Initial Setup & Asustor Data Master

You will initially have to put the provided software disc into a client PC's drive, after installing the NAS server's HDDs and connecting all the cables, power and network. We strongly advice you to also take a look at the Quick Start Guide. You will find the User's Guide on the bundled disc should you require some more information that cannot be found in Asustor's Quick Start Guide. Asustor also includes all compatible mobile apps on the disc should you not want to download them.


Some screenshots of the Quick Installation Guide you can find as a PDF file on the bundled software disc.


Asustor's Control Center is an essential application since it will not only find the NAS on your network, but will allow for its effortless and quick configuration. It supports many languages, including English and Chinese.


You will easily initialize the NAS through Web Setup, found inside Asustor's Control Center. The first step prompts you to pick between a 1-click setup or custom option. The latter option, which we picked, is for more experienced users.


The Setup Guide's next steps will prompt you to enter the server's name and set a new admin password. You can configure all time- and date options and set all network settings afterward. You will also have to pick between automatically or manually setting the IP address; we recommend using the latter option.


You can pick the RAID configuration that best suits your needs during initialization. Only two RAID levels are available since this is a two-bay NAS, but you can also configure your disks in JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) or run everything off a single disk if you cannot afford two HDDs. After all is finished and done, you will have to wait for the NAS to apply all these settings you picked before registering your product to obtain an Asustor ID, which you will need if you want to use Asustor's Application Center.

ADM (ASUSTOR Data Master) Operating System

Once initialization has finished, you will be redirected to the login page of the ADM OS administration interface.


Two notifications about a firmware and a BIOS upgrade were waiting for us right after we logged into ADM for the first time. We proceeded with both upgrades, which went smoothly.


A welcome message will greet you in ADM, offering you a tour of the web interface. We strongly advise you to follow through on this guide at least once since it will show you all the basic steps you need to take to correctly set the NAS up. The paragraphs below will also take you through those steps since we took the tour.


The ASUSTOR Data Master Operating System, ADM for short, is a Linux-based operating system Asustor developed exclusively for their NAS servers. Although the development cycle was significantly shorter than with QNAP's and Synology's offerings, ADM is still capable, managing to compete with QTS and DSM in terms of reliability, functionality, and usability. ADM comes with all the features and options one would expect to find in an OS for such a modern NAS, and Asustor provides frequent OS updates that fix problems or add new features.

Some of ADM's interesting features include the Searchlight search engine, ability to pin frequently used applications to the menu bar, customizable desktop wallpapers, two-way transfer support, Mission Mode backup, FTP Explorer, or KODI (formerly XBMC) player support, under others. The only serious omissions are the fact that you cannot re-size windows and the lack of widgets, which both Qnap's and Synology's operating systems include. We highlighted both of these omissions in our previous Asustor product reviews, but the current version of ADM unfortunately still doesn't include either.


Right next to the search option are the administrative options with which you can shutdown, reset, or put the NAS to sleep, in the desktop's top-right corner.


These settings allow you to change the admin password, ADM's language setting, or the administrator's email address. You can also optimize your wallpaper here.