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WHS2011 - what are pros and cons of upgrading from V1 to V2


Arthur

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Great news to see V2 now also supports WHS2011, and it would make sense to have just one release going forward for both WHS2011 and WS2012.

 

This leads to some questions about planning to upgrade from V1 to V2 which I suspect will be answered in an update to the Blogs when V2 goes to release status, but I cant wait.

 

Does this mean V1.3.3.7563  is the final release?

 

And should we start planning to upgrade from V1 to V2?

 

What are the differences or pros and cons between the two versions?

 

In particular is there any functionaility currently in V1 which is not available in V2?

 

Does the DrivePool.Service.config need changing?

 

 

Thanks, Arthur

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Right now, there are a lot of differences between the two versions. 1.x is meant for WHS and includes a lot more integration with the "Server Solutions" code (the WHS unique) code.

2.x has the dashboard tab, but it's basically just the remote access UI in the dashboard. (which is still awesome).

 

I am not sure, but I believe the plan is to eventually merge both versions. (that would be easier to support, and easier to code for).

 

As for the pro's and con's, other than what I've listed, 2.x is still remote controllable even on the products that have a dashboard. 

That, and 2.x doesn't use the WSSX installers (where are horrible about error reporting)

Otherwise, it's mostly the same (improvements have been back-ported, and vice versa). And the balancer plugins are available for either version.

 

And the advanced settings files uses all the same settings, for the most part. So that should be compatible as well.

 

 

If you need clarification, or have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

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But are there any benefits? What I'm looking for is something along:

- Better performance

- Uses less memory

- Quicker balancing

- Quicker dashboard (currently I only have StableBit DrivePool and StableBit Scanner installed, any on my Core 2 quad CPU server it slooooow)

- etc

 

I get that 2.0 is a new codebase with support for more OS-es. But for us WHS 2011 users quite happy with 1.x are there any benefits?

 

Also one more thing that might be easier to answer. Does my 1.x license also cover 2.x?

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Hi

I can help with a few question's first if all your license will transfer between all versions of dp/scanner.

 

As for dashboard speed on wh11 it's not the addins that cause the dashboard to go slow its just the way it is its more of a Microsoft issue than anything else.

 

I have tried v2 of drivepool and didn't really notice any change in how dp works from v1 so for me I am sticking with v1 for now the only you would get is you don't need to use the dashboard so from that point of view it will be quicker.

 

That said give it go you can always roll back to v1 if you don't like it

 

Lee

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This information is contained in the User Manual, although there is a typo in it.  The highlighted part in the text below from the Upgrading section of the 2.x User Manual should be 1.x instead:

 

 

While StableBit DrivePool 2.X is fully backwards compatible with 1.X, you cannot upgrade from StableBit DrivePool 1.X to 2.X simply by running the installer. You will need to uninstall StableBit DrivePool 2.X, reboot, then install StableBit DrivePool 2.X, and reboot again.

 

That doesn't quite cover the 1.x to 2.x upgrade though.

 

Basically, uninstall 1.x, reboot, and then install 2.x.  Your pool will remain intact, though you may need to change the letter (via disk management).

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Hello, I can share a few thoughts about upgrading.

 

I just did this myself today, I was running v1.x of DrivePool, and upgraded to the realease candidate of v2.x.

 

I am running WHS 2011. As the instructions indicate, uninstall version 1, reboot the computer then install v2. Reboot again. It recognizes the license key from v1 no issues there.

 

Version 2 is awesome, so far from what I can see, it is balancing better, also is more efficient use of drive space. It recognized the pool and drive letter from before, so all drive mapping stayed in place.

 

As mentioned in a post above, It is correct, this does not speed up dashboard, that is a MS issue.

 

Also a great feature of version 2 of DrivePool. you can specify how many times for duplication. For instance, version one allowed for duplication to one other drive. Version two allows you to specify how many time you want to duplicate. In my case, I have it set to 4, so any files on any particular drive, are also mirrored to 3 other drives. I have critical client info on my WHS 2011, so this takes care of my paranioa of data loss.

 

You can specify whether to duplicate the whole pool, or you can choose to duplicate by folder selection. i'm very happy with v2, the display is different, but all the options from v1 are there, just in different places.

 

You can always uninstall v2 and go back to v1, if it doesn't appeal to you.

