Add-In: AdminiMe 1.0.1

Add-In: AdminiMe 1.0.1: "

Asoft the company behind AutoExit for WHS have just released a new add-in called AdminiMe.

AdminiMe for Windows Home Server monitors your server and notifies you if something goes wrong.

As well as the monitoring function, the add-in also contains a console where you can watch in real-time the CPU, memory, network, disks and all kinds of statistics like uptime, longest uptime, # of starts etc.

The add-in also has shortcuts to relevant tools, such as Event Viewer, Task Manager, Performance Monitor and Remote Desktop as well as an option to add your own shortcuts to applications too.

And next to that, there is a ‘Run-box’ which has the same functionality as the Windows Run Dialog plus a screen where you can view, which users have open files to the server shares.

And all these events are kept in a log that can be consulted later on.

AdminiMe has 99.99% functionalities enabled in the unregistered version and it shows a small nag-screen, but it is recommended to register for a small license fee and support the development of AdminiMe.

Features in AdminiMe 2010 for Windows Home Server

• Multilingual UI (supports German, French, Japanese).


• A console that shows a lot of information: CPU Usage (in total or per processor), Upload & Download speed of the network traffic, Memory usage, Total Disk usage, Current Time, System Uptime, Longest/Total Uptime, # of starts, First/Last start, Detailed information on the storage (activity, temperature, disk space,…), All the files that have sessions open by users, The logging of all events that occurred.


• Handy features in the console: Possibility to create shortcuts to applications, Shortcuts to important system tools (Event Viewer, Performance Monitor, Task Manager, Remote desktop), Run box (like the Run dialog functionality in the Windows Menu), Automatically shut down the server when no clients are connected.


• Health monitoring: Send a mail in case of problems


• Monitoring: CPU (monitors the average usage over a certain amount of time), Memory (Memory usage), Hard disks (Disk space monitoring, disk temperature monitoring), System Event Log (Problems reported in the Event Viewer are monitored), WHS Events (Warning / Errors), Failed Remote Access Attempts, System (warns if the system has been running non-stop for x amount of days, improper shutdown).

More details are available from here.

iPhone Client for Windows Home Server Coming Soon

iPhone Client for Windows Home Server Coming Soon

A new add-in is in development which will allow you to manage your home server directly from Apple’s iPhone. Whilst HP’s MediaSmart application for iPhone allows you to stream media from your home server to the iPhone, Brent Friedman’s forthcoming WHS Mobile for iPhone goes one better, allowing you to view and manage the files on your home server directly on your iPhone.

The iPhone application is due to be published in the coming weeks, and Brent has stated that it will be released without charge. Can’t wait!

More Info: WHS Mobile for iPhone

Windows Home Server Hard Drive Failure

Windows Home Server Hard Drive Failure

What do you do when a hard drive fails?

A Western Digital drive died in my system recently so I decided to document the steps I went through and what all happens during this process. I’m completely out of USB ports on my Media Smart Server so I decided to shut it off and re-organize. I’ve decided to use a USB hub for my printer and the battery backup and I’ll keep all data drives on their own dedicated port. When I powered it back up I noticed the top drive light was not on. Sure enough, I go back to my workstation and the notification icon is an angry RED color.

I tried re-seating the drive in question. It also felt cool to the touch when I thought it would be a tad warm even from casual use. My server is in a basement equipment room so it’s nice and cool so that my explain it.

I opened the console and here is what I found.

Here is what Disk Management Add-In reports. The non-storage drive is what I am using with KeepVault. KeepVault runs a nightly backup of my shares to this drive. It’s also the ioSafe drive.

Clicking the Network Critical notification also informs me that my backup database is feeling ill.

I’m also seeing these popups. The first one was for the music folder, now the Photos folder. I got a few more then finally a Network Critical notification. (Isn’t it fun to sneak a peek at what is running on other peoples toolbar? Think you can name all the apps in mine?)

My only option with the so-called “Missing Drive” is to remove it but I think I’ll poke around the Event Viewer via Remote Desktop to see if WHS is doing anything in the background. I also looked at Disk Manager and the drive is not there so I’m now convinced I have a bad drive. I guess my server has been trying to tell me that all along?

I’ll remove the offending drive.(you know I’m going to check it on another computer though!)

Several Hours!

Now is where I start thinking. What folders did I NOT have duplication turned on? DVD’s. Yep, my movie collection. Well, about 20 or so DVD rips. I was just about to start ripping some more DVD’s for a review too. I may have to start over if that folder was on the dead drive. I also think that the Software and Public folder were not duplicated. That might not be very smart on my part. My Software share was growing. I have started putting everything that I download there. Beta’s, drivers, Anti-Virus stuff. That’s going to suck if I have to re-download some of the beta stuff. Luckily, my Win7 ISO’s are still on my desktop!

