My Win2k8 adventure...looking for some incite from YOUR experiences

[drozwood90]

BTW - Happy Easter Dan to you and yours! There is a momentum starting to build here ....thinking of leaving to wash the car...might be better for me to get out of the way for a bit....

Thanks Pete! Same you you and your Family!

[drozwood90]

Thanks Jack!

--Dan

[drozwood90]

so, I finally got my DVD Profiler stuff loaded up on the server.

Now, I am seeing terrible lag on THE DVD Collection pages. All other pages, reaction to scripts, etc. is still lightening fast - assuming that the hard drive is not sleeping.

I also got permission to have two copies of Homeseer on my single server (read your License, had to ask HS for permission to do this). This was for testing out the ram drive idea.

However, if my DVD Collection pages are going to be THAT slow, I am not sure the benefits of Win2k8 are worth it. So, I've been toying with the idea of using Win7. I won't use Vista (personal choice...esp after dealing with it...eww....), and Win7 is "officially" supported by HS. It also will still give me the faster SMB 2.0, which was the WHOLE reason I switched from Win2k3 (which was running HS beautifully, from a speed standpoint).

I won't have to fight with the Media stuff (win2k8 is VERY disabled from that standpoint, Win7 supports almost ALL the same backup features as are built in to server. I really don't see an advantage, unless I were to swap hardware - i.e. give more horsepower to the OS...

So, my conclusion is that I think Win2k8 IS better then Win2k3, but it needs more processing power then I have to give. So, maybe Win7 will be better. Otherwise, I will just go back to Win2k3 and give up my ability to have SMB2.0...but DAMN it is FAST! And Win2k8's caching is AMAZING! It really makes most things run fast!

[Pete]

Thanks Dan for spending the time in doing the eval of 2008 and Homeseer. I am still considering running 2008 R2 on new boxes....but just for HSPro and nothing else.

I use DVD profiler for my DVD collection but its a static setup on one laptop and my office desktop. It does do R/W to a local and WAN connected DB all of the time so it probably is competing with HS doing similiar. DVD profiler does generate XML pages which you "could" generate on another computer then auto feed them to the HS box....if you wanted to.

Playing a bit I bet you could "introduce" some W2K3 SMB2.0 modification of sorts. I know its written into the base OS but its only software still. I modified one W2K server to run newest MS media player and some other MS media related stuff that would only work on MS windows home server....

[drozwood90]

Thanks Dan for spending the time in doing the eval of 2008 and Homeseer. I am still considering running 2008 R2 on new boxes....but just for HSPro and nothing else.

I use DVD profiler for my DVD collection but its a static setup on one laptop and my office desktop. It does do R/W to a local and WAN connected DB all of the time so it probably is competing with HS doing similiar. DVD profiler does generate XML pages which you "could" generate on another computer then auto feed them to the HS box....if you wanted to.

Playing a bit I bet you could "introduce" some W2K3 SMB2.0 modification of sorts. I know its written into the base OS but its only software still. I modified one W2K server to run newest MS media player and some other MS media related stuff that would only work on MS windows home server....

Pete,

DVD Profiler actually does not run at all. BUT, running it on another machine, then outputting the XML to be used in DVD Collections webpages...

Then, when I go to VIEW one of those pages, that is slow. The actual webpage generation.

--Dan

[drozwood90]

Ok, so FINALLY got around to installing Windows 7 as my base OS. WOW, HUGE difference.

Events run just as fast as before, but all the GUI lag is gone.

Also, ALL sound and media stuff (That I use) worked right out of the box! VERY nice.

I also tested network speeds. I actually got 105MPS bursts (up to 2.5Gig), and 78-80MPS constant (after the 2.5Gig limit).

These are the SAME two systems that I was using for my previous test. The only thing I can think that is different, is the OS isn't tying up as much of the processor. Also, my theory as to why I am now limited to the 78-80MPS, is the NIC and SATA card are plugged into a PCI bus (66MHz clock), but this is actually a PICx64 bus. So, theoretically 2x faster then a PCIx32 bus, and assuming I am sharing some of the bandwidth with other PCIx32 cards...

However, I am really happy with Win7 over Win2k8 (for my hardware).

Now, I am still getting the same "lag" when FIRST accessing webpages. I assumed I would (Win2k8 and Win7 are BOTH based on the Vista Kernels). So, at this point I am going to try to find some time and get the Ram drive working. I'm hoping I do not see any difference in system performance, when I steal 1 GB of ram to stick HS into.

I'll keep everyone posted!

--Dan

[drozwood90]

Also, did some other testing.

