The original features of the ReadyNAS RAIDiator™ firmware helped establish the ReadyNAS as the NAS of choice for the office. Now with the new integrated backup and media streaming capabilities, a ReadyNAS with RAIDiator 2 can go from your office to your home without skipping a beat. The ReadyNAS is clearly now the most versatile NAS in the world!

With the built-in FrontView™ Setup Wizard, whether a ReadyNAS box is being used by an advanced IT wizard or a novice home user, setting up the ReadyNAS is a breeze. Follow through a few steps to fit your network environment, and when done, click on the Advanced Control to check out all the potential of the RAIDiator 2-driven box.

Stream, stream, stream...
Take for instance, the capability to stream your favorite personal videos, music, and pictures straight from the ReadyNAS, without ever needing to turn on your PC or Mac. If you have one of those hot new networked DVD or a Windows Media Connect-compatible player, simply drag & drop your media files to the ReadyNAS and these files will show up automatically on your player, ready to stream straight to any TV in your house.

Extend your ReadyNAS with Add-ons
RAIDiator 2 now supports Add-ons. Update your ReadyNAS with an Add-on, and suddenly, your ReadyNAS becomes infinitely extendable. Why would you settle for a typical storage appliance now that you know ReadyNAS can do so much more?

Squeezebox
For those who clamor for the Squeezebox digital music streaming player, we listened. You no longer need to keep your PC on to enjoy your awesome sounds. Simply install the Slimserver Add-on to the ReadyNAS and let the ReadyNAS serve all your Squeezebox players in your home.

A REALLY big digital wallet for your digital camera
Digital cameras are getting smaller but with each new camera, the mega-pixels files they create are increasing getting bigger and bigger. You already know the ReadyNAS can store your pictures, but with RAIDiator 2, simply connect your camera or flash reader to the ReadyNAS when you've filled up your memory card; instantly, your pictures will be uploaded and be instantly sharable with other PCs and streaming players on the your network, without ever needing to turn on your computer. It'll even sort it into a time-stamped folder so your new pictures will not overwrite your existing ones.

Transfer your data to and from USB disk
If you've been using a USB hard disk to backup or transfer data, RAIDiator 2 now allows your disk to be connected to the ReadyNAS. Your disk will immediately appear as a share that you can make available to anyone (or no one if you choose) on the network. If you have multiple partitions on the disk, no matter. Each recognized partition will become a share.

Restoring a deleted file is now easy
Windows users are used to the Recycle Bin, and being able to recover data that was inadvertantly deleted. Unfortunately, Recycle Bin typically does not exist with network shares, until now. With RAIDiator 2, you now have the option of enabling a Recycle Bin on each of your shares, so you now have an extra level of protection on top of your ReadyNAS RAID.

Integrated Backup Manager simplifies automatic backups
Just like most of us now wear seatbelts, eventually most of us will learn to do proper backups. With drive sizes at half a terabyte today, and soon to be much larger, a one-disk failure can be very catastrophic. With the new integrated Backup Manager in RAIDiator 2, you now have a choice of either performing backups from the client or initiating backups from the ReadyNAS. The latter is the better choice to avoid multiple network hops -- for instance in the case of a client system running a backup application that performs backups from another box to the ReadyNAS. Another advantage to performing the backups from the ReadyNAS is that you now would have a centralized management screen to initiate and view backup schedules and logs.

Backup just about anything...
The ReadyNAS has truly become a backup appliance. With the Backup Manager, you can now choose your backup source from a variety of system types. For instance you can backup a web server, perhaps your Intranet or your company website. While you're at it, you can backup all the important files you make available on your company FTP site. Then you can backup the NFS servers used by your Linux and Unix users. And don't forget the Windows clients and servers. You can even backup remote Rsync servers on the Internet. And if you wish you can go in the reverse direction, and backup shares on your ReadyNAS to remote locations.

In fact, if you wish, you can set up your backup schedule to perform delayed mirroring to a secondary ReadyNAS device. Utilizing quick incremental backup strategy in this scheme is a great way to protect your data against viruses and other unexpected errors.

Snapshot backups are now a snap...
The snapshot feature, available since RAIDiator 1, allows you to schedule a snapshot of the volume at a specified interval. Why would you want to do that? Well, imagine one morning a couple workstations get infected with a virus, and the virus spread to the files on a share on the ReadyNAS. If you had scheduled a daily snapshot at midnight, you can go back to the snapshot of the share and restore to the version of the files as of midnight.

