QNAP and Synology have always been on my radar when it comes to pre-built desktop NAS devices. For more than a decade now they've been developing some of the best home and business network attached devices money can buy and today I consider them both pretty unbeatable.
Mar 10, 2016 Pre-configured Setup. The newly released My Cloud EX2 Ultra from WD is essentially a more consumer-friendly version of the existing My Cloud EX2100. The drive can be purchased in capacities from. Ask the question you have about the Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra here simply to other product owners. Provide a clear and comprehensive description of the problem and your question. The better your problem and question is described, the easier it is for other Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra owners to provide you with a good answer.
Despite being considered industry leaders and having been in business for well over a decade now, neither Synology nor QNAP are well known brands -- they certainly aren't mainstream, even in the tech world.
Summary of Contents of user manual for Western Digital My Cloud EX4. Page 1 ™ WD My Cloud EX4 Personal Cloud Storage User Manual Page 2: Registering Your WD ProductWD® Service and Support Should you encounter any problem, please give us an opportunity to address it before returning this. MY CLOUD EX2 ULTRA PRIVATE CLOUD STORAGE 4 USER MANUAL. Back up, your way – Protect your data via remote backup to another My Cloud device, integrated cloud backup or local LAN/WAN backup. PC users, WD SmartWare™ Pro offers options for how, when and where you back up your files for up to ten computers. Jul 17, 2017 Setup WD MyCloud EX2 Ultra For the First Time. Connect to the same network with the Lan connection before proceeding further. Western Digital My Cloud EX2 User Manual. Personal cloud storage. Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra User Manual 129 pages. AND SHARES 2. In the Quotas field, click Configure. Enter the amount of space to assign to the user on the WD My Cloud EX2 device. To assign unlimited space, leave the Quota Amount field(s) blank.
One of the problems for adoption has been retail price. A basic two-bay model with decent performance for a home user is going to cost around $300 in diskless form. Add in a couple of hard drives and the overall expense is akin to that of an entry level PC, though this is essentially what today's NAS devices are.
A more familiar name threw its hat into the ring around four years ago when Western Digital began developing its Red series hard drives for 24/7 operation in NAS servers. Today they have not one but two drive series targeting NAS devices: the Red and the Red Pro. Not stopping there, in 2013 WD launched its own range of desktop NAS boxes that hail from the company's My Cloud range. The devices themselves look nice and they are impressive enough from a pricing standpoint.
The base model My Cloud 2TB costs just $130 or $230 for the 6TB model, not to mention the My Cloud Mirror 4TB for $350. None of these WD units have hot-swap bays and although they come in a number of pre-configured capacities, a diskless version doesn't exist -- or didn't, anyway.
In 2014 the company released its My Cloud Expert series with the EX2 and EX4, both of which can be bought with or without disks, diskless costing $155 and $230 -- again, both are affordable.
Frankly, since then the WD NAS lineup has become a little confusing as it now features a large range of products that all have similar names and features.
Mi band 3 user manual english. Today we'll be looking at the newly released My Cloud EX2 Ultra, which is essentially a more consumer-friendly version of the existing My Cloud EX2100.
WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra
Like the previous EX2 model, the new EX2 Ultra can be purchased in a range of capacities as well as without drives. We have the 8TB model on hand but it's possible to purchase this device in 4TB and 12TB configurations as well. For those wondering, WD uses its Red series drives and each pre-configured model comes with two hard drives of equal size, meaning our review unit includes a pair of 4TB drives.
The device measures 165mm tall, 99mm wide and 157mm deep, which is extremely compact even for a two-bay device. Empty, it weighs just 0.8kg, though expect that to be as much as 2.4kg once loaded with a pair of 6TB drives.
The device itself looks quite sleek, with a curved one-piece grey front panel that wraps around either side. Embedded in the front panel towards the bottom is a black strip which features the WD logo, product name and more importantly some LED indicators that show drive status/activity and a power button. If all is well these LEDs will light up blue but if there is a problem such as a drive failure they will turn red. User manual for google pixel 3 xl.
The top and bottom are covered by black ventilated plastic panels. Internally the drives are mounted vertically and at first there appears to be no active fan, which is surprising as the WD Red drives can get quite hot. As it turns out there is a small fan mounted in the front of the device, though I am not sure how effective it is. The airflow is mostly restricted and despite making quite a bit of noise, I had a hard time detecting any airflow at all.
The slotted vent panel design continues around back, though there aren't actually any vents, it's just a pattern. What's important here is the small I/O panel which features a single gigabit Ethernet connector, two USB 3.0 ports and a 12v DC input. This is the beginning and end of the EX2 Ultra's connectivity as there aren't any front panel connectors.
My Cloud Ex2 Ultra Software
On top of the unit built into the ventilated panel is a thumb-sized indentation that looks a bit like a power button you might find on a PC case, the irony being that the EX2 Ultra doesn't actually have a power button. This button releases a catch which allows the top panel to open on a hinge.
Inside are a pair of 2.5' drive bays and they're occupied by the two Red 4TB hard drives which are locked in place by a small metal bracket that can be removed using a single tool-less screw.
The drives slot into place using a pair of custom screws which are attached to the rear mounting holes in the drive and one of them features a pull tab for removal.
Between the hard drives sits the guts of the EX2 Ultra which includes a Marvell Armada 385 1.3 GHz dual-core SoC and 1GB of DDR3 memory.
The Armada 385 is an SoC that we're familiar with as it has been used extensively by Synology, most recently by the DS216, a unit we'll mention again shortly as it's a direct competitor to the diskless My Cloud EX2 Ultra.
For now, there isn't much else to say about the physical design of the My Cloud EX2 Ultra, so let's move on to the software side of things.
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Pre-configured Setup
The setup procedure is simple if you purchase a pre-configured device like our 8TB review sample and regardless, installing drives in the EX2 Ultra is easy as WD provides a detailed manual that should keep you out of trouble.
The pre-configured model powered on as soon as the DC input was connected and with the EX2 Ultra hooked up on the network, DHCP assigned the necessary IP details. From there the device popped up in the Windows Network and upon double clicking it the default web browser was launched.
First up we are greeted by a small image of the My Cloud EX2 Ultra along with the option to select the language. After agreeing to the end user licence agreement you can hit continue to move onto the next step.
Next up the default admin account password needs to be set and this is obviously self-explanatory -- set a password you aren't going to forget!
The Cloud Access is an optional setup item and you can come back and enable this feature later once the setup process is complete.
Here you can opt into the WD product improvement program and enable auto updates if you wish.
Wd My Cloud Ex2 Setup Software
Well, that's it. The pre-configured devices are set to DHCP so there are no network settings to set up and the storage is also configured with a volume created.
Wd My Cloud Ex2 Ultra User Manual
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