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    Hello,

    I have a Dell PowerEdge SC1425 and it features Dual Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz Processors (with Hyper Threading) so on the old Windows Home Server v1 with Power Pack 3 it shows in the task/device manager that my system has a total of Four Processor/CPU threads in the Windows Task Manager/Device Manager (based off Windows 2003 Server) I am very disappointed to find out that after installing the new Windows Home Server Code Name “Vail” Preview Refresh (based off Windows 2008 Server R2 Standard Edition x64) that feature/option has been removed  and is no longer available I confirmed this by opening my Windows Task Manager and saw under “Performance” tab that I only have two CPU’s however in the "Device Manager" it shows four processors are in there. I also believe that Windows 2008 R2 Standard Edition supports up to four processors so who messed this up? I hope you guys consider that if you have for sale a OEM version like the first one (ex: Newegg and Fry's) and have real users like me with real servers and enthusiasts who have their own custom configurations and setups would like to have this feature and so my request is that I would love to run your next generation of Windows Home Server V2 since I didn’t have this limitation on the first/previous version. I was planning on purchasing the OEM version like the first version thank goodness for "Evaluation/Beta Versions" however if Microsoft doesn’t correct this since were still in the BETA stages and no planned release date announced yet so I hope my feedback and concerns get addressed and I won’t consider upgrading at all because I am missing my two threads and don’t think an Intel Atom is sufficient for my environment and I would like to take advantage of at least my Dual Processor Configuration and I could only image if someone were to use a Quad Core Processor (ex: Intel Core i5/7) that they would also be very disappointed since they can’t take advantage of the performance gains I mean talk about next generation product this sure doesn’t look like it headed in the right direction. Really Microsoft is this too much to ask for?

    • Edited by alan886 Monday, August 30, 2010 9:38 PM
    Monday, August 30, 2010 3:14 PM

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    Michael's bug on Connect has been resolved as "by design". One processor, four cores, 8 GB of RAM, which is consistent with Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, as I observed previously..
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Saturday, September 4, 2010 8:56 PM
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    I can't find anything right now, but I believe Vail is based on Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, which supports one processor (any number of cores) and up to 8 GB of memory. This is unlikely to change, given the target market.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Monday, August 30, 2010 3:30 PM
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    Hello,

    I have a Dell PowerEdge SC1425 and it features Dual Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz Processors (with Hyper Threading) so on the old Windows Home Server v1 with Power Pack 3 it shows in the task/device manager that my system has a total of Four Processor/CPU threads in the Windows Task Manager/Device Manager (based off Windows 2003 Server) I am very disappointed to find out that after installing the new Windows Home Server Code Name “Vail” Preview Refresh (based off Windows 2008 Server R2 Standard Edition x64) that feature/option has been removed  and is no longer available I confirmed this by opening my Windows Task Manager and saw under “Performance” tab that I only have two CPU’s however in the "Device Manager" it shows four processors are in there. I also believe that Windows 2008 R2 Standard Edition supports up to four processors so who messed this up? I hope you guys consider that if you have for sale a OEM version like the first one (ex: Newegg and Fry's) and have real users like me with real servers and enthusiasts who have their own custom configurations and setups would like to have this feature and so my request is that I would love to run your next generation of Windows Home Server V2 since I didn’t have this limitation on the first/previous version. I was planning on purchasing the OEM version like the first version thank goodness for "Evaluation/Beta Versions" however if Microsoft doesn’t correct this since were still in the BETA stages and no planned release date announced yet so I hope my feedback and concerns get addressed and I won’t consider upgrading at all because I am missing my two threads and don’t think an Intel Atom is sufficient for my environment and I would like to take advantage of at least my Dual Processor Configuration and I could only image if someone were to use a Quad Core Processor (ex: Intel Core i5/7) that they would also be very disappointed since they can’t take advantage of the performance gains I mean talk about next generation product this sure doesn’t look like it headed in the right direction. Really Microsoft is this too much to ask for?

