18 replies to this topic

[legoland]

Hi

The idea with this thread is to documents the experience I have had with setting up our home server from Tranquil.

I am no technical guy, so the plan is to document how easy or difficult will be under way. This way it might help you decide whether or not to set this up in your own home.

The goal for our homeserver is to use it as a central location for all our pictures, strem wireless itunes music to client pcs and airport express units, store dvds DVDs, critical files, backup and add a Document management system to it.

I ordered the server last week and received it today.

I decided on the Tranquil over the HP because it used less power and has more CPU horsepower.

The unit is small and silent. Looks good in white. In my opinion the front does not look cool at all, more functional.

In general it is sturdy, silent but the power connector on the unit feels flimsy and poor quality.

The first initial setup failed and I had to restart the process from the CD

More to follow

[legoland]

OK. So far I've spent about an hour initializing the server. Everything is fine.

I am now adding 4 1TB harddrives to the unit. I bought them separate, this is cheaper than buying them from Tranquil.

Adding them physically to the unit is really easy. I feel a bit like an IT professional sliding those harddrives in. No tools needed.

10 minutes and I have added 4 additional harddrives. I Use WD "green" harddrives which use less power: Western Digital 1TB Caviar 16MB SATA/300 8.9MS 7200RPM

Click on server storage in the console and they all show up. I add each of them to the system. For some reason Drive 1 and 2 shows ATA, while drive 3-4-5 are SCSI?

Drive 5 I configure as backup while drive 1-4 is server storage. Apparently the drive has no partition so you can't choose backup. First choose "extended storage" then remove drive and then add it again as backup.

I've now got 3.6 TB free storage and 1 TB set aside for backup. Cool.

[nchell]

For some reason Drive 1 and 2 shows ATA, while drive 3-4-5 are SCSI?

Drive Bays 1 & 2 (count up from the far right hand side drive bay) are connected to the two SATA ports on the D945GCLF2 motherboard, and show up as ATA.

Drive Bays 3, 4, 5 and the eSATA port are connected to an add-in PCI controller card, which Windows, despite the drives all being SATA, displays as SCSI.

(I see something similar with the HP EX470 -- all of it's SATA drives show up as SCSI too)

It's nothing to worry about :-)

[rudolfo2]

Yesterday UPS delivered my server but I must solve the problems with my PC first then I'll join you.

[legoland]

So, I've been running the Home server for a couple of weeks now. The Tranquilunit runs really quiet and cool.

I have started sharing files on the WHS which works fine. Apparently it shuts down all HD when they are not accessed for a while. This means there is a small lag time when accessing a file on the server. I guess this is to preserve power.

One strange thing I have encountered is that I can no longer share printers on our network after installing the WHS connector software on each pc. Any ideas? When trying to install a networked printer the client PC simply does not "see" the printer anymore connected to the other pc.

The backup is really impressive. Its nice to set and forget it. What amazes me is how small the backups are on the server. I would estimate that a 200GB backup of a client PC only takes up 70-110 GB on the WHS. I think this is because there are a lot of duplicate files each client PC and also the same files are present on several PCs. Nice.

Right now I am trying to setup Itunes sharing.

[legoland]

One of the reasons I got a Tranquil was to save power.

Today I measured the power consumption.

This server has a total of 5 1TB drives.

While Booting: 61W
With diskactivity: 48W
Without diskactivity: 39W

[rudolfo2]

Yesterday UPS delivered my server but I must solve the problems with my PC first then I'll join you.

I have finally get it started.Everything is OK so far,very quiet and low temperature.I'm in process to fill it (5TB) with my movie collection.
The only problem I have,there was no HS Recovery Boot Key.I have Raxco software and I'm not quit sure how to install it.Maybe someone has already tried it and give some hints.

[legoland]

Here is an update on the Tranquil SQA-5H

It has been running for 10 months now 24/7 with no problems at all.

Backup of client PC: It works great. Very nice to set and forget.

Itunes Sharing:
My idea was to have all music on the server and have all the client PCs in the house share the music files, playlists etc. After a lot of trial and error I found out you cant do this. The main problem is the Itunes library file which can not be shared or used at the same time.

Instead I have all Itunes music on the server. It is accessed from one PC, which then has all playlists, and is used to purchase music etc. I use the Iphone remote application to stream music to a couple of Airport express units in the house which works great. However, the one main PC needs to be running.
Some of the other client PCs are used to stream music from the built in Itunes server on the Tranquil. This works all right, but you have to realize that you need cabled PCs. Wireless is too slow in my opinion.

