Simply logon to your Windows Home Server via RDP and go to http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1455 and download the iCloud Control Panel for Windows.  Install the application as normal but due to the fact it registers a new component with the Windows control panel you will need to reboot before you can access the system control panel.  Don’t install iCloud unless you can reboot right away or live without the control panel until your server is rebooted.

After you have rebooted you can go to the Windows control panel and find the new iCloud control panel applet:

You will be prompted to enter in your Apple ID and password and if you don’t have an iCloud account there will be some words to agree to as is the norm these days.  Once you have completed the sign in/up process you’ll see the main control panel.  From here I only selected to enable the Photo Stream option.  I don’t have Outlook installed nor do I want to sync my Bookmarks with Internet Explorer:

Select the “Options…” button and then change the Download Folder to a Shared Folder on your Windows Home Server.  I decided to make a new sub-folder in my Pictures share and left the Upload folder at default as I don’t plan to upload photos from the server to iCloud.  Do note that if you set this folder to a location where you will save photos on your network then you will potentially fill up your iCloud quota quite quickly:

That’s it! A very straight-forward way to sync all your photos from mobile Apple devices to your Windows Home Server.  In testing we found the latency from taking a photo on the iPhone to be able to retrieve it from the remote access website to be well under a minute.

It was time to replace the system disk in the EX490 with an SSD and install WHS2011 on the way.

The Caddy

Kingston make great quality products and this one is no exception.  The unit is designed to house a regular 2.5” Hard Disk Drive (it doesn’t matter if it’s the traditional spinning Winchester unit or a more up to date SSD) and the C300 fits perfectly within it.  Any 2.5” SSD should fit absolutely fine, if you have a shorter than normal drive (I’m not aware of any) then you might have to make up the length with some material as the lever butts up against the short side of the drive.  Though the caddy is made of plastic it’s tough and well built.  There are two finger grips on the top of the unit and these are used to slid the top of the caddy away from it’s body allow the top of the unit to hinge up.  When open you can then clearly see where the drive should be seated.  The SSD easily dropped into it’s new home and after gently closing and sliding back the caddy lid we now have SSD power in a comfortable form factor for the EX490.  On inspection against a 3.5” drive the Kingston Caddy is identical in terms of fittings and shape.  Of course it is a lot lighter and though not really needed for an SSD there are some vents in place to help keep any unit inside cool.

Preparing for WHS2011

As I intend to move my existing WHSv1 into a VM I thought it was an idea to migrate my data from the internal drives to an external storage unit.  I also decided to export the backups at the same time using Alex Kuretz’s WHS BDBB Add-In.  I also uninstalled any software or add-ins which may conflict when they are running on the prime server, WHS2011.  I then used the VMware convertor software to clone the physical machine to a virtual machine.  For fun I decided to only clone the system disk to see what challenges I will have rebuilding the machine later on.  Fast forward to after a few days copying data and I was finally done.  Once my data had been copied off I removed each drive from the pool using the console and then physically popped the drive out of my EX490.

Installing WHS2011

I won’t go into the full details here as there are plenty of articles around to detail installing Windows Home Server 2011 on the EX series using a USB Flash key.  The important issue to remember is that if you have used the USB key previously to a successful install of WHS2011 is that you will have to remove the Processed line from your cfg.ini 

Also it’s a essential to physically remove all of your drives from the server (including USB and eSATA drives) and only connect the SSD.  If the drive is brand new then you don’t need to do anything else but if you are reusing an existing drive it would be an idea to remove all the partitions from it to ensure a successful install.  With the EX series being headless servers it’s hard to tell when the unit will come up.  I use DHCP reservations on my router so I was confident that I could keep pinging the servers IP address to know when it came up.  All in all the install took around 20 minutes (I wish I had timed it now, but then again with a Q8400S it would not be comparable to a stock server).

SSD Performance

I don’t have to tell you that SSDs are fast but as I have the exact same model C300 in my desktop machine I was surprised to find that the EX490 can utilise it with a bit more gusto than my Dell 8000 with an i7-860 running the 64-bit version of Windows 7.  Thinking about it a little more it must be that Windows Server 2008 R2 is optimised more heavily for server duties that the desktop variant of the kernel in Windows 7.  Sequential Read Write is in the order of 280MB/s but the big one we want for the server is Random 4K access without queuing. which is an unbelievable 80MB/s.  Reboot time from remote desktop back to remote desktop is a shade over 1 minute.

Home Server inside of Home Server

Initially I have only run up WHSv1 under WHS2011 utilising VMware.  There are a few tweaks you have to do to the Virtual Machine Configuration file do get the hard drive recognised as a SCSI disc but I will detail all of that in a later article. 

The device I’m going to introduce you to today is going to take away the step of manually connecting your camera.  In fact it can call home from anywhere where there is a Wi-Fi hotspot and all within the same form factor as a SD Memory Card.  Let me introduce you to the Eye-Fi Connectx2.

First let me give you their overview and features direct from their website:

overview

Keep forgetting photos in your camera? Get the 4GB Connect X2 card to make saving and sharing memories effortless.

Automatically upload photos and videos to your computer and to your favourite site – they’ll just land there already organized. Choose from 25 websites, including Flickr, Facebook, Picasa and more. See comparison chart

features

4GB memory: Store up to 2,000 photos or 90mn of video with top-notch Class 6 speed. Works just like with your regular SDHC memory card. Perfect for your compact camera!
Wireless: Upload JPEG photos & videos fast through your home Wi-Fi network thanks to built-in 802.11n speed.
Endless: Get the only card that can free-up space for you after pictures are safely delivered. Never worry about running out of space again.
Automatic back-up: Wirelessly upload JPEG photos and videos to folders of your choice on your computer, or even directly into iPhoto for Macs.
Organized: Photos and videos can automatically land in date-based folders, so memories are organized effortlessly.
Compatible: No need to buy a new camera. Check here to confirm that your camera can be turned into a wireless uploading machine.
Effortless sharing: Wirelessly send your JPEG photos and videos to a popular website. See the complete list you can choose from, which includes Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, MobileMe, and YouTube.
Pick your pics: You can select which photos and videos are uploaded.
Get notified: Get email, Facebook or Twitter alerts when your photos are uploading online.
Quick and sweet: Set up takes just minutes.

Getting Started

First we get the packaging open to find the Connectx2 card itself in the shape of an 4GB Class 6 SD Card.  However, on board the card there is a microprocessor and a Wireless N (2.4GHz only) communications device that can make a connection to the internet or to your system through your home router/access point.  Also included is the Eye-Fi USB Adapter to allow you to setup the card from any PC or Mac with a USB Port.

There are a number of ways to install and setup the Connectx2 card in your home server environment.  We choose to use a remote desktop session on the Windows Home Server because you will need this to eventually setup the card to bind to your server.

