Windows Server 2012 Essentials – Health Report addin RTM

The Health Report add-in is designed to monitor the overall status of the server; it can create reports automatically.
A tab ‘Reports’ is added to the dashboard; where you can view the reports and create one manually.

There are different options to set the content of the report:

• Critical alerts and warnings
• Critical errors in the event logs
• Server Backup
• Auto-start services not running
• Updates
• Storage

You can set an email-address and a schedule for the report so that administrators can monitor the actual status of the server and react fast when an error occurs.

You can download the add-in here

Advertisement

AdminiMe 2012 for Windows Home Server 1 is here!

It’s that time of year again…

After the great reactions and suggestions from the previous version; I started with this new one.
A lot of hard work is put in it, but that means a lot of great features too…

Here is a list of new features:

• Top 5 current cpu consuming processes.
• Top 5 current memory consuming processes.
• Cpu temperature monitoring. (Not all CPU’s are supported; if not then no output is shown)
• Statistics are kept on the number of shut downs, suspends, resumes, log offs.
• Server name/Server IP is listed in the email.
• Option to shut down / reboot / … when a serious error occurs.
• Execute a process when a failure or error occurs.
• Total redesign of the user interface
• Option to turn off the chart updates.
• Support lnk files / command line switches
• Export logging.
• Full support for Simplified Chinese. (Thanks to Yong Zang)

Fixes:

• The total number of days went into negative after 20+
  days running nonstop.
• GUI advancements

Now I hear you asking… what about Windows Home Server 2011???
Well, don’t worry, I am working on this one too, as I have decided to support both versions.

Regarding pricing:
– Existing users can upgrade by paying 5€. Just send along your current license file of AdminiMe 2010.
– New users pay 9€.

Please fill in the survey: here
If you have problems, report them: here
Download AdminiMe 2012 here.

Have fun!

AutoExit 2011 Beta-2 For Windows Home Server 2011

It’s been a while since Beta-1 of AutoExit for WHS 2011 was released, but now you can rest assured Beta-2 is here!

This version mostly fixes issues that were present in Beta-1 and it had been made fully compatible with the release version of WHS 2011.
A new feature in this beta is that you can now also add non-WHS machines (which don’t have the WHS Client Connector software installed)

You can download it from the ASoft site.
Please report your bugs via this feedback page.

Some posts on AutoExit For Vail

There are some extensive posts/reviews out there discussing the new release of AutoExit (Beta-1 For Vail).
Check them out:

The guys from www.usingwindowshomeserver.com even created a video: check it out here.

Hatonotani
HomeServerBlog
HomeServerLand
HomeServerShow
MediaSmartServer
MonHomeServer
MSWHS
WeGotServed

AutoExit 2009 UR-1 Released!

It’s been a while since AutoExit has been updated; the reason is porting everything to Vail, digging into the new SDK, writing some articles, and working on the future versions of the addins… too much to handle actually 😉

But… I finally managed to get some help to translate AutoExit into Spanish which a lot of people asked for.

Another new feature is that it now contains a commandline tool that can be used to execute shutdown/reboot/… actions.
This can be very useful in cases where you script or want to execute actions in other applications that then execute the commandline tool and have the power of AutoExit to shutdown/reboot/… machines.

I couldn’t have done the translation on my own of course, I got great help from F. Javier Fernández Gómez.
He did a great job, have a look yourself!

AutoExit For Windows Home Server 2009 Spanish

AdminiMe 2010 Update Release-1 (build 1158)

With the release of version 1 behind us, it’s time for an update to fix those glitches that were discovered.
All in all version 1 has a very good quality and I have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback en support from you guys! Thanks, glad you like it so much!

