[HOW-TO] Roon and RoonServer on Windows Server 2012 R2

[jrobbins50]

AudioPhil, to be clear, should I be running AO 2.20 once through in traditional Ultimate mode, including the Roon support selection, then after reboot, run ao -wasapi — and after that and a reboot, install RoonServer as the last thing?  Or a different order — ie, after I get the missing codec error message on the RoonServer install, that’s when I run AO 2.20 and after that ao-wasapi, and, magically, the codec error then disappears?

 

I might as well at this moment raise a couple of other things you might know how to fix. First, I tried to install Firefox browser and at end of install, I get xpcom missing error. And when I try a portable install of JRiver 24, I get another odd error (ugh, I was so tired, I forgot to write down the error message — I will do that the next time around here).  (Normal install of JRiver starts fine, but the installer becomes “mini-sized” and when clicking on it, it disappears — hence, the attempt to do a portable install of JRiver.). JCR 

[AudioPhil]

Hi

 

1. run AO -WASAPI

2. Do full run of AO and say yes to "Install Kernel-Streaming and MediaPlayer Support"

3. install Players

 

Best,

AudioPhil

[jrobbins50]

Hi, audioPhil.  I can report success, and frustration, all at once.  Here's the gig:

 

1.  Roonserver is up and running in Windows Server 2016 core.  Your instructions indeed worked!  Yay!

2.  All of my Roon endpoints reappeared after restoring my library and settings upon the new install (yay!), with one exception.  The HDMI output from my main server running Roonserver -- which powers my multichannel music in my main system -- no longer is visible.  Only System Output.  Here's the diagnosis:

     (a) There was only the default Microsoft display adapter appearing in Device Manager.  There was no sound device of any kind.  So, as I am running a 4th generation Intel processor in my i7 server, I located the newest Intel HD4600 display driver set to install.  This is the same that I used with WS2016 GUI to install after I first switched from WS2012R2.

     (b) I did get the Intel HD Graphics 4600 display adapter installed, as you can see in the photo below.  However, you will see that no sound device is present.  That is, the Intel HD Audio seemingly did not install.

     (c) After way too much time spent, I found a YouTube instructional video, below, which required me to install Windows Server functions on a separate Windows 10 Professional PC and then use Computer Management Services to see if Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder are both set to "automatic."  As you can see from the photo below, one wasn't.  I did figure out how to change it.  But then, that didn't bring any sound device back up in Device Manager.

    (d) Worsening my life, I had used the net use J: \\N7700\Media command to create a drive letter J for my network attached storage, where I was storing drivers and programs.  Somehow in the process of disconnecting the remote link between the i7 server and the Windows 10 PC, this has become corrupt.  First, as you will see in the photo below, the drive letter J is not to be found any longer.  Worse, I get the multiple connections error when trying to reestablish the J drive letter for the NAS.  And if I try to delete the J letter, you can see that it isn't there to be removed.  Further, if I run sconfig and select Network Connections, index 1 is for my LAN and if I select index 1 to edit (thinking I might need to do that), the server merely exits sconfig rather than going into the selections.  Somehow, these issues must all be related.

3.  But wait!  Like with the ginsu knives advertised on TV, there's more!  I have been using my i7 server to host JRiver as well, which I use for its JRemote capabilities to access my NAS music away from home.  JRiver 24 loaded up fine in the GUI version of WS2016, but when trying to install directly, the auto installer gets to the point where it's counted through to 100% and then the GUI for the rest of the JRiver installation is supposed to appear -- but only a small vertical rectangle appears on-screen.  When clicking on that, it disappears and then JRiver doesn't install.  So, I followed the instructions to create a portable install of JRiver on a USB stick and copied those files to a folder on the i7 server's c drive.  When running "Media Center 24.exe", you can see from the photo below that I get an error message about a Media Core component failed to load.  I have selected Kernel support in AO, so not sure why this is happening.

 

My JRiver workaround at the moment was to install MC24 on the Windows 10 Professional PC mentioned above and to import the library backup with settings that I had for the i7 server when it was functioning yesterday with the GUI for WS2016.

 

It all makes me think that I should just go back to WS2016 with the GUI, but I am still hoping that your Windows Server expertise can help me sort these issues all out.

 

Whew!  Thanks.  JCR

 

[AudioPhil]

Hi

 

1. Glad i could be of any help!

2. a. Yes HDMI needs additional drivers.

     c. AO does this automatically for you (turn the needed windows audio service to auto start), even without asking to do so

     d. JRiver is installed in the wrong path. Please install it in the same path it would install iteslf if you could run the regular installier. This later is also needed to make a shell replacement with the ServiceTool.

