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 apps available for this NAS are on this page. Although downloading them directly is possible, it is easier to install them over ADM's Package Center.

Initial Setup

Asustor's Control Center is an essential application since it will find the NAS on your network and allows 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 initialize 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 doing so manually.


You can select the RAID configuration that best suits your needs during initialization. The Asustor AS6208T supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10 with four HDDs installed. You can also configure the HDDs in JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks), which will combine all HDDs into a big volume. 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.


This time, we didn't get a firmware update notice; however, the typical welcome message was there, offering 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. You still aren't able to re-size windows, and the lack of widgets is a serious omission as well, especially since both Qnap's and Synology's operating systems include them. Asustor told us during Computex 2016 that both these shortcoming would be addressed in upcoming ADM upgrades, but such hasn't been the case thus far.


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.