Christopher (Drashna)

Yeah, I thought so. And glad to hear it. Though, they won yet. So isn't that counting your chickens before they hatch?

Well, that's why the "Run File" exists. As I said, it was created for Lights Out integration. So you can configure lights out to NOT go to sleep if the file exists. Details on it here: http://www.homeserversoftware.com/lo/whs2011/help/en/settings_monitoring.htm So, if you specify the run file in DrivePool, and configure lights out to use the same file, LightsOut will not sleep while DrivePool is balancing or duplicating. Which is exactly what you want. And entirely automatic and transparent to you.

If you tried installing the beta version and it's still showing the old version, ..... uninstall Scanner completely: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Q8964978 http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Q8964978B And then install the WHS2011 version.

As for the intermittent SMART data, enable "Smart_NoWmi" http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings And I would recommend the WHS2011 version. But you should uninstall the old version (the win7 version) before installing the new version. If need be, do a "clean install" via: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Q8964978B and http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Q8964978

IP address is usually the best method, as long as the machine has a static IP (or is reserved). And you can definitely use the FQDN for the machine there as well. As for the license, you only need licenses for the systems that you're going to actively use the software on. If you have a "workstation" that you use, and you don't want StableBit Scanner or StableBit DrivePool to be in use, you can just install them, and leave them unlicensed. The drop-down box for remotely controlling the other machines is still accessible at this point, and you can control the other machines just fine. Alex actually goes into detail about how the remote control functionality works here: http://blog.covecube.com/2013/02/stablebit-drivepool-2-0-beta-remote-control/

Absolutely. In fact, you may want to look up the "Ordered File Placement" balancer. It's designed for, well exactly what you want it for. https://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Plugins The description should pretty much sum up why you want to install this balancer. There is also the "File Placement Rules" (for v2.X). But that may require a lot more work for it to do what you want.

You are very welcome on both accounts. And yeah, we've had similar requests in the past. Mostly for integration with a WHS add-in called "LightsOut". But there are definitely other uses for that file as well.

You only need to do it on the systems that are not seeing the other systems. So if only one is having the issue, then you only need to do it on that system. But if both are having the issue, then yes, you need to do it on both. And yes, the format is <peer>IP/Hostname</peer>. And you can add as many peers as you need.

Well, you can configure DrivePool to create a "runningfile". It creates the file when it's active. Such as balancing or duplicating. And it deletes the file when it's done. You could monitor that, and trigger based off of the presence of the file. DrivePool 1.X: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Advanced_Settings And the setting is "RunningFile_FileName" DrivePool 2.X: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings And the setting is "DrivePool_RunningFile" However, there isn't the option to run a script yet. But consider it officially requested: https://stablebit.com/Admin/IssueAnalysis/6259

If you had 4x 2TB drives, and duplication enabled for everything, then yes, you would have effectively 4TBs (well, 3.6TBs actually, because each 2TB drive shows up as 1.8TB). Files would be scattered all over the place, depending. But if you lost only one disk, you wouldn't lose any data. Just remove the missing/failed disk from the pool, and it will immediately start duplicating the missing files.

If you're only running two disks, then yes, this is what will happen. However, if at some point you end up running more than two disks, then no. It will end up spreading the data out, but in such a way that the duplicated data exists on two different disks. The loss of one disk will mean that you still retain all the duplicated data. But if you only have the two disks, then yes, it will basically be mirrored.

That utility just automatically takes ownership of everything (sets it to Administrators) and sets the NTFS permissions to default. However, that version is limited to WHS2011, IIRC. You'll want this link: http://dl.covecube.com/WssTroubleshoot/Release/download/Wss.Troubleshoot_1.0.0.165.exe If that doesn't work, or you still have issues, please enable file system logging and reproduce the issue: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

I'm glad to hear it. And yeah, unfortunately, in this sort of circumstance, the only thing we can do is wait for Avast to add us to their excluded list, basically. And I'm not sure why, but Avast seems to be the one that flags us the most.

Check StableBit Scanner. If you right click on the column headers, there is a list of additional information you can add, including the power mode (as well as performance and disk queues, which may be important for you)

Yes, StableBit Scanner does support the same Remote Control feature. However, it's only available in the 2.5 beta version currently. Since it is based on the same code (the remote control feature), you may have the same issues accessing the remote computer. If that is the case, then the same instructions for how to fix it for StableBit DrivePool apply here as well.

To make sure, it sounds like that StableBit DrivePool is only listing itself on the dropdown menu for the remote computers? If so, this is because it's not seeing the other system. We rely on multicasting to get a list of other computers on the network with the product installed and that doesn't always work. In this case, you can create a "RemoteControl.xml" file (there is a sample one in the folder) and create a manual list of peers: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Advanced_Settings#RemoteControl.xml Once you've done this, restart the "StableBit DrivePool Service" (using services.msc). It should now list the peers you've manually specified.

Well, if that's the case, it may be a much more simple fix. And could you make sure that Windows Search is disabled on the pooled disks?

Yup, only a "current" list.

Well, that is very odd indeed. However, you are using the 2.4 (release) version of StableBit Scanner, correct? If so, I do believe that there was some significant changes to the disk identification and SMART data code. So using the beta may have helped out in this case. Either way, that is definitely odd behavior. As for the partition size, if the disks are advanced format, they can in theory support larger than 2TB partitions with MBR. Also, what USB controller was in use here (or the motherboard in question)?

Are you using my file? If so, make sure that it's placed in "C:\Program Files (x86)\StableBit\Scanner\" And either way, make sure it's named "Scanner.Service.exe.confg". Aside from that, it should work. I'd recommend rebooting the server in that case. And if that doesn't help, we could set up a remote support sessions, so I can see about getting it working. If you're interested in that, let me know.

Thank you for uploading the files. I've flagged them for Alex, and he'll take a look.

Looks like I spoke to soon. When I checked previously, I didn't see any links. Could you link the thread. Also.... symlinks and hard links are two entirely different link types. And Symlinks are a type of "reparse" point. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_reparse_point Even Microsoft calls symlinks and junctions and other links "Reparse Points". SoI really, really hope that wasn't the developers that was saying that. If it was, that's .... scary. Coincidentally, I installed plex last night.... I checked the metadata files. And yes, the metadata is using hardlinks. Specifically the images. You can check on the specific file using "fsutil hardlink list" on the individual files... or there are some shell extensions that will show you. But not all the images. Apparently where I quickly looked is where they don't use hardlinks at all. So I must apologize for the incorrect information. So unfortunately, no we don't support Plex Metadata on the pool. At all. We may add Hardlink support in the future, but considering how hard it was to implement reparse point support... and the vast differences and requirements for hard links.... it may not be for a while. To be honest, I'm shocked and horrified that they'd use hardlinks like this. They maintain a SQLite database. Wouldn't it be much more elegant, efficient and compatible to just "dump" the images in a folder, and then link to those folders for the content (this is what XMBC does, actually)?

It should work with any version, actually. if there is a setting that isn't present in the version, it should just ignore it. So the choice is up to you. But the beta version has a LOT of changes over the release version: http://blog.covecube.com/2014/07/stablebit-scanner-2-5-0-3041-beta-drive-reliability/ http://blog.covecube.com/2013/11/stablebit-scanner-2-5-0-2968-beta-notifications/

Peter, If you're trying to backup the pool directly, that won't work. Arconis does (or at least did) use a custom VSS read and write filter. Which means it still relies on VSS. Since we don't support VSS on the pool directly, it means that you'll have to back up the disks that make up the pool, or use a file based backup utility.

If that is the case, then you must enable the "UnsafeDirectIO" setting in StableBit Scanner. To do so, use the following guide: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Advanced_Settings Or use this file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0krodbweqz1rrc4/Scanner.Service.exe.config Once you've created the file (or downloaded the linked one) and placed it in the correct folder, restart the StableBit Scanner service (run "services.msc" and find "StableBit Scanner Service" and restart it). Or restart the system. Once you've done that, it should grab the SMART data for the disks in question.