Infrant ReadyNAS X6 - Articles / Reviews

Reviews: Networking

Infrant ReadyNAS X6

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Richard Poelling
Brian
Infrant
Dec. 7, 2005

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Quality Check

In terms of solid construction, the X6 appears to be a very stable and reliable platform. Although this is a NAS, its size makes it easy to carry. The hard drives are well secured and you shouldn't have any problems transporting the box. Personally, I find it easiest to let it sit contently on my network rack doing what it does best though. The X6 was pretty quiet and unobtrusive, but with its diminutive size, you can pretty well stash it anywhere. The noise level of the fan might become a bit more obtrusive if you wanted to put it in your living room or bedroom. Sitting it in a corner of your office I doubt you would ever know it was there.

File Accessibility

Having lots of file storage is useless if you can't get to it. With that in mind, the X6 supports Windows file shares, Mac OS X support as well as Linux support. I had not real problems connecting to the X6 from any of my Windows PC's. A quick check with a White Hat Linux setup also got me connected. I did have some problems accessing certain files, but I finally traced that down to user rights assignments. This stemmed from switching the X6 from different security modes.

The standard fileshare is just but one method to access the files, a web based access can set up such that all you need is a web browser. As with the the FTP service, each share must be specifically shared out for web access before it can be accessed. This keeps you from sharing too much and as I have stated before is an excellent security measure.

For the most part, I really can't complain about much with the X6. It performed its job well, and it provides loads of storage to the network. One item which does stick out in my mind is the FTP service. Although this feature worked well (I was able to easily transfer files back and forth), I was unable to use an alternate port besides the standard port 21. Even with the upgraded firmware (version p5), I was able to change the port, but from what I can tell, that change was only cosmetic. A remote FTP test connection was able to connect to the standard port 21, even though the X6 listed something else. Even placing the X6 on the DMZ did not change this behavior. Taking this up with their support personnel, I found out that this issue is a known bug and will be fixed in the next firmware revision. Being able to run an FTP on a non-standard port is a good security practice and hopefully will be properly implemented soon.

The X6 does support secure FTP, but I was never able to get that to fully work. I was able to connect, but directory structure enumeration would ultimately fail. In Infrant's defense, I have had similar problems with other FTP servers so this is not a complete surprise. In the end, the standard port 21 setup worked and would transfer a file which is really what you need. If you want a full performance FTP server, you are probably better served to set your own up on a spare computer.

In terms of administration, I found that the web interface was a bit slow. I was expecting the pages to load much faster than they did. Many times the pages required a few seconds before the page would load. I was very surprised by this fact, and it appeared in both firmware version p3 and p5. I would expect a device which this type of hardware to outperform my lowly router which serves up pages far faster.

Security Configurations

The X6 comes with three different security configurations: share, user, and domain. I can't emphasize how important it is to choose the right one the first time! Going between configurations will cause all sorts of user-rights issues; making it easier to just format the whole thing and start over. That is not to say that the X6 is flawed, it's just very sensitive to user-rights when it changes the configuration and noticeably warns you of this fact. I had no problems running the X6 in a domain. It recognized the domain controller (DC) and joined without a problem. All I had to do was supply a username and password with the appropriate rights. All domain testing was done using a Windows 2000 DC. Users could see the X6 and connect without problem. The same can be said for the user and the share configurations. The only problems I had were when I went from the domain security model to the user security model. This caused all sorts of problems including a user share which was unreadable because the device could not access it. A complete resetting to factory default cleared that up easily. Be aware that resetting the X6 to factory default wipes all information from your drives.

The user configuration is probably the most useful of the three. Usually if you need to add storage to a small workgroup or even your home, you will want to secure it. By creating users and passwords which matched my windows machines, I was able to seamlessly connect and use the X6. I was also able to set up FTP shares as well as web access by using the requisite usernames. The ReadyNAS X6 also creates shared folders for each user you specify so you don't have to create a share for every person.

Error Reporting

The X6 for me performed well, but no matter how good a device is, a problem will eventually come up. During the initial setup of the X6, you will have the opportunity to configure an email account to set up warnings. This feature worked great and warned me any time something occurred with the X6. I basically received any item which warranted a log entry.

This included when I added a hard drive or otherwise changed the drives in any way. When I "failed" a drive, I quickly received a warning that a drive was missing. Besides the email warning, RAIDar also showed a damaged array. I also received updates when the drive was reinserted and a notice when the array was fully functional. For the reinitialization of the disk and then final syncing to take place, it took about 10 hrs. I had approximately 200 GB of data on the array at the time of disk "failure". Even though it took a long time, no information was lost and the system was available, although at a reduced throughput.. All together, I received about 4 email notices during the failure and resynchronization

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Page 9 of 10

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks
Page 3: Installation
Page 4: Hard Drives
Page 5: Services
Page 6: Testing
Page 7: Testing: DiskBench
Page 8: Testing: Iometer
Page 9: Quality, Security & Error Reporting
Page 10: Conclusion

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