Hp Mediasmart Ex495 And Ws2012E

I have successfully installed and configured Windows Server 2012 Essentials (WS2012E) on my HP MediaSmart EX495 (EX495).  Here are the steps I took.

 

 

I had done as much reading on WS2012E as I could, but the information was pretty limited for a home server market.  Some great resources, especially here, and the process did seem fairly straight forward.

1. Disassemble the server and install the debug board

2. Ensure all data was refreshed onto my spare Mediasonic JBOD drives

3. Research the deployment and configuration process for WS2012E

 

 

Now that I had the debug board installed I could perform an attended install.  I used my Logitech DiNovo Mini wireless keyboard of all things - it's normally plugged into the XBOX 360 but it worked fine for the EX495.

1. Create USB boot drive for WS2012E

2. Plug USB drive into lower rear USB, then realise I didn't install the jumper supplied with the debug board to enable access to the BIOS settings

3. Time to be creative - remove the primary boot drive!

4. Boot EX495

5. Enter the WS2012E key and continue until disk management then reinsert the boot drive

6. Remove boot partition and primary partition

7. The installer will not recognise the partition as bootable, so reboot

8. Enter WS2012E key and assign partition size of 60 GB for the system partition

9. Continue with installation and create an "Admin" account

 

 

After the installation my Mediasonic box was not accessible - a quick install of the drivers soon fixed this.

1. Download and install SIL 3531 driver 3531_x64_w7_1.5.20.1_logo.zip

2. Confirm all MediaSonic drives are visible

3. Reboot 

 

 

Now it was time to set up my first Storage Space.

1. Remove RAID-5 array on disks 1, 2, and 3 - this was my WHS2011 configuration

2. Format each internal disk as a simple volume (apart from the boot drive of course)

3. Start Server Manager and select "File and Storage Services"

4. Select "Storage Pools" and click on "New Storage Pool"

5. Add all internal drives, including the 1.3 TB of space left on the boot drive

6. Go to Dashboard | Storage | Hard Drives

7. Select "Advanced: Manage Storage Spaces"

8. Create a storage space called "Data" and use the newly created storage pool

9. Configure the storage space "Data" as "Simple" - no resiliency

 

 

The server was running with a fresh storage space, so it was time to configure the server.

1. Get updates for other Microsoft products - Enabled

2. Add user accounts - Skipped, accounts created during installation

3. Add server folders - Created, additional folders for particular data

4. Set up Server Backup - Skipped, need to reclaim the Mediasonic drives

5. Set up Anywhere Access - Configured

6. Set up email alert notification - Configured

7. Set up Media Server - Enabled, which created 4 folders

8. Connect computers - Skipped, connected later

 

 

Once the server was configured correctly it was time to copy the data from the JBOD drives, reclaim the drives, and create a backup.

1. Copy saved data from JBOD drives to Server Folders

2. Confirmed data was intact and accessible

3. Format each external disk as a simple volume

4. Go to Dashboard | Storage | Hard Drives

5. Select "Advanced: Manage Storage Spaces"

6. Create a storage space called "Backup" and add external disks 4, 5, and 6

7. Configure the storage space "Backup" as "Simple" - no resiliency

8. Use "ROBOCOPY D:\ServerFolders\ E:\ServerFolders\ /E /COPYALL /Z /R:3 /W:10 /LOG:robolog.txt /QUIT /XO" to make a "quick" backup

 

 

Time to try out some of the WS2012E add-ins.  For some of the configuration work, especially with Azure, I had to disable the enhanced security in IE.

1. Windows Azure Online Backup - Installed and configured

2. Heath Report for Windows Server 2012 Essentials - Installed and configured

3. Email - Skipped, no Exchange Server or Microsoft Office 365

 

 

For each client computer I installed the connector without joining the domain.

1. Used the registry hack to skip the domain join

2. Accessed the server from the client computer to install the connector software

3. Signed in to the connector to test the connection

4. Configured file history for each client computer

5. Installed My Server application for each client computer

6. Configured backup for each client computer

 

 

I am researching the following, and any help or direction would be appreciated.

1. Automated copy of D:\ServerFolders to E:\ServerFolders (might have to be a robocopy scheduled task)

2. Install and configure Serviio

3. Install and configure Subsonic

4. Install and configure uTorrent

5. Research server based anti-virus protection

6. Research server based ip camera monitoring software