Subscribe Now!
...with web-based news readers. Click your choice below:
...with other readers:
FeedBurner makes it easy to receive content updates in My Yahoo!, Newsgator, Bloglines, and other news readers.
Current Feed Content
New Home Server SMART releases available
Posted:Tue, 21 Apr 2015 21:03:19 +0000
Matthew Sawyer (forum member msawyer91) of Dojo North Software has posted in the forums letting us know that he’s got a new release of his useful and popular free hard drive monitoring Add-In for Windows Home Server as well as the shareware WindowsSMART application. The update is mainly comprised of bug fixes and should be helpful for users that experienced issues with question marks being reported for hard drives.
In the last 30 days I’ve personally used both the Windows Home Server Add-In and the WindowSMART application. I’m still rocking my EX495 as my primary home server and a Hitachi 2TB drive started reporting sector reallocation errors. The Add-In alerted me to the problem and I swapped the drive out for a new 2TB Western Digital Red drive. I also installed the WindowSMART application on my Windows 7 HTPC which has been experiencing some weird slowdowns lately. I’ve not yet narrowed down the cause of this one, but the SMART application has shown the drive in that system to be running fairly warm so I’ll probably swap that out.
You can get all the details, download the new versions, and submit your feedback here in the forums.
Generation 4 MediaSmart Server Debug Board Now Available
Posted:Wed, 25 Mar 2015 15:41:17 +0000
Long time forum member Charles aka “cakalapati” and his company VOV Technology have recently announced the availability of the 4th generation of the HP MediaSmart Server VGA/PS2/Serial Debug Board. The board connects to the debug port on the motherboard of the HP MediaSmart Server and provides video, serial, and PS2 keyboard/mouse connectivity. This can be used to facilitate BIOS edits, troubleshooting of boot issues, or to install an alternate operating system such as Windows Home Server 2011, Windows Server 2008, or Linux.
Here are the changes and improvements made to the 4th generation board:
- The debug board is 30% smaller than Gen2/3 boards, making it fit easily inside the HP MediaSmart Server machine
- The debug board and faceplates are now black and use a lasered finish, making it look amazing (blending nicely with the black MediaSmart Server finish)
- VGA lines have ESD Protection, Level Shifting, and RGB Termination meeting IEC-61000-4-2 Level-4 ESD Requirements
- PS2 Keyboard and PS2 Mouse implements a low pass filter to limit EMI levels and provide ESD protection meeting IEC 61000-4-2 Level-4 ESD Requirements
All the details you could ever need, including pictures, FAQ, and ordering instructions are available in the Marketplace forum.
Microsoft Update bug breaks Server Essentials restore
Posted:Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:24:40 +0000
The following is a guest post written by Matthew Sawyer (forum member msawyer91) of Dojo North Software, developer of the popular and useful Home Server SMART Add-In for WHS and WHS 2011.As many of you already know, the second Tuesday of each month is Patch Tuesday for Microsoft. On the second Tuesday you’ll often find the little yellow shield sprouting up announcing there are updates waiting to be installed, or that the updates were already installed and a reboot is in order. For me, Patch Tuesday this past February passed like any other. A bunch of patches were installed, complete with the obligatory reboot. Little did I know a seemingly innocent patch, KB3023562, was going to pose a problem. The title is MS15-010, “Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel-Mode Driver Could Allow Remote Code Execution.” The most severe vulnerability relates to an attacker luring you to a maliciously-crafted website with embedded TrueType fonts.
So what do fonts have to do with Server 2012 Essentials and Server 2012 R2 Essentials? Quite a lot, actually!
Last week I needed to restore an important file. I launched the Windows Server 2012 R2 Dashboard from my Windows 7 laptop, selected the computer to restore, then selected the particular backup date, and finally selected the volume from which to restore. That’s when things started to go wrong. Windows promptly told me the restore wizard quit working. I tried again, but got the same error. OK, so perhaps a reboot was in order. But the crash returned. So I tried the restore from my daughter’s Windows 7 laptop. Same crash. My son’s laptop, also Windows 7. Crash City! I dug out my work-issued laptop, running Windows 8.1, and I still wasn’t feeling the love. Crash in the exact same spot. Obviously something was wrong.
