Christopher (Drashna)

Due to an unexpected glitch while updating the site, the Contact site is broken. We're working on fixing this issue as quickly as possible. We have fixed the issue with the Contact site. However, if you experience any issues with it, please let us know know right away. You can do so, by contacting me directly at "christopher@covecube.com". Just let us know what the issue with the site is, and what the issue that brought you to the site was. We apologize for any trouble that this may have caused.

In case you are wondering why we have chosen to not include a cloud provider for OneDrive, there is a very good reason for this. Namely, the service is heavily throttled, which makes it nigh unusable for CloudDrive. Additionally, I beleive that we have had stability issues with their API (Alex will have to confirm that). Because of this, we have elected to not include OneDrive support at this time. At such a time that they lift the bandwidth limits, we will re-assess this. We do allow the option to enable the provider, by using the advanced settings, if you are very curious. http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_CloudDrive_Advanced_Settings#ProviderRegistry

..... SiFilter. You've got a Silicon Images based controller card in the system. I'm going to guess that one or more drives in the pool are attached to this controller. And I suspect that if you check the drive that the files are actually located on, one or more of them are on this controller. If that is the case, this may actually be the source of your problem. Heavy load on these controllers causes all sorts of issues with them... and they use the filter to "solve" this issue (aka, it's a bad hack). If you could, disable the "bypass file system filters" option on your system. If you have a newer build, check "Pool Options -> Performance", and there may be a checkbox there. Otherwise, configure the advanced settings for DrivePool to disable this option globally. http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings Disabling this will mean that DrivePool will always respect the file system filters for the disks in the pool, instead of bypassing them and writing to the disk directly. This can cause issues (with poorly written filters), but in cases like this, may help the Silicon Images filter "do it's job" properly. If the issue persists after doing this, then let us know

Yes. As part of the connector setup process, it will join the system to the domain unless it find the "SkipDomainJoin" registry entry.

The service logs are where you'll see information about the drives. The Error Reports are created when there are specific issues in our code (crashes/bugs), and are created for diagnostic purposes (they point out specific areas in our code that the issue occurred, so useless without the code). As for the failed drive, I'm very sorry to hear about that. However, if you had notifications setup and StableBit Scanner didn't notify you, it's possible that the issue was sudden and unexpected. This sounds like what is going on here, unfortunately. Alternatively, it could be defective controller (the circuit board on the drive), that gave out and caused the issues. In either case, if that is what happened, this would not give you a warning that it was going to happen before hand. One thing to check is the Event Viewer, in the "System" section for any "disk", "controller", or "ntfs" errors. If you're seeing a lot of these before the drive failed (as in, more than a day or so), then it sounds like StableBit Scanner didn't detect and report the issues. However, if you only see these errors right before or WHEN the drives stopped working, then this was definitely a sudden and unexpected failure.

Ah, okay, you did submit the fltmc output. And that looks clean. As for a good antivirus .... that's a tricky question, as by their very nature, they can interfere with how the pool driver works, actually. As for ones that we've tested and seem to work well, AVG, ESET (requires the "File Server" edition, which is more expensive), Avira, BitDefender. Avast has issues frequently, and Malware Bytes can cause weird behavior. ForeFront and System Center Endpoint Protection have issues as well. And nothing in the WGS eBook should cause issues here.

Did you restart the service or server after applying the setting? And to make sure: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings It should be the "Unsafe" option under "DirectIo". If that didn't work, download the utility from here: http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/36-how-to-contribute-test-data/ Select the drive in question. Look for "SMART Attributes" and make sure this is "lit up" (green checkbox next to it) in the WMI or DirectIO section. If it is, click on the elipse button ("....") and make sure it lists contents. If it doesn't, then check the "Unsafe DirectIo" box. This should refresh the contents. Check again, and see if it's grabbing the SMART attributes then. Also, how is the drive connected? And in StableBit Scanner, could you click on the column header and select "By Controller"? This will group the drives by controller and list which controller you're connected to. Could you let us know what controller the drive is connected to?

Depends on what you're willing to spend, really. Personally, I would recommend an IBM ServeRAID M1015 card. It supports 8 drives by itself (with the right cables), and both RAID and "passthrough/HBA". But it requires flashing (or I have a couple of spare that are already flashed, if you're interested). http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-m1015-part-1-started-lsi-92208i/ If you go this option, you could pick up a couple of cards and use them... or pick up an SAS Expander card. This allows you to turn one of the 4 drive connectors into 5 additional connectors, so you can get 20 drives connected instead of just 4. http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/servers/raid/raid-controller-res2sv240.html Otherwise, a HighPoint RocketRAID card is a good line to go with. However, even if you're not going to use RAID, get the RAID card as it works much better than the non-RAID option. http://highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr276x-rr274x.htm Alternatively, you could get a nice (but usually pricy) LSI card: http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9201-16i.aspx All of these should work with StableBit Scanner, as long as you pass the disks through. The IBM ServeRAID m1015 may require the "Unsafe DirectIo" setting (mine didn't but some people have reported needing it). The HighPoint cards will definitely need the "Unsafe DirectIo" setting, and to have the web management stuff installed. The LSI cards may or may not need the "Unsafe DirectIo" setting, depending on the card, and ... well may be the same as the M1015 (which is a LSI chipset). And what do I mean by the "Unsafe DirectIo" setting? This: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings

Ah, okay. And that's very odd that the permissions would be removed like that. Do you have any antivirus, backup or other disk tools installed on the system? And could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701 And check for both systems, just in case. Also, could you get the file system logging from when this happens? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

I'm guessing that you mean javascript, and for the download site. Adding "*.stablebit.com" to the Trusted Sites list should fix that issue, for the future. Not sure what you mean here. As for the domain join, that is entirely up to you. Just remember that even if you join the domain, you should be able to log into the local user accounts (by using ".\Username" for the username). And you can leave the domain anytime afterwards, without any issues (other than it removing the domain account users, so you need to make sure you have local users). Otherwise, it's up to you. Oh, and that's one other thing, on the non-domain joined systems, you may want to change the workgroup name on the other computers to match the domain name of the server (aka, the start part of the "domainname.local" info). This should help make sure that the domain computers show up in the "Network" section.

Additionally, do you automount disabled on the system? (it's a diskpart command, so it's not a simple option). And if you run "cmd /k mountvol", does it properly list all of the volumes (disks) in your system? Also, I have sent you a PM here, so, check your inbox.

What OS are you using, and what version of StableBit DrivePool are you using specifically? Assuming you're using 2.X: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection Also, is this happening after you attempt to delete files at all? If so, could you see if the latest internal beta helps? http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolWindows/beta/download/StableBit.DrivePool_2.2.0.619_x64_BETA.exe

You are very welcome, and yeah, it definitely helps keep the system cleaner. I have 15 drives in my pool, so I definitely understand!

Alex is actively looking into the issue, actually. I'll be taking to him directly later today, and inquire upon the status. However, we're not exactly sure what is causing this issue, as ... well, it shouldn't be happening. But to double check, did you have any antivirus software installed on the system? And could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q2159701 I'd asked before, but I'm not sure if you answered it. And the reason I'm making a point to ask here, is because of how they work. They can cause issues with the pool, up to and including this. And I'm sorry that this has taken a while.

Ben, the notification overhaul is the very next thing we want to get done (IIRC). Aside from that, no, we don't really have a roadmap. However, right now, DrivePool does email you in the case of a missing drive. But that's about it. As for the issue, I'm not exactly clear on what's going on there. Could you enable file system logging and reproduce the issue: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection And if you want, head over to https://stablebit.com/Contactand open a ticket there.

I'm assuming you mean the disks in the pool. If that is the case, then absolutely. In fact, we have a guide for that. http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624 In fact, you could remove the drive letter and not mount the drive and DrivePool won't have issues with that either.

That really depends on exactly what you want out of the server (and yes, a client OS can be a server, as well). By going with Windows 10 Pro (or Windows 8.X Pro), you lose out on a few things: Free domain name (website name), dynamic DNS service (updating the domain name automatically) and free, signed SSL certificate Optionally, there is a paid version, with GoDaddy or eNom that allows more choices (such as "drashna.net" ) VPN and Remote Desktop Gateway (allows you to remote into a system from the internet). Centralized and deduplicated backups Easy management of users and shares Some of the domain functionality Folder Redirection (user folders on the server) "Client Restore Services" (Leverages Windows Deployment Services to PXE (diskless network boot) the Client Restore disk), only in Server 2012R2 versions. monitoring of client devices But aside from that, you can definitely set up Windows 10 and get a lot of the same (or at least similar) functionality. And to re-emphasize here, the server should configure things to work properly on it's own. There are some router settings to help handle the network better. And some optional settings to make sure the server works better as well. These aren't strictly necessary, but help prevent issues in the long run (such as the connector changing the network adapter information (DNS specifically). And I'm more than willing to try and help you get everything set up as ideally as possible.

Either right before running the Essentials Experience role, or any time after it (ideally, afterwards).

Ah, that would be why then. We updated the 3rd party controls a while back, and if they're different versions, it will cause issues. And StableBit DrivePool 2.X doesn't use these controls at all. So I'm pretty sure that's the issue with the dashboard that you were seeing.

Ah, okay. I think I know what the dashboard issue was. Do you have StableBit Scanner installed as well? And if so, which version? As for the workstation, totally. Though, glad to hear it's being stable now!

Yup.

Yeah, it's a bit tucked away. Glad you could find it though. And it definitely helps with performance. And don't forget, you can export to different formats, so there should be no issue with the "bvr" format.

You are very welcome. If you ahve any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Unfortunately, that sounds like it is pretty much expected behavior. And I'm not sure if it would be possible to resolve this issue in a way that allows it to remain a junction point on both disks AND the pool. The best suggestion I have is to "break" the link on the disk itself, and then set it as a junction point on the pool drive only. This will allow it to work properly on the pool, but NOT on the individual disks.

Absolutely! I've done it and so have a number of others. I've also downloaded the Eval ISO and used that to install on a system with the Retail key. So there is no difference between the versions, just the key. As for the remote support, head to http://meetme.so/drashnacovecubeand set up a time.