Software

You will find every piece of compatible software on Asustor's corresponding page. The most essential for setting up the NAS is the Control Center app you have to download and run from a client PC that is on the same network as the NAS.


You will also find all Android apps the NAS supports on Asustor's site. We should note here that many of these are available for iOS devices as well.


The available apps for the NAS are on this page. Although you can download them directly, it is much easier to install them through ADM's Package Center.

Initial Setup

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.


Simply use Web Setup, found inside Asustor's Control Center, to initializing this NAS. 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 select 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 the 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 the initialization process has finished, you will be redirected to the login page of the ADM OS administration interface.


A notification about a firmware update was waiting for us when we logged into ADM for the first time. We proceeded with the upgrade, 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, and 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. As Asustor told and showed us at Computex 16, both of those faults will be fixed in the next ADM upgrades.


Right next to the search option are the administrative options with which you can shutdown, reset, or put the NAS to sleep.


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