Wait and see. 8:45PM start. 10:20 Finish

Once again lets triage the situation. What is bad, what is good?

Still seeing the database error.

Still seeing file conflict errors.

Under the shared folders tab I see some disturbing news.

This is the status of all my shared folders. The healthy folders are mostly unused or empty folders.

Fix it

It’s time to dive in and see what I can do to get rid of these errors. First thing is to pull the bad drive out and restart the server. This is recommended by Knowledge Base article link from this error message.

Further reading of this article suggests that by repairing the backup database I will lose all my PC backups. That is not good news but at least I have my shares intact.

After the reboot I see my shared folders are all healthy.

Before

After

Disk Management is reporting more usage on two drives leading me to think that the duplication efforts were successful.

I still have the “backup database errors” critical notification so it looks like I’ll be clicking the repair button and losing my backups. Someone alert Yakuza that I’ll be downloading his BDBB Add-In real soon!

I let the process run all night so I don’t know how long it took. Here are the results.

Click next and the backup service will start again. It also re-checks database consistency. Even though it says its starting the backup service I have backups of all computers that were on last night. So I feel good about that. I never went very long without protection. The whole process lasted over 4 hours. It took longer because I took pause and read a whole bunch of stuff to make sure I didn’t goof anything up. In the end, I followed all the prompts and clues from WHS and it took care of everything.

Conclusion:

I suppose there is a lesson in this but there is also a question. Why can I not duplicate computer backups automatically from day one?

Did I lose anything important? I lost two backups that I wouldn’t mind having back. One was a family member laptop that I backed up just to have the image in case the family member had trouble in the future. I have the factory restore disks for this laptop so all is not lost here.

The other was an old laptop that needs a small repair. I had a new drive for it and never got around to the repair. I guess Win7 will go on it now.

On the bright side this issue did clear up a bunch of space for me! I can’t find much to complain about except for the fact that I cannot duplicate backups “out of the box.” I’m certainly aware of the Add-In BDBB but don’t normal users expect to be protected 100% when they purchase WHS? Even so, I only went 4 hours without backups. There was only a slim chance of failure during that 4 hour window. I can’t imagine the bad luck of having a computer hard drive fail during this vulnerable period. I bet it has happened to someone or it will.

I suppose I will take a deeper look at BDBB from Alex Kuretz and enable duplication of my backups via this Add-In.

Off to find a good hard drive deal!

Installing the AutoExit Add-In to Windows Home Server on a Friday night

Installing the AutoExit Add-In to Windows Home Server on a Friday night

Recently I wrote about my five Core Add-Ins for my standard Windows Home Server installations and I am about to add a sixth Add-In to the list. The AutoExit Add-In is one of those rare gems that does not get a lot of attention. This Add-In can save you a lot of time and frustration on your home network.

Background

I am one of the luckiest men on Earth. My wife lets me purchase all of the computer equipment I want. We have two work laptops (VPN networked but not a part of WHS for security reasons), two personal laptops, a photo editing workstation, a laptop in the garage and a HTPC (Home Theater PC) all networked via gigabit to my homebuilt WHS. There are only two of us which means at any given time five of the seven Dell PCs are not being used. Each one has a purpose and I would not change anything, however, keeping them all backed up is a pain in the ass. Is my WHS not doing its job? Let me explain…

We try to save electricity so whenever the PCs are not in use we have them turned off. While the electrical savings add up, so do the WHS warnings about these systems not being backup. The warnings are more of a nuisance since they do get backed up on the weekends when I turn them all on. Some days I am on every computer but some days I am only on one or two. With WHS I can access my movies and media from any PC in the house and even if I do start a PC I will not leave it on all night just to backup. Here is my weekly backup protocol…

I wake up on Saturday morning and head right to the office. I press the power button on my main workstation. I then spin my chair around and press the button on my personal laptop. I then walk out to the kitchen, prep my wife’s coffeemaker and walk out to the garage to press the power button on the garage laptop. I grab a Diet Coke from the garage fridge and walk back inside to the living room where I press the power button on the Hybrid. I walk back the office, set down the Diet Coke and by this time the main workstation is ready for my fingerprint. I repeat the entire walk logging in to each system. Now my house is not big so I am not really complaining about the walk but I would love a better process.

