PP1 Installation

I decided to be a risk-taker in spite of saying several times around here that I wouldn't any more. I uninstalled ALL Add-Ins, including F-Secure and GridJunction, as well as the PerfectDick 2008 application. Then I waited for DEMIGRATOR to be inactive (no balancing), restarted my MSS, opened an RDP session, waited for DEMIGRATOR to stop and restarted a second time. (Y'all know I preach paranoia being a "good" thing around computers, right?)

Opened the RDP session again and moved the install file from the Software folder to the desktop.

• Why did I do that? Because when I open the properties for files in my Software folder I NEVER see the place to check for "unblock". Simple solution is to move the file to the desktop, execute it from there and delete it when done. (Sometime I need to ask you guys where that checkbox is...)Ran the install with no problems or issues. When it completed I used the old connector software on my Vista client to go to the MSS/WHS and clicked on the (now yellow) shield. Selected the link and downloaded the new connector install file. The instructions did not state this, but I then CLOSED the connector. Only then did I install it on my client. Tried and re-tried the "automatic" discovery for the MSS without success, so the third round was "manual". No problems there as it already knew the name for my MSS and immediately proceeded to complete the installation.

Played with it a bit then starting adding back all my Add-Ins:

• MSS Drive Labeler 1.0.0.5
• WHS Disk Management 1.0.7.3
• WHS Toolkit 6.0.1639.0
• Remote Notification 1.0.0.47
• Advanced Admin Console 0.4.3
• Tab Reorder 0.7.3
• Event Viewer 1.1.0.0

At that point paranoia kicked in, so I checked that DEMIGRATOR.EXE was inactive and did a restart!

Everything appears to be functioning properly at this point. Interestingly all the Add-Ins also seem to have picked up all their original settings and all my tabs were back in the original order already. Other that a lot of console restarting this was painless! Took under an hour all told. I've been playing (informal testing) for almost 2 hours now.

I have not (yet) re-installed F-Secure, PerfectDisk 2008 or GridJunction. The first and last are standard Add-Ins but they both have new beta versions today so I need to pick those up first. PerfectDisk requires an RDP session but I want to update/reinstall my XP client before I do that.

Observations

The balancing is occurring LESS frequently and it is definitely quicker.

The entire feel  is "snappier". I do not doubt that the transfer speeds are faster but I have not attempted ant measurements.

There is a little less "background" activity for the CPU. Not sure why, but the Idle process is right at 99% with nothing crossing the 1% threshold now. Before this was in the 96-98% range (without the three missing packages being active).

I am a happy camper so far! What has YOUR experience been?

...JohnBick

MSS: HP EX475 + two 1TB WD (3TB total), 2 GB mmry, LE-1640, APC UPS, PP1
PC1: Vista/32 Ultimate SP1 w/150 GB Raptor RAID-2 (C) & 320x4 GB RAID-5 data (D)
PC2: Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
Linksys WRT54G v1.1

Not sure if it was already mentioned or not, but to stop the annoying add-in install notifications (for those of us not wanting to install the optional add-ins) simply move the add-in's MSI file out of your Software\Add-Ins share. I kept getting the repetitive notifications despite checking the Ignore checkbox and moving the add-in's MSI files out of the Add-Ins folder resolved the problem for me just fine.

Ahhhhh.... THAT "Ignore"! Missed the connection there!

FWIW, I have never gotten "Health" warnings about uninstalled Add-Ins, either before PP1 or after. Cannot help but wonder why! Seems like many (most?) others see that. Wonder if there is a setting somewhere??

ALSO, anything "ignored" resets at midnight -- I've watched it happen many times, both before PP1 and again last evening. Nothing new there.

...JohnBick

MSS: HP EX475 + two 1TB WD (3TB total), 2 GB mmry, LE-1640, APC UPS, PP1
PC1: Vista/32 Ultimate SP1 w/150 GB Raptor RAID-2 (C) & 320x4 GB RAID-5 data (D)
PC2: Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
Linksys WRT54G v1.1

JesD said: Okay heres what I tried to resolved my STOP LIGHT issue... -I uninstalled PP1 -I uninstalled all ADD-INS -I moved all my ADD-INS from the ADD-IN folder -I installed PP1 -I moved all ADD-INS back to the ADD-IN FOLDER -Tried to reinstall ADD-INs and got ERROR CODE 1618 All this was done from my server.... Any ideas FYI I have the HP APril Update installed

Hi JesD,

Try this:

* Move all your add-in .msi files to another directory ABOVE the add-ins directory or somewhere out of the Software\Add-Ins directory.

* Once the add-ins folder is empty, uninstall any add-ins you want to uninstall. The uninstalls should work fine.

* For each add-in you want to install:
  - Move the add-in .msi to the add-ins directory.
  - From the WHS console, add-ins settings panel, available add-ins, click the install button.
  - If you get an error such as 1618 or 1620, click install again until it works.
  - Once installed, move the add-in .msi file OUT of the add-ins directory.

I know, this is goofy and horrific, but it SHOULD get you going for now.  HP is aware of what is going on and it is being addressed, trust me!

BTW, if you don't have the 1.2 or later update, you won't have any problems, so if you wish, do a server RECOVERY (NOT a factory reset), then install PP1 and you should have a wonderful experience as far as the HP software and PP1 are concerned.

I hope this is helpful, and although I'm not official HP support, this should get you going with the 1.2 update and PP1.

Jerry

HP did not disable this feature. A few months ago we learned with the rest of the user community that Version Shadowing Service "VSS" was enabled by default in the system builder version of WHS, however it was not enabled in OEM versions, most importantly it was not enabled on the HP Media Smart Server.

Microsoft disabled the feature for "sysprep" systems. Sysprep is a Microsoft process for OEMs to create an OS image which has an embedded Microsoft license product key. More specifically it was disabled in what is called the "sysprep script."

It is not clear from Microsoft whether this was a feature they wanted to be enabled or disabled prior to release, and the differences between the two OS versions may be the result of that confusion. Microsoft has not provided HP with a mechanism to enable this feature and has indicated that HP should not enable this feature. Therefore, HP support officially states that this is not supported. It is not clear if, or at what point this feature will be disabled on the system builder version of WHS as well.

Cindy

Disclaimer: Any opinions I might express are my own, and in no way represent HP.

Just to chime in, I've installed PP1 and I haven't really had any issues. However, I didn't have ANY add-ins installed when I installed PP1.