First insert the Connectx2 Card into the Eye-Fi USB Adapter and then insert this into a free USB port in your server.  After a few moments of auto detection you should fine a new drive present in My Computer and depending on your setup you may be prompted with the auto play window.  You need to open the drive letter and fine the ‘START HERE’ folder.

Inside you will find the ‘setup.exe’ so open that to start the setup process.

What follows is the pretty standard installer.

When you are asked for the location to install to go with the default on C:

The Eye-Fi software is broken into two parts.  The Eye-Fi helper which runs in the background monitoring for connections from the card and the Eye-Fi Centre which allows you to configure the card and monitor uploads etc.  The first part of the installer is complete and hitting finish will then go to the next stage.

Part of the setup for installing the Eye-Fi Centre is to check for the latest update from the web so take this into account if you run a very strict firewall in your network environment.

We found an update so click ‘Download & Install Now’

Again plenty of information screens to let you know what is happening at each of the stages

Eye-Fi helper has to listen out on the network for connections from the Connectx2 card so it makes sense to allow Eye-Fi to communicate on the network rom your Home Server.

After the components have been installed Eye-Fi Helper will check your network to ensure connections can be made to the card.  Hit ‘Next’ to start the process.

So long as you unblocked the Windows Home Server firewall in one of the previous steps then all should be well.

After closing the previous Wizard you may notice a notification in he system tray that and Eye-Fi card has been found.  This should then kick off the installer for Adobe Air. 

As I mentioned before Eye-Fi has software for both Windows and Mac and Air provides a means to program for both platforms.  Adobe Air needs to be installed in order for the Eye-Fi Centre to run.

If this is your first time using the Eye-Fi Centre you will be prompted to setup login details.  An email address and password are required and this enables you to use some of the online feature that Eye-Fi provide.

Once you have entered your details click ‘Create Account’ to continue.

You will then be sent an email to confirm your account.  Follow the steps in the email.  At the same time the firmware of the Connectx2 will be updated if necessary.  Click the ‘Update’ button to continue.

Eye-Fi Centre will keep you informed of each step.  Be sure not to remove the card from the reader, or the read from the computer whilst the update is in progress.

Once the firmware update is complete the Eye-Fi Centre Setup Wizard will be presented.  The first step is to add an available Eye-Fi network to the card.  From the drop down list next to name select your Wi-Fi network.

Then you have to enter in the password and select ‘Add network to card’

At this point I had a problem.  I run a wired network in my office but it is out of reach of my wireless access point.  This meant I could not get a good enough signal at my server where the Connectx2 card was setup.  At this point I took the card and reader and set it up in my laptop.  I went through all the steps from before (minus the firmware update) to get back to this point.  I then could get the Connectx2 card to successfully connect to my Wi-Fi network.  The next steps are carried out on my laptop but could have been completed exactly the same way on the Windows Home Server.

Once you have your wireless network added clicking next takes you to the section where you can decide to upload photos and videos to Eye-Fi View.  Eye-Fi is an online service that allows you to view you photos from the internet.

I only wanted my photos to be copied to the server so I unchecked this option

Likewise you can set the card so that it will upload to many popular photo websites or even use FTP or SCP.  Again I only wanted photos to be copied to my Windows Home Server.

On the next screen you get similar options for the videos.  I chose not to use any online services.

On clicking next you get a confirmation screen of the actions that will be set on the card.  Click ‘Finish’ to continue (user error here meant this screenshot was over cropped)

It is at this point I took the Eye-Fi Card and Reader back to my Windows Home Server.  From the system tray I right clicked on the Eye-Fi icon to bring up a menu and selected ‘Open Eye-Fi Centre’

In the Eye-Fi Centre you should notice two tabs on the right hand side of the Window, ‘4GB Wifi’ and ‘My Activity’.  If you highlight ‘4GB Wifi’ you will see a little cog wheel which is a button to allow you to open the settings.  You can also get to the settings from the File Menu.  You may see more than one listing for the same card.  This is a side effect of running non-server software in a server environment.  More about that later. 

This time I went straight to the ‘Photos’ tab.  There I selected ‘Change folder’ to select the Photos Share I wanted on my Home Server. 

I then moved to the next tab ‘Videos’ to do the same change of destination and Eye-Fi Centre will prompt you to select a save the settings.

At this point Eye-Fi Centre will detect that the destination for photos has changed from the Laptop to the Windows Home Server.  You may not see this dialogue box if you have done the whole setup on your Windows Home Server.

You’ll then get confirmation that the change has been made.

The same can then be done for Videos.

One neat feature that I wanted to use was Endless Memory.  This is a unique feature of the Eye-Fi card which allows you to set a threshold of when the card should remove already uploaded media from the card.  It will wait until the card is over a user defined used capacity and only the oldest item which have already been uploaded will be deleted.  So long as you let the card connect frequently enough to your Wi-Fi then you will never need to delete any media from your memory card.

Final thoughts

I was very impressed with the Eye-Fi Connectx2 card.  In practice photos were immediately transferred from the camera to the server but there are a few things to consider.  Most people will be using 802.11g (54mpbs wireless) and you can only expect transfer speeds over wireless network in the region of 1-2 MB/s.  For photos this is fine but if you have a camera that is capable of HD Video then you could be looking at quite large files that require many minutes to transfer.  You should look into setting the standby time for your camera to a much longer timeout than default.  However, Eye-Fi is smart; it will resume large file transfers where it can but sometimes you need to take another photo to kick it into life.

Eye-Fi Connectx2 works with regular picture formats but you need to purchase a Pro card to work with RAW images.  Also Eye-Fi connect supports nearly all cameras but you should check for compatibility before purchase. I can confirm that AVCHD videos upload perfectly with the 4GB Connectx2 card.

Currently the Eye-Fi Connectx2 retails for £50 in the UK. It may seem expensive for a 4GB Class 6 SD Card but once you factor in the amazing features I think it’s definitely worth it.

Windows Home Server Considerations

Eye-Fi Centre has not been designed with a multi user server environment in mind such as Windows Home Server.  Generally the software is robust but you can get it confused as it will run more than one instance if you let it.  i..e in a Console Session and in a Remote Desktop Session. 

We had issues with the stability of Eye-Fi centre after installing Adobe Air.  These were all resolved after rebooting Windows Home Server.  So far the software has been very well behaved and I’ve been able to automate one of those jobs that took my time.  The added bonus is now my family can take photos and near instantly see them in Media Centre.  I don’t know of any other gadget that can do that.  Also I have piece of mind as I know as soon as each photo hits the server it’s backed up with Wuala.

This article will cover installing VMWare Virtual Server 2.0 on Windows Home Server and setting up guest operating systems.  Part 1 covered the steps in upgrading the hardware in an HP MediaSmart Server EX490 to deal with virtualisation.