    I suspect it has nothing to do with the WHS team (that is a core function of the OS).  What happens if you install the demo of Server 2008 R2?
    Monday, August 30, 2010 3:33 PM
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    I can't find anything right now, but I believe Vail is based on Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, which supports one processor (any number of cores) and up to 8 GB of memory. This is unlikely to change, given the target market.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Hmmmm, interesting Ken (I missed that).  I'll try adding a second CPU into my VM of Vail and see what happens.
    Monday, August 30, 2010 3:36 PM
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    Wow this is caught me by surprise I just downloaded and installed the 180-day evaluation version from Technet and installed Windows 2008 R2 Standard Edition and it shows a total of four not two like on the Vail Preview Refresh processor/threads(confirmed with the Windows Task and Device Manager) this makes me believe that Windows Home Server Team has been touched, modified, and or some major changes have been made very quietly until I evaluated it on my server and surprisingly on Windows Home Server Code Name Vail Preview Refresh they have removed and limited dual processor support and resulted in showing two threads on VAIL because four processor threads do not show up in the Task Manager and it also makes now question that if it even really based off of Windows 2008 R2 Standard Edition (it also says on the Windows Home Server Code Name Vail Preview Refresh) for the previous version all four threads show up and I really believe itwas based off Windows 2003 Server on the bottom right screen too.
    • Edited by alan886 Monday, August 30, 2010 7:11 PM
    Monday, August 30, 2010 6:36 PM
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    Punctuation. Please use it. In particular, the proper use of commas, semicolons, periods and paragraph breaks dramatically improves readability over a wall of run-on text.

    Now that I have that out of my system: As I said above, I believe Windows Home Server Code Name "Vail" is based on Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, not Standard. Foundation supports a single physical processor, and has some additional functionality around media that would potentially be useful. The limitation this introduces makes sense; multi-processor motherboards are pretty expensive (and generally not energy efficient or small), multi-core processors are extremely common, and Windows Home Server is primarily designed to be sold via OEMs (i.e. as part of a hardware/software bundle).

    I'm not in a location where I can confirm this, though.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Monday, August 30, 2010 7:01 PM
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    I checked my desktop and on the bottom right hand corner it says Windows 2008 R2 Standard.
    Monday, August 30, 2010 7:07 PM
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    Thank you, Ken. I often am tempted not to read a question or suggestion if everything's all run together. For me, paragraphs work wonders.

    Nancy Ward
    Windows 8 BetaFerret

    "Ken Warren [MVP]" wrote in message news:72b77e4b-7125-4dac-8600-f8557459c8e1@communitybridge.codeplex.com...

    Punctuation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation>. Please use it. In particular, the proper use of commas, semicolons, periods and paragraph breaks dramatically improves readability over a wall of run-on text.

    Now that I have that out of my system: As I said above, I believe Windows Home Server Code Name "Vail" is based on Windows Server 2008 R2*Foundation*, not Standard. Foundation supports a single physical processor, and has some additional functionality around media that would potentially be useful. The limitation this introduces makes sense; multi-processor motherboards are pretty expensive (and generally not energy efficient or small), multi-core processors are extremely common, and Windows Home Server is primarily designed to be sold via OEMs (i.e. as part of a hardware/software bundle).

    I'm not in a location where I can confirm this, though.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)

    Nancy Ward
    Monday, August 30, 2010 8:07 PM
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    Punctuation. Please use it. In particular, the proper use of commas, semicolons, periods and paragraph breaks dramatically improves readability over a wall of run-on text.

    Now that I have that out of my system: As I said above, I believe Windows Home Server Code Name "Vail" is based on Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, not Standard. Foundation supports a single physical processor, and has some additional functionality around media that would potentially be useful. The limitation this introduces makes sense; multi-processor motherboards are pretty expensive (and generally not energy efficient or small), multi-core processors are extremely common, and Windows Home Server is primarily designed to be sold via OEMs (i.e. as part of a hardware/software bundle).

