Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate

[cjmccarthy72]

Microsoft have just released Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/eval ... 70538.aspx

I am interested in seeing how this works.....

[trooper11]

I probably wont be able to try that one out for a while, so it will be good to hear some impressions.

[STC]

I think HB and certainly I will be into that. Its good to see MS are doing some things well.

[holidayboy]

I'll hopefully get a test box built soon to try it out.

[rdy2go]

Server 2012 has data dedupe. That's a HUGE win for me at home and at work.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/arch ... -2012.aspx

[gcoupe]

Windows Server Essentials 2012 at $425 is not a replacement for a WIndows Home Server

[evhfla]

Does Windows Server 2012 support guest account to allow Xbox 360 extenders to connect to it to stream movies and recorded TV shows?

[.Nico]

I have done some testing with it and have put the results on http://www.windows-homeserver.nl/
It's mainly in Dutch though

.Nico Oosterwijk

[FrankAZ]

I've been using Windows Server 2012 Essentials as my primary home server for 10 days. I had previously been using Windows 8 Pro as a host for a Storage Pool in which I created several storage spaces from which to serve my media to my HTPC. As has been reported by myself and others there is an intractable problem serving ripped DVDs in VIDEO_TS folders from a storage space (any type). They do not play reliably, and more complex DVDs play worse than others. Problem manifests as a spinning blue donut and a network fileshare freeze most easily resolved with a restart. I speculate that the storage space is unable to handle multiple accesses to the same file (such as an IFO).

After exhausting many other lines of investigation (see my posts in TechNet) I tried W2012E as a quick check to see whether the VIDEO_TS problem was a Windows 8 artifact or a Storage Space artifact. Unfortunately it is a Storage Spaces artifact. I am still unable to play VIDEO_TS from a Storage Space mounted to W2012E. However, I am now in an advanced stage of converting all my media to MKV files and the problem does not occur with those. No problems hosting a Recorded TV repository either.

On the plus side, I have decided to stick with W2012E. The ReFS support may come handy one day. More resilience to storage malfunction has to be good news. I have added my local PCs (not HTPC yet) to a new home domain and like the machine backup and administration. It is total overkill for a home, but pushing security policies to my daughter's (age 10) PC is entertaining. A federated cross-machine login environment with redirected folders so that a user gets the same experience no matter which machine they use is appealing, though remains a project for the future. Running my home's PCs (and future Win8 tablets) as a small business will be <20% useful but >80% entertaining and possibly a useful experience.

I have not yet investigated automating the transfer of recorded TV episodes or series to the server as I am able to with my WHSv1 using the Extras plugin. I'm sure I'll find a way once I gird myself for an experiment. I want to experiment with a spare PC as a HTPC before I commit to marrying my production HTPC to W2012E fully. I have to solve the requirement that machines running the W2012 server connector are prohibited from auto login after boot and that would be a PITA for the family. Adding the HTPC to the family domain is a one-way task and if it goes wrong I don't want to be faced with a reinstall and losing access to all my DRM protected recordings. (I'll be cloning my system drive before I try it for real just in case).

Frank.

[CBO]

Is there a policy setting for the auto login? Can you get adm templates for third party apps and set policy for those i.e chrome and flash. I just got my hand on a copy of W2012E now I just need some spare hardware

[klode784]

I have not yet investigated automating the transfer of recorded TV episodes or series to the server as I am able to with my WHSv1 using the Extras plugin. I'm sure I'll find a way once I gird myself for an experiment.

Hi Frank, I also gave a try to Windows Server 2012 Essentials. I tried it with Storage Spaces and didn't find any issue playing TS folder to a client. I have found that copying files from and to the WSE 2012 was quite fast, faster than with WHS v1 and drive extender. I find the Dashboard opening faster than the WHS 2011 one.

Unfortunately the 425.$ price range is overkilling me after paying 50.$ for WHS 2011 providing all features I needed. I've had install DrivePool on it as for providing redundancy and file safety. I can say it works pretty well on Acer H341 with 4 Gb Ram. I rolled back to WHS 2011 particularly for the same reason quoted from you. Recorded TV automatic archiving feature is not available on WSE 2012. I have lot of recordings on my HTPC I need to archive on my server. I've tried few workarounds but didn't succeed. Unless I find a viable solution, which I know will come up over time, I'll stick with WHS 2011 and DrivePool. That is my opinion I wanted to share with others. Happy new year to all!

Claude

[STC]

Long live SBS2011 Standard Hyper-V on Server 2012 Standard!

At least for our businesses anyway

Not really media storage related*

[Venom51]

Long live SBS2011 Standard Hyper-V on Server 2012 Standard!

At least for our businesses anyway

Not really media storage related*

Why even run 2012 standard. Save yourself the bucks and just install Hyper-V 2012 on the base metal server. No Windows 2012 licensing needed.

[STC]

I am running some other 2012 services from it and as I'm a MS partner no bucks spent in this case. I am also able to centralize the hardware and run everything from a single point.

[Venom51]

I am running some other 2012 services from it and as I'm a MS partner no bucks spent in this case. I am also able to centralize the hardware and run everything from a single point.

May still be good info for some looking to keep some 2011 functionality later on.

[STC]

Ah understood.

I have played with Hyper-V Core and would be using it otherwise...

This is a great free 2 VM backup solution for 2008R2, 2012 and Hyper-V Core: http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v-backup/ in case anyone is interested.

[TheOsburnFamil]

So for you guys that have been using it for a while now-- does HyperV3 allow you to pass pci device from host to guest? (Thinking Ceton server here) I'm a big VMware guy-- know ESX... don't know HyperV. Just curious.

[STC]

^ You can pass NICs over and the Infini is classed as one, so it would most probably work.
I would ask Ceton, they may say it works but could be unsupported.

[Cup]

Frank:
It is possible to join a -Pro or -Ultimate box to the server, without joining it to the domain. MS themselves created the workaround!
One (of many) write-ups on the topic:
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/ ... s-network/

As for the "can't have autologon" requirement:
That is, ah, a minor obstacle. Simply disable autologon on the Media Center, join it to the server, and re-enable autologon. Done.
Proof:
My Media Center is running Win7 Ultimate. It is set to autologon, is joined to the server, but is not joined to the domain. It works.