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Upgrading WHS2011 to 2.x


JeffZ

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Hi, I looked through the forum but didn't see any relevant posts, so let me ask before I do any damage!

 

I want to upgrade my StableBit DrivePool from 1.3.7541 to 2.0.0.420.

 

The download page says...

All of your pooled files are stored in a hidden PoolPart... folder on each drive that is part of the pool.

Uninstalling StableBit DrivePool does not affect any files still left on your pools. They will simply not be accessible through the pool drive.

 

 

I just want to confirm - I have a WHS2011 with 4 drives, all nearly filled with 4 disks in a DrivePool with a total of 7.22TB.

 

To upgrade, can I simply go to Add-ins and 'Remove the add-in' - then, download, install using the exe file and be done? (Or, go to control panel and uninstall) Any other preliminary steps or post install steps. Or, is it really that simple! Everything remains intact and the process is finished?

 

Any advice on this upgrade most appreciated!

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My advice right now is DON'T DO IT!

 

I reinstalled my four Drivepool v1 data disks on a WHS 2011 reinstall on a new server two months ago and it went really well and smoothly. I was really impressed and wrote to this forum saying so. I was assured that upgrading to Drivepool v2 would be just as easy - tonight I found otherwise. The installation seemed to go well - un-installed v1, rebooted installed and activated v2 and rebooted. All the folders were back in place on the server and all seemed well however:

1. No access to any shares from the network

2. WHS 2011 Dashboard Server Folders and Hard Drives showed nothing but "Refreshing list of items.." ad nauseum.

3. After giving system time for Drivepool to check and rebalance pool still no change in 2 so ran Drivepool Troubleshooter - Restore Drivepool shares - no change!

4. Ran Drivepool Troubleshooter - Reset NTFS permissions on pool. This ran very slowly for a long time then came up with error saying unable to complete.

 

I'm really disappointed and stressed out about this. The server is working fine, the folders are all in place (apparently) but the network sharing is completely messed up - no users, folders or disk show in WHS 2011 Dashboard and I get errors if I try to find or insert any and I really don't know what to do next. I'd really appreciate some help ASAP.

 

I'm afraid I don't understand the ins and out about where the information about file sharing is stored to answer the following: If I reinstate an image of the WHS 2011 OS with Drivepool v1 partition back will this return the system completely as it was or have I messed up data on the data disk shares in a way that I'll just compound the problems further.

 

Why oh why don't I learn - if it ain't bust don't fix it!!

 

ChipMonk

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I was going to delete this post - but, I didn't know how! I had already decided that I'd stick with V1.x - I upgraded to the latest 1.x and figured, if it works and works well, let it go! As you said, sometimes I cause more grief when I don't need to!

 

So, I'm waiting until a later date and am completely happy at 1.x!

 

Thanks for the reassurance, ChipMonk!

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we can delete/hide the post if you really want. 

 

But yeah, if your using WHS2011, then I'd recommend staying with 1.x anyhow. It's much more integrated with WHS2011 than 2.x is.

 

@ChipMonk: If you haven't already, please open a thread. If you have already, and we haven't responded in a while, a) I sincerely appologize, and B) "bump" the ticket, or open a new one. We want to make sure that everything is running fine, and if not, fix it.

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One of the new features of v2 is the read striping. In fact I had wondered why this wasn't taken advantage of with Stablebit since there is separate desk duplication and then I discovered the feature is available with the new version. Will there ever be a planned stable v2 upgrade for WHS 2011?

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Malo,

 

Read Striping is present in DrivePool 1.3 as well.

http://stablebit.com/Support/DrivePool/1.X/Manual?Section=Folder%20Duplication

 

And here is the image of the setting:

settings.png

 

 

 

As for DrivePool 2.x, you can install that on WHS2011 right now if you wish. However, you lose the full integration that 1.3 has. Just download the Windows 7 (64-Bit) version.

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Which screen? The Settings page? 

If you're not seeing that, then something is up. That's a standard part of 1.x and should always be present. The specific tab for DrivePool (in the background) can be disabled (and right here).

But if you are using v1.x of DrivePool, you should have that.

 

 

If you're using 2.x, then you won't get this screen at all.

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I never even noticed that link to the Disks view instead. Read Striping and Network IO Boost is on. Now I see all the options for Balancing as well, thanks!

 

Now my next question regarding my setup. I generally worry more about all of my hard drives being powered down than having them super responsive immediately. My server is primarily used to stream video files. If I request a movie, with the read striping on will it then power up 2 hard drives to try and increase performance? And if so, if I am happy with non-striping performance for large bitrate rips of my Blurays, should I turn off striping to prevent unneeded hard drives from powering up?

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Actually, what you should probably do is install the "Ordered File Placement" balancer. It was one especially written by Alex (the developer) because it was requested. It tends to keep file together so it minimizes disk access. 

 

But yes, if you have read striping enabled, it will access both files.  Though, it is a bit more complicated than that. 

 

Also, if you have Scanner installed as well, that has some settings to help try and keep the disks asleep. So you may want to check that out as well.

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Sorry, forgot the link!:

http://stablebit.com/DrivePool/Plugins

 

And here is the excerpt about the Ordered File Placement plugin:

 


This plug-in changes StableBit DrivePool's default file placement strategy.

By default, StableBit DrivePool always places new files onto the disk with the most free space. This tends to
equalize the amount of free space across all the disks in the pool.

With this plug-in, StableBit DrivePool will place new files in a way that will fill one disk at a time. Once a
disk is filled to a pre-set threshold, StableBit DrivePool will then move onto filling the next disk.

This has a number of benefits:

* Files copied at the same time will tend to be on the same disk. Because those files were copied at the same time,
it stands to reason that they might be related. It can be beneficial, in terms of file recovery, to have related
files be placed on the same disk.
* You may want StableBit DrivePool to write to one disk at a time in order to implement an efficient power savings
policy.

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