    I'm not in a location where I can confirm this, though.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    I tried both dual-core and dual-processor on my Vail VM.  Dual core shows both in Task Manager, whereas dual processor does not. 
    Tuesday, August 31, 2010 4:59 AM
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    There's something odd here, since it reports "Standard" which supports multi-processor configurations, yet it's acting like "Foundation" which doesn't. My bet is that the original poster is correct, and Microsoft has disabled multi-processor support specifically in Vail. I can't find anything where they've actually said this, though.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Tuesday, August 31, 2010 2:46 PM
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    I tried both dual-core and dual-processor on my Vail VM. Dual core shows both in Task Manager, whereas dual processor does not.
    How do you specify dual-core or dual-processor separately? In VMWare server 2.0 I see only one setting -- Processors.
     
    I have mine set to 2 (on Quad-core Win7 x64 host) and Task Manager sees two CPU's in both Homeserver V1 (not Vail) and in an XP virtual machine.
     
    I was just doing some reading about this, and I read some comments that it is best to give VMWare virtual machines just one processor -- do you know anything about that?
     
    David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP
    Tuesday, August 31, 2010 3:38 PM
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    Thank you, Ken. I often am tempted not to read a question or suggestion if everything's all run together. For me, paragraphs work wonders.

    In some forums, a wall of run-on text like that will only garner a quick "tl;dr". In this forum, I try to make an effort to comprehend (at least the first time, after that you've seen how much continued tolerance I have), and if I'm not sure, I take a guess. Sometimes I even guess right. :)

    But it is tempting to just ignore them.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:44 PM
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    I'm not the expert here, so it's not so bad if I ignore a run-on post, but as a writer and reviewer of fiction, it is one of my pet peeves. When I review a new work, I HAVE TO show the reviewee what they've done wrong. Haven't had the guts to do it in the forums/newsgroups, though.

    Nancy Ward
    Windows 8 BetaFerret

    "Ken Warren [MVP]" wrote in message news:8cfcec79-1c0e-4a98-9ac6-4bdde94d4bbc@communitybridge.codeplex.com...

    Thank you, Ken. I often am tempted not to read a question or suggestion if everything's all run together. For me, paragraphs work wonders.

    In some forums, a wall of run-on text like that will only garner a quick "tl;dr". In this forum, I try to make an effort to comprehend (at least the first time, after that you've seen how much continued tolerance I have), and if I'm not sure, I take a guess. Sometimes I even guess right. :)

    But it is tempting to just ignore them.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)

    Nancy Ward
    Tuesday, August 31, 2010 6:07 PM
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    How do you specify dual-core or dual-processor separately? In VMWare server 2.0 I see only one setting -- Processors. 
    I'm using VMware Workstation.
     
    I have mine set to 2 (on Quad-core Win7 x64 host) and Task Manager sees two CPU's in both Homeserver V1 (not Vail) and in an XP virtual machine.
     
    I was just doing some reading about this, and I read some comments that it is best to give VMWare virtual machines just one processor -- do you know anything about that?
     

    David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP


    Wednesday, September 1, 2010 4:44 AM
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    I have recently upgraded my server to VAIL Refresh and have hit the same problem, only one proc recognised and limited to 8GB RAM.

    I wouldn't mind but I use it to host VMware images and 8GB of RAM is nothing especially when you think my server is actually not a server but a high end workstation and MS Vista, and Windows 7 support this and they are desktop OS's.

    I have logged a case on the connect site so I will see what happens:

    https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/feedback/details/593939/dual-processor-not-recognised

    Matthew

    Thursday, September 2, 2010 6:11 PM
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    I have recently upgraded my server to VAIL Refresh and have hit the same problem, only one proc recognised and limited to 8GB RAM.
     