While you have a snapshot, you can schedule a backup of it. Rather than backing up live shares from the ReadyNAS while file contents are changing, you can backup the snapshot instead, where you know things are frozen in time. If you coordinate your backup program to start 5 minutes after your snapshot is taken, even if the backup process is still running into the day, you won't have to worry about backing up potentially inconsistent and outdated data.

With the Backup Manager in RAIDiator 2, backups of snapshots can be much quicker as you can now copy the snapshot directly to the remote destination.

Flexibility to select different RAID level***
From the onset , you can be sure the RAID level selected for you by RAIDiator is optimized for your ReadyNAS configuration, so you don't need to hassle with knowing all the details about RAID. However, you can elect to reconfigure the the default volume and select a different RAID level. For instance, if you want pure write speed or you want the highest capacity from your disks, you can select RAID level 0. RAID level 0 allows data to be striped across disks but is only recommended for environments where you may have other means of protecting your data in case of disk failure.

If you wish to have your primary data disk mirrored to one or more disks, you can select RAID level 1. With RAID level 1, when one disk fails, data access continues on the uneffected disk. If you have 3 or more disks and want a balance of performance and capacity utilization while retaining protection from a disk failure, you can select RAID level 5.

For even better redundancy, you can assign a hot spare***.
If you are in an environment where you want to minimize the amount of time your ReadyNAS spends in degraded (non-redundant) mode after a disk failure, you may want to reserve a disk as a hot spare. Let's say one of the disk fails. In the normal case, you will replace that disk as soon as you can so that the volume on the ReadyNAS can return to a redundant state. However, until you replace that disk, the ReadyNAS will be in a degraded state, meaning an additional disk failure would render the volume dead and your data lost. There's a chance that two disks can die at about the same time, although the chance of that is remote. With a standby hot spare, as soon as a disk dies, data from that disk is rebuilt onto the spare, and the ReadyNAS volume returns to a redundant state.

Background RAID sync gets you going fast.
There's no need to wait for RAID sync process to complete before using the volume. It's all done in the background so you can start using your new volume quickly after creating it. Without background sync, you may have to wait several hours before being able to use it.

Smart "sync resume" feature used to be available only with enterprise-level RAID.
Now it's available with RAIDiator. If you have ever brought down a RAID system either voluntarily or involuntarily (perhaps due to a power outage) during RAID initialization or parity resync process, you know how time-consuming it is to have to resync the RAID volume from the beginning. With the sync resume feature, the sync process continues right where it left off, when the NAS was shutdown. The less time a RAID spends in degraded mode, the better.

Life-support mode prevents accidental 2nd drive failure.
With Infrant’s RAID life-support mode, an accidental removal of a 2nd drive from a RAID volume does not mean the RAID is now dead. Simply shutdown the ReadyNAS, re-add the drive, and power it back on. Your RAID volume will resume where it left off. We don’t recommend you try this with other RAID systems.

Shutdown on disk failures.
RAIDiator is designed to keep the ReadyNAS going even with a disk failure. But with RAIDiator 2, you now have the option to automatically shutdown the device if a disk failure is detected. Just another peace-of-mind feature to prevent the ReadyNAS from encountering a 2nd disk failure until a replacement disk can be added.

And what about disk quota?
So now that there's a brand new ReadyNAS with hundreds of gigabyte of storage. How do you make sure the kids don't fill it up with all of his downloaded games, or your Multimedia class students with all their videos? You can set disk quota. Depending on the security mode you select, you can limit disk usage on a per-share basis or on a per-user or group basis.

Talk about security modes, there's one to fit every situation.
RAIDiator supports three modes. In very easy terms, there's one called "Share". In this mode, security is granted on a per-share basis. This means access to the ReadyNAS is limited based on who has the share password. What this really means is you can prevent little Tommy from accessing Mom and Dad's Quickens share by not telling little Tommy the share password. The Share mode is sufficient for a home or a small office environment.

The second mode is "User". In this mode, a larger number of users may exist, with users perhaps grouped into functional groups, such as Sales or Accounting. This mode requires an explicit login using a user id and a user password to access the ReadyNAS. Once logged in, the user can access only the shares that the user or the group that he or she belongs to are given access to. For instance, a user from the Sales group may not necessarily be given access rights to a share meant only for the Accounting group. This security mode does require a little more maintenance because user and group accounts must be maintained on the ReadyNAS using FrontView.