 

Mapping of network drives and such is documenten (overview) in our PDF guide, otherwise google will certainly help you on how to permantently map a network share via UNC path...

 

Tip: Disable the devices markes with yellow exclamation marks the next time.

[jrobbins50]

Hi Phil. Not sure what you mean that AO turns on Windows Audio automatically. It doesn’t seem to have done so for me. So, how do I get it to do so?  I’ve run AO Ultimate....

 

I copied the JRMC folder contents into C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 24 and lo and behold after putting in my registration code, J River starts up fine. 

 

But, because my network file share has gone bad, as described above, I can’t restore my library in JRiver. I need a bit more help from you on the network drive letter issue. My Roon music library is missing as well for the same reason (only Tidal tracks are showing up in Roon).

 

To be clear, I ran net use J: \\N7700\Media and as you saw in my screenshots, it doesn’t work. It recognizes that the network is there, as it asks for my username and password for the share. However, I get that system error 1219 multiple connections error message and I don’t know how to “release” the existing share that isn’t accessible but is blocking the setting of a new one.

 

net use /delete J:\ simply returns error that the network connection could not be found. So, I’m lost on how to “release” the network connection so I can start over. 

 

Getting closer!  JCR 

[jrobbins50]

Update. Got network share to work with command net use J: \\192.168.0.2\Media. 

 

I note that that if JRiver restarts, it loses my registration license and I have to re-enter. There must be a way to solve that.

 

Also, now using JRemote, no audio file will play and all album art thumbnails are missing. Oy. JCR 

[jrobbins50]

And worse, Roon library restores settings but none of my music on the NAS. Must be something still wrong on the network share. I guess I will ask Roon support about this. JCR 

[tboooe]

1 minute ago, jrobbins50 said:

And worse, Roon library restores settings but none of my music on the NAS. Must be something still wrong on the network share. I guess I will ask Roon support about this. JCR 

Coming a little late to this so apologies if this has been covered but in Roon settings did you try using the IP address of your NAS?  I dont use any mapped drive in my setup and never had issues.

[AudioPhil]

Enter command prompt:

 

„sc config audiosrv start= auto“

 

Then reboot the machine. From then on windows audio and audioendpointbuilder will automatically start

[jrobbins50]

Ok cool. I will be away from home now for a few days and so I could have folks here listen to music and for me to do so while traveling, I reverted back to my WS2016 GUI image, where all is working fine. I will take a stab at reinstall when I return and report back. Thanks. JCR 

[jrobbins50]

Tboooe, I should ask:  I assume the reason that Roon did not restore my NAS library of music is likely because of drive letter or other mispointing of where to find the music. Is there a way in Roon to redirect without having to start a new library scan when restoring?  JCR 

[tboooe]

4 hours ago, jrobbins50 said:

Tboooe, I should ask:  I assume the reason that Roon did not restore my NAS library of music is likely because of drive letter or other mispointing of where to find the music. Is there a way in Roon to redirect without having to start a new library scan when restoring?  JCR 

I believe even if the path to the music has changed Room won't do a rescan after you do a restore from backup.  

[jrobbins50]

I’m guessing that my problem with the network share is probably why the NAS music became unavailable on the restore. 

 

Well, all will be revealed when I go at this again whence back home in a few days. I will report back. Thanks. JCR 

[tboooe]

8 minutes ago, jrobbins50 said:

I’m guessing that my problem with the network share is probably why the NAS music became unavailable on the restore. 

 

Well, all will be revealed when I go at this again whence back home in a few days. I will report back. Thanks. JCR 

I use a fixed IP address for my NAS then just enter that address directly into Room.  This way the path always remains the same and I don't need to worry about mapping a drive, assigning drive letters, etc.

[jrobbins50]

Actually, since I can remote into my home computers, I took a look at how Roon and JRiver each are identifying music tracks on my NAS. It is not by drive letter. It’s using \\N7000\Media as the path. 

 

Once I go back to reinstalling WS2016 core, how do I access the NAS in WS2016 from the cmd prompt without assigning a drive letter?  I recall from last go around that attempting to change drives to the NAS without a drive letter assigned yields an error message that WS2016 can’t access a shared network resource without a drive letter. Can I assign a drive letter for WS2016 use but JRiver and Roon will ignore and just see the direct \\N700\Media share?  JCR 

[tboooe]

14 minutes ago, jrobbins50 said:

Actually, since I can remote into my home computers, I took a look at how Roon and JRiver each are identifying music tracks on my NAS. It is not by drive letter. It’s using \\N7000\Media as the path. 

