We Got Served

By now, you probably have Power Pack 1 Beta installed.  I know I do.  But what exactly are you supposed to do with it?  What does the team want from you?  Well, as ever they want your input.  But first, we are going to go over how to gather that feedback and properly submit it to the Microsoft Connect site.

First things first.  Regardless of whether you think you are going to have problems, you are going to want to download and install the Windows Home Server Toolkit v1 from the Microsoft website. Also, make sure that you have the “Help make Windows Home Server better” in the “Customer Experience Improvement” section.

Windows Home Server Toolkit V1

Download this and install this on every computer with the Power Pack 1 Connector.  That way, if and when something happens you don’t have to do it later.  It gathers information about the system and helps the WHS team to be able to diagnosis the issue and fix it.  After you install it run this command:

• “C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\Toolkit\ConnectorTroubleshooter.exe” -a

When it comes up, click the “Server” Menu, and select the “Publish Server Add-in”.  Input the correct information and click okay. This copies the toolkit addin to Home Server so you can install it.  Now log onto the WHS Console and install the Toolkit.  There are some nice features in the toolkit for diagnosing problems anyways, but you will need to do this to properly report bugs.

Now when you do discover a bug, head over to Connect.  You will have to search for exsisting bugs before you can submit.  This is to prevent a large number of duplicate bugs that would have to be linked together.  This may take us slightly longer, but then again, if you are able to confirm a bug, that helps the WHS team that much more to be able to isolate it and fix it.

CAD IDs

Every time you report a bug, you are going to need to report CAD IDs.  These identify your system and configuration and any errors your system encountered.  These allow the WHS Team to track down problems.  On your client computers, to get your CAD number, click the start menu, find the “Windows Home Server Toolkit” directory, and run “Error Reporting”.  Click “Y” when the prompt asks.  It will give you the CAD number. Write this down or immediately add it to the bug summision form.  On the server, open the Console.  Click the “Settings” button, and open up the “Toolkit” page.  Click the “Support” tab and click the “Send” button in the “Send Logs Files for Problem Investigation” section.  Again, you will need these numbers every time you report a bug.  If you don’t or you forget to, they will email you with a notice to do so.  Trust me, I’ve already gotten the email.

Reporting a Bug

When you do find a bug, head over to Microsoft Connect.  Click on the feedback link.  Now you can select “Submit Feedback” button, but it will force you to search for you bug first, or you can just seach first.  If you find a bug that matches yours, open it up and comment, verify, vote or add to it.  This way the WHS team knows how many it effects, and don’t forget to add your CAD IDs somewhere.  That way they will have an easier time isolating the bug.  If you can’t find anything that matches your specific problem, click the “Submit Feedback” button at the bottom of the page, and use the WHS Power Pack 1 Public Beta Bug Report Form.  Try to be as detailed as possible. The more detailed you are, the easier it is on the WHS Team and they have already done so much for us.  Why not give them a break!  If you can, include screen shots of the problem just to verify and show them exactly what you mean.  A picture says a thousand words, and the description is limited to 5000 characters!

Trying to Break Power Pack 1

AKA: Beta testing Power Pack 1.  Now we are going to go over the various testing scenarios for testing PP1.  Remember, you could very easily break your box this way, but be sure that it isn’t that likely.  It is in RC4 after all, and most of the big nasty bugs should have been squashed by now.  But that is what we are checking for isn’t it!

Windows Home Server Connector Scenarios

Might as well start here. I mean,  if the connector doesn’t work 100% properly, there isn’t any real point to test anything else is there?  So we are going to go over what the Team wants you to test out in the Beta.

Test a clean installation and upgrade of the Windows Home Server Connector, from both the newtwork shares and from the new Connector CD.  Also, try testing installing the old connector and the functionality of mismatched versions of the Windows Home Server and the Connector software.  Try installing the PP1 Connector software on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista.  It should not install on Windows XP x64.  There are some other tests to perform, but most of use don’t have previous versions of Power Pack 1 so they don’t really apply to most of us.