The last security mode is "Domain". This mode is very similar to the second mode, however, instead of using accounts on the ReadyNAS, accounts from the company's central Windows domain controller (often referred to as the Primary Domain Controller, or PDC) or the Active Directory Service (ADS) server, are recognized instead. In corporate environments, having a central server such as this allows for reduced overall maintenance.

Supports All Clients
What would a NAS be if it supported only Windows? The advantage of a NAS is that data can be shared amongst many people. In that regard, RAIDiator supports Windows, plus Mac, Unix, Linux, and anything else that has a web browser or a FTP client.

Save money on print servers.
Why spend money on print servers when there's one built-in to RAIDiator? With RAIDiator 2, you can now connect up to two printers directly to the built-in USB ports, or connect more with a USB hub. Just plug in the printers, and they'll be recognized automatically in FrontView, and the print shares will be automatically created. Also with RAIDiator 2, you now have print queue management. So now if the printer is stuck or out of ink, you can now delete all the duplicate print jobs that users are sure to make when they don't see their printouts.

Fully integrated with smart UPS monitoring.
Ever thought what would happen when the power goes out for a little too long and the UPS battery is exhausted? RAIDiator continually monitors the UPS over USB and sends alerts whenever a power outage occurs and the UPS battery takes over. When the battery runs low, RAIDiator gracefully shutdowns to avoid potential file corruption.

Definite advantages to data journaling.
Let's say little Tommy trips over the ReadyNAS power cable and accidentally powers off the terabyte ReadyNAS. How long does it take it bring the ReadyNAS back online? Without journaling, it can take hours. With RAIDiator data journaling, usually just a few seconds longer than the normal power-up time.

Automatic time synchronization.
System clocks tend to wander sometimes. There's no need to worry about that because RAIDiator has a built-in NTP client. What this means is you can specify a NTP server (or use the default one) and not ever have to worry about setting the ReadyNAS clock. It'll always be accurate to within a fraction of a second.

Wireless ready.
Because an ReadyNAS solution can be typically smaller and more portable than comparable NAS, you may have a tendency to take it with you to show off your new collection of games, music, pictures, or videos. Why carry a cable with you and be restricted to putting the ReadyNAS close to a switch, away from the action? Carry a USB wireless controller and cut the cord, because with RAIDiator, the ReadyNAS can be wireless.

DHCP-ready even if your network isn't.
Most of us know the advantage to having a DHCP server on the network. There's no need to enter a static IP, netmask, gateway, and DNS -- everything is automatically done for you. Simple plug-and-play. No DHCP server, you say? Well, with RAIDiator, the ReadyNAS can become one. It's as easy as setting up the ReadyNAS for a static IP and enabling the DHCP server service. In no time, other PC's on your net can join in on the 21st century.

RAIDiator speaks five languages.
That's more than what most of us speak. Just set your browser to English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, or Korean, and run FrontView in your native language.

Convenience of online updates.
RAIDiator comes integrated with online update support. No more going to a website, downloading a file, and uploading it to the device. Click once to check if there's an update, and click a 2nd time to perform the update. That's it. And with RAIDiator 2, you'll be automatically informed of new updates, and you have the option of automatically downloading the image. All you'll need to do is reboot to set your system with the latest features and bug fixes.

RAIDiator keeps you informed.
NAS devices often act too much like an appliance. It's quiet when it's working and it's dead silent when it's not. Well, RAIDiator does the first, but it definitely is not silent when unexpected things occur. You'll get email alerts for out of disk space, disk quota violation, disk failure, update status, UPS warnings, RAID status, etc. Never anything not useful, but RAIDiator definitely will keep you in check with what's happening. No more coming in the morning with a ton of angry voicemail and yellow stickies.

Secure logins.
You never know who might be sniffing network packets, even behind the firewall. Rest assured that all logins to the RAIDiator OS are encrypted whenever possible, including the login to the FrontView Setup Wizard and Advanced Control management tools.

** For GPL license information and source code availability, please refer to the CD-ROM included with your Infrant Product.
*** Volume management and hot spare not available with X-RAID systems.