I believe Itunes 9 has a home sharing feature that will allow easier sharing.

In conclusion, the main feature of the WHS is as a storage unit for all the music. That works all right.

DVD library:

I ripped all my DVDs to the WHS using AnyDVD and Mymovies. AnyDVD works very well. Mymovies is not something that the average user will just sit down and use however. I figured it out and use the Collection Management program to organize and rip the DVDs via AnyDVD. Playing the DVDs from Mymovies extension in Media Center sometimes crashes. I have found it easier to play with VLC player. I hope the next Mymovies will be more stable. I would like to pay the author for this program, but I think I would need a crash free experience first.

It is nice to have all DVDs stored on the WHS and it makes it a lot easier to find and play them. Again: You need a cabled client PC to do this. Forget about wireless.

Document management system:

I have tried at least 15 of them. The best were Docvault (too slow and complex), Sohodox (fast, nice looking but full of bugs) and Digital Archound (DA). DA is probably the best, it is very simple and does not do in-document searching but at least it is stable. I will probably go with this.

I scan all documents with a Fujitsu fi6130 scanner. This is a great unit. It comes with software which will scan and separate separate documents with a "patch sheet". In other words, I can put 15 letters and pages into the scanner at one time. I just have to put a patch sheet between each file and the software will create 15 separate documents of varying length. DA then picks up the files and I can Tag them.

[legoland]

Here is an update.

Unit has now been running 24/7 since 2008 with no problems.

The console says that one of the harddisks are faulty and need replacement. However I can not figure out which one it is?

Performance: I think it is too slow for day to day use to store files on a WHS. It takes 2 minutes to log on to the console, so maybe something is wrong.

I will move my Itunes library back to a client PC for better performance.
DVD ripping and access still works great.
Our Picture library with 30.000 pix using Photoshop Elements is too slow. It will be moved to a client PC.
DMS: I found that Digital Archound is too slow also. It sure has nice support people and the idea is good, but it's too cumbersome to use day to day.

We will move all our Document Management to Evernote. This is simply a great program. Extremely fast, easy to use and very flexible. Use it with a Fujitsu fi6130 Scanner for fast and easy filing and retrieval of all paperworks. Basically we've set up Evernote with a desktop client on two pcs using the same Evernote premium account (45 USD a year). Everything syncs between the two and there is online backup and access built in via a web client also. Plus Ipad and Iphone access.

I would strongly recommend trying out Evernote for anybody who is looking for and easy DMS.

So in short I think the WHS will be used less, primarily due to speed issues.

[Dave Marchant (WGS)]

A faulty drive / controller / cable can severly impact performance and it is probably worth persevering to see if you can track down which drive.

Firstly check the Event logs on the server - that may give an indication of disk errors and tell you the Mount Point (C:\FS\xx) of the drive.

Then use the Disk Management Add-In to check the properties of each drive to see which is on that Mount Point. With a bit of luck, the add-in will also be able to read back the drive's serial number.

[Thanos]

My experience so far with a SQA-5H-3000-S2 is not the one I would expect. The system runs fine but I have to shut it down periodically for the (5) HDDs to cool down. The system disk goes up to 55C and the far left one at 45C! Ambient temp is around 25C-27C. Nothing too extreme. But the box seems to be badly designed for good airflow (at least for the 5 disks in it). The disk I/O is low to medium at best... all disks are low-power (WD20EVDS and one Seagate LP).

Other than that, this box is excellent. But it won't get a 5/5 from me till they fix this problem.
regards,
Thanos

[Vassilis]

My experience so far with a SQA-5H-3000-S2 is not the one I would expect. The system runs fine but I have to shut it down periodically for the (5) HDDs to cool down. The system disk goes up to 55C and the far left one at 45C! Ambient temp is around 25C-27C. Nothing too extreme. But the box seems to be badly designed for good airflow (at least for the 5 disks in it). The disk I/O is low to medium at best... all disks are low-power (WD20EVDS and one Seagate LP).

Other than that, this box is excellent. But it won't get a 5/5 from me till they fix this problem.
regards,
Thanos

Thano, I remember reading somewhere that you can request a new bigger fan with no charge from Tranquil and it really makes a difference.

[legoland]

I would strongly advise against giving up your email address to Tranquil. You can not unsubscribe

I did (unfortunately) and now I keep getting spam mail from them regarding not only what ever new servers they have but also new media center software which i do not even own.

I have unsubscribed 6-7 times. I have email them. No reply. I keep getting their spam.

My tranquil server still runs, one faulty drive still but I am starting to regret my purchase from them.

[legoland]

Well, I have now had my Tranquil for 2 years.

I regret purchasing it. It works, but it is slow. There could possibly be some disc or controller problems but I do not know how to fix them. Most of the functionality I wanted I could not get to work.

I keep getting spammed by Tranquil every week or so. I have unsubscribed 10-12 times, and emailed them 5-10 times to stop sending emails.

No response.

What a poor company.

[Fried]

Hi,
my experience is quite different. I have bought a SQA-5H Superstor in may 2010 and a SQA-Ex in dcember. The Superstor is equipped with 5 2TB WD Caviar disks, the Ex with 5 3TB Caviar disks. It is a bit tedious to get the 3TB to work with WHS, but that is a Microsoft problem, not Tranquils. I had troubles with the SIL controller, the firmware update fixed that. But I had to put the USB Stick in the first USB slot (at the back of the unit, farthest down near the edge of the box), otherwise it would not boot from the USB Stick. Still having some quirks with the TPCPanel (only HHD1 LED is green) I have opened a ticket and wait for a solution. A system like this requires some SysAdmin experience from the user in case of trouble, else it is plug and play as advised.
I have now ordered the SSM RAID disk for the system, to get even more security. I have also connected a APC BR1500LCDI which works fine with the Grid Junction AddOn.
The speed of the system is what I would expect with the disks used. It is build for data integrity rather than speed.
The answers from Tranquil where timely and competent.
Albeit the system is quite pricy, I would recommend it.

[Fried]

Hi,
my experience is quite different. I have bought a SQA-5H Superstor in may 2010 and a SQA-Ex in dcember. The Superstor is equipped with 5 2TB WD Caviar disks, the Ex with 5 3TB Caviar disks. It is a bit tedious to get the 3TB to work with WHS, but that is a Microsoft problem, not Tranquils. I had troubles with the SIL controller, the firmware update fixed that. But I had to put the USB Stick in the first USB slot (at the back of the unit, farthest down near the edge of the box), otherwise it would not boot from the USB Stick. Still having some quirks with the TPCPanel (only HHD1 LED is green) I have opened a ticket and wait for a solution. A system like this requires some SysAdmin experience from the user in case of trouble, else it is plug and play as advised.
I have now ordered the SSM RAID disk for the system, to get even more security. I have also connected a APC BR1500LCDI which works fine with the Grid Junction AddOn.
The speed of the system is what I would expect with the disks used. It is build for data integrity rather than speed.
The answers from Tranquil where timely and competent.
Albeit the system is quite pricy, I would recommend it.

BTW use only high quality eSATA cables, there are quite some bad ones on the market which my have a big impact on eSATA tranfers speed.

[legoland]

OK, I have decided to get rid of my Tranquil server.

Reasons:

1. It has started to become increasingly slow. The "harddisk failure" error message is gone after rebooting, but it is now so slow that I can not stream ripped DVDs from it.
2. We keep getting connection problems with it. Sometimes you can connect, other times now. Its too unreliable.
3. I think that the server and WHS OS is generally too difficult and slow for the average user to work with. We need something that just works, fast and easy, and neither software or hardware will do that.
4. In December 2008 the goal for the Tranquilserver was to

a: use it as a a central location for all our pictures
b: stream wireless itunes music to client pcs and airport express units
c: store ripped DVDs
d: store/share critical files
e: backup of client pcs
f: work as a Document management system.

Evaluation:

a: It is too slow for pictures when your library grows large. I moved all pix back to client pc.
b: It is too slow for Itunes music streaming and you really cant have a central storage for a bunch of itunes connected clients with WHS
c: It stored ripped DVDS nicely, but for some reason it eventually became too slow to stream them.
d: It stored shared files nice, but the speed to access them was too low.
e: Backup of client Pcs worked good but it was difficult to restore. Backup of the WHS (with Keepvault online) was difficult and slow to manage
f: I tested a bunch of different DMS. All were slow and tedius. Found a real winner instead: Evernote which is fantastic. Forget about the rest.

I guess if you are a tech guy who has spare time to tinker with the unit and the OS you can get good value out of WHS and Tranquil servers. But if you want to just set it up easily and have something that is fast and easy to use I would not recommend it.

I have now purchased a Synology DS1515+ NAS instead.

PS: After several emails to Tranquil all the spam I kept receiving finally stopped :-)