    I wouldn't mind but I use it to host VMware images and 8GB of RAM is nothing especially when you think my server is actually not a server but a high end workstation and MS Vista, and Windows 7 support this and they are desktop OS's.
    Have you thought of running another OS on the hardware (Windows 7, Server 2008 R2...) and running WHS in a virtual machine? This is what I do with WHS v1:
     
    Host: Windows 7 x64
    Hardware: Athlon II X4, 8 GB DDR3 memory
    Virtualization: VMWare Server 2
    WHS Guest memory: 1 GB (could be increased)
     
    David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP
    Thursday, September 2, 2010 9:06 PM
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    Thanks for the suggestion David. Running Vail in a VM would most certainly solve the immediate issue as I know the hardware works fine on Windows 7 Pro x64.

    The issue for me is that I want to use the drive extender on WHS to manage my storage as my 10 Hard Drives as JBOD was getting a bit complicated. Combining into a single pool with WHS is great. It would be possible to do this by directly attaching drives through VMWare but probably not great as solution

    If WHS continues not to support the dual procs I will go back to win 7 and look at putting the disks in a NAS or DAS solution which will allow a RAID 5 style array to be created with odd sized drives... perhaps a Drobo.

    Thursday, September 2, 2010 10:15 PM
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    Yes, its now definite that Vail is crippled. 8GB and 1 socket max. Fine for your average "user", but certainly useless now as a hardcore whole house media server, especially if you're having to transcode/stream HD video.

    The workaround is to run it under Hyper-V, ESXi, or Vmware workstation. All will give a WHS VM direct access to disk meaning that if you actually want to run DE (perhaps because you have different sized drives?) you certainly can.

     

    Saturday, September 4, 2010 6:08 PM
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    Michael's bug on Connect has been resolved as "by design". One processor, four cores, 8 GB of RAM, which is consistent with Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, as I observed previously..
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Saturday, September 4, 2010 8:56 PM
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    Just to bring some final closure to this: Microsoft has confirmed to me that Vail is based on Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, with "some SKU differential items". So Vail will be 1 socket, up to 4 cores, 8 GB of RAM.

    There's also a micro/small business offering, code named Aurora (now in "sort of" public beta), which will support 2 sockets and 32 GB of RAM. It has some other useful features for folks that have asked for additional functionality in Windows Home Server over the years: 25 clients and users, some sort of AD (managed through the Aurora version of the dashboard), some connection to Microsoft's "cloud services", etc. It will have most Vail features, but I think media won't be a priority. I expect it will also be a lot more expensive than Vail is likely to be, since Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with 25 CALS is around $1600, if I recall correctly.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Tuesday, September 7, 2010 5:04 PM
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    Problem solved...almost

    So, now they just need to make sure Aurora can be used as a premium sku for WHS.

    ie, they need to keep the media server/DLNA ability, and hopefully add the ability to disable DEv2 (so as to properly utilize hardware RAID).

    That way, I can actually take my WHS server out of a VM, and run it natively :-)

    Wednesday, September 8, 2010 8:25 PM
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    ...
    ie, they need to keep the media server/DLNA ability, and hopefully add the ability to disable DEv2 (so as to properly utilize hardware RAID).
    ...

    Media I'm not positive about, but probably not. As I said, "media won't be a priority", plus it's a business product. I don't have Aurora running anywhere though, so I won't swear to it.

    And no, you won't be able to disable Drive Extender.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Wednesday, September 8, 2010 11:17 PM
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    Media I'm not positive about, but probably not. As I said, "media won't be a priority", plus it's a business product. I don't have Aurora running anywhere though, so I won't swear to it.