Thankfully, Windows writes out the fault to the Application event log. And with a close friend like Google, I have something to troubleshoot. If you look in the Application event log, you’ll see a stack trace similar to:
Application: MountBackupWizard.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException
Stack:
at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(System.Object, System.Object[], System.Signature, Boolean)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.UnsafeInvokeInternal(System.Object, System.Object[], System.Object[])
at System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(System.Object[])
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackDo(ThreadMethodEntry)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackHelper(System.Object)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object, Boolean)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallback(ThreadMethodEntry)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbacks()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(System.Windows.Forms.Message ByRef)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DebuggableCallback(IntPtr, Int32, IntPtr, IntPtr)
at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG ByRef)
at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG ByRef)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application+ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(IntPtr, Int32, Int32)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application+ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32, System.Windows.Forms.ApplicationContext)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application+ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32, System.Windows.Forms.ApplicationContext)
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.DataProtection.UI.Program.Main(System.String[])
You’ll also see another Information entry with a source of Windows Error Reporting, which gives a problem signature like this:
Problem signature:
P1: MountBackupWizard.exe
P2: 6.3.9600.16384
P3: 5215cf3c
P4: BackupClientProvider
P5: 6.3.9600.16384
P6: 5215cf38
P7: 33
P8: 174
P9: N3CTRYE2KN3C34SGL4ZQYRBFTE4M13NB
P10:
The key lies in P3, the 0x5215cf3c error code. If you Google that, you’ll find plenty of articles and forum posts about people trying to restore their data, but are unable to do so. And nearly every single one of them pins the blame solely on Microsoft’s update KB3023562. Thankfully, they all say, you can uninstall the update.
And so I tried. I uninstalled KB3023562, which requires a reboot, and then tried my restore. Voila! I got my much-needed file back, but that left me with a dilemma. KB3023562 allegedly fixes six total vulnerabilities—one public and five privately-disclosed Windows vulnerabilities. So while I now have one laptop, my son’s, that can restore files again, that laptop is supposedly vulnerable without the update.
I suppose the safest course of action would be to re-download and install KB3023562 again. This would protect you from the vulnerabilities. But it would also prevent you from restoring your data again in the future.
This morning I had over thirty March 2015 updates waiting for me. Granted a bunch of these were Office 2013, I was still hoping that one of these would fix what KB3023562 broke. I was met with resounding disappointment. And so my recommendation to you is this. Install KB3023562 – it’s better to keep vulnerabilities at bay. If it turns out you need to restore some files, you can always uninstall the patch, restore your files and then reinstall the patch. It’s a pain in the butt, but it’s the best way to get your data back while still keeping vulnerabilities at bay. And let’s hope Microsoft will catch enough heat from their users that they need to fix what they broke in the first place!
References:
- https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/ac61b985-d56c-4667-b9ec-9b2e06f4278c/server-2012-essentials-restore-files-not-working?forum=winserveressentials
- https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/Lync/en-US/15e99400-5aa2-471b-abd4-a1af20b16b9d/restore-files-and-folders-wizard-has-stopped-working?forum=winserver8gen
- http://blogs.msmvps.com/bradley/2015/02/14/heads-up-on-issue-with-client-backup-on-essentials-r2/
Five Years of HP MediaSmart Server – And Counting
Posted:Tue, 03 Feb 2015 16:16:57 +0000
The following is a guest post written by Matthew Sawyer (forum member msawyer91) of Dojo North Software, developer of the popular and useful Home Server SMART Add-In for WHS and WHS 2011.Wow how time flies. On Christmas 2009, my wife gave me an HP MediaSmart EX490. If I was a geek back then, I’m really a geek now! Thanks to the MediaSmart, I’ve learned a lot. Especially about some things I never really gave much thought to, like streaming home media. I wanted the server for backups, but it turned out to be so much more.
I helped my trusty EX490 along with a CPU upgrade and more memory, and it helped my family out by not only keeping our data safe, but also by streaming media for the young’ins. My daughter was 2 at the time I got the server and my son was born in April 2010. So the media kept us entertained too for those middle-of-the-night feedings.
Less than a year later, Microsoft pulled the carpet out from beneath our feet by announcing they were killing off Windows Home Server’s most endearing feature, Drive Extender. Many folks vowed to stay with WHS v1, no matter what Microsoft was going to put out. I too had invested a lot of energy into WHS v1, with my free Home Server SMART add-in, which many of you continue to run today. And every now and again, a donation comes in. Thank you!
