Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been researching SAN devices for a while. This one looked like a great option. I loaded (3) 1TB WD RED NAS drives into this and powered it on. It formatted the drives ( default RAID 5 ) and I had 1.9TB of space. So far so good. I set up iSCSI with 1TB of the RAID 5 volume. Worked great. I Migrated a virtual machine from local storage on my esxi 5.1 box over to the iSCSI drive. Worked wonderfully. Went to bed. In the Morning the device informed me that the RAID was degraded. :( I attempted to use the control panel to repair the RAID, it just got stuck in some loop. I was able to migrate the VM back onto the esxi box. However I couls not repair the RAID. So... I just started over. turned off machine, popped out the drives, moved them to different slots so that the NAS would reformatt/ re partition the drives. It acknowledged the drives, showed them as 1TB each. Unlike the first time, it didn't automagically start formatting. So I followed the directions online and changed the RAID to RAID 5. The web page control panel said it was in the process of partitioning the drives, please be patient. I was patient all night long, woke up in morning the page was stuck again. The LCD on front was just in it's default displays. Like it has no idea what was going on. Obviously the web page control panel was attached, as it knew the status of the drives... and it is hosted on the ip address of the WD device. I have turned the machine off and given up until after Thanksgiving. I used thee WD RED NAS drives. I am very hopeful that I am just overlooking something really easy, as the instructions are sparse and FAQ's are limited. I am not dissapointed yet, as I think this machine will be awesome once I get it up and running. Maybe a call to customer support after Thanksgiving will get me going. I will update this review as I get further along. PROS: Very simple setup ( the initial setup was completely automated ) and easy RAID setup. Acts as a NFS, NAS, iSCSI Target, can backup Time-machine, be accessed from internet, set up users with quotas and passwords. Very versatile and has APPS available. Supposedly it can stream media as well. There is an option for iTunes too ( have not tried that yet.) Also, the unit is WHISPER QUITE!! CONS: hard to say yet, though I did get a degraded RAID my first night. However, I cannot definitively say this device was responsible. So, assuming the Drive was actually bad?? none so far I would still recommend this device, as it has so much going for it, and I am sure it will deliver once I figure out my issue. If anyone reading this has had experience with this device and degraded RAID rebuild issues, or the web interface issue ( locking up during Partitioning or Formatting) please respond. Again, I am very hopeful for this device. **EDIT: 03 DEC 2013 ( after the Holiday )** I have been contacted by a representative at WD. After trying again, the same issues have been happening. They are going to ship me another device for RMA and once that is in and I test it I will write another review. Hopefully their engineers will let me know what the error was, as It would be good for information, as if the drives should be within a certain serial number, maybe a HDD firmware issue? or a way to test the drives before placing them in the unit. So, I will update this when I get the new unit. **EDIT 10 DEC 2013 ** I have had the new unit that was shipped to me directly from Western Digital. It has (4) 2 TB WD RED NAS drives. Was already configured in RAID 5, which is what I wanted it to be. It has been operating flawlessly for 5 days now. In RAID 5 it has 5.94 TB of storage. I have created a 1TB iSCSI target and use it with my esxi 5.1 server. I have shared out the storage with multiple computers in a network share. I have used the iphone app to share data with my iOS devices. Also an App that lets me see all the shares on the unit. I have been using the new device as much as possible from home and from work. I do not see any issues with speed, however I am using it for a home network. I can stream movies from it to my TV. I am using the My Media app on ROKU and have the media on the WD Cloud shared to a windows 8 machine, which has the my media software. This works very well. I am still testing other functions, as this has so many options to choose from. I run my own FTP and SSH servers, but this unit can do both, so I will switch over to this device as I get familiar with the operations. I am very happy so far, and excited to learn new uses for this device. At this moment I have no CON's to report. For my use this device is what I have been searching for for a while. I would highly recommend this unit for SOHO and home media uses. For keeping central storage and backing up photos from iphones. There may be faster more robust solutions for businesses that provide data to customers, however those units are usually rack mounted and very very loud. This unit is very very QUIET!! I will continue to put this unit to it's tests and use more features. As I do I will update this review. **edit 16 DEC 2013 After 6 days the device lost connection ( while transferring files, a folder that was 65GB with 3GB files ) After an hour on the phone with tech support, they had me reboot the NAS. This fixed the issue, however a NAS that looses connection and has to be re-booted is not gonna cut it in the data cloud world. The tech suggested I move the NAS onto my router, I have it behind a networked switch, but that seems unlikely for a NETWORKED ATTACHED STORAGE device. I am up and running again, but am not sure how much I can trust this device with my files I may need if I am remote and need access to them. Maybe as a home backup device, but not still feeling the trust of knowing my files will be available for use when I am away on business, vacation, work, the beach, etc. I cannot remotely PHYSICALLY reboot this device. I have posted on the WD Community forums, and have gotten response that others have similar issue. So, maybe a firmware update would fix this. I know this is a new device, and I am very willing to be a test subject, and have the ability to not have to rely solely on this device. However, if you absolutely need this device to be available 24/7365 no questions asked.... I cannot at this time recommend this for you. If however you are looking for a VERY FUNCTIONAL backup device and a place to upload photos from your phone and a device that would be 90% reliable, this is a fabulous device. It does so much, and it saddens me to see the one flaw, which can bring EVERY SERVICE it offers to a screeching HALT. WD..... PLEASE figure this out and fix it, I want this device to be my main go to storage solution, I REALLY REALLY do! It has everything I need, if I can just trust it to be there for me when I need it. I am changing my 5 stars to 4, because of this issue. I still love it, but I just cannot trust it completely. **EDIT: DECEMBER 25 2013** OK, Unit has functioned well since my last review. Only issue now is that the iSCSI Target is acting up. I can access the iSCSI target from my esxi iSCSI initiator. However it tells me the CAPACITY is 32kb, in the EX4 control panel it lists 1TB and healthy.... Going to restart it, and see if that fixes it..... OK, reboot.... now the unit doesn't show up anywhere. Cannot connect to the share drives, and the Control Panel will not load. I can ping the device however. guess I give it a cold boot ( unplug it )..... OK, after a COLD SHUTDOWN and RESTART.... it came back. The iSCSI target is back at full 1TB and connected, the share drives are available again. And the control panel is accessible. TRACK RECORD so far... requires a COLD REBOOT every 6 to 10 days ( the iscsi may have been an issue days ago, just realized it today ) I am really concerned about putting all my data on this device. I have online backup of my most important information, however if this thing fails it means a lot of TIME and EFFORT lost and that is worth money to me. I am apprehensive about recommending this unit to anyone that has a business use or it will be the sole backup solution. I was planning on moving my virtual machines on my 2 esxi machines onto this data storage to allow for proper vmotion operation. However, if this continues to need to be cold rebooted to operate, I cannot rely on the unit to provide for me and my operations. I have machines I really need to keep running for my business and home use. I appreciate the help and generosity of WD in this, and hope that they can figure out why this device keeps losing connectivity in many ways. ** EDIT JAN 13 2014 *** OK, so this unit is now functioning great. I determined the cause of the loss of the iSCSI drive ( 1st was the power cycle that the technician had me perform the 2nd was a power outage ) and the fix for this was to go into the WD control panel and cycle the iSCSI drive. What I need to do is get this on a UPS to prevent this from happening. The device has performed well, and I have not lost connection to the device since the last episode. there was a firmware update as well, which could have fixed these issues. So...... I'm going to go to 4 stars. I WOULD recommend this to most SOHO users, with the understanding that there may be small issues. ** EDIT APR 29 2014 ** After using this device, and the firmware updates, I must say that I am very very happy. The issues that I initially reported have not happened again. If power is lost to the device, all I have to do is turn off iSCSI and then turn in back on ( inside the WD control panel ) and my esxi machine picks it right back up. I have much more confidence in the device now. Of course, as with all data storage, a backup of your data is important. So if this is your primary storage device, I would recommend backing up the data that is important on another device. Cloud storage is my preferred method. I have not noticed any performance issues. I stream movies from my PLEX server which is a VM on my esxi machine, and the movie files are stored on the WD NAS. I can stream to my iphone out and about and that works flawlessly. Again, I would recommend this device for SOHO and file storage for VMware. ** EDIT NOV 2014 ** If anyone is still following this review, or for new people looking at this review..... I am still very happy with this device. I am using 1TB of the storage for iscsi storage connected to a ESXI VMWare server, and the performance has been great, for home use of course. I have not had any issues with this device since the last documented in this review. There have been firmware updates, and an os update, and it seems like they have solved many issues. I stand by this device and would still recommend it for SOHO use. ** EDIT OCT 2015 *** I answered a question, will also place the response here. I use this everyday for the following: Backup Files Share Drives for our home computers TimeMachine Backup for an apple laptop iSCSI storage for a VMWare server ( one of my machines resides on this storage ) Storage for my PLEX media ( the server runs on a computer in my living room ) Cloud storage for picture backup from my iPhone ( this has been a hit or miss feature, it works, but was real slow. ) For my use, it is excellent! I would recommend this to any SOHO or home user. There is another version out for Business, which has faster data transfer rates. However, like I said, I stream video from this and have a virtual machine running on it. I believe the transfer speed is more than adequate for the functions listed above. If you go back to my initial reviews, there were issues with the firmware and web interface. These have all been fixed. I stand by all of my reviews and continue to enjoy the benefits of this device. You can set up user, groups, and control the drives they can access. I wish they would make the FTP feature easier to use ( I have yet to get it working, though I gave up quickly, maybe I will look back into that ) ** EDIT MAR 2017** I have not updated this review in a while. The reason is that it is still running rock solid. Original HDD'd and they have released many firmware upgrades that have continued to upgrade the ease of use and functionality. I am still very happy with this device. Some people have warned of HDD failure and loss of date, etc. I do not use this as my SOLE backup, and no one should ever expect one device to never fail. That said, since 2013 this device has never failed. ( after the initial problem, which was corrected by WD Engineers who worked with me, quickly and effectively ). Just wanted to let the people that are still watching this review know that I am still GTG! At this point, I would recommend people looking at this to get one of the upgraded models, as they support media streaming and copying of external drives, and maybe much more. However, I have no input on how well they compare to this model. Maybe WD would like to send me one to test?? LOL..... Keep your data safe! Use multiple backups in multiple locations. EDIT: 12/07/2017 Still running great. Have not made any changes to my setup, and multiple power outages have not hurt this guy. I still use the storage to host my movies for my plex server and as an iscsi device for my VMWare hosts. I can stream movies even when away from home with no issues. My VM's run with no issue. This device has been great for my use. Again, I recommend for SOHO and personal use. EDIT : 12/08/2020 So, this guy is still going, and providing back up, movie storage and play via PLEX. I have no complaints, however, admittedly, I am not using this to it's full potential. So, probably not the fastest, bestest out there. Just reliable and still going. EDIT: 12/14/2021 Still going, however, I did get notification that the support stops for my model. So, guess it is time to upgrade? Still has original WD RED HDDs that came in the device that was shipped as replacement for the original purchase. ( that was due to a firmware issue, and I worked with WD Engineers for troubleshooting my original device ). I guess I will keep it running as a backup anyway.... and get a newer version for daily use.