 

Once I go back to reinstalling WS2016 core, how do I access the NAS in WS2016 from the cmd prompt without assigning a drive letter?  I recall from last go around that attempting to change drives to the NAS without a drive letter assigned yields an error message that WS2016 can’t access a shared network resource without a drive letter. Can I assign a drive letter for WS2016 use but JRiver and Roon will ignore and just see the direct \\N700\Media share?  JCR 

I never access my NAS from my Server 2016 machine.  However, you can absolutely map a drive but use IP address in Roon and JRiver settings.  Maybe I am paranoid but I think using the IP address is more reliable than the device name.  

[AudioPhil]

15 hours ago, jrobbins50 said:

I’m guessing that my problem with the network share is probably why the NAS music became unavailable on the restore. 

 

Well, all will be revealed when I go at this again whence back home in a few days. I will report back. Thanks. JCR 

 

The issue mostly is (in server core) that the logon happens so extremely fast that the network stack is not yet ready and therefore network shares cannot be mounted. so either you wait a few seconds before you log on, or if you have autologon you make a shell script with a delay which mounts the network share after a pause of a few seconds and then launches your desired media player.

Best,

AudioPhil

[jrobbins50]

Can you describe how one writes the autologon delay script, such that I can essentially copy and paste?  Thanks. JCR 

[jrobbins50]

AudioPhil — back home and trying to setup the WS2016 core. Running sc config audiosrv start= auto seemed so promising. The screen says SUCCESS. I rebooted and then installed the most recent Intel display drivers I could find:  Intel HD Graphics 4600 v20.19.15.4963 dated 2/21/18. This is 4th gen Haswell i-7 processor. When rebooting and going to devmgmt.msc, I show the new display adapter but, alas, no audio devices. I ran the audiosrv command again and rebooted, but to no effect. 

 

I did catch that the first time, I didn’t have a space between the equals sign and auto, but doing that correctly and rebooting still doesn’t create an audio device. 

 

I do have the default audio device onboard the motherboard disabled in the bios setup, but with an HDMI cable plugged in and my Marantz prepro on, it should be connecting the audio driver to the HDMI device, automatically now that I ran audiosrv, yes?  It certainly is no issue with the desktop version of WS2016....

 

I went ahead and installed Roon and it is up and running fine except for the multichannel in my main system, which relies on the HDMI output from the core server. But, I still have no HDMI drivers.

 

Not knowing further what to do with Roon, I turned to JRiver. I installed JRiver as you instructed in its normal directory c:\program files\J River\Media Center 24, and it loaded up, opened and took my registration key. But, when trying to restore my library from the NAS backup, JRiver couldn’t see the NAS. UNC problem?

 

Bad or otherwise, I went into regedit.exe and did this:

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor] "DisableUNCCheck"=dword:00000001

 

And then I rebooted. Now, Roon could no longer see my NAS music nor the share folder \\N7700\Media where backups are stored. So, I went back into regedit.exe and deleted the DisableUNCCheck I created and then rebooted again. No luck for Roon.

 

So, I once again tried net use J: \\N7700\Media and got that multiple connections error again. I then again used the share address net use J: 192.168.0.2\Media and got my Roon backups back and that restore worked. Sort of. Roon recognizes the backup, ran it through to 100%, asked me to relaunch which I did — and then, I typically watch memory for RoonAppliance jump to 5-6,000 MB. It did, and then at the end, it fell back to 3,300 MB. And, you guessed it, only Tidal music shows up — nothing off of my NAS, yet again. I can still access the J: drive letter via Roon with backups, but since Roon backups no longer sees the \N7700\Media path, I can presume the UNC network share has again failed in Roon’s eyes. That delay on logon thing, or somesuch related issue. 

 

Meanwhile after the various reboots, JRiver won’t start up again. No change to those files. mc24.exe now gives me the “a JRiver media core component failed to load product info file:  please reinstall the latest version of the program” error again. And “media center 24.exe” just unsuccessfully tries to reinstall the program. 

 

I am going around in circles. I could give you remote access to my server directly via VNC Connect if your looking at my setup would accelerate finally solving this all. Of course, that would need to be via a private message. 