As someone who works in IT and lives on the bleeding edge of technology, I felt the desire to move on to WHS 2011 despite Microsoft’s transgressions. A friend of mine was selling an EX487, so I bought that off of him, and like the EX490, upgraded the CPU and memory. Now I could tinker with WHS 2011 while still running WHS v1!
Despite the lack of Drive Extender, WHS 2011 did a good job. And it gave me an opportunity to come out with a new edition of Home Server SMART, and its companion shareware product WindowSMART. The fact that WHS 2011 supported the x64 processor and full 4GB of memory was a big help too. Plus, a couple of private developers kept the Drive Extender spirit alive with their offerings – Drive Bender and StableBit Drive Pool.
Sadly Microsoft abandoned the “home server” concept after WHS 2011. They released Windows Server 2012 Essentials, followed by an R2 version, but neither were ever priced appropriately for home users. Plus Microsoft’s first crack at resurrecting Drive Extender, now called Storage Spaces, fell short of the mark. I appreciate that Microsoft realized the err of their ways in killing off Drive Extender in the first place, but the first release of Storage Spaces seemed a lot slower and not quite as reliable as Drive Bender or StableBit.
Then a couple years ago, my trusty EX490 seemed to give up the ghost. Thankfully it was just a bad power supply. A good company called Overtek in the UK came to the rescue with a compatible power supply, and my EX490 was back up and running.
Fast forward to today, and I’ve got a small business running from both my EX487 and EX490, and I’ve got another EX490 on the way, bought from a fellow MediaSmartServer.net member. A friend of mine runs a small business and wants an onsite backup capability, along with remote access. She didn’t want a budget buster, and knowing how reliable the EX490 is, I was happy to order one up for her.
While some may regard the EX4xx servers as old, obsolete and outdated, I beg to differ. Arguably I believe this is one of HP’s best products, even if it never gained the market traction HP hoped it would gain. It’s small, reliable, still supports the latest operating systems (including Windows Server 2012 R2) and also supports the latest high-capacity hard drives. And SSDs too! Thanks to our good friend Charles and VOV Technology, you can add video and keyboard/mouse capabilities.
Yes, the MediaSmart Server is a powerful little machine. Over the years I’ve tried out several different heavy-hitting applications on it, like SQL Server, SharePoint and even Exchange. It ran them all, just not at once.
Today my EX487 and EX490 press on…backing up everything, streaming media and providing me remote access no matter where I am. It’s been a fun five years. Thank you HP for building us such a great product, and thank you for HP for building a product that helped bring together such a great community here at MediaSmartServer.net!
Cloudberry Lab releases Online Backup 3.8 with Local Backup
Posted:Wed, 16 Apr 2014 19:42:02 +0000
CloudBerry Lab has released version 3.8 of their popular Cloudberry Backup for Windows Home Server (v1, 2011, and SBS 2011). You can get the new version here and the release summary is posted below.
Note that Cloudberry is no longer updating the Add-In for WHS v1, the latest version is still 3.4.
We are pleased to announce that CloudBerry Backup for WHS (v1, 2011, SBS 2011 Essentials and Windows Server 2012 Essentials) , the product that automates data backup directly to Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Windows Azure and a few other cloud storage version 3.8 is released.
The new release comes with the following features.
Cloud to Cloud Backup;
Cloud to Local Backup;
Built in storage search;
Email notifications improvements;
New commands for Windows Command Line interface;
“Always Keep the Last Version” Option.
Check out our blog post for more detailsCloudberry Lab releases Online Backup 3.7 with Free Restore and SQL Restore
Posted:Thu, 30 Jan 2014 20:14:40 +0000
CloudBerry Lab has released version 3.7 of their popular Cloudberry Backup for Windows Home Server (v1, 2011, and SBS 2011). You can get the new version here and the release summary is posted below.
We’re excited to announce CloudBerry Backup v3.7. With this release we have added:
NEW Free Restore
From version 3.7 all CloudBerry Backup users can restore their data without buying a license. Even expired trial version allows to run a restore job.
NEW Integrated SQL Restore*
Now CloudBerry Backup allows to configure regular or single MS SQL databases and backup files restore with integrated Restore Wizard.
