Tutorial: SageTV on WHS with 64K clusters in the drive pool...

[TallMomof2]

It took a couple of days but I have my WHS server up and running. All of my recordings moved over, over 2TB, old wiz.bin dropped in and it's almost like my old installation.

This is the hardware I used:

Antec 300 case, 2 quiet fans, lots of room for HDs.
ASUS P5Q-EM LGA 775 Intel G45 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard, 6 SATA and 6 USB plus HDMI on board video
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
SILVERSTONE ST60F 600W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply, very quiet and plenty of power connections for HDs
1 500GB Western Digital HD "borrowed" from DH's PC (he'll never miss it)
4 1TB Samsung HDs, 1 new and 3 transplanted from old server.
2GB RAM I had laying around from previous builds.
Also added in a quiet 120mm Cooler Master fan in front of the hard drives to help keep them cool.

This is the quietest PC I've ever built and so far it's working great as a Sage server. thanks for the tutorial, it was a huge help.

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by najames

I didn't intend to run defrag, it was a accidental PEBCAK. Nothing lost, all drives are currently empty while I am testing.

Event logs are long gone now. I actually tried to reinstall WHS last night, but it didn't want to read my floppy drive, instead it kept asking if I wanted to format it during the install. The disk and drive are both ancient. I think I'll go find a new floppy disk here at work. It might be time to slipstream too. I don't want to do a lot until I can test Sagetv running on WHS, the whole shootin' match.

I want to like WHS, REALLY liked the way it worked when I added 2 more drives to the pool as a test, but some of these things are driving me

Slipstream is the way to go.

That was the only way I could get the RAID Drivers installed for my setup.

The setup would fail before the installation even started.

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

No, I'm wondering the same thing for the D partition though. Formatting pooled drives to get to 64K clusters is easy but the D partition I wanted to avoid using the format method.

I did try using those tools to resize the C partition after install with bad results (which is how I came up with the other tutorial) but just changing cluster size MIGHT be safer.

I'm just not willing to try it on a populated server, I have much more than just Sage on mine. If you're willing to try it the worst thing that will happen is that you'd have to do a Server Reinstall to recover, the data on the pool would still be safe. You'd have to recreate users and non-standard shares in the console and you could lose client backups.

What would be the easiest way to go about converting the D: partition to 64k blocks? My server's basically unpopulated now (I have Sage installed, a sage user set up, but I can easily remove and re-add that user to recreate that share). If I were to back up the data that's on the D: drive now to a temporary folder on the C: drive, format D with 64k blocks, then re-copy the data back over to the D, would I need to re-create the shares on the default WHS shares, or would WHS recreate those shares as-needed? Right now my servers' running with 4 320g drives (3 of them are already 64k, the only one left to convert is the D. Just don't want to screw up the install as I've had to blow it out and restart it several times already, lol...

[gplasky]

I copied off D: to another drive, formatted it to 64K and them copied it back on. It worked fine for me. And I went thru several installs until I got everything right and just the way I wanted also. D: will hold your backups from other PCs so it is not necessary to format it to 64K. Make sure you are showing hidden directories when you copy everything off of D:.

Gerry

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

What would be the easiest way to go about converting the D: partition to 64k blocks? My server's basically unpopulated now (I have Sage installed, a sage user set up, but I can easily remove and re-add that user to recreate that share). If I were to back up the data that's on the D: drive now to a temporary folder on the C: drive, format D with 64k blocks, then re-copy the data back over to the D, would I need to re-create the shares on the default WHS shares, or would WHS recreate those shares as-needed? Right now my servers' running with 4 320g drives (3 of them are already 64k, the only one left to convert is the D. Just don't want to screw up the install as I've had to blow it out and restart it several times already, lol...

Pat had good luck with "gparted," a freeware partition utility. I would try that to convert the cluster size to 64K instead of a destructive format. That said, Gerry's format method has had success.

[psklenar]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

Pat had good luck with "gparted," a freeware partition utility. I would try that to convert the cluster size to 64K instead of a destructive format. That said, Gerry's format method has had success.

Actually, I used Parted Magic (a varient of gparted) to resize the C & D partitions, not to change the D: block size.

pat----

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by psklenar

Actually, I used Parted Magic (a varient of gparted) to resize the C & D partitions, not to change the D: block size.

pat----

I stand corrected but that program might also convert the clusters. It's a fairly standard feature for partition utilities. If they support win2k3 they should work, yours was free.

[psklenar]

Understood and I suspect you're correct. But I just wanted to be upfront about it. Also to make sure the correct product name/link was known.

And yes, my s/w was just a "little" less expensive than yours.

pat----

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by psklenar

Understood and I suspect you're correct. But I just wanted to be upfront about it. Also to make sure the correct product name/link was known.

And yes, my s/w was just a "little" less expensive than yours.

pat----

I'm glad you clarified, it's good to support tools that work.

Thank God that I was able to write mine off on my taxes as a business expense.

[mcclellanfsu]

OK, so I'm trying to wade my way through all five pages of this post but I think all I am doing is getting myself more confused.

