Wanova Management Server Path in Config File

If you wish to manually change the path to the Wanova Management server the following file needs to edited

C:\program files\wanova\Mirage Service\Wanova.Desktop.Service.exe.config

and look for the serverAddress field

Wanova Mirage upgrade from v2 to v3

The wanova v3 administration guide documents the process for migration from a v2 to v3 environment.

Im here going to post some of that information for quick refererence for myself. If your performing your own upgrade please aquire the latest adminitration guide and follow the documented procedure within that.

Set Regional format to US (this can be set back after upgrade)

1. Uninstall all Mirage Servers.
2. Uninstall the Mirage Management Console.
3. Uninstall the Mirage Management Server.
The Mirage 3.0 Software must then be installed using the new MSIs in the following order:
1. Install Mirage Management Console.
2. Install Mirage Management Server.
3. Install Mirage Servers.

Attix5 v Wanova

I discovered a product today called Attix5.

A bit about Attix5
This product does background backups across the LAN or Internet to a central SIS repository.
It uses de-dup technology to ensure it doesn't send the same files that are are already stored in the data centre.
It uses data compression to minimise anything it does have to send across then network.
It enables users to perform snapshot restores of their files to their current device or a different one.

All this sounds very much like part of what the Wanova Mirage product does.
In fact its pretty much exactly what the Mirage product does. (using Microsoft VSS)

The differences
The Attix product is designed as a backup and restore solution. The Wanova solution is a device image management solution that has backup and restore feature built-in.
So basically Wanova includes backup and restore features like Attix5 but backs up the whole image and not just Folder and files, this would include things like user installed applications and user personalisation.
On top of this Wanova allows IT to Manage the user Desktop Image and allow the push of applications and patches to the users. So its really a very different product.

Conclusion
I guess if you were thinking of buying Attix5 you should consider looking at Wanova to see if it makes sense to get yourself the backup and restore functionality but with all the extras thrown in.

Wanova Issued New Patent in Desktop Virtualization

July 2011


Wanova Inc has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company, it’s first of several pending patents. The turnkey desktop cloud provider has acquired a patent in “architecture of single, centralized management of a primary copy of each PC image within an organization’s network, via Wanova’s unique layering technology; enabling a local copy of the image to run on an endpoint, with constant and optimized synchronization between the two images.”

Wanova - Blue Screen On Windows 7 download

During a Migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 using Wanova Mirage the client machine blue screened. The Blue screen reported an error with VOLSNAP.SYS

The Client machine did not have enough diskspace to download the windows 7 image. deleting unrequired files on the Windows XP partition resolved the issue and the machine continued the download and migrated to Windows 7 Successfully.

Outlook 2003 to 2010 migration problem using Microsoft USMT

When using the microsoft User State Migration Tool (USMT) to migrate users from a Windows XP/Office 2003 environment to a Windows 7/Office 2010 environement

I encountered the following error messages when launching Outlook 2010

“Cannot start Microsoft Outlook, cannot open the outlook window. The set of folders cannot be opended. The attempt to log on to Microsoft exchange has failed”

“Cannot open your default e-mail folders. The Attempt to log on to Microsoft Exchange has failed”

The resolution to this was to ensure i was using USMT v4. (this cannot be downloaded on its own, its part of the windows 7 IAK download)

And install a patch to office 2010 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2023591

After this the migration was succesful. Users Mailboxes, Signatures, Arhives and nickname settings all migrated as expected.