Upon my return to the office I log into the WHS console and back each system up remotely. Once all of the backups are complete I run the WHS BDBB, walk out to the living room and watch Enterprise on my Moxi DVR (not networked) until my phone beeps me when backup warning clears or my wife wakes up, which ever comes first. Unless I am out of town I do this EVERY Saturday. Should I use mControl for the coffeemaker? I could start the brewing from Windows Media Center. Maybe in another article…

Mental Note: You do not have to log in to Windows to start the backup. You can start the backup as soon as the PC becomes available. I log in to each PC to make sure I have latest automatic updates.

Earlier this week Andrew Edney posted a quick update about an Add-In that allows WHS to control your Windows PCs. I decided to put all other topics on hold until I could get this Add-In reviewed. I cannot wait to see what this Add-In can do for my system and for yours!

Equipment Needed:

AutoExit Add-In from http://www.asoft-ware.com/

Two Beers (optional as always)

Add-In Description

Information about the Add-In comes directly from the ASoft website at http://www.asoft.be/

The website says the following about AutoExit:

• Shut down your machines over the Windows Home Server network.


• It can be used to shut down, reboot machines in your home network from within the console.


• Wake On Lan is also supported, this enables you to easily boot up machines remotely.


• You can put the machine into hibernation, sleep, log off the user or lock the machine.


• The server can also be shut down from the toolbar now.


• You can execute these actions per machine or for all machines.


• Changes in AutoExit 2009 (minor update):
  
  - Wake On Lan all clients.
  
  - Send a message to all connected clients.
  
  - Warn users when the server is going down.
  
  - Support for Windows 7.
  
  - Possibility to the Wake On Lan port to send to.
  
  - Possibility to enable easy logging on the client side.”

As I mentioned earlier, I first became aware of this Add-In when the AutoExit update was posted by Andrew at:

http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2009/08/12/new-version-of-autoexit-add-in-for-windows-home-server/

Ok, AutoExit looks like a great Add-In, but is it worthy of changing my “Favorite Five” to a “Standard Six”?

Lets set this pig on fire!

Download and Installation

Downloading is easy. This Add-In works like a regular Add-In so save the file to your Software/Add-Ins folder. Just click on the following link:

http://www.asoft.be/

Once you have completed the download open the WHS console and Install the Add-In.

Once the WHS console has restarted you can log in to WHS and verify that the installation is complete.

Configuration and Setup

Most of the configuration of this Add-In is done on each machine you want to control from the WHS console. When you first access the Add-In from the WHS console you get the following message:

Unless you need a reminder, click on the “Don’t show this dialog again” check box and click on OK.

I am going to go to each PC and run the “autoexitclient.exe” file on each system. Below I am doing screen shots of the XP machine in the garage.

During the download and installation a new folder was created called “AutoExit” with the client installer file. Open the Shared Folders on Server and navigate to the \\XXXXX\Software\AutoExit folder. Double click on the file and follow the installation instructions.

Once you have completed the installation click on Finish.

My garage system is running XP Home so I will not be able to use the remote desktop function of the Add-In on this system. The system will still respond to the other functionality of AutoExit. Right mouse click on the tray icon and choose Diagnose to see information about your system.

Once I have installed the software on the garage PC I go back to office and the WHS console and see the status of this machine on the network. I have omitted the IP address and the MAC address from the pictures.

I right mouse on the PC and get a list of actions for this system.

The status of the PC only shows if the PC is online and does not tell whether the PC has had the AutoExit client software installed. You can right click on each machine but it will not control the system until the client package is installed. Interestingly enough the Remote Desktop option does work with systems that support Remote Desktop Connections (RDC).

Mental Note: The Remote Desktop function from within the Add-In does not require the the Add-In software to be installed first so if your system supports Remote Desktop then you can actually remote in to install the software and save yourself a trip to the PC!

I log in to my HTPC from within the AutoExit Add-In.

Through this RDC, I navigate the PC to the server folder and run the AutoExit software.

Once the installation is complete you can control your systems as needed and as defined by the operating systems. As you can see below, my wife never leaves her laptop on overnight so this Add-In will be of great benefit to our network and WHS.

Everything seems to be working well with the connections however I did experience some issues with the XP machines when they would Hibernate instead of sleeping. Asoft states in their documentation that this is a Windows issue and not from the Add-In. I just unchecked the Hibernation button on the XP machines and they now do not Hibernate when directed to go to sleep.

The Wake On Lan function (WOL) is also available but will not be discussed in this article. I am not going to touch your BIOS and you probably should not either. To enable my WOL I am using DCCU 3.0 from Dell since my five laptops are all Latitude series machines.

For more information on the Wake On Lan functionality please see the Guidelines document in the AutoExit folder and then your manufacturers documentation.

