With the latest deliverable in NAS technology we’ve got the LenovoEMC PX2-300d with Milestone Arcus Network Video Recorder software embedded, complete with hardware you might recognize as a rather close relative of the Iomega PX2-300d in both looks and function – to a point. This is because both PX2-300d units are essentially made of the same basics on the outside, working now with the company’s upgraded brand name (LenovoEMC) and taking on the mantel of big-power small-footprint NAS for SMB. Here we’ve also got the very first NVR (network video recorder) to feature Milestone Arcus; video management software that makes the whole process as quick and easy as possible.

Hardware

While we’re not going to do a full-on comparison of this model to the PX2-300d we reviewed in the past, we can say this – even here seven months after we had that look, this NAS performs as good as ever. And for a machine that’ll be spending most of its time hidden away from the everyday eyes of the public, it certainly isn’t a half-bad looking unit to look at, either.

Inside the PX2-300d you’ll be working with an Intel D525 Atom dual-core 1.8GHz paired with 2GB of RAM. This architecture is paired with two enterprise-glass drives able to be configured at either RAID 0 or 1, both behind a lock-able door with an array of round holes for regular airflow.

With this door open you’ll be able to access two pop-out trays that are rather easy to work with while they lock in tight when you’re not making a switch. These trays support both 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives.

Also up front you’ll find an LCD display which shows off the basics – time and date when you don’t need the rest – network IP address or used/available capacity when your getting ready to connect or check your space. Display access is served by a single standard VGA out on this machine’s back working with MindTree software interface.

Also at this hardware’s back are two USB 2.0 ports, two ethernet ports (so you can connect two separate internet sources in case one fails, for example), and a power port. There’s also a teeny-tiny reset button there as well. The backside also features a rather silent-running fan that’ll blow air through the whole construct real slick – especially given the straight-shot openness from the back to the front. The front also features a single USB 3.0 port for good measure.

Software

Configuration of this system is extremely easy, especially when you’ve got a set of eyes as simple as the M1011 Axis Network Camera unit we’ve been provided. This system is able to work with a total of 20 surveillance cameras at once, the system attaching to them each with Milestone’s Arcus system with a simple icon for each camera.

NOTE: This setup supports a wide variety of cameras from several major brands – Axis, Bosch, ACTi, Canon, Panasonic, & others, and several different connections work as well. IP cameras (both Fixed & PTZ), USB, and analog cameras (connected via IP encoder) are all set to work right out of the box.

Each camera appears (if connected to your personal network) automatically. You can also do a simple search for any “missing” cameras found by their IP address as well, while a single configuration button appears for each of them offering up a collection of controls for Video like Codec (H.264 or MPEG-4, for example), Frames per second, and Resolution.

Each camera is attached to its unique given name and also has options for Recording and Motion Detection where applicable. You can set a single camera’s retention time for a certain period of time for a week and another for a period of minutes, and each camera’s disk usage is made plain from the front.

In addition to Arcus working on the base beast here, there’s both Android and iPhone/iPad apps made to access your camera network on the go. NOTE: At the moment the Android app doesn’t appear to be active, but we’ll let you know when it’s back up and running – it works essentially the same as the iOS app, in the end.

As it was when we first reviewed the PX2-300d, complete with its software build back then, this configuration affords you the ability to access data in your personal cloud with Amazon S3, Mozy Pro, and EMC Atmos. Axis Video Hosting is also available while OS X users may want to opt for an Apple Time Machine backup solution – every test we’ve performed with each of these connections has worked just as well as the last so far – including massive files from one location to another inside our own personal network.

In testing this drive for raw speed on a gigabit ethernet connection, this LenovoEMC PX2-300d unit kicked out 80 MB/s write speeds and 75 MB/s read speeds on average. That should be plenty fast for your standard SMB or home network needs on a regular basis.

Wrap-up

You’ll find this particular solution – complete with Milestone Arcus software – ringing in at $1,000 USD with four camera licenses attached. The majority of this cost kicked in with the drives and the Milestone Arcus software above the case on its own, but it’s the final amalgamation of software and hardware here that makes the case for a solid small network surveillance solution – you’ll want it all in the end.

This configuration includes a full year of Milestone Arcus software updates for free, and as the case is made to allow a variety of drives flipped in-and-out with ease, you can rest easy knowing you’ll be ready for any hardware upgrades you need in the future as well. While LenovoEMC lets it be known that several solutions are available for those with larger needs, this most “basic” package is exactly the place we’d be sarting. Unless of course you need a four-drive PX4-300d with 8TB and 16 camera licenses, of course – they’ve got that configuration available immediately if not soon, as well.

LenovoEMC PX2-300d with Milestone Arcus NVR Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the folks at LenovoEMC have delivered no less than LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0, a brand new update to their Lenovo EMC LifeLine operating system for their Iomega-branded network storage solutions. This system upgrade will be available free for those of you out there owning StorCenter ix and px series network storage products and will be running right out of the box on LenovoEMC-branded storage devices starting in May. LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0 is bringing with it both an expansion of enterprise computing and security features, made futuristic for your small and medium-sized business.

With LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0, you’ll be working with several improved feature categories: Snapshots, SSD Caching (Cache Pools), IVX (Integrated Virtualization Technology), NFS v4, Active Directory Hybrid Authentication, Active Directory High Availability, iSCSI Security, the ability to work with 4TB HDDs, Twonky Media Server version 7, and Increased emphasis on network security features designed to protect data. At 4TB, this system offers the highest capacity server class HDDs available today (this is with px series products only at the moment).

With Twonky Media Server version 7 you’ve got DLNA / UPnP compliant media server action running with Twonky Media Beam from mobile devices – connect anywhere! With iSCSI security you’ll have secure connections with Mutual CHAP authentication.

With IVX you’ll be able to run multiple virtualized machines on your Iomega px12-300r and px12-450r rackmount arrays – good times! This ability is being suggested by LenovoEMC as being great for lightweight Windows Services or dedicated Linux Web Servers, while you’re able to have your own private virtualized hardware all around – network cards, drives, and graphics adapters alike.

Snapshots are one of the most fabulous added features in the whole upgrade. With Snapshots your able to work with a point in time of a backup of any storage volume. You can take the snapshot at any time, even when the storage device is actively writing, and you’ll be able to restore to this source volume and revert this source volume to its former state, too! Welcome to the Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) provider way to fly!

If you’d like to download this update for yourself, you’ll need to go to either http://support.lenovoemc.com or www.iomega.com/support and make it so! You’ll have to have an Iomega ix or px series network storage device to do so, while future devices with this system onboard will be coming closer to May all around the world!

LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0 brings Snapshots to Iomega network storage products is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Iomega’s StorCenter px2-300d is a NAS unit aimed at businesses and the prosumer crowd, offering features beneficial to both types of user. This particular unit is the 4TB model, but the device is available in up to 6TB varieties, all of which share the same features. While one would initially be tempted to view the px2-300d as a NAS device tailored to the SMB environment, I contend that it also makes an excellent personal server, offering a pleasant mix of appealing design, quiet hardware, easy-to-use software, and high-end functionality. Whether you’re a business owner looking for a way to keep your data safe or a prosumer in need a sophisticated personal server, read our full review of the px2-300d to see how the device holds up.

Hardware

Upon picking up the px2-300d, the first thing you notice is that it feels durable; so durable, in fact, I imagine it could take a swift kick and come out of the attack unaffected. The body is constructed from sheet metal, while the faceplate and hard-drive cover are constructed from matte plastic. The back of the unit is solid metal, as is the bottom, which is adorned with four large rubber feet. Overall, the px2 feels like a battle tank of a device, more than durable enough to handle being placed in a potentially precarious location, such as under a desk or atop a busy work surface.

The unit measures 8.91-inches x 4.97-inches x 8.18-inches, and weighs in at almost 9lbs with both hard-drives in place. The NAS is a two-bay unit, with both hot swappable hard-drives housed behind a grated door. You can lock the door, but you cannot lock the individual drives in place; this is rather disappointing, as the door is flimsy, and offers little protection from someone with a sturdy prying tool and ill intent. The hard-drives are server class, while the drive carrier supports both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives.

The LCD is large enough to display a decent amount of information, but not so large as to be bothersome; you can place the px2 in an entertainment system setup between the DVR and Blu-ray players, for example, and its display won’t stand out obtrusively among the other devices’ displays. There are two buttons to the right of the LCD that allow for toggling through the various screens and options. When left alone, the display casually alternates between displaying the network IP address, used/available capacity, and the date and time.

The px2 runs an Intel D525 Atom dual-core 1.8GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, which gives it a combination of decent power and low energy consumption. You have access to one USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, as well as two gigabit ethernet ports. There is both IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.3u LAN standard support, along with RAID 0, 1, and a rotational vibration sensor. Helping make the px2 an all-around accessible device is a VGA port, allowing the device to be used with an external monitor via the MindTree software. There’s a USB port conveniently located on the front of the device, as well.

Setup

Setup is simple and fast; the time from when you plug the device in and turn it on to when you’ve transferred your first file is about five minutes. For the px2 itself, it has an exceptionally long power adapter and includes an ethernet cable, which you’ll plug into your router or modem. The device connected to the network almost instantaneously, displaying the IP address on its LCD. From there, users can access the drive via their browser by going to “http://px2-300d,” where they can configure the device, install apps, and more. The device supports multiple network file protocols, including NFS (Unix/Linux), AFP/Bonjour (Apple), SMB/Rally/CIFS (Microsoft), FTP, TFTP, and SFTP.

Software

Users will need to install the Iomega Storage Manager application, which can be done via the installation CD included with the drive or by downloading the application from the company’s website. Once installed, the application found the px2-300d immediately. A variety of categories are provided under “Shares,” including Backups, Documents, etc. Each category is assigned its own drive letter. You can transfer files via the Storage Manager or directly via Windows Explorer. Either way, transferring a 300MB file took only a few seconds.

Configuring the device is done via a Web browser by going to “http://px2-300d.” It’s from here you can install various applications to the device via Application Manager and access the different features. One of the first things I installed was McAfee, a process as simple as clicking on the McAfee icon and verifying that I wanted to install it. Once installed, users can configure system events and schedule tasks, among other things; this provides real-time McAfee VirusScan Enterprise protection, and, according to Iomega, is the only NAS in its class that does so.

Users can set up the px2-300d to function as a cloud storage solution using the Iomega Personal Cloud, which allows individuals to remote access the NAS via the Web from wherever they are located. Included is a variety of other cloud solutions, including Amazon S3, Mozy Pro, EMC Avamar data duplication, and EMC Atmos. Apple users will be pleased with the ease at which Time Machine integration can be set up.

One particularly nice feature is the complete implementation of social networking tools. With the px2, users can parse their various files into folders that are tied to social networking accounts, such as Facebook, where the files will then be automatically uploaded. As with the ix2-200 and other Iomega NAS devices, the px2 has UPnP DLNA for media streaming. The unit is compatible with virtualization environments, as well, including VMware and XenServer.

While the software options are plentiful, perhaps one of the top features is the integration of SecureMind Surveillance Manager. With this application, the NAS can be used as part of a rather sophisticated surveillance system, supporting up to 16 cameras (the ix4-300d only supports 8 cameras). Via the SecureMind software, users can live monitor multiple channels, record videos, and quickly playback a recorded video. Included with the px2-300d is a single camera license to get you started. Combining it all together, the px2 makes a nice, cohesive, and easy-to-use surveillance base upon which a business (or private user) can setup their security system.

Issues

While the px2-300d ran very well, it did have this particular habit of restructuring data protection seemingly every time the device was powered off, then turned on again. If you remove one of the drives while the unit is running, you’ll get an error (obviously), followed by restructured data protection once you reinsert the drive. This is fine. However, multiple times upon leaving the drives in place and shutting the unit down properly, it stated that it was restructuring data protection upon turning the device back on. Fortunately, this can be skipped manually by pressing the top button on the button panel, because total restructuring time averaged three hours. This isn’t much of an issue, considering that the NAS device will be up and running most of the time.

Wrap-up

There are many cloud storage options aimed at every level of need. While the 4TB px2’s price ($999) will be prohibitive for many users who need a storage solution on the personal level, the benefits of using a NAS unit rather than cloud storage are relevant. Aside from the obvious issues of security and being in possession of the physical hardware harboring your data, you get faster transfer speeds and the ability to easily make data available to users on your network. Businesses will find the px2-300d particularly appealing because, as far as the level of features go, the price is rather modest, and the unit does what it claims to do, and it does it well. For the prosumer, the px2 offers a host of features that make it more than some network-accessible hard drives.

Overall, the px2-300d is an all-around excellent storage device. It runs relatively quiet when not crunching away at data, looks nice intermingled in with other hardware, and, most importantly, offers many different features that cover a broad enough spectrum to make this NAS an ideal choice for a variety of different users. The small business looking for a way to store files and run surveillance, the medium-sized business that needs a way for a subset of workers to access files via the cloud, and the prosumer who wants a personal server that covers all the bases of home-network storage needs will find the Iomega px2-300d suitable.

The diskless model is priced at $499.99; it is also available in 2TB ($699.99), 4TB ($999.99), and 6TB ($1,199.99) varieties.

Iomega px2-300d NAS Review is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Iomega has outed a pair of new network-attached storage (NAS) boxes, the StorCenter px2-300d and ix4-300d, promising high-speed backup and file/media access for demanding users. Both ominous black boxes support paired local and cloud storage for double backup safety, Iomega Personal Cloud for accessing files remotely, USB expansion with external drives, and UPnP/DLNA streaming with the option of auto-upload of content to Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.

The latter, Iomega suggests, could be handy for small businesses wanting to keep customers up to date with what’s going on: drop a handful of files into a preconfigured folder, and they’re automatically uploaded to your selected social network. However, it could also be great for home users wanting to quickly upload a holiday’s-worth of snapshots to their choice of online gallery.

The StorCenter px2-300d is the cheaper of the two, with two drive bays for up to 6TB of storage. It has front-mounted USB, hot-swappable caddies, and will be sold as either a diskless, empty chassis ($499.99), or with a pair of 1TB ($699.99), 2TB ($999.99), or 3TB ($1,199.99) 7,200rpm enterprise-grade drives installed.

As for the StorCenter ix4-300d, it can handle up to 12TB of storage, and “more than doubles” the performance from the previous-gen model. It comes diskless ($599.99) or in a 4TB configuration for $749.99, 8TB for $949.99, or 12TB for $1,299.99. Iomega is currently working on certifying 4TB drives for expansion.

Iomega StorCenter px2-300d and ix4-300d share up to 12TB is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Network attached storage (NAS) appliances are becoming much smarter than being just “disks over Ethernet”. When Iomega came out with the StorCenter ix2 NAS at CES, they added powerful video surveillance/recording features, such as an internal API that is supported by several camera vendors, giving users choice over hardware, software and storage. Additionally, having a local storage for video recording allows entities like small businesses to keep their video-surveillance in-house, while still having a remote-viewing capability. Of course, on the paper, this sounds great, but how does it perform in the real world? Let’s put it to the test.

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