You will need a copy of VMWare Server 2.0.2, a License Key (given for free after a no-fee registration with VMWare.com) and Remote Desktop Access to you Windows Home Server.

Got VMWare?

In the last paragraphs of the previous article on turning your HP MSS EX49x into a Virtual Server I said it was a good idea to get hold of VMWare Server 2.0.  You can download it by following this link and going through the download steps or by navigating the huge menus at VMWare.com.  You will have to register with VMWare but you get the option to opt out of emails if you won’t be interested in the odd email about Virtualisation and Cloud Computing.  The download is 507MB and I advise you go through VMWare’s Download Manager.  The version you need to get is VMWare Server 2.0.2 (10/26/2009) – it’s the first version under the Binaries heading, be careful not to download the Linux version or the API instead.  On this same page is the only time you will be given the licensing information for VMWare Server.  I suggest saving this page or making a copy of the License Key somewhere safe – keys are provided for both Linux and Windows versions.  As always I recommend you use a Client PC to do the actual download and move the file to your Windows Home Server Software Share once you have virus scanned the executable.

Unleash The Beast

Make no mistake, running VMWare and Virtual Hosts can be very demanding on your system.  That’s why I went with 4GB of memory and a Quad Core CPU in my EX490 to handle the demand.  If you are expecting to get increased computing power through software then this is not the way do it – if you find out how drop me a line and we can patent it together!

First open the downloaded installer for VMWare Server 2.0.2 and select run:

The VMWare Logo should come up on the screen and a dialog box will appear, disappear and reappear before finally getting to the first stage of the installer. Hit Next to proceed to the license agreement:

At the license agreement select “Yes, I accept the terms in the license agreement” and then select Next:

Accept the default installation location of “C:\Program Files\VMware Server” by selecting Next:

On the next screen go with the defaults by selecting next.  I don’t advise you change the port numbers unless you know exactly what you are doing.  There should be no need to map these ports to you router and they are purely for internal LAN access and to Access the VMWare Server Web Console.  One option you might decide to change is to start and stop virtual machines automatically with the system.  For me I want my Virtual Hosts running when my server is online though you can change this option later after installation if you change your mind:

Select your choices here but I find it handy to get to the console in a number of ways, hitting next will take you to the final step before installation commences:

If you are sure you want to go ahead with the installation select Install and go off and make a cup of tea while the installation takes place:

You’ll get the standard Windows Installer Progress Status window whilst installation is in progress:

When all has completed well you should be greeted with a Window saying installation is complete.  Hit Finish to complete the installation: 

Finally you will have to reboot the system as VMWare has installed drivers and services required for it’s successful operation:

During the installation VMWare will install some virtual network adapters.  You may find that some Windows Home Server processes such as the Port Forwarder or Windows Live Custom Domains detect these adapters and try to make an internet connection through them.  This will result in temporary failure in these services and an error will be generated.  Windows Home Server will recover automatically once it works out where the real connection to the outside world is again.

Get On Board

Once you have rebooted and you’ve given your Windows Home Server enough time to start all it’s processes and services you should be able to navigate to the VMWare Server Web GUI.  You can do this from any PC on your home network.  Access from a MAC of Linux machine should work but I’ve not tried it myself.  The address you need to go to is https://hpstorage:8333/ui/ – replace hpstorage with the name or IP address of your server but make sure you include the https and that the port is 8333.  As soon as you connect VMWare Server will prompt you for a Login Name and Password – though before that is may ask for a client certificate, ignore it and select cancel.  The login credentials used within VMWare Server are the same as your Windows Home Server User Accounts.  However for now only the Administrator will have access to the GUI.  Also you will note that there are some warnings about the website certificate not being trusted, we’ll fix this later.  Enter the Administrator Username and Password and select Log In:

When you first login you might be prompted by internet explorer to run the “VMWare Remote Console Plug-in” you can allow this as it will let you to see a view of your virtual machine when it is running.

License Key

There are a few steps we need to take before we can get started with creating a Virtual Machine.  First we need to enter our serial number.  From the “Application” Menu Item in the Top Left of the Window select “Enter Serial Number”:

In the Serial field enter your serial number and hit OK.  Now you are registered for unlimited use of VMware Server 2.0. 

Certificate Issues

Next lets fix the certificate warning.  Click on the “Certificate error” warning in the address bar to reveal more information about the problem and select the “View Certificates” link:

In the next window select “Install Certificate…” :

Select Next on the Certificate Import Wizard:

In the second stage of the wizard select the “Place all certificates in the following store” radio button and then select Browse:

In the pop up window select “Trusted Root Certification Authorities” and select OK:

Select next to move on through the wizard, finally completing the wizard by clicking Finish:

You will then be prompted with a security warning that a Certification Authority change is about to take place.  Select Yes to confirm as we have instigated this change:

You will then get confirmation that the import was a success.  Close the remaining certificate windows.  You will still get a warning about the certificate but Internet Explorer won’t inhibit you from getting to the site initially like before.  Next time you restart IE the warnings should be gone.

Adding A User

Personally I don’t like to type in my administrator user name and password unless I need to so I’ve added access to the Web GUI for my regular Windows Home Server User Account.   From the Web GUI ensure that HPSTORAGE (or the name of your server) is highlighted in Inventory and then select the Permissions tab:

Then you want to select the “New” link to bring up the new permissions view.  From there select your desired login user name and in the Role Drop Down List select Administrator.  When you are done select OK:

You should then notice that the selected user has been added to for access.  Next we will run through creating a virtual machine.

Your First Virtual Machine

Now I appreciate not everyone is going to be interested in Linux, after all this is a Windows Home Server blog but rather than go through the longer steps of installing Windows and reply to questions on why didn’t I use such and such a version of Windows over another I decided to setup Damn Small Linux.  The other neat thing is it’s only a 50MB download and installation is fast and easy for demonstration purposes.  First download the ISO to your datastore.  You will have to download to a shared folder on your Windows Home Server and then you have one of two options.

1) Add the shared folder to your available datastores within the VMWare Web GUI

2) Using a Remote Desktop session move the ISO from your download location to the existing datastore location in “D:\Virtual Machines”

I’ll go through the first step only as the later option is quite straightforward.

Adding A Datastore

The first thing to remember that this datastore is purely for installation media (ISO files).  You don’t want to be using this datastore to store anything to do with a running Virtual Machine (VM) as Drive Extender and VMWare will get quite upset and at the very least you will get file conflict issues and in some cases loss of data in your VM.

I already have an ISOs folder in my Software Share that I use to store all my Installation CD Images.  First in the VMWare Web GUI ensure that HPSTORAGE is selected in the Inventory List.  Then in the right hand tab select summary to show the Datastores section and from the Commands section choose Add:

Fill out the Add Datastore form with the following information.  Make sure you use the “Local Datastore” method and specify the server as localhost.  You then want to add the \\localhost\software\ISOs folder or your chosen location but make sure you don’t use the CIFS options or fields.  When you’ve got those parameters entered click OK:

You should now see the datastore listed and this will allow you to share installation files between Windows Home Server and VMWare.