Fixes:

• APP:CA002 Cpu Analyzer Index (zero based) must be greater than or equal to zero and less than the size of the argument list.
  A proper message is now shown to indicate that the CPU is overloaded.
• Isn’t possible to change the network card, Apply button doesn’t enable
  The button now gets enabled and selecting a card should work.
• Documentation on using the mail functionality in the Communication dialog has been increased.
• Server: Nag screen contains control characters
  Control characters have been removed.
•  The part of the add in that shows the add in is registered says: ‘Registrd to:Name’
  Changed to: ‘Registered to: Name’
• Sent emails are german and contains formatting code \\r\\n in the text, right before the text \””In der registrierten Version …\”” ”
  Control characters have been removed.
• Server: Console crashes when invalid license file is on the server
  An extra check is done and handled.
• Server: Settings aren’t all saved
  Now when changing settings (like events,…) these are saved as well.
• Server: In some cases, selecting the networkcard wasn’t persisted
  Now when changing the networkcard in the config settings the selected card is saved.
• Server: Error when starting ‘There was a problem while checking the registration file:The device is not connected.’
  Now an extra check is done and this error should be handled.
• Server: Checking the last item in the list of Application Logs (Config tab) doesn’t submit the change, isn’t saved
  Now you can select the last item and save the change too.
• There was a problem while checking the registration file:The type initializer for ‘Microsoft.HomeServer.Controls.ShareManager’ threw an exception.
  This led to problems that mails were sent as unregistered, while the license file was present.
  Now an extra check is done and this error should be handled, in some cases it could still occur.
• Server: When a user chose to ignore messages, in the WHS Console then these messages were also reported.
  Now when you choose to ignore messages, they will not be reported anymore.
• Server: In some cases where there was high memory consumption it could be that AdminiMe reported this, while the treshold was not yet reached.
  This was not a bug but the algorithm has been changed slightly so that it is more sensitive.
• The links to the registration page/AutoExit page on the console toolbar where opened locally in the console
  Now they are opened on the client itself.
•  You can now disable the monitoring of a disk’ usage, by setting the treshold to 0.
• The disk id’s in the disk overview tab are now padded with a zero and sorted correctly
• The disk rate is now converted to the best format (Kb/s,MB/s,…)

Make sure you uninstall the previous version first!
You can download the latest version here: http://www.asoft.be/prod_adminimewhs.html

Developing an add-in for Vail

Vail (Windows Home Server version 2) can be extended with add-ins, just like with version 1. (see www.whsplus.com for lots of add-ins)
Or have a look at my add-ins AutoExit & AdminiMe.

Microsoft has made available the SDK to start developing the add-ins for Vail.
The downside is…that version-1 add-ins are NOT compatible with version 2! There is a whole new API to learn and your add-in needs to be converted.

I prepared a document to guide you along the way of creating your first ever Vail add-in.

But be warned:
– It is still very basic, just plain and simple.
– It is not fit for any production system.
– It’s only inteded for developers that want to have a try at starting to create an add-in. Nothing fancy yet.
– The installation mechanism isn’t described yet. Only how to configure your system to start coding, code a sample and test it on your server.
But it should get you on your way to start getting your hands dirty in the new Vail SDK. Have fun! 😉

You can find it here.
The Vail SDK can be found here.

If you have comments, remarks, ideas, tips, additions,… don’t hesitate to contact me at contact (at) asoft-ware.com.
More articles will follow later,
Nick

A small update on the progress of AdminiMe

First of all, I would like to thank all people for the great feedback I’ve got.
The release itself went flawlessly and I received great feedback and comments and luckily not too many issues… 😉
There are some annoying issues in the current version, but luckily none that render your server useless!

I am working on an update release to fix those issues, improve the help,… and I hope to release it within the month.
But you know software & schedules never match… :-s So don’t take my word for it!
I am doing my best to get it pollished and get the V1 growing pains out.
But the first two weeks I was overwelmed with mails, so not too much development took place, but it’s clearing up now… 😀

For so far the update…
Enjoy AdminiMe!

AdminiMe 2010 is finally here! (after two+ years)

Maybe to explain the title a bit, when I started with AutoExit in 2007 I constantly had the feeling that I was missing more info in the WHS Console.
I like meters, data, statistics,…and as the WHS is basically headless and has nothing more than the WHS Console I needed more info like in the event viewer/task manager/performance monitor/…

So while developing AutoExit, I started with my second add-in ‘Server Stats’ which showed the CPU/disks/memory (very basic info).
Now this was all nice, but I needed more because the server is sitting there in some closet, corner, basement,…basically nobody sees or touches it once it has started, but what if…some process is using all the CPU resources and your machine is sitting for hours pegged at 100%, what if some app is leaking memory and is slowly choking you server, what if some fatal error occurs and gets logged to your event viewer, what if…

That are already a lot of ‘what if’s’ that can occur once you get thinking about it, so I started with a monitoring service to include with it and before I knew it I had an add-in that kept out an eye for my server. 🙂
But AutoExit 2008 was released and people liked it, gave feedback and before I knew it, I was developing AutoExit 2008 R2.
So ServerStats development was halted for nearly a year.
Then I took the descision to halt development of the major new version of AutoExit and create a minor version called AutoExit 2009 so that I can finally get out this one as well, so I started again and after a few months I recruited some testers.
And from then on we got off to a flying start, I got lots of feedback from the various testers.
And I would especially like to thank (in alphabetical order) some people who have put a lot of work in providing feedback:

Alex Kuretz from MediaSmartServer.Net
Alexander Kent from HomeServerLand
Dave McCabe from the HomeServerShow
Christian Baumann
Christopher Mclean
Jim Clark from WeGotServed
Ken Warren
Kris Rodenhausen from P80 add-in
Masahiko Sada
Masashi Shimizu
Matt Glover
Nic Mertens
Pål Andreassen
Sébastien from monhomeserver.fr
Terry Walsh from WeGotServed
Yoshi Okabe from the famous Japanese Blog
…

I hope I didn’t forget anyone here, because a lot of people helped me and the ones mentioned were people that helped me throughout the whole testing phase and some of them were even brave enough to test the first Alpha versions. 😉
If you think your name should be on here too because I forgot you, let me know and I’ll have a look to add you too!

Now before people start asking me about the name…
The problem with these kinds of ‘applications’ is that all good ones have already been taken, try to find a name that describes functionality with monitor, administration,…
So I wrote a them down and by chance I came to this: ADMINIster ME, I loved the name and was very happy to finally get a unique name after trying a lot of combinations! 🙂

Now to the core of the post, what does it do, who is it for,…
As the Home Server is a headless machine that is running non stop for long periods of times, and mostly hidden away in some closet/basement/small room; people don’t look at its ‘health’ to often.
To avoid this, you can use AdminiMe, it will monitor your server in the background without you having to do anything.
And in case something goes wrong, it will notify you via mail.

Added to this monitoring, it contains a console where you can watch all kinds of parameters in real-time.
Things like CPU, memory, network, disks and all kinds of statistics like uptime, longest uptime, # of starts,…

But it doesn’t stop there, it also has shortcuts to the most relevant tools: Event Viewer, Task Manager, Performance Monitor, Remote Desktop.
You also have the option to add your own shortcuts to applications!
And next to that, there is a ‘Run-box’ which has the same functionality as the Windows Run Dialog. (use it with caution!)
There is also a screen where you can view, which users have open files to the server shares.
All events are kept in a log that can be consulted later on.

So as you can read, a lot of functionality packed into 1 add-in!

I decided to make this one paying, to support the work I’ve put into AutoExit & AdminiMe (they don’t just grow by themselves ;-))
But I made it a very reasonable price for everyone! Have a look here or here.
The unregistered version basically contains 99.99% of all functionalities, except: there is a nag-screen in the console when the add-in is loaded & the mails that get sent in case of problems don’t contain any details. If you want the details, you need to go to the WHS Console itself.
So all in all I made it very cheap and hope people support my work for these two add-ins!

Have fun!
Nick

A new add-in is on the way…

In the shadow of AutoExit I have been working on a new add-in, but due to the time that AutoExit occupied me; this new add-in was postponed and postponed and.. until I made the descision to pause the work for AutoExit and work fulltime on this new add-in.

It’s been 2y+ since I started with this one!
I won’t go into details yet about what it is (bit of suspense doesn’t hurt ;-)) but the release is planned for 21/01/2010. (if all goes well)
Atm the private testers are working hard to get the final version tested before it gets released to the outside world!
A lot of people have contributed to this one over the last year/months in getting it ready, thanks guys!
You know who you are…