    And no, you won't be able to disable Drive Extender.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    That's correct, Ken.  I have installed Aurora in a VM and there is no media streaming of any kind (local or internet).
    Thursday, September 9, 2010 4:08 AM
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    My suggestion would be anyone with more powerful hardware should be configuring Vail as a VM on top of whatever virtualization environment they choose. This will give them the ability to host more VM servers running additional things, which is a better/safer setup than running additional services on top of Vail. I've got Vail running on a very beefy box at the moment with four virtual processors assigned to it, side by side with other servers that are supporting the overall environment I want to achieve. The Vail VM has 16TB of drives mapped into it, and performance is considerably better than I had on my old dedicated WHS box.
    Sunday, September 12, 2010 2:29 PM
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    I have also built me a test computer with dual quadcore XEON CPU's and 16GB FBDIMM, and the first beta of Vail worked as expected with both CPU's.
    But in the Vail refresh the ability to have dual CPU's and 16GB RAM was removed.

    I've been running the WHS v1 for almost 3 years now on an older dual XEON CPU's computer, without any problems, but I have to look for another software to run on in the future if the limitation for Vail isn't removed.

    It wouldn't be to hard for them to change it back as it was in the first Vail release, vote for it here,
    https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/feedback/details/593939/dual-processor-not-recognised#details

     

    Monday, September 13, 2010 11:34 AM
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    Which one is the real Microsoft?  The "Thanks" (just plain Microsoft) or the "Best Wishes" (Windows Home and Small Business Server Team)?  The "Thanks" closes the door, but the "Best Wishes" leaves it open.  Sounds as if the "Team" wants it, but $$$$Marketing$$$$ says "no way!"
     
    Just my 2¢, your mileage may vary, but it sounds like a regression from V1 to me.
     
    Posted by Microsoft on 9/3/2010 at 11:02 AM
    Thank you for testing Vail MPoxon,

    A business decision was made and Vail will only support 1 processor, with up to 4 cores, and only up to 8GB of RAM. This is expected.

    Thanks,
    Microsoft
     
     
    Posted by Microsoft on 9/2/2010 at 6:12 PM
    Thank you very much for submitting a product bug to us via Connect. Your input is very valuable to us. The Product Team is responsible for this area and has been made aware of your bug. The Product team will follow up with you if they require additional information.

    Best wishes,
    Windows Home and Small Business Server Team

    --
     
    _______________
     
      BullDawg
      In God We Trust
    _______________

    I have also built me a test computer with dual quadcore XEON CPU's and 16GB FBDIMM, and the first beta of Vail worked as expected with both CPU's.
    But in the Vail refresh the ability to have dual CPU's and 16GB RAM was removed.

    I've been running the WHS v1 for almost 3 years now on an older dual CPU's computer, without any problems, but I have to look for another software
    to run on in the future if the limitation for Vail isn't removed.

    It wouldn't be to hard for them to change it back as it was in the first Vail release, vote for it here,
    https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/feedback/details/593939/dual-processor-not-recognised#details

     

    BullDawg
    Monday, September 13, 2010 11:59 AM
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    Hi , does this mean if i install Aurora i will not be able to stream movies to a media player (mvix player)
    Monday, September 20, 2010 2:35 PM
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    There's no media support in Aurora, so no, you wouldn't be able to stream media.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Monday, September 20, 2010 3:03 PM
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    My suggestion would be anyone with more powerful hardware should be configuring Vail as a VM on top of whatever virtualization environment they choose. This will give them the ability to host more VM servers running additional things, which is a better/safer setup than running additional services on top of Vail. I've got Vail running on a very beefy box at the moment with four virtual processors assigned to it, side by side with other servers that are supporting the overall environment I want to achieve. The Vail VM has 16TB of drives mapped into it, and performance is considerably better than I had on my old dedicated WHS box.

    I know there are conflicts here, but what are the issues for this scenario if the Lights-Out add-in for Vail (beta just released) wre to be used, to sleep the host system until a WOL?
    Friday, October 1, 2010 7:13 AM
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    You shouldn't place a host system (running one or more guests in VMs) in hibernation. 
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Friday, October 1, 2010 12:49 PM
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