The VM

From the same command section as in the previous step select “Create Virtual”.  A Create Virtual Machine Wizard will be presented.  The first step is to specify the Name and Location of the VM.  I called mine DSL and the location must always be in the Datastore location – never install a VM in a Windows Home Server Shared Folder.  When you’ve got it how you want click Next:

Next you must select the Guest Operating System and Version.  VMWare uses this to work out what settings to use and also what devices to expose to the VM.  If you were going to install Windows then you would select the Windows operating system and choose the correct version from the drop down list.  For Windows 7 choose Vista.  For this example you will need to select Linux Operating and Other Linux 32-bit:

Next choose memory and processor count.  Don’t go crazy here, you are sharing resources with your Windows Home Server so 256MB and a single core processor is fine:

Next we are going to create a Virtual Disk.  Remember only create a big enough disk for what you need.  With Thick Provisioning of Virtual Disks any free space left on the drive is only free to the Guest Virtual Machine – the free space is considered as used by Windows Home Server and too much overhead is simply a waste.  Select “Create a New Virtual Disk” and on the next screen stick with the default options and select next:

At the next screen ensure you are going to add a network adapter and select next.  Leave the connection as bridged and check the box for “Connect at Power On”:

At the next step of the Wizard check that “Use” an ISO” is selected and hit next.  On the next windows hit browse, navigate to the ISOs and select the DSL install ISO we downloaded earlier and then select OK:

Ensure that the ISO is connected at power on and select next. Select “Don’t Add a Floppy”, then select “Don’t Add a USB” and finally you should be presented with a final summary of what will be created.  When you are ready select Finish for the VM to be created:

Whilst the VM is being created a summary will be presented in the bottom of the GUI keeping you up to date on the progress of the VM creation.  When it has been completed you can move on to the next stage.

Power Up

From the VMWare Web GUI there are a number of ways to start the VM.  You can click on HPSTORAGE and view the VM in the Virtual VM list or you can select the VM in the Inventory List.  Both will then enable the transport control buttons in the top of the GUI or you can use the commands provided in the section on the right.  However, selecting the VM in the Inventory view will allow you to select the console option.  If you select the console option and click the big ‘play’ icon the VM will power on.  After a few moments you will then be given the option to open the console in a new window – simply click again.  You can then see your VM starting up:

That’s it – you are now in the world of virtualisation.  There are quite a few things that remain but I will leave that to the many resources out there on the internet.  One very important item is the installation of the VMWare Tools.  As far as you VM is concerned it thinks it is a real computer but it will need to know that it is in fact running within another system for the purpose of shutting down and rebooting cleaning if the server is ever rebooted.  From the VM summary in the Web GUI there is a link in the Status Section allowing you to install the VMWare Tools.  Non-standard Linux installations can be tricky to get the tools running as you need to crack open a compiler but setting up the Tools on Windows VMs are straightforward.  If you get stuck drop a line in the forums and we’ll be glad to help out.

I hope you enjoyed these two articles on getting virtualisation running on your Windows Home Server.

This article is based around upgrading the hardware in an HP MediaSmart Server EX490.  Later articles will cover installing VMWare Virtual Server 2.0 and guest operating systems.

Say What?

There are a lot of articles and posts on the internet showing you how to run Windows Home Server in a virtual environment.  I did consider turning my EX490 into a Virtual Server using VMWare ESXi (the enterprise Virtualisation solution) but because I would severely lose out on important storage characteristics with regard to the ability of hot swapping and expanding the virtual disk datastore I decided against it.  Long before ESX (and ESXi) though was Virtual Server from VMWare supporting a more traditional approach of an application layer on top of the operating system – as opposed to installing a Hypervisor on top of bare metal (the machine itself with no underlying operating system).  Anyway this is not a lesson of which is best or why use virtualisation, I assume if you are reading this then you are familiar with Wikipedia for definitions and are interested in taking advantage of your ‘always on’ home server.

Let’s get onto the same page here.  I’m a growing software developer and a keen home computer enthusiast coupled with the fact that my job encompasses technology running on diverse platforms including the utilisation of virtualisation and cloud computing.  I want to have a slice of that at home too which will help with my software development in terms of proving my applications on a number of platforms (read as different Windows Versions) but also allow me to run a Linux server.  I’m Red Hat certified so don’t be surprised at my choice of Linux Distribution when we get to that part in the later articles.

Virtualisation brings with it a number of advantages, the one for me that we will be dealing with today is that of consolidation.  That is migrating existing servers/computers to a virtual environment reducing cost overheads, physical presence and maintenance effort.  It definitively doesn’t have the same impact in the home as it may do in your workplace but there is one more issue that is worthwhile when considering the OEM and Home Built Windows Home Servers.  Microsoft decided against providing a mechanism to backup Windows Home Server (I’m ignoring Vail for now as it’s not a released product line).  The idea is that the operating system itself is expendable – in other words the loss of a system drive given that other important user data had been protected with duplication could be simply resolved by performing a server recovery.  Ignoring the ‘recovery’ issue of installing many updates, potential lost backups (see WHS BDBB for the solution)  and recreating users accounts there is the chance that you have installed ’extras’ outside of the Windows Home Server environment.  That is media servers, applications and utilities that don’t work with Windows Home Server directly but are Windows XP/2003 compatible and there is the fact that you would like to get back to that setup after a system drive loss.  What if all those extras were wrapped up inside a Virtual Machine or more and given the protection of a Windows Home Server backup – now you see that the earlier plug of WHS BDBB is actually quite meaningful.  My guide will have you installing the virtual datastore on the system drive of your server and if that drive is lost or damaged then it would mean the loss of your Virtual Hosts utilising the Virtual Drives in that datastore.

The Hardware

The EX490 uses standard commercial off the shelf components when it comes to the processor and memory.  This makes its really easy to find the components that suit you and your pocket but most importantly will work with the MediaSmart Server.