There is also as cool message feature but I doubt I would use it.

Conclusion

For anyone with multiple systems in their home network this Add-In is a must. AutoExit is not just about the “Exit” but also about the ease of access to all of your systems. I am going to add AutoExit to my core list of starting Add-Ins for my future installations. Thank you to Asoft for such a rockin’ Add-In.

I would have named this Add-In AutoConnectRemoteOffShutSleepDesktopExitLogLockandSend, (ACROSS DELLS) but that is just me because I am a Dell guy. I guess AutoExit works too.

See you next Friday night,

Backup WHS to the Cloud Using Live Mesh

Backup WHS to the Cloud Using Live Mesh

More Live Mesh tutorials, this one from The Home Server Show who explain to us how to backup to the cloud using Live Mesh on Windows Home Server and NTBackup which is part of WHS.

Read it here.

Download Manager v3.0 Review

Download Manager v3.0 Review

I sit at work (browsing when I should be working) quite often, sometimes thinking I could just do with downloading that software for later, and in order for me to do this I have to log onto my WHS website, then wake one of my machines up using “Asofts AutoExit 2008 R2” and then I can use Remote Desktop Connection to log into the machine. Once I have done this I can start the download I require direct from that machine, all this is taking time and taking money from me, as I have now got to leave that machine on all day. Ok so enough rambling, I have been looking for a download manager for a while now and have recently seen Christof Rakowski’s Download Manager.

This is ideal for me as I am able to just log into my WHS website and activate any download I need, at first glance you notice that it supports Rapidshare Free and Premium accounts, time scheduling, HTTP and FTP, it will also shutdown the server once the download is complete.

“Christof Rakowski’s Download Manager Version 3"

The one to note is with version 3 I found the statistics button kept crashing the WHS console, the only way to recover from this would be to close and then re-open the console but version 3 is still in Beta so I am confident this will be rectified very soon, other than that no problems to report.

Conclusion

I have been using this add-in now for around 2 weeks and found it extremely useful and I am sure you all will to, it is a simple piece of software which is easily installed and most of all easily used with absolutely nothing to configure other than the relevant download you require, the add-in is also available in both English and German so this add-in definitely gets my thumbs up.

To download in IE right-click here and “Save Target As…

New Version of AutoExit Add-In for Windows Home Server

New Version of AutoExit Add-In for Windows Home Server

Nick Asseloos has been in touch to let us know that he has released a new version of AutoExit, that great add-in for Windows Home Server.

This version includes:

Shut down your machines over the Windows Home Server network.

It can be used to shut down, reboot machines in your home network from within the console. Wake On Lan is also supported, this enables you to easily boot up machines remotely.

You can put the machine into hibernation, sleep, log off the user or lock the machine.

The server can also be shut down from the toolbar now.

You can execute these actions per machine or for all machines.

Changes in AutoExit 2009 (minor update):

- Wake On Lan all clients.

- Send a message to all connected clients.

- Warn users when the server is going down.

- Support for Windows 7.

- Possibility to the Wake On Lan port to send to.

- Possibility to enable easy logging on the client side.

- Mac-address of the server is retrieved when opening the diagnostic dialog and the Mac field being empty.

- When downloading an update, it is automatically saved to the ‘Server\Software’ or ‘Server\Logiciel’ folder, if none of these exist the browse directory dialog is shown.

- Fix: On some machines the actions did not work and an error 998 was displayed, this has been fixed.

- Fix: Fixed issue that settings in Vista/Windows 7 weren’t read correctly and made the AutoWOL Server function not work.

- Fix: Now when a client comes out of sleep, a WOL packet is sent to the server if enabled.

- Fix: Small improvement to the update dialog to show the product name.

- Fix: When using hibernate/sleep, the machine sometimes couldn’t be enabled again.

- Fix: Detects if Remote Desktop is enabled on a Home Edition.

- And some other minor adjustments.

For more information, including how to download AutoExit, click here.

My Movies for WHS - Install and Configuration

My Movies for WHS – Install and Configuration

The Media Center Blog has a walkthrough of the add-in "My Movies for Windows Home Server", which in this part 1 looks at the installation and the configuration of the add-in.

And if you are wondering what My Movies for Windows Home Server does? It’s basically a movie collection management and playback add-in which also comes with a folder monitoring service, a disc copying service for movies, as well as an automated cd ripper service, and can be used not only by My Movies, but any client that supports reading My Movies’ XML files for movies, or for music, any client that can playback MP3, WAV or WMA files. And it also serves as an ordinary server software for My Movies clients as well.

Read part 1 here.