Virtualization, EUC, and Computing in General
I should probably call this one “FreeNAS Performance: The REAL Test”…my previous performance tests were completely unfair to FreeNAS and I’d like to show what it can really do. So – what was wrong with the first tests? FreeNAS needs RAM for ZFS to do what it does best A single spindle just isn’t a good test for ZFS Didn’t do my homework on FreeNAS or ZFS FreeNAS needs RAM – more than 3GB … So … Read more…
I recently built a cable-box replacement system using a FoxConn R10-H1 barebone system. It is essentially a case, power supply and motherboard all-in-one (plus some extras in this case – a heat-sink fan assembly). Here’s a link to the system on NewEgg. After having several AMD systems in the past, this was the first Intel setup I have had in some time. It has gigabit ethernet, and an HDMI port – perfect for an HTPC. Here’s a … Read more…
I noticed that Office 2013 had been made available for TechNet subscribers, so I promptly downloaded a copy of Pro Plus to install on the RDS Session Host farm. When I browsed for a license key I was astonished to find that there was no Terminal Services Enablement Key as there had been for previous versions of Office: You can see here that Office 2010 had this key: I was further angered when I went … Read more…
I recently upgraded my wireless AP in an effort to stream live TV wirelessly (more on that later). The new AP is a dual-band N capable model from Cisco – it replaced a G model from NetGear. Ever since then I noticed that our phones would CONSTANTLY disconnect then reconnect to the wireless in our house. This only happened at home – it didn’t happen in the office. Looking at the configurations I noticed the … Read more…
Although it has been available for about a month, the next major release of the StarWind iSCSI target is here! Some of the biggest features include (taken from here): High availability: – 3-node HA configuration. Synchronous mirroring between 3 nodes of an HA storage cluster. Such storage architecture ensures higher uptime and higher performance compared to a 2-node HA configuration. – HA device nodes manager. You can add, remove, or switch nodes of HA cluster … Read more…
The XBOX 360 is proving more and more useful these days. First, there is the Verizon FiOS app (which I have not tried yet). But more importantly is the fact that it is a Media Center Extender (one of the best…and only, really). I had paired it to a desktop that I wasn’t really using and could leave powered on… But the real power came when I upgraded the lab\infrastructure to VMware. I never had … Read more…
My home lab environment (or home datacenter as it is starting to become…) started several years ago. First I had just a Server 2003 box that was a DC, file server, RAS server…then Server 2008 and Hyper-V beta came out. A few more disks were purchased to store virtual machines – but 2 spindles and limited RAM only goes so far. Then Server 2008R2 was released so the host received an upgrade – both the … Read more…
With the recent purchase of the HDHR3-CC, I had been hoping to eliminate one of the cheap-no-HD-no-guide cable boxes and replace it with an ultra-fast, SSD based PC. The PC works great….the problem is the network – or more specifically, the lack of a wired network to the PC in question. So I purchased a wireless adapter…then I realized that I still have a Wireless-G access point, and I am therefore limited to 54Mbps (if … Read more…
I did not think I would be coming down this road again…but after hearing some great things about the HDHomeRun prime and sharing cable card tuners over the network – there I was at the Verizon store picking up an M-Card. I picked up the HDHR3-CC when I heard that you could share 3 tuners accross any devices on your network…the HD channels even worked over wifi…the tuner itself stays powered on while the PCs … Read more…
This is a good one – came in this morning…no text at all, just an image in an email: When the hell is the 27th of Juny? And the entire image is a link to www.annehelene.fr/XXXXXXXXXX.htm – the Xs are likely changed for every email, etc. If you mistype the link or go to the root of the site you get this – a seemingly legit French cooking site: But if you go to the … Read more…