Some quick questions on migration

Edward

Hi there

Just looking for some quick pointers if I may?

Current setup.
HP microserver running raid 1 with whs 2011
Boot drive is 250gb sata drive
2 x 2tb Sata drives with RAID 1 (so therefore 2tb)

Aim is to migrate to Stablebit pool with folder duplication.

For now have purchased a Seagate 3tb Sata drive.

Quick questions. How to back up existing data? My thinking is to place new drive in server, add to Stablebit pool, copy relevant non pooled data to pool. Is that a good first step?

Then delete raid one setup (via HP bios) as I assume Stablebit folder duplication is a better way to go? Is this assumption correct?

I assume deletion of the raid array will delete all my data (hence the backup mentioned before) ?

Then I will have three data drives (2x 2tb plus 1 x 3tb) plus a 250gb boot drive.

What are my optimal next steps at this point? Using Stablebit and WHS.

Or is there an even better way altogether of doing all of it this?

Thanks
Edward

London UK. .

Shane

Hi Edward. What are the current drive letters for your 1 x 250GB and 2 x 2TB disks (e.g. are C: and both on the 250GB disk or is it a custom install), and are you already using DrivePool?

Edward

Hi Shane,

Thanks for the questions. In fact the drive letters are all the way from C: through to G: this was automatically done by the install of WHS2011. I nevver really understood why WHS2011 did that and it is one of the reasons I wish to migrate to Stablebit DrivePool.

I'm not at the machine right now so can't access drive partition view. If I recall when I set up then server (some 18 or so months ago) I initially installed the 250gb drive (the other drives were not in the machine) and then enabled raid1 and inserted the two 2tb drives. When I booted up again there was no OS to boot (the first install of WHS was not seen), so i had to do a reinstall with  the raid array. It was at this point, so far as I recall, that all the various partitions were created (a mess in my opinion as I had hoped for a simple C: boot drive and, say, an E: or F: data partition (corresponding to the 2tb (raid 1) drive.  Instead I got partition from C all the way to G:

More recently I installed DrivePool and the pool is seen as H: with the capicity corresponding to the spare capacity on the non-boot partitions).

Appreciate any pointers you may have.

kind regards
Edward

Shane

That does sound messy. And yes, deleting the array would delete the data. Do you have a USB disk dock?

Edward

Hi Shane,

Thanks for your continued support.

I'm beginning to think that I should rebuild my server from the ground up to clear out the mess.  Is there a link you can point me to which gives an idealised set up for StableBit DrivePool and WHS2011?

Maybe I should migrate to Windows 8 or Server 2012, ditching WHS2011 altogether. I see that Stablebit DrivePool is compatible with Win7/64, so I imagine that it is forward compatible with win8/64 and server12?  But so far I can't find much on the covecube site regarding that.

How does SB Drivepool interact with Storage Spaces?

cheers
Edward

Shane

DP 2 is compatible with Win 7, 8 and Server 12.

DrivePool uses standard NTFS volumes. Storage Spaces does not. So you can't have DP and SS using the same drive(s). And the consensus I've read so far is that DP is (much!) better than SS anyway.

With what I know of your hardware, for a completely fresh start I'd go:

With only the 250GB disk connected, install WHS 2011 and DrivePool.

Connect the 2TB and 3TB disks, formatted as GPT NTFS basic partitions.

Add those partitions to the pool. Change the pool drive letter to P. Move all shares from D to P.

Turn on duplication where you want it. Remove the drive letters from the 2TB and 3TB drives.

You end up with C (system), D (non-pool data), P (pool data), plus your optical drive.

You would need to delete the old 2x2TB array in the BIOS first, and as that will nuke whatever's on those disks, you'll need to backup your data first. I'd suggest formatting the 3TB first and backing all your data up onto that. If you were me, you'd also make a second backup. I can see how to use one of the 2TB disk for that, but it might involve a USB disk dock (thus why I asked if you had one in my previous post) or using another PC on your LAN.

Edward

Hi Shane,

Awesome! Thanks!

Yes sorry you did ask and I forgot to answer.  Yes I do have some USB caddies. I'll load the new 3tb into one, format it and back up the server.  I will, considering you wish to be me (:)) also back up the server across the lan to a client machine. It will be a slow process, but I can let it run overnight.

Then go via your steps you mention, nuking the raid1 data etc and doing a clean install with DrivePool, then physically mount the various drives.

You say that DP is compatible with Server 12, but then recommend I stick with WHS11. I've not used Server 12 yet, what advantages would I have with WHS11 other than not having to learn something new?

I took some relevant screenshots of my current server setup just in case you, or anyone else are interested.

Here is a screenshot of the physical discs

Of the folders in dashboard

of the hard drives in dashboard and lastly

of the pool in dashboard

cheers
Edward

Shane

Heh, yes, my main reasons to stick with WHS2011 would be not having to learn something new and not having to buy Server 2012 (which if you already have, isn't applicable to you).

The screenshot links don't link to screenshots?

Drashna

Well, WHS2011 has better (read: actually has) dashboard integration for DrivePool and Scanner.  That, and WHS2011 is like $50, and WS2012E (the cheapest version) runs about $500...

Edward

Thanks Shane and Drashna

In the meantime I have done a full backup of my server (using an esata caddy and the seagate 3tb) which went through smoothly.

I will, over the next days but realistically over the weekend (as work gets in the way) do a fresh build using WHS2011 with DrivePool and Scanner after nuking the raid1 setup.  For much of my data (esp. movies) I don't need a backup so I can selectively do folder duplication. This is going to give me tons of disc headroom as compared to the raid1 setup.  Part of the rebuild is to relicence things like JRiver Media Centre which i use as a core application in a server/client setup arrangement (shared libraries etc) so I need to take care not to break things.

I caught Alex (of this parish) being interviewed by the HomeServerShow guys a few days ago and feel very encouraged by his 'vision'.


@Shane, the links to the screenshots are there, the forum software here does not seem to highlight the hyperlinks well.  Hover over the last three sentences in my previous post, you ought to see them then.

cheers
Edward

Shane

Sorry, to clarify, the links while there do not lead to screenshots, I get some kind of default imapnet.com page which is the same for all of them.

Edward

Hmm, something strange there.  I tried with various browsers, machines
at home and at work.  All seems fine, except once with IE at home and
got some form of redirect (which I assume you were seeing).  Seems to
have gone now

Anyways, something I need to get sorted asap. Weird.  Looks like some form of dns injection.

E

Shane

Okay, I can see the screenshots now. Yeah, I can see how "a mess" was a good description.

Best wishes on the rebuild.