* Integrated SQL Restore feature applies only for MS SQL and Enterprise editions of CloudBerry Backup v3.7.Have You Been Pwned?
Posted:Mon, 06 Jan 2014 18:16:48 +0000
The following is a guest post written by Matthew Sawyer (forum member msawyer91) of Dojo North Software, developer of the popular and useful Home Server SMART Add-In for WHS and WHS 2011.If you’ve been on the Internet any length of time, you’ve probably stumbled across the term “pwned.” It’s popular in gaming circles; it’s a deliberate typo of the word “owned,” and it’s use is defined as follows: “Pwn: from the very own, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer, compromise or control.”
Ringing in the new year, I was reading a TechRepublic.com article that talked about security breaches, identity theft, etc. and this directed me to the website haveibeenpwned.com, which is hosted by security expert and Microsoft MVP Troy Hunt. Troy’s website allows you to enter either an email address or username and it will search against several sources of compromised, leaked accounts. As of this writing, Troy’s site searches eight different sets of emails/accounts that were “pwned” by cybercriminals, and lets you know if you’re on the list. If Troy’s site indicates your email/account has been “pwned,” that’s a warning sign that hackers may know more about you, like your name, phone number, password and more.
Of the eight sources Troy’s site includes, one is the “big one” – over 152 million Adobe accounts were obtained in October, 2013. Also included are 4.6 million Snapchat accounts, nearly half a million Yahoo accounts and 37,000 Sony accounts (among others). In the case of the Adobe breach, the data collected included emails, user IDs, encrypted passwords and password hints in plain text, but since the cryptography was poor, the hackers have been easily able to decrypt many passwords.
Sadly for me, two of my email addresses were associated with the Adobe breach, and both used variants of my favorite password.
So why is this such a big deal? Because many (maybe most?) folks reuse their email addresses across many, many sites and many (maybe most?) also reuse the same password over and over again for simplicity.
If hackers were able to decrypt my password, they would essentially have unfettered access to many of my other accounts, including but not limited to Amazon, Newegg, eBay, PayPal, GoDaddy, Apple, Woot, Google, CrashPlan, Home Server Show and yes, even MediaSmartServer.net. Identity thieves could (or would) make my life living hell with that kind of information.
Needless to say, I’ve spent quite a few hours visiting dozens of sites, updating passwords, challenge questions and enabling two-factor authentication where possible. I’ve also come up with many different passwords, so even if one of my new passwords was compromised at a future date, a cyber-criminal would not be able to inflict anywhere near as much damage.
If you have an Apple ID, Apple devices and make use of the Find My iPhone/iPad/Mac feature, and a cyber-criminal got into your account, (s)he could remotely wipe ALL of your Apple devices. If you make use of cloud backup services, the cyber-criminal could download copies of all your personal files.
I encourage you to check out Troy’s website https://haveibeenpwned.com and see if any of your accounts/emails are included in the results. If they turn up on Troy’s website, that means a cyber-criminal has a copy of them as well. And that means you should strongly consider updating passwords and other security information on any website where that email/account name is used. It’s far too easy for cyber-criminals to steal your data and your identity. Don’t make it even easier for them.
Review of the VOV Technology VGA/PS2 Debug Board
Posted:Tue, 29 Oct 2013 21:50:19 +0000
The following is a guest article written and submitted by forum member Joe S. The debug boards reviewed in this article are available for purchase here in the forums.I was lucky enough to get one of the last HP EX495 MediaSmart Servers from NewEgg before they went out of stock and truth be told I’m VERY HAPPY I did. Although it worked fine at the beginning, later on I had problems that were honestly caused by me. This is the result that happens when you DO NOT take the time to read the manual!!! Don’t make the same mistake I did. What can I tell you, I knew better, but I was in a hurry. The problem now was fixing it, and for this I needed a VGA/PS2 Adapter on the Server, which would make things go MUCH EASIER. After searching for one for quite a while, I found this site and the adapter I needed.
I have to say now that I was EXTREMELY LEERY buying this part from ANY INDIVIDUAL whom I didn’t know. I contacted Charles again and again he was EXTREMELY helpful and answered all of my questions fully. I finally decided which adapter I wanted (the VGA/Keyboard/Mouse type) but I was still wary of sending them $80.00 (for the part) plus another $5.00 for shipping (FedEx Ground). Needless to say, Scrooge finally opened up his purse strings and I did it.
