Comments on: Add-In Review: GridJunction

By: Grid Junction | Mon Home Server

Grid Junction | Mon Home Server — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:36:31 +0000

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By: Henry Gates

Henry Gates — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:37:30 +0000

I’m sure you mean well Jim,
But I personally feel that GridJunction is by far one of the only add-in’s that gives you as you have stated “give one some peace of mind”. I have been using it ever since WGS named it the ADD-IN of the year and I love how flawless it works with the whole WHS package. Keep up the good work.
Thanks,

By: Alexander Kent

Alexander Kent — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:27:46 +0000

Actually that is partically incorrect. Only the APC Business Edition will work correctly over time on the WHS. The APC Personal PowerChute have KNOWN Issues acknowleded by APC and the built-in Windows UPS driver originally developed by APC and Microsoft have a race-condition.

One could certainly write a custom action script to hibernate or sleep the WHS instead of a graceful shutdown but I would advise against such. I would like to stress that Grid Junction is designed to help protect ones WHS not to run any uncessary risks for the sake of convenince or personal preference. GJ is designed to run 24/7 and to engage and do what is necessary at a moments notice.

In terms of auto restart, this is something we would love and have prototype code in the works, are engaged in dialogs with certain manufacturers but there are a number of challenges (hardware depended and propriatory); I am happy to read that Jim Clark kept in mind that there are many non APC models in the field, to be more specific there are some really crappy UPS’s out there and a lack of standards is making this very difficult…furthermore one does not want any premature re-starts either.

Thank you

By: Jim Clark

Jim Clark — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:56:48 +0000

hmmm. OK. I uninstalled GridJunction. I installed PowerChute. Set it to shut down in 2 minutes after going on battery and unplugged the unit. 2 minutes later, PowerChute says it is putting computer into hibernation. I plug in the cord and within a minute, the APC is green again. I wait about 5 minutes. Nothing. I have to turn the computer back on myself, but it was “hibernated”.

I know hibernation works, from my use with LightsOut. Even tho I do not have LightsOut currently installed on my WHS, it is still on my workstation. When I turn my workstation on, the WHS turns on. Or it did until I installed the APC unit. Go figure.

The moral: Suspend and hibernate options work sometimes. Sometimes they do not. It is quite a hit-and-miss thing. If it works, great! If not, you are SOL. In this case, APC has to only make their SW work with their UPS’s. GridJunction has to try to work with all models. For GridJunction, I would have to say that this ability is more important.

The included APC SW does work. Quite well. GridJunction is simply better integrated into the console. But it is still a very good suggestion. If LightsOut can do it, so should GridJunction be able to do so.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:17:39 +0000

I might be being a bit naive, but what I believe this add-in misses is the ability to bring the server back online when power is restored?!

I’ve used APC UPS’s with the provided PowerChute software in the past, and this has done exactly that, and any similar functionality for GridJunction would be extremely welcome (especially if there’s a power cut whilst I’m away from home and unable to reboot my WHS when power’s restored!)

By: Alexander Kent

Alexander Kent — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:43:06 +0000

Very nice and thorough; Thank you