (e.g. when WHS detects that the storage space on one of the drives is below a certain limit)? Also, approximately how long does it take for the operation to complete, e.g. if a) there is nothing to balance, or b) if there is 10 GB to balance (assuming that you have a reasonably modern system)?

3. Great!

4. Perfect. Good for me that I decided to use Windows 7 Pro for my client computer... :awe:
 
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Fjodor2001 said:
2. Ok, that's really sad. But is there anything that can be done to limit the negative impact of this? For example can the storage balancing be scheduled? Or what triggers it to kick in? Is it an operation that is performed periodically (e.g. every hour), or when certain events occur (e.g. when WHS detects that the storage space on one of the drives is below a certain limit)? Also, approximately how long does it take for the operation to complete, e.g. if a) there is nothing to balance, or b) if there is 10 GB to balance (assuming that you have a reasonably modern system)?
Click to expand...
I don't have a great answer to that, other than to say that the drive balancer rarely kicks in. For the most part it's only used to replicate files to a different disk if you have mirroring turned on for a share. MS significantly changed WHS's drive allocation methodology in Power Pack 2, so files now almost always get written straight to the right drive in the first place.

The performance impact isn't worth worrying about.
 
That Ars Technica review was written about 2.5 years ago and three PowerPacks ago. WHS' Drive Extender code was re-written two years ago. WHS does very little "drive balancing" anymore unless you are in the process of removing a disk.
 
Fjodor2001 said:
1. I want to use DeltaCopy for its ability to perform incremental backups of folders in a 'Mac TimeMachine' or 'Linux rsync' style fashion. I.e. I want to be able to access the version of a file which existed in a folder on the WHS server e.g. 2 weeks ago. I don't know if WHS supports that by default (or if there is any add-in that does)?
Click to expand...

That feature can be replicated with Volume Shadow Copies. Its in Server 2003 and I assume it would be in WHS as well, maybe someone else can confirm. Ive never done it in WHS but I have on a 2003 boxes at work in the past. Basicly you enable VSS on the drive\pool in question and all shares on that drive will, on a schedule you set, take snapshots of all the files that have changed since the last snapshot. If you ever want to restore a file or view a file as it was in the past simply view the properties of the file\folder and there will be a previous versions tab where you can see a list of the past snapshots its taken from there you can select to view\restore\copy the files.

Again, I cant comment about the default behavior and this feature in WHS or if there are any particular requirements (such as a non-pool disk to store snapshots to) that are needed to enable it.
 
JackMDS said:
http://mswhs.com/2010/02/05/enable-the-shadow-copy-service-on-whs/.
Click to expand...
As noted in comments at the bottom of that page, Shadow Copies on WHS are problematic when multiple disks are in the Storage Pool. At best, they probably won't function as expected. I've read that you may be able to restore a Previous Version of stuff that was Shadow Copied since the last reboot.

I haven't read of anything really "bad" that will happen if you enable Shadow Copies. Only that it can't be counted on to work.

Last year, the makers of Diskeeper announced an "Undelete" program that would work on WHS. But I don't think they ever shipped the product.
 
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RebateMonger said:
As noted in comments at the bottom of that page, Shadow Copies on WHS are problematic when multiple disks are in the Storage Pool. At best, they probably won't function as expected.
Click to expand...

Maybe storing the shadow copies on a drive that is not in a storage pool will perform more consistently.
 
There are many programs that can run on WHS (including sync. programs) since it is a subset of Win2003.

The issue is that WHS has a cohesive set of rules that ride and operates on top of Win2003.

Running anything that is Not part of this set of rules pose risks.

I have HD with WHS installation that is dedicated for experiments since in many cases there is No way to know what would happen that might compromise the integrity of the server and I do not want to compromise my real working system.

That is why I posted before that if One has a specific idea use the trial version and test it.

I keep most of the data part of WHS on a backup disk. However, I do not run the sync/copy program on the WHS I run it on another computer and copy from the WHS to the backup Disk through a Giga Network.
The Internet is great medium for info and help. Nevertheless, “excessive anxiety” and “blabbering” 😱 - :hmm: - :sneaky: should not be a substitute for some real technical work.

.
 
RebateMonger said:
Last year, the makers of Diskeeper announced an "Undelete" program that would work on WHS. But I don't think they ever shipped the product.
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Diskeeper claims is that.

"Any full Windows server edition of Diskeeper or Undelete will install and work fine on Windows Home Server. Keep in mind that the full blown server product from us will not follow the recommended installation design of WHS (you will need to remote desktop in to WHS), nor plug in to the WHS management console".

The regular sever edition is expensive so the idea is to create a less expensive subset for WHS.

Then Win 7 was released, and it seems that it was delayed cause it was not ready for Win 7. At the moment (and this is a personal conjecture), I would not be surprise if the rumored of "Vail" will further delay it.


.
 
JackMDS said:
Then Win 7 was released, and it seems that it was delayed cause it was not ready for Win 7. At the moment (and this is a personal conjecture), I would not be surprise if the rumored of "Vail" will further delay it.
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I'd hate to see folks who are in desperate need of backups delay their purchases of WHS because of Vail.

I remember when my brother wouldn't buy his first PC because he was waiting until "Intel MMX" was released. And I remember how Microsoft technical presentations weren't complete without a joke about how their demo would be much faster and smoother if their laptops had "Hyper-threading" processors.

Both of these statements were made at times when MMX and Hyper-threading had zero effect on "real-life" computing.
 
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