I placed my order with Charles (Jan. 2, 2013) and it arrived today (Jan. 10, 2013) which is NOT TOO BAD especially for Ground delivery. By ordering it shipped FedEx Ground I was able to track the shipment, which I must admit, eased my worries. Now the only thing I had to quell was my anticipation of getting it and installing it. That’s what I plan for tomorrow, hopefully. Whopps, I couldn’t wait until tomorrow…
The photos on the web site are pretty accurate, but I have to admit that it’s a shame you can’t enlarge them to examine them better (Charles you might want to consider that option). The unit itself (looking from the front of the VGA Adapter) is roughly 4″ wide and 2″ in depth (including the VGA Connector) and 1″ thick. Now you should know that this Adapter board is NOT SOMETHING that you would think was designed AND built in a garage. It is as professionally designed and built that you will think it came from a BIG COMPANY like AMP or some other company. The cable that connects the Adapter to the Motherboard is sleeved and it is done VERY WELL at that. All the connections line up perfectly, which is rare. Overall, this is AS GOOD as any PROFESSIONALLY DESIGNED AND BUILT ADAPTER and is very well thought out and constructed. Excellent job Charles, you should be very proud of your work!!!
It’s small enough to be inserted into one of the HD Bays on the server itself, which it seems, many users elect to do. Personally I didn’t want to lose a HD so I had to come up with some other plans. Up until I took apart the Server I had planned to build some type of Plexiglas base to sit underneath the server itself that would hold the adapter (so it’s not exposed) plus some type of fan system to help cool down the HD’s as well. After opening up the Server I found that there are already 2 fans built into this system (Good job HP) so more fans would be kind of redundant. This is good, as it will help lower the costs of making a base.
I went to one Plexiglas Company (Total Plastics Inc. – from Harrisburg, PA.) and they were very rude to me, plus they wanted $150.00 to build it. It was almost like – “We couldn’t be bothered… Go someplace else”… They did suggest I try another company called “Grim’s Plastics & Fabrication” also located here in Harrisburg, PA.
I called them and went to see them and showed them the Server and told them what I wanted and they said that they would be happy to build it and that it would cost around $30 to which I said ok. They also asked me what color I wanted it in, which was totally unexpected AND appreciated. I have to say that the people at “Grim’s Plastics” treated me very professionally and I thank them for that. Needless to say, they are building the base as I write this and I’ll let you know how it looks when it’s done.
In case you’re interested in ordering one of these bases for your Server, Grim’s Plastics have saved the design so they’ll be able to make more for anyone who wants one. I highly recommend them, they do a professional job and you won’t be sorry. Their address is as follows:
Grim’s Plastics & Fabrication
6691 Allentown Blvd.
Harrisburg, PA. 17112
(717) 526-7980
(717) 526-7981 (FAX)
grimsplastics@comcast.net
Tom Miller – Sales Representative
The dimensions of the base are roughly as follows: 9 1/4″ in. long, 5 1/2″ in. wide, and 4″ in. high. I had them make it 4″ high as I wanted a place to install a extra fan for the Server. It has 2 braces going across the width (at the top) to attach it to the Server which I will do with bolts. It also has a cutout on the right hand side of the base for the VGA/Keyboard/Mouse Connector. I’ll include some pictures so you can see what it looks like.
Now that I’ve had the Server open and had a chance to inspect the insides of it, I think the best place for me to put an opening is through the bottom of the chassis in the right hand corner in the front (looking at the Server from the front – SEE ATTACHED PHOTOS – MARKED IN YELLOW).
I do have two suggestions for you Charles. Compressing the connection small enough to be able to fit through ANY hole is going to be rather hard. My 1st suggestion is to put some type of a TINY ROUND connector (Male to Female connector and the smaller the better AND put it near the END of the connector itself) about 1/4 of the way down the length of the cable itself. this way it would make putting it through ANY hole much easier and safer. The 2nd suggestion is to make the cable about 2″ longer. This will allow you to move the connector to a different place than I did.Front of server and base
Right side of server and baseBottom of base (sorry about the blurry photo)I recommend that you cut your rectangle just about where I’ve marked mine in yellow (NOTE: I didn’t mark the entire rectangle in yellow as it would have covered over the cable). You will have to cut thru two (2) layers to make your opening as the base of the server is plastic with a metal layer about 1/8″ above that. A Dremel tool should work just fine but just be sure to make it the same length as mine as this will make fishing the cable thru the opening much easier.Bottom of server showing opening - Front is on the left
You will find that the Server is VERY CRAMPED inside and making the connection WHILE sliding the Motherboard/Power Supply Unit back into the Server is going to take at least 3 hands and is much easier if both ends of the cable are detached (JUST MAKE SURE TO MARK HOW IT ATTACHES).
