Christopher (Drashna)

It is supposed to remember the drive letter, but obviously that doesn't always happen. And that is also part of why we recommend setting the drive letter for DrivePool manually, and to be something much farther down in the alphabet. @Arthur, what software are you using for the iSCSI Target?

(Moved the topic to "Off-Topic" as that where it fits) And yes, MoCA is nice, especially if you have it already all setup, and if it's a pain to run cat5e/cat6 through your house. Personally.... i just ran a couple of cat5e cables recently, because I don't mind the trouble.

Actually, if the pool is missing *all* of the drives, then DrivePool "won't know about it". Once you re-attach one or all of the disks, then it will "discover" it and remount it. Making it accessible again.

Not exactly. If you use the "Ordered File Placement" balancer plug-in, you can configure it in such a way that it should do that: http://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Plugins http://dl.covecube.com/DrivePoolBalancingPlugins/OrderedFilePlacement/Notes.txt This may not be exactly what you want, but it may work for what you want.

ChipMonk, Glad to hear it! And yeah, the drive letters aren't really important. Though, if you want to hide them a bit, we have a guide for that: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624 (to mount the drives to a folder, so they don't use a drive letter, but are still accessible) And yes, DrivePool is much much more resilient than Drive Extender, and definitely gets better performance, too. As for the move to 2.x, the pools are backwards and forwards compatible, so there would be no issue migrating at all. And yes, it is nice to see the dashboard integration. Though, it's not as complete as the 1.x version. But hey, it's still a beta, right? And thank you for the kind words!

Eladar, It shouldn't be doing that, actually. DrivePool is supposed to be passing on the IO operations to the actual files, but this does sometimes happen. Would you mind opening a ticket at: http://stablebit.com/Contact/ so we can see about getting this working? And could you do this: http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection And I ask because: "DrivePool uses the high performance Event Tracing for Windows logger in the kernel driver to collect detailed trace data on every I/O operation leading up to your error. This will show you how to properly collect this data." And it should help Alex figure out what's going wrong.

WHen you delete the settings files, it does reset the license. However, if you try activating it, and it won't "take", try restarting the service and see if that helps. If it doesn't, you may want to try reset the settings again. And glad to hear that the performance issues haven't returned.

It definitely should not damage the pool. However, as lee has indicated, not all programs may like running on the pool, due to how it works. So, it's basically trial and error. And it shouldn't corrupt settings data, if it's stored in the same folder. What programs specifically, did you have in mind?

If the Remote Access website is enabled on the second, you could log into that and download the rdp file, and just keep that. It would be the simplest way. Otherwise, you could just use Remote Desktop normally. (mstsc /v:servername)

Well, I didn't so much as twist his arm, as continued to be insistent about the dashboard. Though, I think the inclusion of the "Essentials" code as a core Role in Server 2012 R2 had a part to play as well (yes, Essentials features are available to install on Standard and Datacenter version of 2012R2, IIRC). Also, another thing to keep in mind, you get basically the same interface as the remote UI... which also works with DrivePool 2.x on WHS2011 and up. So we know have two methods of interacting with the Pool.

Hey guys, in case you haven't see it yet: http://blog.covecube.com/2013/08/stablebit-drivepool-2-0-0-387-dashboard-tab/ Guess what Alex added for us!

This is part of why 2.x is still in beta. Sorry to hear about the performance issues though. If you could get the tracing logs from when this happens and submit them to the http://stablebit.com/Contact/ ? http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_2.x_Log_Collection

You could set up multiple pools to do this, if you want. But you can't add the same disk to more than one disk. But this may be what you want. But I'm sure it's possible to create a balancer to do that, and DrivePool has the API to support doing that (if you're a programmer, there is a link if you're interested. If you're not, please open a support ticket for a request, if you want).

Okay, so that is what you were asking. I wasn't sure. If you need any more help, or have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

When you add a disk to the pool, it creates a hidden "PoolPart.xxxx" (where the xxxxx's are a string of letters and numbers, called a GUID). When you add files to the pool, they are put into these folders. When you access the files in the pool, you are actually accessing the files in this folder. And from the sounds of it, you have files on the drives already, that you want in the pool? Is this correct? If so, you could just drag and drop the files into the hidden PoolPart folder on the drive, and they will show up in the pool right away.

yeah there definitely isn't an upgrade path from 2011. you'd basically have to install over it, and move the HDDs over. But once you had DrivePool installed, it will immediately recognize the "old" pool.

sspell, there were some changes to the Remote Control code, so that could definitely be the cause. Though, have you tried to add a "static peer" for that client? From the block post (about 345) Remote Control UpdatesRemote control allows you to easily connect to and manage another system running StableBit DrivePool on your LAN. Simply select which computer you want to connect to from the drop down at the top. List Computers This by itself is not new, but we have 2 new remote control features in the latest build. Reconnect to the Same Computer Used LastThis was a user feature request and is now implemented in the latest build. If you were connected to a remote computer when you closed the UI, the next time that you open the UI it will automatically connect to that computer (provided that it’s still online). It’s a very small change, but actually makes a big difference if you only have one DrivePool server and tend to manage it from many clients. We now save you 2 clicks every time you start the UI. Static PeersBy default StableBit DrivePool uses multicast UDP packets to discover other peers to connect to. Sometimes, due to your network configuration, multicast packets can be dropped by your router. Now in the latest build the Remote Control system can connect to static peers specified by you. The installer now places a new XML file in: C:\Program Files\StableBit\DrivePool\RemoteControl.default.xml You can edit it and define your own DrivePool peers using IP addresses, Windows computer names or domains. For further instructions just open the XML file in a text editor like notepad.

DrivePool 2.x supports WS2012E officially. But it is still in beta at the moment. And I'm not sure you can do an in place upgrade with Server 2012 Essentials. (I'd love to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure about this). Though, what are you running currently? And worst case here, the pool is "portable". Meaning that you could install to a new HDD, install DrivePool and reconnect the pooled drives and it will read the pool right away.

I chatted with alex a bit about this, and: It is possible that the firmware on the drive is not reporting Advanced Format properly. On that DirectIO test app, click on the "..." button next to "Identify". Look for "Logical sectors / physical". That is what we look for when reporting advanced format or not. If it's 1 (0x4000), then it's not advanced format (or just not reporting it). If it's 8 (0x5000, or 0x6000) then it means it's reporting advanced format.

Ah, okay. And yeah, it's grabbing the info from scanner, but not it's settings.

And just to make sure, it says it's reporting the sector size as 512, and "not reporting as advanced format"?

Yes, this was added a while ago. Make sure you've updated StableBit Scanner. And the setting, open the UI (either the dashboard on the WHS version, or the stand alone app). The "Start/Stop/Automatic" toolbar at the top, click the arrow next to the "Scanner Settings" box, and select "All Settings". Then open the "Heat" tab. You'll be able to choose which setting from there.

Are you using the "Disk Details" section to determine this?

Sorry if I wasn't clear. For the situation you described, there was no real need to change the drive letter. But there is absolutely no issue with changing the letter, if you want to do so. And yes, it's not important how the drives are connected, or what letters they have. The disks are identified by the PoolPart folder, and some very hidden metadata (it is done this way, specifically because it is much more resilient to change, and very unlikely to break to the pool)

Glad to hear, If you have any other issues, don't hesitate to contact us. Though, hopefully, you won't have any other issues.