Recommended WHS Add ins

[Trace]

I've decided to go with WHS, now I need lots of add ins to take the most advantage of it. I'd like to see what you guys use and what has been most useful to you.

Trace

[crenn]

I haven't used WHS so I can't recommend anything. To be honest, I don't personally see the point of WHS.

[SXRguyinMA]

what is it?

[Oneslowz28]

When slaveofconvention sees this thread I am sure he will have a few to recommend. He is a WHS guru!

[Trace]

Alright, let's hope he sees it then!

[SgtM]

what is it?

Windows Home Server

EDIT
Can't make any recommendations since I haven't used it. I've always used Linux for my home server.. which I eventually took down. I should remedy that.

[Axis Machine]

In the meantime I hope this can help.:D

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/?q=node/424&page=0%2C0

[slaveofconvention]

Actually, I only use a single add-in. The main bugbear I had with my server was the inability to tell which drive was which from within the software. My server has 10 drives in total, and several of those are the same size as one another - as you can see from this pic, the native WHS disk management screen doesn't tell you a whole lot about the drive, other than that it's there and how big it is....
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/whs-native.jpg

I installed the "Windows Home Server Disk Management Add-in", specifically version 1.0.9.8 by Sam Wood - Tenatacle Software, which gives you a lot more information - this is the enhanced disk management screen.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/whs-addin.jpg

This offers real-time temperature and activity monitoring (assuming your controller supports it - some of mine do, some don't, but the real bonus for me is the ability to build or modify a wireframe of your server. You can then click on any drive in the server, in this case the 500gb Maxtor, and on the right, it shows me exactly where it is in the server, specifically the top drive in the bottom drive cage, on the right.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/whs-driveselected.jpg

I don't want to spend more money on more controllers, so I increase my server space by replacing the smallest drive with the largest one I can afford at the time. This has a secondary benefit too - it tends to mean the drive coming out is usually the oldest drive in the machine and all things being equal, probably the closest to old-age failure.

Right now, there are 3 identical 750GB samsungs in there, and 3 almost identical 500GB samsungs, so knowing exactly which is which is definitely a bonus.

You can see here the temperature monitoring and activity turned on - I tend to keep them turned off because, frankly, I don't really need to know lol
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/slaveofconvention/imagestore/whs-temps.jpg

It also lets you know exactly how full each individual drive is, although I don't really see a huge benefit in this personally....

EDIT - I just checked and this is the latest version - available here if you're interested.... - http://www.tentaclesoftware.com/whsdiskmanagement/

[Trace]

Thanks!

[slaveofconvention]

You're only planning on using one hard disk from what I've seen so this might not be of much use after all lol - course, it does give you temperature monitoring, for what that's worth :p

[SXRguyinMA]

ya I need one of these. so Slave....wheres part 2? :?

[Trace]

I'll probably be adding HDDs in the form of more smaller "books" if I need more space.

Also, this might not be the place to ask, but anytime I restart it (only tried remotely) I have to immediately log in locally on the computer or it just will keep restarting. Any ideas?

[slaveofconvention]

errrr not the most helpful of answers but, it shouldn't do that (obviously) - there's an awesome forum at www.wegotserved.com which may be able to help. The guys there have forgotten more about WHS than I'll ever know!

As for part 2 SXR.... watch this space, it's 95% written - I just need to add one little part and it'll be on a website near you soon.

[Trace]

http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/topic/12782-constant-restarts-after-rebooting/

Thanks

[XcOM]

i tried WHS but it seems like a has up, windows server standard 2003, with XP stuff put back in, some new WHS stuff, more server enterprise stuff, then a fancy home panel,

Personally i use Windows Vista Ultimate with VNC and a custom web front end i built to see system info and stuff,

I want to setup a proper domain but last time i tried it took any system about 15 minutes to login, too slow, i expected login to take a fraction longer than locally, but that long!

[DarthBeavis]

WHS is awesome. I use it to stream all my movies and also to do backups. I am going to migrate mine to a Danger Den Double-wide case which is being painted with a Star Wars theme including sexy female Stormtroopers. I have about 10 terabytes now but am adding another SATA card and more drives.

[OvRiDe]

I want to setup a proper domain but last time i tried it took any system about 15 minutes to login, too slow, i expected login to take a fraction longer than locally, but that long!

Ouch, there was something seriously wrong with your domain setup. We run all of our DC's in remote datacenters. It takes maybe 3 minutes for a machine to pull down all of its GPO's and run login scripts over a 20MB WAN connection thats set up for 80% VoIP Prioritization. Sounds like it could have been DNS issues with your setup or something of the like. AD domains are heavily reliant on DNS. We did have some issues similar to what yours. We were letting out Cisco router handle DNS. Once we switched over to letting the Domain handle DNS a ton of our issues were resolved.


WHS is awesome. I use it to stream all my movies and also to do backups. I am going to migrate mine to a Danger Den Double-wide case which is being painted with a Star Wars theme including sexy female Stormtroopers. I have about 10 terabytes now but am adding another SATA card and more drives.

Now this I can't wait to see! Sounds AWESOME.

[TheMainMan]

Now this I can't wait to see! Sounds AWESOME.

I agree! And of course we'll need pictures of the awesomeness!