Reconnecting Shares WHS2011

[Beaker1024]

I'm currently a day into trying the StableBit Scanner WHS2011 addin as well I've gone 3 years on my 2 2TB drives and wanted to know their health.

 

I'm currently doing my own manual rebalancing of recorded *.wtv files across 4 drives of various sizes on my WHS2011 system.  But having 4 different named shares for "Recorded TV" "Recorded TV - Archive" "recorded TV - Archive 2".... you get the idea the shares a messy but having Win 7 / MCE Libraries clump all the shares into one library made it just usuable so far.

 

I like your ordered placement plugin idea as it'll replicate what I'm doing manually (each month opening remote desktop and manually moving some *.wtv files around).

 

I also like the gain of turning duplication on for folders (currently utitilizing a 1 a day backup sync with versioning to an off server other PC HD for only some folders). 

 

The biggest gain would be the easy of recovering from a drive dieing!

 

So I have read a ton and know about seeding folders and such no problem.

 

My questions is likely for an even easier task but I haven't seen a screen capture or mention of howto do it yet.

 

How do you handle the re-linking of the shares on the WHS2011 server.  I doublt you use the "Move Share" option on shared folders tab of the dashboard as I believe that tries to move the files.  I just want to know it's a clean process to have the WHS2011 server OS know that the newly seeded folders on the DrivePool are the now correct location for the network share.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well I'm glad to hear that you are happy with StableBit DrivePool and that you're trying out StableBit Scanner as well!

 

As for the shares, we have a utility to do this actually, as the "move folder" option will error out if the new folder has existing content.

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities

Download it, run it on the server and select the "Rebuild DrivePool Shares" option. 

This will (cheat and) reshare the pooled locations, bypassing the dashboard. However, you'll notice that it will show the shares in the dashboard just fine.

[Beaker1024]

Ok.  I've actually only installed the Scanner on my WHS2011 so far an it just finished scanning all 4 of my HDD on the server.

 

I haven't installed DrivePool yet as I wanted to know working wtih the WHS2011 shares will be easy to "convert" over to the pooled folder.  Also once using the utilitiy to re-link them do you still have access to working with the shares (folders) on the server with the dashbaord.  By working with I mean all the options of permissions for users,etc....

 

To ask the inverse you are not forced to do RDP and outside of dasbaord user perimsion editing in WHS2011 once the shares are re-linked to inside the share.  I figure making really new shares will be easy and fine as the pool acts like a normal drive.  It's the existing and the "seeding" process that the final step of "re-link" I was most concerned about.   Seems the utillity does that step nicely for you.

 

Will have to give DrivePool a test in the coming weeks.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Ah, you mean moving the existing shares onto the pool, then?

If so, then you'd want to "Seed" the pool, and then you should be able to run the WSS Troubleshooter utility.

 

To "Seed" the pool:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489

 

Yeah, the utility should allow the shares to be accessible to the Dashboard, so you can manage  them from there.

[Beaker1024]

Thank you I had read about the "seeding" process and appreciate having that method.  It will be what I do for sure!

 

The missing part for me was how to tell the server about the share folder being moved.  THe utility sounds like it has that covered.

 

My last question on this would be how do you reverse the process if you decide not to stay with DrivePool.  I'm not asking about "unseeding" I think that your wiki on seeding would be easy to reverse.  Again it's the Server knowing the shares are located on what drive letter/folder.

 

So moving back away form drivepool pretend the files are all unseeded and moved back to old folders (not hidden pool folders).  Does your utiltiy fix the share locations back to non-pool folders if you want to get back to non-drivepool system?

 

PS - Thanks for the quick responses... an actively monitored/responded to forum is one of the first things I look for when deciding to purchase software!  StableBit definitely gets an A+ there!

[Beaker1024]

Come to think of it screen captures of the utility wizard for each option would likely answer some of these questions. 

 

Like does the re-linking of shares have user selectable folders for each existing share (which means it'd easily do what I want in both directions [move to drivepool or back away from using it])

[Beaker1024]

Well I've installed and am trying out DrivePool working with it via RDP to WHS2011 and it's working really really well when I did some test cases.  Very nice. 

 

If anyone is wondering about your server shares here's the method I've come up with and it doesn't use the utility wizard program:
1) Do the entire "seeding" process in the Wiki.

Use WHS2011 dashboard on the "Servers Folders" tab for the following steps:

2) Right click on share name --> View Properties [share tab] & make note of your perimssions per user.  Then close this dialog out.

3) Right click on share name --> "Stop Sharing the Folder" --> Go through wizard.

4) Right click on open white space ---> "Add Share Folder" --> Give same Share Name & point location browser to DrivePool folder you want/seeded. (Go through wizard)

5) Right click on share name --> View Properties [share tab] & setup perimssions per user from note in step 2.  Then OK this dialog out.

 

6) Smile alot

 

NOTE: I heavily make use of Win 7 Libraries so I setup a new library to use the test share folder (made before installing DrivePool that I used throughout this evaluation).  If you do the steps above correctly and have the new "Share Name" match the old "Share Name" the library doesn't care and upon a "refresh" of explorer's directory listing it's working perfectly.

[Beaker1024]

Well my test folder was just one that I added.... Running into an issue with the default share folders:

NOTE: You can not "Stop sharing the folder" on the default / basic folder shares in WHS2011.