I just installed WHS this weekend so besides the OS and a couple of addins I have nothing on the machine (and an automatic backup of my home machine from last night). My WHS server has (2) 1TB HDDs installed with the "recommended" drive partitions during the initial install.

Now after reading through this post I want to convert my drives to 64k blocks. How should I go about doing this. I tried reading through the tutorials, but I was a bit confused about what I need to move and what WHS stores where???

Thanks for any help!

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by mcclellanfsu

My WHS server has (2) 1TB HDDs installed with the "recommended" drive partitions during the initial install.

Now after reading through this post I want to convert my drives to 64k blocks. How should I go about doing this. I tried reading through the tutorials, but I was a bit confused about what I need to move and what WHS stores where???

I don't know what to tell you, the tutorial is pretty self-explanatory. You disable folder duplication on all shares, remove one drive using the console and add it back in. After it's added you use the Disk Management tool via RDP, VNC or KVM to format the pooled drive to 64K. Repeat for the others drives.

I recently "converted" my D partition to 64K blocks (I'll be updating the tutorial later) using Acronis Disk Director Server edition which is non-destructive so you COULD try something like that. I've never tried that on the additional pooled drives though, it's not tested. If you want to experiment, try "Parted Magic" (linked by Pat) and see if that will convert your drives AND your D partition to 64K clusters without formatting.

[benchdog]

Hi all, First post and new to both Sage and WHS so be gentle.
I set up the WHS box last night with 1 500 gb and 2 1 TB drives.
Followed the 64k tutorial to the letter, twice.
Both times I checked the cluster size of the drives by just analysing with the windows defrag tool. Before adding the drives back onto the pool the cluster size was 64k and after adding the drives back into the pool the defrag tool reported that the cluster size had reverted back to 4k.

What am I missing here? Is this just a reporting error? If so what tool can I use to confirm that my drives actually are using 64k clusters? , or have I just done some silly noob error that you can quickly point out?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by benchdog

Hi all, First post and new to both Sage and WHS so be gentle.

Welcome to both...

Followed the 64k tutorial to the letter, twice.

No you didn't.

Before adding the drives back onto the pool the cluster size was 64k and after adding the drives back into the pool the defrag tool reported that the cluster size had reverted back to 4k.

That's right, you're supposed to format to 64K immediately *AFTER* you add the drives back in the pool. Not before. Adding drives to the pool ALWAYS formats them to 4k, that's why you do it after you add them.

You could also *try* my suggestion to mcclellanfsu: You might be able to "convert" the cluster sizes without removing/adding/formatting by using various drive utilities, if they support it. I converted my D partition this way without having to format the drive. While formatting pooled drives is easy, it's more complex with the D drive and the utility I used worked flawlessly. That said, I've only tested the "format method" for the additional pooled drives so if you decide to try the new way, you'll be the guinea pig.

[benchdog]

Thanks S_M_E

Quote:
Followed the 64k tutorial to the letter, twice.

No you didn't.

That's what I get for playing with WHS way past my bedtime!

I actually ended up doing the 64K format after adding the drives back into the pool last thing last night and went to bed hoping I hadn't broken anything.
So I have acheived my aim depiste myself and my poor reading skills.

Thanks again for the quick reply.

[S_M_E]

Now you only have to deal with your D partition.

Glad you got it worked out...

[mangriotis]

I did have a weird thing when adding an additional drive to the pool. I tried to format to 64k cluster size, but it wouldn't stick. I did it about 5 times, rebooting between each to make sure it wasn't the defragmenter just reporting it incorrectly.

The solution was removing it from the pool and adding it back in. After doing that, it formatted to 64k allocation size no problems...

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by mangriotis

I did have a weird thing when adding an additional drive to the pool. I tried to format to 64k cluster size, but it wouldn't stick. I did it about 5 times, rebooting between each to make sure it wasn't the defragmenter just reporting it incorrectly.

The solution was removing it from the pool and adding it back in. After doing that, it formatted to 64k allocation size no problems...

That is weird, I've never seen that one before. Odd that it didn't work the first time you added it but it did the second time. *shrug*

[heffe2001]

I've got my machine currently converting to 64k blocks with Acronis (all the data partitions), I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow, as I do have some data on the machine (nothing super critical though). Great program though, has saved my bacon several times on server installs, and fixing other peoples bone-head mistakes making their C drive too small on their servers...

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

I've got my machine currently converting to 64k blocks with Acronis (all the data partitions), I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow, as I do have some data on the machine (nothing super critical though). Great program though, has saved my bacon several times on server installs, and fixing other peoples bone-head mistakes making their C drive too small on their servers...

I have a feeling that it will work for converting cluster sizes. My old "format method" may become obsolete, especially if some of the freeware utilities will work too. For those wanting to resize the C partition, they'd still have to interrupt the install or WHS won't get the free space right and it could freak out later. That's why I have that tutorial too.

I'm looking forward to your report...

[heffe2001]

Well, looks like Acronis did the trick, no data loss, and all DATA drives are now 64k block size. Won't get a chance to check playback until I get home tonight though.

Couldn't stand not knowing, so I checked BSG before I left, and no skips or anything, so looks like that did the trick. I did also notice that at the moment, it's not using my 750g for hardly anything, but the 320's are filling up quick..