RDP to Headless Media Server

NavyLCDR · 01 Jul 2016

christof21 said:

Is there any sort of system monitoring I can install that might help explain what was happening leading up to the system freeze?

There are Windows event logs, but I am not really familiar with troubleshooting Windows freezing up. You might want to start a new thread about that problem under the General heading because it doesn't sound like that problem is related to the network connection specifically.

christof21 · 06 Jul 2016

NavyLCDR said:

There are Windows event logs, but I am not really familiar with troubleshooting Windows freezing up. You might want to start a new thread about that problem under the General heading because it doesn't sound like that problem is related to the network connection specifically.

Thanks, I'll do that now, as it's driving me crazy

jimbo45 · 06 Jul 2016

Hi there

the problem with running Windows as a headless server is that if it needs say an input for any reason before the OS can continue then you are literally "Stuffed". You'll need to satisfy the input request before the OS can continue and you'll have to do that on THE LOCAL machine !!!.

Windows is essentially a SINGLE USER GUI- so while you can use it as a headless server it's not ideal for this purpose.

You also need to disable anything that require periodic attention such as update reminders etc. If Windows updates automatically then you are hosed up as well.

IMO it's worth perservering with any decent Linux distro for running this type of server -- It's not that difficult to learn the basics. Just start with a "Live CD" to practice with and learn a few commands and you are all set. You don't need to be a Guru to get a system up and running.

All you need is to install SAMBA, your music / video servers, define your file shares and that's about it.
(PLEX works fine on Linux for both music and Video serving and is recognized by Google Chromecast if you use one of those devices to play video on your remote TV's.)

Most Linuxes have a GUI very similar to Windows - KDE or MINT are good "Windows like" GUI's. Linux being a multi-user system from the outset won't halt if something needs an input request and will run very nicely as a headless server.

I'm running TWO "NAS" servers on CENTOS with KDE -- never a problem with them - rarely need booting either.

For CENTOS installing software is simple -- package YUMEX makes installing software very simple - easy GUI.

RDP to Headless Media Server-snapshot28.png

Cheers
jimbo

christof21 · 06 Jul 2016

Cheers Jimbo,

Not been running this as a headless server now for a good 2 weeks or more, have it setup as effectively my main PC so I could test the theory of having nothing connected to it causing issues.

It's now sat with USB mouse and keyboard plugged in, along with 2 LCD monitors. 1 via DVI and 1 via HDMI