 

I tired the utility wizard.  This didn't work.  Failed on "Recorded TV". 

NOTE: MY case is likely more complicated as I was merging 4 shares for recorded TV (due to manually balancing storage space on 4 drives) back into 1 share on the Pool.

 

So I had to the file suffle to get it to work.  Stop Drivepool service.  rename Recorded TV folders on all 4 of the hidden dirs and then the Pool that was seeded.  Do the "Move Share" for Recorded TV (moving an empty folder to an empty folder).

 

Then rename all the hidden drivepool folders back to "Recorded TV"  Start service, reset to defaults.

 

This did it!

 

BIngo.

 

BTW - Christopher I have a quick question.  I forgot to "Stop" the drive pool service once before moving a batch of files into the hidden folder (Seeding).  My drivepool install was set to all defaults (nothing changed after install).

I don't think I had a chance of hurting/losing any files but thought I'd ask.  What do you think?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Thank you I had read about the "seeding" process and appreciate having that method.  It will be what I do for sure!

 

The missing part for me was how to tell the server about the share folder being moved.  THe utility sounds like it has that covered.

 

My last question on this would be how do you reverse the process if you decide not to stay with DrivePool.  I'm not asking about "unseeding" I think that your wiki on seeding would be easy to reverse.  Again it's the Server knowing the shares are located on what drive letter/folder.

 

So moving back away form drivepool pretend the files are all unseeded and moved back to old folders (not hidden pool folders).  Does your utiltiy fix the share locations back to non-pool folders if you want to get back to non-drivepool system?

 

PS - Thanks for the quick responses... an actively monitored/responded to forum is one of the first things I look for when deciding to purchase software!  StableBit definitely gets an A+ there!

Yeah, the utility changes the share location, or shares the folders. It's well tested, so it should definitely work.

 

As for removing DrivePool... there isn't an easy answer there. Since there is a good chance that files may be scattered between the different disks.... it would be messy at best. I can cover it, but .... it would be basically moving a lot of files around, and hoping you have enough disk space (or you could use the "File Placement Rules" to force it initially, and then "unseed").

 

And no, the utility only works for the pooled folders.

However, if you're adventurous, you can "hack" it by using Registry Editor. Or... create a new shared folder and move the contents into that folder

 

Come to think of it screen captures of the utility wizard for each option would likely answer some of these questions. 

 

Like does the re-linking of shares have user selectable folders for each existing share (which means it'd easily do what I want in both directions [move to drivepool or back away from using it])

Well, the util page contains a description about each of the processes. 

However, we'd like to add a series of Youtube videos about the util and other aspects of the products.

(if a picture speaks a thousand words, a video speaks millions)

However, it's a time consuming and potentially expensive process. 

 

Well I've installed and am trying out DrivePool working with it via RDP to WHS2011 and it's working really really well when I did some test cases.  Very nice. 

 

If anyone is wondering about your server shares here's the method I've come up with and it doesn't use the utility wizard program:

1) Do the entire "seeding" process in the Wiki.

Use WHS2011 dashboard on the "Servers Folders" tab for the following steps:

2) Right click on share name --> View Properties [share tab] & make note of your perimssions per user.  Then close this dialog out.

3) Right click on share name --> "Stop Sharing the Folder" --> Go through wizard.

4) Right click on open white space ---> "Add Share Folder" --> Give same Share Name & point location browser to DrivePool folder you want/seeded. (Go through wizard)

5) Right click on share name --> View Properties [share tab] & setup perimssions per user from note in step 2.  Then OK this dialog out.

 

6) Smile alot

 

NOTE: I heavily make use of Win 7 Libraries so I setup a new library to use the test share folder (made before installing DrivePool that I used throughout this evaluation).  If you do the steps above correctly and have the new "Share Name" match the old "Share Name" the library doesn't care and upon a "refresh" of explorer's directory listing it's working perfectly.

That works too. And that's part of how the troubleshooter util works.

 

Well my test folder was just one that I added.... Running into an issue with the default share folders:

NOTE: You can not "Stop sharing the folder" on the default / basic folder shares in WHS2011.

 

I tired the utility wizard.  This didn't work.  Failed on "Recorded TV". 

NOTE: MY case is likely more complicated as I was merging 4 shares for recorded TV (due to manually balancing storage space on 4 drives) back into 1 share on the Pool.

 

So I had to the file suffle to get it to work.  Stop Drivepool service.  rename Recorded TV folders on all 4 of the hidden dirs and then the Pool that was seeded.  Do the "Move Share" for Recorded TV (moving an empty folder to an empty folder).

 

Then rename all the hidden drivepool folders back to "Recorded TV"  Start service, reset to defaults.

 

This did it!

 

BIngo.

 

BTW - Christopher I have a quick question.  I forgot to "Stop" the drive pool service once before moving a batch of files into the hidden folder (Seeding).  My drivepool install was set to all defaults (nothing changed after install).

I don't think I had a chance of hurting/losing any files but thought I'd ask.  What do you think?

Yup. Well from the Dashboard, at least.

You can also use the "windows" share manager to mess with this. Or you can use Registry editor to do this...

 

 

The "shuffling" is what I mentioned above.

 

As for the service, that's fine. Mainly we instruct you to stop the service, so that it prevents the service from attempting to duplicate the files on the pool, or from balancing files. It's not strictly necessary, but to prevent potential complications.