 

Your next sage suggestion?  I am tired of constant failure and my wife is annoyed with all the late nights leading to nothing. Help!  Or do I just give up and go back to WS2016 with GUI, where all works well. JCR 

[AudioPhil]

Hi

 

We can only give free support if some parts of AO do not work or not as intended. We always try to help beyond that barier as long as it is reasonable. I am very sorry to say but these issues you are facing are way out of that what we can give free support for. You might contact @highend-pcdoctor, he could be your ticket!

 

In your situation i would just stick to Server 2016 in GUI mode. Sure, Core sounds better, but under certain circumstances it is not worth the hassle. In Core you really need to be able to troubleshoot things by yourself, so it often needs deeper knowledge of windows.

 

I'd stick with Server 2016 GUI if i where you..

 

Best,

AudioPhil

[jrobbins50]

Yes, I would not expect free to solve these issues. Is @highend-pcdoctor you under an alias? (Ha!) I will check the good doctor out, since you really think the sound is better and I’ve spent this effort. 

 

I feel I am close and yet so far. Pending the next move, I did revert back to WS2016 GUI and of course everything is working well, AO and all. 

 

Happy 5th anniversary and thank you for all the assistance and encouragement to date. Cheers. JCR 

[AudioPhil]

20 hours ago, jrobbins50 said:

Yes, I would not expect free to solve these issues. Is @highend-pcdoctor you under an alias? (Ha!) I will check the good doctor out, since you really think the sound is better and I’ve spent this effort. 

 

I feel I am close and yet so far. Pending the next move, I did revert back to WS2016 GUI and of course everything is working well, AO and all. 

 

Happy 5th anniversary and thank you for all the assistance and encouragement to date. Cheers. JCR 

 

Hi JCR

 

First of all, thank you

 

Yes you are close. @highend-pcdoctor is my right hand, he's US based. Just shoot him a PM and i'm sure he will find the time to help you figure the last inches out

 

Very best,

AudioPhil

[jrobbins50]

Phil, I did pm the good doctor but it has been a couple of days. Is he on vacation, or is it typical for him to take several days to respond?  Thanks. JCR 

[jrobbins50]

Phil, an update for you.  The good doctor has solved the network share issue.  It now persistently works.

 

We have Roon up and running in core mode and it works for 17 of 18 Roon endpoints.  The one it doesn't work for:  HDMI audio directly plugged into the server itself -- and that powers my multichannel audio in my main system.  A bummer.

 

While I don't expect you have the answer -- the good doctor is himself pondering the situation -- I post here in the hope that others might have some suggestions.

 

Easy to describe the situation. Bringing up Device Manager via cmd using devmgmt.msc, there is no Sounds, Video and Game Controllers tab. Running mmsys.cpl shows that there is no sound device.

 

Windows Admin Center reports that the audiosrv and audioendpointbuilder services are both running, automatically.

 

In the desktop environment, I can load the Intel HD Graphics 4600 drivers (4th generation) and it automatically loads the Intel HD Audio driver at the same time. Not the case in core mode. Only the graphics driver loads.

 

I have used phputil to load the Intel HD audio driver inf and Windows reports that it is successfully installed on a device on the system. Yet, I get no sound device in Sound Manager or Device Manager and running a driver query doesn’t show any audio driver installed, notwithstanding that I’ve done so.

 

The motherboard is a Gigabyte unit and I’ve updated the chipset drivers and also installed the Realtek HD audio drivers that Gigabyte has on its own website. It installed, but yet, the Realtek drivers don’t show up either in the query list and still no device in Sound Manager or Device Manager.

 

For normal audio listening, I disable the onboard sound device on the motherboard as instructed by Phil. This isn’t an issue for the desktop experience. Thinking that might be the issue in core mode, I have enabled the onboard audio device, but it doesn’t show up in Sound Manager or Device Manager.

 

Microsoft TechNet is no help. They just say “well, your hardware and software aren’t Windows Server 2016 certified, so it’s your problem.” I am stumped. HDMI audio works fine in the desktop environment and not in core. Makes no sense. Thoughts all? Thanks. JCR

[dminches]

I just started using Roon with HQP and I guess my issues are well documented in that when I try to go to minimal server mode Roon control does not see my NAS.  I have been running in GUI mode.  It works fine and sounds fine but it seems like this isn’t optimized.

 

What are my options here?  Should I be changing the shell to HQPlayer?  Should I be delaying log in to allow the network stack to load?  Or, should I just be ok with the GUI since the sound quality isn’t that different?