Server Storage And Shared Folders

There is a known issue with the server blue screening with the specific “THIRD_PARTY_FILE_SYSTEM_FAILURE (108)” error code. This blue scree is generated to verify a specific code path in the Drive Extender filter driver and it does not indicate failure.  However, the WHS Team does want a report of the frequency of these blue screens.    Check out the Beta testing documentation for more details on this this.

Try coping, creating, and modifying files on the Windows Home server shared folders using a variety of applications.  Also, try running PP1 for a couple of days, uninstall if from the add/remove programs, and then modify files, copy files and the like and then reinstall PP1 Beta.  Also try filling the drives, adding and removing drives, enabling/disabling duplication and adding/removing shared folders.  Additionally, backup and restore shared folders using the Home Server Data Bakup feature.

On of the other things, is to report the number of “File Conflict” issues, and the overall performance change due to the hourly migration pass over the V1 method.

Home Server Data Backup

Try backing up data using the new Data Backup feature. Try backing up shared files, delete them and then restore them.  Also, back up a shared folder, delete the shared folder and restore them.  And absolutely try multiple back ups over many days, both leaving the drive attached and removing the drive every day.

Another thing to try is to backup up the files, delete or modify them and the restore from the backup, and verify that the modified and deleted files are restored correctly.  This last part is for the more brave.  Try backing up files, completely wipe the hard drive, reinstall WHS with PP1 and then restore the backed up files.

Remote Access

This part is easier.  Basically, test out the different access permissions (computers, shared folders, both, none) to make sure they are working properly, try changing them.  Try reconfiguring the router and domain name and verify everything is reported correctly. Also, test out the thumbnail views, and downloading files in .ZIP and .EXE formats.  Try using multiple browser sessions to upload and download simultaneously, and try out the different methods of uploading files.

And do all of this on multiple different browsers, like IE6, IE7 and Firefox.

Home Computer Backup

The big obviously is test out backups with Vista x64.  Not just backing up, but opening up the backups, restoring a Vista x64 computer, and manually initialating a backup.  Also try out backing up over a weak wireless network or a network with intermitten connection issues, and running the backup repair wizard.  Try using the RTM version of the restore disk and using the PP1 Dual-Boot restore disk. The RTM restore wizard should fail, but try out both versions, and on the dual boot, try out both versions of that.  Also try turning on and off the “Wake computer from sleep or hibernation for backup”.

Media Sharing

Pretty simple, but I’m going to copy from the document, because it easier than rephrasing it:

Create a Windows Media Music Playlist that will work on the home server

1. Place music files on the home server in the Music shared folder.
2. On a home computer, add the Music shared folder to the Windows Media Player’s ‘Monitor Folders’ List (e.g. \\server\music)
3. Search for music files using Windows Media Player so that music files stored on the home server’s Music folder are discovered and listed in the media library.
4. Create a playlist in Windows Media Player with the music files stored on the home server. For example, the media file’s location should be \\server\music\foo.wma if you view that media file’s file property in the media library.
5. Save the created playlist to the Music shared folder on the home server.

Test Streaming using the created playlist

1. Enable media sharing in Windows Home Server Console if it is not done already.
2. Using a Windows Media Connect device (e.g. Xbox 360, Roku Soundbridge, etc.), connect to the home server and view available playlists.
3. The created playlist should be available there and the content in the playlist should play from the Windows Media Connect device.

What to do if your Server crashes

If you server becomes unresponsive for a reseanable amount of time, or the tray icon is, then your server may have crashed.  Don’t worry too much.  If you have a monitor attached, try checking that.  If it has blue screened, try giving your server about 2-5 minutes to sit and run through the memory dump. Else it may be just rebooting or off.  If it doesn’t restart or finish with the memory dump in a timely matter, reset the computer.  When it does boot back up, log onto the server with remote desktop and send the error information to microsoft. This will allow detailed diagnostics of what caused the crash.

That’s all folks

Any time you run into a bug, or your computer crashs, immediately head over to Connect and search or report it.  The more often you do this, the faster the Team will be able to fix or verify problems and mean quicker til public release of PP1.  Not to mention, bragging rights to your friends and family that you helped make PP1 stable!

Now get testing, because PP1 has been out for a few days already!! Happy hunting.