No need to describe it – google Quadstor to find out more.  Here is a simple way to install on Debian 7 Net Install (64 bit of course):

apt-get install uuid-runtime build-essential sg3-utils apache2 psmisc linux-headers-`uname -r` ntp git sudo
vi /etc/ntp.conf
service ntp restart
cd /root
git clone --branch opensource https://github.com/quadstor/quadstorvirt.git quadstor
cd quadstor
./installworld debian7 

First browse to:

http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/latest/repos

And pick your repo

In linux wget and then rpm –Uvh the item

Then you can use the package manager to install vmware-tools-esx-nox or whichever package you want.

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.shutdown ID

esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e yes

esxcli software vib update –dry-run -d http://vibsdepot.hp.com/index.xml

esxcli software vib install –dry-run -d http://vibsdepot.hp.com/index.xml

esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e no

reboot

PowerCLI has a function to remove a USB device from a host, Remove-UsbDevice. However, what if you need to add a usb device to a VM.  Well you can with a bit of PowerCLI magic.  This solution assumes the device you wish to add remains in the same USB port and that the VM will be on the same host as the USB device of interest.  If you wish you can hack around to insert the host ID and change from path: option to pid: and vid: options.  You can read more about the option at VMware pubs.

For a good year and half now my EX490 has served me well as the only server in my household.  It takes care of all essentials activities such as media sharing and backup.  It’s the hub of my digital archives, the brain in the distributed backup solution and with VMware it’s my own little cloud.  I’ve been thinking of upgrading to Windows Home Server 2011 for a while and I wanted to run my old WHSv1 in a VM to keep some of my old backups accessible.  My major concern was still being able to have a responsive server along the way.  I’m lucky in that in the past I’ve found a Q8400S and 4GB for relatively low costs and recently I acquired a Crucial C300 256GB SSD and a Kingston Storage Bay Adapter (SNA-DC/35) 

Introduction

This article will cover installing VMWare Virtual Server 2.0 on Windows Home Server and setting up guest operating systems.  Part 1 covered the steps in upgrading the hardware in an HP MediaSmart Server EX490 to deal with virtualisation.

You will need a copy of VMWare Server 2.0.2, a License Key (given for free after a no-fee registration with VMWare.com) and Remote Desktop Access to you Windows Home Server.

Got VMWare?

In the last paragraphs of the previous article on turning your HP MSS EX49x into a Virtual Server I said it was a good idea to get hold of VMWare Server 2.0.  You can download it by following this link and going through the download steps or by navigating the huge menus at VMWare.com.  You will have to register with VMWare but you get the option to opt out of emails if you won’t be interested in the odd email about Virtualisation and Cloud Computing.  The download is 507MB and I advise you go through VMWare’s Download Manager.  The version you need to get is VMWare Server 2.0.2 (10/26/2009) – it’s the first version under the Binaries heading, be careful not to download the Linux version or the API instead.  On this same page is the only time you will be given the licensing information for VMWare Server.  I suggest saving this page or making a copy of the License Key somewhere safe – keys are provided for both Linux and Windows versions.  As always I recommend you use a Client PC to do the actual download and move the file to your Windows Home Server Software Share once you have virus scanned the executable.

Introduction

This article is based around upgrading the hardware in an HP MediaSmart Server EX490.  Later articles will cover installing VMWare Virtual Server 2.0 and guest operating systems.

Say What?

There are a lot of articles and posts on the internet showing you how to run Windows Home Server in a virtual environment.  I did consider turning my EX490 into a Virtual Server using VMWare ESXi (the enterprise Virtualisation solution) but because I would severely lose out on important storage characteristics with regard to the ability of hot swapping and expanding the virtual disk datastore I decided against it.  Long before ESX (and ESXi) though was Virtual Server from VMWare supporting a more traditional approach of an application layer on top of the operating system – as opposed to installing a Hypervisor on top of bare metal (the machine itself with no underlying operating system).  Anyway this is not a lesson of which is best or why use virtualisation, I assume if you are reading this then you are familiar with Wikipedia for definitions and are interested in taking advantage of your ‘always on’ home server.