What I did then, was to run the Keyboard Cable down the right side of the Power Connector on the Motherboard. It JUST BARELY fits, but doing so necessitated cutting a 1/4″ notch into the side of the Server Front so the cable would fit. This was then fed down and through the rectangular hole in the bottom and then attached to the unit I got from Charles. I have to admit it took about 10 tries before I got everything to feed through correctly.
You will see that there is a notch cut into the Motherboard that HP used to feed the Cables through and while I first gave some thought to enlarging it, I would NOT RECOMMEND DOING SO. This IS the Motherboard after-all, so there MIGHT be some circuitry that you could cut OR break. NOT RECOMMENDED!
Like I’ve said before, the free space inside this case is EXTREMELY TIGHT. So feeding your cable through ANY of the openings, especially WHILE TRYING to get your Motherboard back into the Server (WITH the cable attached) is going to be difficult, so take your time.Underneath the Power Supply/Motherboard Unit showing the 4 Tabs
If you decide to attach the Base to the Server using any type of bolt, just make sure that you use a bolt with a RECESSED HEAD. The bolt head MUST NOT stick up! If it does, the Motherboard WILL NOT slide back into the Server. I found this out the hard way. If you don’t want to use bolts, you could use epoxy instead, it’s up to you which method you use.
You’ve made an EXCELLENT PRODUCT here Charles, one that I’m glad I purchased. You should be very proud of yourself for the good work you’ve done. You’ve filled a hole that many of us Server Users needed filling, and have done it quite well. Thanks for an excellent job that was well done…
Fixing Trust Relationship Issues between A Workstation and a Domain
Posted:Sun, 13 Oct 2013 15:21:58 +0000
Free time has been very sparse of late to get any writing done, but thought I would throw up a quick post in case anyone else runs in to a similar issue. Earlier this year I migrated over from WHSv1 to Windows Server 2012 Essentials. For the most part it has been a smooth transition although there have definitely been some bumps in the road. It seems like when things finally start working without issue something always comes up! Yesterday I go to log into my Windows 7 PC and get a message about my password expiring. I am guessing that since my PC is connected to the Windows Server 2012E domain this is something being passed down from the server (although I have never been prompted to change my PC password so it still seemed odd). I went ahead and changed my password, and when I did I got this error message when I tried to log in:
No matter what I tried I could not log in to my PC via the domain. I switched from the domain to my local PC to log in and it worked, but now I was not only not connected to the domain but anything I had added to my PC since I joined the domain was missing. I dug around the internet only to find that this is somewhat of a common problem where somehow the password on the client PC gets out of sync with the password stored on the domain (in this case my server). I came across this article which detailed a fix where you remove the workstation from the domain and re add. I went through the steps, finally went back to my PC to log in to the domain and now I got another error:
At this point I was ready to take a bat to my server and PC lol. Since free time is a commodity I just don’t have the patience I use to with technology, but I took a deep breathe, did a search for the error message and found several posts / solutions. Most of the solutions though were similar to the solution from the first error, so they weren’t much help. I found this article though which detailed how to confirm your workstation details on the domain to make sure the appropriate information was there. I switched over to my server and went in to Administrative Tools -> Active Directory Users and Computers, and under the Computers icon I could see my computer and my wife’s. The first thing that stuck out was that under the description mine was blank but my wife’s was populated.