CPU

The processor shipped with the unit is a fairly modest Intel Celeron 450 and memory requirements are furnished with one 2GB PC6400 (800MHz) DDR 240Pin DIMM.  This is fine for most purposes but the more powerful EX490 ships with an Intel Pentium E5200 and there are hundreds of posts out there with people who have upgraded their EX490s with the E5200 or the slightly pokier E5300.  If you looked at the specs given in the previous links for these CPUs then you will notice that they have 3 very important things in common.  First is that they are in the same packaging, LGA775, this means they will fit the socket on the server motherboard.  Second is that they are designed with the same thermal characteristics of 65W Power with respect to heat dissipation (TDP).  You’ll see some articles out there with people upgrading the EX series with much higher rated CPUs that go over this limit and unless you intend to do something more with cooling then it’s best to avoid these CPUs.  65W is the maximum the EX49x can cope with given it’s heat sink and internal fan configuration.  The third point is moot in this case but worth bearing in mind when upgrading CPUs is that the voltage range is within that supported by the motherboard.  Those links to http://ark.intel.com/ should serve as your guide to what is what when picking a CPU for virtualisation.  It needs to be rated at or below 65W TDP in the LGA775 packaging and for best performance with virtualisation it needs to support VT-x, Intel® Virtualization Technology.  I’m not going to tell you which CPU to use as prices change all the time and popular online auction sites reveal various bargains each day.  I chose the Q8400S, the most important thing is that when going for the higher spec CPUs that you look for the S version.  The S means it’s the lower power sibling of a much hotter CPU.  Before bidding/buying check the CPU spec on ark and make sure you get the stepping from the seller to ensure they really are selling the S version.  Ensure you get a unit that has a max TDP of 65W or less, that is supports virtualisation and that it is in the LGA775 form factor.  The target CPU will more than likely be created with 45nm lithography so this is a good clue you are looking in he right direction.  If there are a few CPUs at similar prices choose the one with more cores and 2nd level cache rather than outright processor clock speed.  Your server will still have to carry out it’s Windows Home Server duties whilst taking on the new load of a virtual host or two so a dual or quad core CPU is going to handle it easier than simply a faster single core processor.  You’ll still ultimately be limited by hard disk throughput so big GHz is not necessarily required here.

Memory

Likewise with memory you’ll be sharing that between your Server OS and your Guest OS(es).  More is better and when it comes to selecting memory the choices are limited.  The HP EX4xx series only has one slot for memory.  This will take a 240-Pin Dual Data Rate (DDR) Unbuffered non-ECC DIMM at speeds up to 800MHz (PC2-6400).  I could only find one supplier in the UK that would allow me to upgrade the memory in my EX490 to 4GB.  Crucial UK sell the CT51264AA667 and although it’s rated at 533MHz (PC2-5300) my chosen processor allowed for a 1:1 FSB to memory ratio when installed, which I believe negates the reduction in overall clock speed once you factor in the lower latency.  Typically most MediaSmart setups won’t be using all of the standard 2GB of memory so if you only intend to run a single very lightweight Guest OS when it comes to memory requirements then you shouldn’t feel as though you should upgrade.  However, for me I did the math and found that in getting rid of the server I was going to migrate would pay for itself in less than one year, taking into account the electricity costs of having another PC powered on the whole time.

Hard Disk

You virtual host will need to use some of the space on your Windows Home Server.  It’s very important that this disk allocation does not fall under the control of Drive Extender as VMWare won’t be able to cope with any virtual disks or logs files moving around whilst they are in use.  You will have to create the Virtual Datastore within the System Area of the D: Drive, that is the root folder.  Another point is you should know how much disk space your virtual machine is going to use and set the virtual disk size to be that amount plus a few GB for overhead.  The prime role of your Windows Home Server is not virtualisation and in most scenarios you don’t want to take too much out of the reserves used for user data storage.

When creating virtual disks there are two routes that can be chosen when it comes to provisioning the data allocated to the virtual disk.   One is Thin Provisioning which creates a phantom drive without actually using all the disk space initially.  This provides for fast allocation (because none really occurs) but at the cost of lower performance on first allocation in use and the possibility that the underlying storage mechanism (Windows Home Server in this case) is full before the virtual drive is full – which is bad news.  I went with Thick Provisioning not only because this is the only option with VMWare Server 2.0 but it gives the best performance and safe guards against data loss from disk space under-allocation.

To The Bench

So you’ve made a backup of your Windows Home Server – this is quite a good time to do it – and powered down your unit ready to be dismantled.  You’ll need some good quality screwdrivers (cross or Phillips) in small and medium sizes.  I recommend you work in a clean area on top of a flat solid table.  Also you will need an antistatic bag or two (you can use the ones that come with your new components).

Warning:  A potential risk to electronic components which includes CPUs, Memory and Hard Disks is Electrostatic Discharge or Static Electricity.  Touching electronic components if one has a build up of static electricity on ones body can lead to permanent damage to the component.  Before working on a unit you should ensure you have grounded yourself and that you are not wearing clothing that generates static electricity (wool and nylon) or standing on carpet.

All grounded? Start with the EX49x facing you:

Open the main door to reveal the drives and below the lowest drive turn the locking mechanism for the system drive clockwise with suitable coin or large flat bladed screwdriver:

Release each drive catch in turn and remove the drives one by one, sticking a post-it note on each drive with the location of the drive.  I numbered them 1 to 4 with 1 being the lowest position and 4 the top drive.

Next you need to release the top cover.  First you need to locate the catch underneath the top cover.  Look forward and up into where drive 4 was located and you will see a little black catch:

You need to apply gentle but firm pressure to the catch whilst sliding the top cover towards you and bending the front lip of the top cover up slightly.  The plastic is quite strong but you must be gentle with it – the cover will slide forward about a centimetre allowing you to then lift it out of the way to reveal the SATA Backplane Board Catches:

Rotate the left catch clockwise 90 degrees and the right catch 90 degrees anti-clockwise.  Take a marker pen and label the two plugs on the left with A and B or L(Left) and M (Middle) or draw a line over where the plugs meet.  This is to aide you in getting these connections correct when you put your server back together:

Disconnect the three plugs from the SATA Backplane Board.  With one hand inside the drive enclosure (where drives 1-4 were) locate a hole in the board and whilst applying slight upward pressure pull the board upwards from the top.  You should feel the board positively disconnect from the socket in the motherboard and it should be free to move backwards away from the front of the server a centimetre allowing you to pull the SATA Backplane board free of the server.  With the smaller screwdriver remove the two screws (anti-clockwise) holding on the lower ventilation grill:

Hinge the grill out, disconnect the single lead and remove the grill free of the server noting the locating lugs on the left hand side:

The grill has been removed to reveal the motherboard which is bolted to the power supply.  The combined unit is secured to the enclosure by two (2) screws, remove each one ensuring that nothing is left connected at the rear of the server.  Be careful not to remove the screw holding the door hinge:

Gently slide the motherboard and power supply unit out of the enclosure towards you being careful to support it’s weight as it comes out:

Clear the area of the drives and server parts to leave you working only on the combined power supply and motherboard unit.  Note it’s not required to remove or tamper with the power supply unit under any circumstances:

The large heatsink is secured by 4 fasteners to the CPU and the Memory module is the long board with chips located in the top side of the picture above.  Using the larger screw driver carefully undo each fastener.  Whilst undoing each one apply gentle pressure to the heatsink to prevent the possibility of it springing up off the CPU.  When all the fasteners are undone remove the heatsink and place it fins down on the table – you don’t want heatsink residue stuck to the table.  It may be required to rotate the heatsink very slightly or apply moderate force to break the bonding of the thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink.  Certainly do not apply any levering techniques to remove the heatsink and visually inspect the underside of the heatsink corners to confirm that all the fasteners are fully undone and free.  With the heatsink removed gently push down on the white tags either side of the Memory Module whilst pulling upwards to remove the memory module – store this in an anti-static bag if you have one or keep it somewhere safe on the table:

Gently push down on the lever above in the lower right hand corner and move it to the right to clear the catch and then lift it up fully so that the retaining mechanism releases its pressure on the CPU:

Lift the retainer, remove the CPU and place in an anti-static bag:

Place the new CPU into place observing the orientation marks on the CPU and socket:

Move the retainer arm down out of the way of the memory module slot.  Take the memory module out of its packaging and taking note of the indentation, in the side of the module with the contacts, locate it into the memory slot.  Gently apply downwards pressure on the top edge of the memory module whilst pushing in on the white catches.  The memory module should positively click into place.  If this does not happen either the memory is located incorrectly or it is of the wrong type.  Double check orientation and type:

Now raise the retaining arm and move the retainer down over the CPU ensuring that the CPU is laying flat in the socket.  Move the arm down applying pressure on the retainer and slide the end of the arm into it’s catch:

Take the CPU and clean any remaining heatsink compound from it:

Using a high quality thermal compound, my preference is Servisol but arctic silver is a popular choice also, place a small, less than pea sized, amount of compound on the centre of the CPU face:

Spread the compound evenly and thinly over the surface of the CPU.  When applying thermal compounds (heatsink pastes) less is more.  At a microscopic level fissures and holes exists between the mating surfaces of the CPU and heatsink.  These will act as an insulator preventing efficient use of the heatsink.  The thermal compound is there to fill in these gaps but too much compound and it will act as an inhibitor to the efficiency of heat transfer.  The photo below actually shows too much compound and I removed a significant amount after it was taken:

Take the heatsink and place it over the CPU noting the correct orientation of the fasteners to the fixing holes in the motherboard.  Applying slight downward pressure wiggle the heatsink to help spread the compound more evenly.  First secure each fastener into each fixing hold by a few turns and then whilst applying a little more downward pressure do up each fastener tightly.

Reassembly of the MediaSmart server is the opposite of disassembly.  First slide the motherboard and power supply assembly back into the enclosure:

Using the two silver screws secure the power supply to the enclosure. Next take the SATA Drive Backplane and with one hand inside the enclosure and another hand on top to steady the backplane locate the board into the retaining slots.  With the backplane lined up correctly firmly push it into the motherboard – it should positively click into place.  Connect the three plugs into their correct locations in the back plane and rotate the blue catches back into place as below:

Next take the lower front ventilation grill and reconnect the plug to it.  Locate the grill lugs into the recesses on the left hand side of the enclosure and fasten it in place with the small black screws.  Be careful not to over tighten these screws as it is very easy to damage the heads:

Taking note of the drive original locations (this is where the post-its are useful) place each drive back into its bay – don’t leave the post-it notes on the drives.

Firmly locate each drive and close the retaining catch, finally locking the system drive into place:

That should be it.  Closing the door on the unit should be the last thing to do before plugging your MediaSmart Server back in and checking the upgrade was a success:

Power Up

Connect your MediaSmart Server back into your network and with power.  Turn the unit back on using the power switch on the rear of the unit and after a few second verify that the power, network and system light illuminate.  The system light should be flashing and eventually go solid when the 1, 2, 3 or 4 drive lights illuminate also.  If the system light is still flashing for more than a minute don’t panic – chances are your unit has decided to do an extended disk check on this boot up, leave it until it has finished though it could be hours.

Open the Windows Home Server Console and open the Settings Window.  From there open the Resources tab and verify that your CPU has been detected and that you have 4.00 or 3.99 GB of RAM:

You do?  Then great!  Your new CPU brings new features and you may be required to reboot your server once or twice before they are all in use.  Hang around for a few minutes and reboot your server when prompted.

Virtually There

Next we want to check the virtualisation is enabled and working on our server.  If you didn’t pick a CPU with virtualisation support (i.e. VT-x) then you can skip this step.  Go to grc.com and run Securable.  You will need to do this from a remote desktop session and rather than open up your Home Server to the internet a little more I suggest downloading the executable to the Software Share on your Home Server from a client PC.

Simply run the executable and ensure it detects that Virtualisation is enabled:

Don’t be worried that your S Processor is detected as its more power hungry stable mate.  The chips are actually identical from the perspective of much software and the actual difference is in grading of the processors during final production.  If you want to double check then you can run CPU-Z from CPUID on your Windows Home Server.  Again download it to a Shared Drive from a client PC and virus scan it there to be sure it is safe.  Differences in quoted Max CPU rate and actual core speed may be attributed to SpeedStep.

I recommend a period of burn in with any hardware change with an elevated level of processing or system stress.   For this I used Prime-95 from mersenne.org running overnight with the central heating on max in the office with the doors and windows closed.  However, I do not recommend burn in on production system or that containing your family photos or other important data if you can’t recover.  That is one reason why it’s good to do a full backup before any hardware changes.

Next time we’ll be looking at installing VMWare Server 2.0 – in the meantime it might be a good idea to register with VMWare and download VMWare Server 2.0 for free and get your license key.

When the CD-ROM boots you get the following screen indicating it’s loading the first stage of the installer into memory

Next the first stage of the installer starts

Next the installer is locating hardware and drivers to be used

No drivers for the storage controllers have been found – here you are given the opportunity to select additional storage drivers – select “Yes”

Select the driver from the floppy and select open:

Go through the setup as normal:

Select your language.

On the next screen select your disk – don’t load the drivers again, you’ve done this already:

Select New Installation if you are doing a totally fresh install – if you are wanting to keep data from a previous install then select Recovery:

Accept the license agreement:

Enter your product key – if you have the trial just hit next:

If you didn’t enter a product key you get a warning that you will only have 30 days to use the product:

Give your server a name – be aware people will expect you to replace server or myserver with the server name you have chosen if they refer to an address like http://server:55000/ or \\server

Select the checkbox to “Acknowledge that all the data on these drives will be lost”

Are you really sure? :

Then hit start:

Formatting the system volume is the first part of the setup:

Then the installation files will be copied:

Then it’s time for the first reboot – it will happen automatically:

If you get this screen then you left the floppy in the drive. Take it out and press a key:

,

Be quick and press F6 – you need to install your disk storage drivers again:

After a few moments you should get this screen. Press S:

Insert your floppy and press Enter:

Select your driver by pressing Enter:

Now you have installed your driver hit enter to continue:

Setup will now continue with the rest of the install:

Now the final part of the base OS install process is underway:

Finished copying the files:

Restarting:

Don’t forget to remove the floppy again:

Windows Home Server is based on Windows Server 2003 – so don’t be afraid you have setup the wrong OS:

Setup will continue the final stage of installation:

Installing devices:

Installing Network:

Copying more files:

Completing installation:

Installing Start menu items:

Registering components:

Saving settings:

Removing temporary files:

And the final reboot of installation – can take a few minutes so let the machine be:

Hello Home Server:

Starting up:

Applying computer settings:

Applying personalised settings:

Again the installation is being finalised – expect to see this ‘final’ screen a few times more.

Windows Home Server will reboot itself automatically as it’s finalising the installation – give it time and soon you’ll have a complete install.

It’s normal to see the disk scanning screen after a new install.

#

Your system might reboot a few more times to install updates and so on but as far as the storage device driver goes you shouldn’t need to interact with the install process again:

That’s where I’ll leave it – you should be fine from here on in.

From the Wuala Website they describe their product as:

… innovative

Wuala is based on unique and innovative technology. In stark contrast to other online storage services, Wuala can harness idle resources and store files redundantly in its growing grid network.

… secure

Like you, we care about security. That’ why all data is encrypted and stored in different locations. Your files are encrypted on your computer, letting you define who has access to your folders. Since your password never leaves your computer, no one – including us – can see your private files.

… powerful

You get fast downloads and no limitations in bandwidth or traffic. Too good to be true? No, our grid technology makes this possible.

… social

Share your files with friends, family or co-workers. Send a link to your friends, who can access your files instantly. Or create a group to share your files with family or co-workers.

… convenient

Wuala can be started directly from within the browser or can be installed on Windows, Mac or Linux. Simply drag and drop files or upload files in the background. It’s fully integrated into your system, allowing you to edit files directly or to automatically backup a source folder.

… expandable

You start with 1 GB online storage for free, which can be easily increased. Become a Pro user by buying additional storage or by trading unused local disk space for more online storage.

Acquiring the installation files

Wuala is a Java Application and so to run it you will need a the Java Runtime or SDK.  If you already have this then you can just move on to installing the Wuala Executable.  First go to http://www.wuala.com/en/download on a client computer – this is because of the Protected Mode of Internet Explorer on Windows Home Server.  Download Java from the first Link and the Wuala Executable from the second Link.  Save both files on your Windows Home Server in say the Public Folder.

If you want to be part of my referral and get an extra 1GB of storage then feel free to use the following link to signup: http://www.wuala.com/en/referral/CGMN554JHKPMBNJ4ACAA

Installing Java

Now on the Windows Home Server First run the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) executable that you downloaded from Sun to the Public Folder.

Accept the defaults and install.

The installer will download the installer…

… and it will continue automatically:

You should then end up with a successful install of the Java Runtime Environment:

Installing Wuala

On the Windows Home Server simply run the Wuala Executable that you downloaded to the Public folder:

Accept the security warning

Wuala will then start it’s update process and be installed on your machine.

You may have to unblock the application if you get a firewall warning.  After which you should get a Sign In Screen.  Unless you already have an account from installing Wuala previously on another machine then select “Create a new account”.

At this point you get the option to add a promo code.  I think there is a two way benefit here so feel free to use mine – it’s up to you CGMN554JHKPMBNJ4ACAA – you get 2GB on signup instead of the stand 1GB – also I get a little extra too.

After you’ve filled out all the details and checked the Agreement checkbox select Create Account at which point your account will be generated and the secure keys used for securing your content on the Wuala Grid will be generated:

When this has completed you will be met with the Wuala screen:

Setting up Wuala

I chose to delete all the folders and created a new one just for photos.  At the end of the day if I lost everything I think I could replace everything but my photo collection, so that is what I am going to use as an example here. 

Simply click the link “folders” in “Add local folders” and you get the following screen:

You may chose to keep the standard folder layout.  One thing I will mention is that Wuala allows you to mark folders as Private, Shared (between friends) and Public.  I chose to make my folders private.

Now onto configuring Wuala for use in Windows Home Server. To avoid problems with drive extender and other components of Windows Home Server I wouldn’t advise putting the Wuala Folders or Data Cache Files within the Shares of Windows Home Server.   Also as you might intend to share a large amount of data ( >5GB) it is recommended to use the D:\ drive to store these files.  Go to the tools menu a select the following options:

From the General Tab:

• Uncheck “Start Wuala when I start my computer” – we will be using scheduled tasks for this
• Uncheck “Enabled file system integration” – unless this is what you require it saves a little system resource

From the Connection Tab

• select what you are willing to dedicate to the Wuala network – they recommend 90% of your total bandwidth, I went with 50%.  You should use a speed metering tool such as http://www.speedtest.net/ to find out your real download and upload speeds.
• Ensure compatibility mode is unchecked – if it’s checked you will not be able to trade storage
• Hit the check again button to make sure everything is okay network wise
  • if you have problems because your router doesn’t have UPNP enabled you will have to setup the port manually for your router

From the Local Cache Tab:

• Increase the Local Cache to the amount of space you intend to share – this is to provide optimum performance for Wuala – if you are short on drive space you may wish to consider sharing less of expanding you storage pool.  As I only intend to use 10GB I set 10GB here
• For the data folder change this to point to D:\Temp\Wuala – or you choice but I wouldn’t recommend using the Shares path

From the Trade Storage Tab:

• Check trade storage – if you intend to trade your storage.  You should refer to this FAQ http://www.wuala.com/en/support/faq/c/16#id1622
• Here you will also see a report of your online time and how much storage you have. 
  Note: you actually have to have 2GB in use before you can earn over 20GB of storage

The Buy Storage Tab allows you to redeem Promo Codes and view your recommendation earnings.

The Notifications Tab allows you to choose options for alerts and emails from Wuala.

The Account Tab lets you change your password and gives some limited privacy options.

The Profile Tab is where you can enter some basic profile information.

The Advanced Tab allows you to turn off particular features and here you want to enable the Status page

• Check Enable status webpage
• Check Allow LAN access

That’s it for the settings in Wuala.

Running Wuala automatically on Windows Home Server

Wuala isn’t built for Windows Home Server.  In fact being based on Java it’s not really built for any Windows Platform, it runs in a Java Virtual Machine which is hosted on your machine.  This means you can’t run it as a service directly – something I think Wuala is looking into at the moment.  That leaves you with either then option of starting Wuala manually or from RDP on logon through the Start-up program files folders or by using Scheduled Tasks to start the program on boot up.  I will detail the later.

First you need to open a cmd window  (Start->Run , type “cmd” and press return).

cd to “Application Data\Wuala\Roaming”

type “copy con wuala.bat”

type “Wuala.exe –silent –nogui<CTRL>+Z   <RETURN>”

<CTRL>+Z means when you finished typing press and hold the CTRL key on you keyboard and press Z then let go off all the keys and press return.  I think it’s easier than trying to explain how to remove file automatic file extensions when trying to create batch files with notepad.

Now you’ve finished with the command prompt – close it or type “exit<RETURN>”

Setting up Schedule Tasks

Goto Start->Control Panel->Scheduled Tasks->Add Scheduled Tasks

Select “Next”:

Select the “Browse” button:

The Application Folder if as hidden folder so you will need to unhide hidden folders – see this FAQ http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial62.html

Select the wuala.bat file from C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Wuala\Roaming and hit Open:

 
Create a new Scheduled Task called wuala and Select “When my computer starts”:

Hit Next and then enter in the password for your Windows Home Server Administrator Account and hit next:

That it’s – hit finish to close the Wizard:

Now you can choose to start Wuala manually from Scheduled Tasks until next time you reboot your server where upon it should start automatically or reboot to test it out.

If you want to quit out of Wuala then you can either kill if from task manager or from the command prompt  change directory to C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Wuala\Roaming and run “Wuala.exe exit” you might want create some shortcuts for this.  I don’t think it will be long before someone creates an Add-In for Wuala if Lacie are not already on the case.

Summary

So far Wuala has been very well behaved on my Windows Home Server (HP EX490) though it does take a lot of resources in terms of Memory (up to 200MB), extra CPU and of course network bandwidth which might not be predictably used.  However it does offer a free way to backup from 2GB to 100GB+ without any costs.  Certainly it must be worth a look just for that reason.  For comparison other plans start at $5 which only gives you 10GB of storage. 

http://www.wegotserved.com/

http://www.homeserverland.com/

http://homeservershow.com/

Feel free to add comments with other good sites:
That is they are updated on a daily basis.
They have a knowledgeable user base.
They are in the English Language.
They are recognised by MS – i.e. contributors are MVPs etc.

Setting up your hardware

Open device manager and see if your hardware has been detected.  In most cases you should see your hardware present but no drivers may be found for it.  You’ll have to locate the drivers either on CD with the tuner device or download them from the manufacturer’s website.

I previously downloaded the drivers for my TechnoTrend USB 3600 from their site and pointed the installer to the files on my USB stick.  Simply follow the hardware installation wizard

Now that we have hardware with working drivers in Device Manager we are ready to start with the Installation of DVBLink.

DVBLink – Installation

First download the two archives we need for the Installation on the Server and Client Computers.

Download DVBLink TVSource v2.0.0003 here:
http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLink2/DVBLink2TVSource.zip

Download DVB Link Network Pack here:
http://www.dvblogic.com/download/DVBLink2/DVBLinkNetPack.zip

More information can be found in the following forum post:
 http://dvblogic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8923

Note: that this software is Beta but I didn’t run into any problems on Windows Home Server or Windows 7 Ultimate

From the DVBLink2TVSource.zip run DVBLinkServer.msi

Follow the usual installation sequence using the defaults throughout:

The installation requires the use of unsigned drivers that should present a warning and confirmation dialog.  Select Continue Anyway for all the dialog boxes that appear warning about the DVBLink Capture and Tuner drivers:

Once DVBLink Server has been installed you will have to reboot before you can install TVSource.

Back on the server install the DVBLinkNeworkPack.msi from the DVBLinkNetPack archive:

Again go through the installation steps accepting the defaults:

The final piece of software to install on Windows Home Server is DVBLinkTVSource.msi which is found in the DVBLinkTVSource archive.

Again accept the defaults and the installation should be finished.

DVBLink – Configuration

From the All Programs in the Start Menu find the DVBLink programs group and open DVBLink Server Configuration.

Select the source:

Hit the green arrow button to add it to the list of available sources:

Give it a name and click OK:

Click on the ellipses for the TVSource to show the Configuration Window for the Tuner:

Select the Inactive checkbox and then browse to Headends to select which satellite(s) are on this source:

Next go to Scan tab and select the Scan button to start the scan:

Scanning can take a while and it appears to run in reverse order of what is in the Transponder list on the left of the window.  Though it does give you an idea of when it is near completion.

When the scan has completed click the OK button to save the channels found.  Next go to Server Configuration lower tab and add the channels from the source that you want to be able to view under Channel Selection:

Here you simply select the channels you want from the left hand list and add them one at a time to the served channels list on the right hand side.  It would have been nice to be able to select multiple channels but as it’s a one time operation it’s bearable.  Note: unless you have a card reader and subscription you won’t be able to tune to encrypted channels (marked with a key).

Once you have added all the channels you wish to have, select the Channel Numbers tab to assign the channels numbers that you want to use for each channel selected previously:

Select OK and you are done with the setup on the server.

DVBLink Client – Setup

On the client computer install the DVBLinkNetworkClient.msi found in the DVBLinkNetPack archive.  As per usual accept the default settings:

Again you will be prompted to confirm that you want to install the drivers that are required for the installation:

When completed you need to restart the client computer.

DVBLink Client – Configuration

In All Programs (Program Files) you should find a new group called DVBLink.  Select the DVBLink Client Configuration item

The first time you run the tool you will be prompted to enter settings:

Point the client to your server – leave the port settings as is – just change the address to the name of your Windows Home Server i.e. HPSERVER

Open network connections and verify you have the DVBLink Server present:

Checking DVBLink Server with Windows Media Player

Open up Windows Media Player and under Other Libraries you should see an entry for DVBLink TV Server within your Windows Home Server:

Note: that the channels are listed under Recorded TV.  Double click on the channel of interest and then when the window pops up select the Play button:

Setting Up Windows Media Centre 7

I must say at this point I’m a stranger to Windows Media Centre so if I’ve missed something or you have additional comments please feel free to add what you think is an improvement on this procedure.  This assumes you’ve never setup Windows Media Centre before on Windows 7.

Click Continue to start the setup:

I found the Express Setup worked fine in this case:

The next screenshots are of setting up Windows Media Centre with DVBLink Source/Server.  The dialog boxes are self explanatory:

Leave Windows Media Centre open on Live TV (not sure if this is required or not – but that’s the way I did it) and if all is well then after a few minutes DVBLink should detect that Windows Media Centre has been setup to use the network tuners and the following screen should be shown:

Select Yes to start the configuration.  One weakness with the DVBLink is there doesn’t seem a way to manually start this procedure other than restarting Windows Media Centre.

A list of channels available on the  server should be shown:

Select sorting by channel number.

Select matching by channel name.

and then hit Finish.

Now you can go to live TV and watch TV shows on your computer:

After all the hard work you deserve to relax in front of the box!

One thing to bear in mind is that if you are on a weak wireless network connection it might show in the form of artefacts or stuttering when playing back.  I was using Gigabit Ethernet and didn’t come across such problems.  If you do have problems there are plenty of resources on the net for troubleshooting and increasing wireless network performance in general.