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Things you lose by upgrading:

  • The "Stable" label, for now. It's an RC, but ... still. There are bugs possible. But that's only for now.
  • Major dashboard integration.
    There is a tab, but you lose the tab under storage
  • per folder/type information, 
  • Pie chart of folder distribution

Things you gain

  • Remote control, without using the Dashboard
  • updated drive for drivePool (most changes are backported, but there is more active development on 2.x)
  • larger list of supported OS's
  • Per folder duplication
  • Greater than 2x duplication

This list isn't comprehensive. It's basically off of the top of my head.

 

However, balancing shouldn't be affected, nor duplication. At least not significantly.  Nor is disk usage (however, it is displayed a bit different)

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I may have missed the memo, but what's the road map for version 2, now since it has dash board integration with WHS 2011, and other variants, is the idea here for V2 to ultimately replace V1?   Seems that would be the logical path from stablebit, once there's a final, stable release, doesn't make much sense to continue supporting two Rev's of the product for the same platform.

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I may have missed the memo, but what's the road map for version 2, now since it has dash board integration with WHS 2011, and other variants, is the idea here for V2 to ultimately replace V1?   Seems that would be the logical path from stablebit, once there's a final, stable release, doesn't make much sense to continue supporting two Rev's of the product for the same platform.

 

As far as WSS is concerned (WHS 2011, WSS 2012 and R2), 2.0 doesn't fully replace 1.X. We will continue to rev 1.X for time being. In fact, there should be a new version of 1.X coming up in the next few weeks.

 

In short, for now 1.X is targeted at WHS 2011 users (and similar).

 

So what doesn't 2.X support? In particular 2.X doesn't support the following for WSS (which 1.X does):

  • No Dashboard notifications.
  • No WSSX installer.
  • It doesn't understand server backup disks and OS partitions and will allow you to add them to the pool.

So in short, 1.X was deeply optimized for the WSS platform, while 2.X was optimized for the standard Windows platform.

 

Yes, with time 2.X will become a 100% replacement for 1.X, but for now we will maintain both versions.

 

----

 

As far as what's next for StableBit DrivePool in general, well it's something really exciting, but I can't really say any more than that :)

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As far as WSS is concerned (WHS 2011, WSS 2012 and R2), 2.0 doesn't fully replace 1.X. We will continue to rev 1.X for time being. In fact, there should be a new version of 1.X coming up in the next few weeks.

 

In short, for now 1.X is targeted at WHS 2011 users (and similar).

 

So what doesn't 2.X support? In particular 2.X doesn't support the following for WSS (which 1.X does):

  • No Dashboard notifications.
  • No WSSX installer.
  • It doesn't understand server backup disks and OS partitions and will allow you to add them to the pool.

So in short, 1.X was deeply optimized for the WSS platform, while 2.X was optimized for the standard Windows platform.

 

Yes, with time 2.X will become a 100% replacement for 1.X, but for now we will maintain both versions.

 

----

 

As far as what's next for StableBit DrivePool in general, well it's something really exciting, but I can't really say any more than that :)

thanks for the clarification and responding to my post , I've been thinking about upgrading to V2, once a stable version was released, guess I'll stay where I am with Version 1.  Looking forward to what comes next.

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dbailey, that's your choice. Though v2 is in RC, which means it's almost completely stable.

One thing that v2 really does add is the remote control option. 

I'll give it a go my my test rig, HP N40L, I'm not even sure what the remote control option is, I'll check that out, but seems V1 is still the better option for WHS 2011 based on what's mentioned above.

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If you install the drivePool software on another computer, it has a drop down that lets you select another computer. So you can manage to pool from your desktop, without having to open the dashboard.

 

But if you're using WHS2011, then v1.x may be a better choice still.

Ah, yeah, the remote option makes sense, at least prior to the dashboard integration, other wise the only option was RDP. 

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Absolutely. There should be no issues with that.

 

Thanks for that.  As a related question - I am seeing strange behavior with version 2.0-RC and they way it reports/displays both balancing and disk usage.  See the attached image where you can see the underlying disks are all equally balanced, yet the DrivePool display is showing mis-matched balancing.

 

In addition, balancing seems to run on forever often sitting at 100% for a day or two as it continues "Building Bucket Lists..." - not sure what the cause of that is also?

 

http://sdrv.ms/15G1d36

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That looks right for the most part. Unless you have the "Disk Space Equalizer" balancer installed, DrivePool doesn't necessarily try to keep each disk equally filled.  It does try to use the least filled disk first, but that's not always a guarantee. Especially depending on what balancers you have enabled and running.

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