Looks like as long as Win7 doesn't detect and SMB1.0 packets, it will run full bore. As soon as there is and SMB1.0 traffic, all systems appear to drop down to the SMB1.0 (which limits all my X-fers to 38MPS).

I wonder if there is a setting that I can force the OS to use SMB2.0 in most circumstances (except talking to my XP machines). I don't want to have to switch the other machines to Win7. I know one just wouldn't handle it at all (it only has 512 meg of ram).

--Dan

[drozwood90]

So, now I've got 90% of my setup back up and running.

Works well. I've run for weeks without issues, lockups, etc. I like how fast it responds (OS and HS), as well as the advantages I've had over the network.

I'm troubleshooting one issue. I have BLFloorPlan, and it appears (through what troubleshooting I've done) that it does not like UAC.

I'm trying to confirm that now.

--Dan

[drozwood90]

Ok, for father's day, I got a new P4 Extreme processor for the server.

I just finally got around to installing the thing (yeah, I have a pretty good backlog). I went from a Celeron 2.12GHz to a 3.2GHz P4 Extreme (I think 1Meg+ of L2 cache, 800MHz FSB, 3.2GHz with hyperthreading). All around, I would assume 1.6-1.8x faster (depending on what I am doing...is how much assistance I get from the hyperthreading and extra cache).

So far, my system is running AS fast as it used to under Win2k3. VERY snappy. PLUS I am not getting to take FULL advantage of the SMB2.0!!

Last night, I was testing moving files around. I was getting bursts like before (over 100MB/s), however, instead of slowing to 45-50MB/s, I now can sustain 60-69MB/s over the ENTIRE transfer (i.e. I am being limited by my PCI bus!).

VERY nice. AND I can do this WITHOUT impacting the speed of the system. It is STILL snappy and acts like nothing is happening. I think this might be the root of some of my Win7 strangness with Homeseer.

The apparent lag might have been causing things to not line up perfectly well. I.e. I have a "counter" updater script I run. It creates an event, which is set to go off after 5-10 minutes to turn a light back off. Each time the script is run, it deleted the old event and creates a new one. However, if it were to not register the last event was deleted, it would make a new one eventname-1, eventname-2, etc.

When I was sloshing a LOT of files around, I would see this more.

Now, I think this will go away.

Will keep everyone posted about the progress.

--Dan

[Guest]

drozwood90 -

How's everything running? Are you still on Windows 7 instead of 2008? 32 or 64-bit? I'm ready to migrate from XP to 7 or 2008. I can do 32 or 64-bit. Looking for some direction.

Are you running HS as a service or have automatic log in to invoke it?

Also any tips for migration? Hopefully there are some folks that have blazed this trail and written up tips on migrating all settings and plug-ins after installation to a new system.

[drozwood90]

Adam,

How's everything running? Are you still on Windows 7 instead of 2008? 32  or 64-bit? I'm ready to migrate from XP to 7 or 2008. I can do 32 or  64-bit. Looking for some direction.

Are you running HS as a service or have automatic log in to invoke it?

Also any tips for migration?

I am running Windows 7. My hardware just COULD not handle the Win2008 software. It was too much! This was Win2008 (x86), not RC2 (x64 only).

My Win7 is 32bit. I'm considering buying new hardware and running Win7 x64...or put Homeseer into a VirtualBox VM. I have not run HS on an x64 system. However, as I pointed out, I'm going to run x64 next. If HS doesn't like it, I'll put on a VirtualBox and run it under XP (always seemed the happiest!).

I run with automatic log in. It just seems to make HS run better. There are (or seem to be) a lot of issues with running as a service. I think it just adds a layer of complexity. If you REALLY want to do this for security...have your system auto-log in, then use something like one of Blade's Plugins or a script or an online tool to re-lock the workstation after HS starts. I just think adding HS as a service adds a layer of complexity that you do not need. Hence the buying new hardware. I could just build something new...but I can get a barebones Dell pretty cheap...then that's ONE layer of the "server" I don't have to worry about any longer.

It's possible later versions of 2008 would have been better (if 2008 was supported)...but I doubt it. I know I had Win7 on my laptop. I had to revert back to XP after SP1 for Win7. It just KILLED the laptop's performance.

As for tips on migration, just shutdown HS, make a copy of it. Then, when you are ready to migrate, install HS, install all your plugins, register them all. Then copy over your WHOLE HS directory (except the .lf files). Just make sure you are installing the SAME version (so upgrade your current install first if you need...and as always, backup EVERYTHING before ANYTHING!).

There is a Sticky somewhere (can't find it right now) that tells you all this in more detail.

--Dan