The article mentioned for the issue PC to check the attributes “dNSHostName” and “servicePrincipalName” which you can do my right clicking on the PC, selecting “Properties” and going to the “Attribe Editor” tab (note, make sure you have advanced features checked under View in the toolbar or you will not see this). Sure enough these two attributes were blank. Under dNSHostName I added the following (Assume that Damian-PC is the workstation and MooseKnuckles is the server domain):
DAMIAN-PC.MooseKnuckles.local
Next, under servicePrincipalName I added the following:
HOST/DAMIAN-PC
Sure enough that did the trick and I was able to finally rejoin the domain on my Windows 7 PC. I am still scratching my head as to why this issue even came up, and why I had to change the password on my PC, but for now everything is working so I will settle with that. Now I just wait for the next issue
HOST/DAMIAN-PC.MooseKnuckles.local
RestrictedKrbHost/DAMIAN-PC
RestrictedKRBHost/DAMIAN-PC.MooseKnuckles.local
TERMSRV/DAMIAN-PC
TERMSRV/DAMIAN-PC.Mooseknuckles.local
Home Server SMART for WHS v1 Updated, Beta Available
Posted:Thu, 12 Sep 2013 21:12:07 +0000
The following is a guest post written by Matthew Sawyer (forum member msawyer91) of Dojo North Software, developer of the popular and useful Home Server SMART Add-In for WHS and WHS 2011.For Christmas of 2009 my wife bought me an HP MediaSmart Server EX490. Being the geek that I am, I couldn’t leave the server alone, and I found my way to MediaSmartServer.net in very short order. But the geekiness didn’t stop there—I felt the need to develop an add-in for Windows Home Server, and on January 21, 2010, the very first version of Home Server SMART was born.
Thanks to colleagues over at Home Server Land and their WHS Add-In Management tool, I was able to see that Home Server SMART was downloaded and installed by well over 10,000 users! And despite the fact that it had some shortcomings, it scored well in user reviews (4/5 stars). I was honored to have provided an application that provided value to so many users.
Over the last three and a half years, I have been blessed and honored to be a part of such a great community. Despite the ups and downs of the IT world and the demise of the Windows Home Server product we know and love, this community has weathered the storm. I don’t just consider you colleagues, but rather I consider you all friends. Thank you for helping make my endeavors so rewarding.
That said, you all may be wondering what the future holds in store for the original version of Home Server SMART, which on my website is listed as Home Server SMART Classic. It’s been almost two years since it was updated, and I’ve gotten emails from folks wondering if it’s dead.
Fear not, because I have good news! Home Server SMART Classic has gotten an extreme makeover. It still has the UI you know and love, but under the covers it has the same features and capabilities of its newer counterparts, Home Server SMART 2013 and WindowSMART 2013. This includes, but is not limited to, support for SSDs, mobile notifications, disk self-tests, exporting of results and more.
The news gets even better—you can download it and give it a test drive today! Just click here to visit the Home Server SMART Classic page.
But wait…what do you mean by “test drive?” I thought Home Server SMART was free!
You’re right. Three years ago when I released Home Server SMART, I promised it was and always would be free. While there are days when I regret that choice, it nevertheless was a promise. A promise made is a debt unpaid, and so yes, Home Server SMART Classic remains free. The reason I call it a “test drive” is because it’s a beta version. It is a major overhaul to the original Classic code and thus it needs to be tested much more thoroughly in the MediaSmartServer.net community.
Donations of course, are always welcome. Development of Home Server SMART Classic and Home Server SMART 2013 represents thousands of hours of work over a three-year period, oftentimes making my wife question why I disappeared for hours at a time into the basement to work on it. If you find that Home Server SMART Classic or 2013 has been of value to you, especially if it helped you avoid serious data loss, please consider making a donation, which can be accessed via the beta page.
Installing Home Server SMART Classic: HSS Classic now uses version 3.5 of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Version 3.5 is really just an extension of .NET 2.0, unlike .NET 4.0 which is a whole new version. Before installing HSS Classic please be sure you’ve applied the Microsoft .NET 3.5 update. Otherwise the add-in will not function properly and may cause the Console to crash when you open it.
Next, the WHS Console will see HSS Classic as a separate add-in from HSS, so it is possible to install HSS Classic without uninstalling the older version. Do NOT install them side-by-side! Please UNINSTALL Home Server SMART before attempting to install Home Server SMART Classic. Also, if uninstalling HSS or installing HSS Classic prompts you to reboot, make sure you do so. If you don’t reboot, HSS Classic won’t work correctly until you do.
Please feel free to leave your feedback in the forums here. Bugs should be logged @ https://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/bugtraq.
Kindest regards,
Matthew Sawyer (msawyer91)
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC
