[lug] WD MyCloud NAS Details

Tue Jan 7 14:28:15 MST 2014

Thanks for the tip.

Would you expect the 2TB being exactly the same, besides capacity of the
disks? Sometimes similar products are very different inside.

Does it have a video card or will be easy to install one? I see the
enclosure does not have a video output, but maybe the embedded card does
have it inside.

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 2:12 PM, Maxwell Spangler <
maxlists at maxwellspangler.com> wrote:

>  Recently I helped a friend buy a NAS for her home and this weekend I got
> a chance to go exploring.
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-3TB-Personal-Storage-WDBCTL0030HWT-NESN/dp/B00EVVGAC6
>
> The WD MyCloud 3TB is a consumer-grade, home-oriented NAS that consists of
> a plastic chassis, embedded computer running Linux and a single WD RED
> drive for storage.
>
> The physical case is about the same size as a large external enclosure.
> It's small, low-power, and quiet.
>
> The use of the WD RED drive helped me recommend this product to her as
> I've got 8 in production and like the a lot.  They're low-power, quiet,
> high-capacity, dense-capacity and fast when it comes to large streamed
> reads or writes (like ISOs, movie files, etc.)
>
> The embedded computer is a dual core 1.3Ghz ARMv7 processor with 256MB of
> RAM and a single gigabit ethernet port.  It has a USB 3.0 expansion port
> for more storage.
>
> The software environment is Debian Linux 7.0 for ARM.  From my brief look
> around it appears to be about 1/3 stock Linux components just doing their
> job, 1/3 Linux components configured by WD for product-oriented operation
> and 1/3 proprietary software that differentiates the WD MyCloud from other
> commercial NAS units and a Linux NAS unit I might build on my own.
>
> It has a nice, user-friendly web administration screen that lets one
> monitor it, configure users, configure shares and enable/disable various
> services including ssh.
>
> Every time a vendor ships something with Linux and lets me ssh into it I
> smile.  Mainstream products running Linux using Open Source and Free
> Software represent the hard work, patience and determination of the whole
> community working for 20+ years to push a rock up a hill.  Welcome to the
> top of the hill.
>
> Here are some observation during a little light exploring:
>
> * Apache for the web access
>
> * Samba for CIFS file sharing
>
> * Software RAID to mirror two 2G partitions, presumably the Linux OS.
>
> * NFS likely present but not supported by WD.   This would be nice in a
> Linux engineer's environment.
>
> * Ext4 for the storage file systems.
>
> * sar is present so I can monitor CPU use
>
> * dpkg used for packaging instead of anything proprietary
>
> * iptables present for firewall
>
> * Even vim present? that's nice of them.
>
> * Twonky DLNA media server
>
> * Apple-compatible DAAP server for iTunes Server
>
> * afpd for Netatalk / Apple File Protocol.
>
> * Smartd installed but no explicit configuration present
>
> * OpenVPN installed for connection to WD for remote access
>
> With ssh access and your Linux engineering abilities, this is quite an
> opportunity to make the box do what you want it to do.
>
> One of the things I found compelling about this device is WD's support for
> remote access.  Based on what I saw with OpenVPN, it looks like WD sets up
> a VPN link to their computers by reaching out from the MyCloud to WD.  You
> can then use software on Mac, Windows, Android and iPhone to connect with
> WD's servers and, presumably, reaching through that VPN have access to the
> data on your MyCloud from home.
>
> This feature, which I didn't expect to find, turned out to be a key "want"
> from my friend after she learned about it.  It only makes sense: she wants
> to use storage on this device like her own personal DropBox.  While any
> kind of opening to remote access invites more than zero opportunity for
> intrusion, I think WD has done a good job putting something in place that's
> secure enough and gives users what they want.
>
> I didn't benchmark the box, but from what I saw, she was able to copy
> files at a speed satisfying to her experience and meeting numbers which
> looked similar to what I get on my home brew Linux servers.
>
> Overall, I really like this box.  At $179, It's $46 more than just buying
> the 3TB WD drive alone.  For that $46 you get an external enclosure,
> embedded computer and a configured Linux environment with some really good
> features.  I can't build something cheaper or build and configure something
> faster than just buying and configuring one of these.
>
> I'd actually buy two: a primary and a backup.  That single NAS drive is
> going to fail at some point and it'd be nice to have a second one with
> everything I need at a price for both at less than $400.
>
> Hope this helps someone!
>
> Disclaimer: I don't get anything from anybody for posting this.
>
>   --
> Maxwell Spangler
> ========================================================================
> Linux & Open Source Systems Engineer
> Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
> http://www.maxwellspangler.com/
>
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