Initial Setup

You will initially have to put the software disc into a client PC's drive after installing the NAS server's HDDs and connecting all cables, power and network. We strongly advice you to take 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 should you not want to download them off the net on the disc.


You can download all apps off Asustor's corresponding page if you don't have an optical disc drive.


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


Easily initialize the NAS through Web Setup 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.


You will now be asked to enter the server's name and set a new administrator's password. You can configure all time and date options and set all network settings afterward. We also made a point of exploiting both Ethernet ports since we have a switch that supports port trunking for increased transfer speeds.


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 the setup 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

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


A notification about a firmware upgrade was waiting for us right after we logged into ADM for the first time. We installed the upgrade, which was a straightforward affair.


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 shorter than with QNAP's and Synology's offerings, ADM is still capable, easily meeting 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, KODI (formerly XBMC) player support, etc. 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.


The Searchlight box and all administrative options with which to shutdown, reset, or put the NAS to sleep are in the top-right corner.


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