Acer Altos EasyStore User manual

ALTOS EASYSTORE
User’s Manual
Vers i on 1 . 2
Copyright © 2006-2007 Acer Incorporated all Rights Reserved. Changes may be made periodically to the
information in this publication without obligation to notify any person of such revision or changes. Such changes will
be incorporated in new editions of this manual or supplementary documents and publications. This company makes
no representations or warranties, either expressed or implied, with respect to the contents hereof and specifically
disclaims the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Acer Incorporated.
Acer and the Acer logo are registered trademarks of Acer Inc. Other company’s product names or trademarks are
used herein for identification purposes only and belong to their respective companies.

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Chapter
Chapter 1 Introducing Your Storage System
Chapter
2 Getting Started
Initializing
your storage system 5
Installing the Console 5
S t arting the Console 9
Initializing the disks 11
Configuring your storage system 13
Accessing the Manager 19
Accessing the Manager using the Console 19
Accessing the Manager using a Web browser 20
Logging in to the Manager 21
Navigating the Manager 22
Viewing information abou t your storage system 24
Adding users 26
Creating shared folders 30
Managing shared folders 33
Deleting a shared folder 33
Assigning users to shared folders 35
Chapter 3 Managing Your Storage System 36
Managing users 37
Adding users 37
Modifying users 38
Removing users 40
Working with groups 41
Changing the authentication mode 45
Managing shared folders 54
Creating shared folders 54
Assigning users to shared folders 55
Deleting a shared folder 58
Managing backups 59
Changing the recovery password 60
Configuring remote boot 60
Deleting a backup 62
Deleting a client 62
Setting up e-mail alerts 64
Upgrading the firmware 67
Disconnecting USB devices 69
Changing the system settings 70
Changing the network settings 72
Reconfiguring your storage system disks 76

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Chapter
Expanding the shared storage 77
Reconfiguring the disks 78
Viewing system status information 82
Logging out of the Manager 83
Shutting down the storage system 84
Chapter 4 Work ing with Shared Folders 85
Windows users 85
Linux users 90
Mac users 91
Accessing shared folders using FTP 93
Disconnecting from shared f olders 94
Windows users 94
Linux users 95
Mac users 95
Chapter 5 Protecting Local Disks 96
Getting started 98
System requirements 98
Additional prerequisites 99
Installing the Microsof t iSCSI Initiator 99
Installing DiskSafe Express 100
S t arting DiskSafe Express 104
Activating your license 106
Protecting your disks 108
Manually backing up your disk 116
S t opping a backup or recovery in progress 117
Changing the backup schedule 118
Receiving event notifications 120
Changing the recovery password 121
Enabling or disabling remote boot 123
Enabling remote boo t 124
Disabling remote boot 126
Recovering da t a 127
Recovering files or folders 129
Recovering a data disk 131
Recovering a system disk using the recovery CD 133
Recovering a system disk while booting remotely 139
Removing protection 143
Adding hard disks 147
to a linear or normal RAID configuration 148
to a degraded RAID configuration 150
Removing hard disks or responding to disk failure 151
Responding to RAID degradation 152
Responding to RAID failure 153

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Chapter
Swapping hard disks 155
Transferring hard disks to a new storage system 156
Appendix A: Software Specifications
Appendix B: Configurations
Appendix C: Hardware Specifications
Technical Assistance
Glossary

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Preface
This guide provides you with the following information:
l An overview of the Altos easyStore and instructions for setting it up to
provide shared storage space to users in your network
l Information about advanced features for configuring your storage system
l Instructions for installing and using DiskSafe
TM
Express to back up your
networked compu t er disks to the storage system and recover that da t a as
needed
l Reference material about product spec if ica t ions and troubleshooting
Documentation conventions
l Bold is used to indicate menu items, buttons , labels, and file and folder names.
l Instructions to click a series of menu items are indicated with an arrow (-->).
For example , the instructions to click the Start menu, click Programs , and then
click
Storage System Console are presented as Start --> Programs --> Storage
System Console .
l When you see two keys joined by a plus sign (+), press and hold down t he first
key
, and then press the second key . For example, Alt+F2 indicates that you
should
press and hold down the Alt key and then press F2 .
l Significant information or exceptions are indicated with the note icon shown at
the lef t.
l The potential f or data loss or corrup t ion is indicated with t he caution icon shown
at the le ft.
l The term Windows refers to any supported Microsof t
®
Windows
®
operating
system.
Related documentation
In addition to this guide, you can find information about DiskSafe Express in the
online
help . To access the online help, click Help --> He lp Topics in the DiskSafe
Express
application window .

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Preface

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1
1
Introducing Your
Storage System
ALTOS EASYSTORE is an intelligent network storage solution for small and medium-
sized
offices and home network environmen t s . It provides up to 2 TB o f hard disk
space for both shared files and backups of your computer hard disks, offering an ideal
way to distribute and protect important da t a .
To make it easy to back up your computer hard disks, this solution includes
DiskSafe
Express, a sof t ware application that provides reliable da t a pro t ection and
rapid data recovery in the event of a system crash or disk failure.
With DiskSafe Express, you can recover your local disks or partitions without having
to reinstall or reconfigure the operating system or applications, dramatically
shortening
recovery time.
What your package includes
Before you begin using your storage system , please make sure that your package
includes
the following items:
l The Altos easyStore un it
l One power cord
l One RJ-45 Etherne t cable
l Installation CD (for the S t orage System Console and DiskSafe Express)
l DiskSafe Express recovery CD
If any o f these items are missing, please contact the reseller or re t ailer f rom which
you
purchased this product.

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2
Chapter 1 Introducing Your Storage System
Additional accessories
The storage system supports up to two USB disks, which can be purchased
separately
.
Notes:
l Only USB disks are supported . USB hubs and other USB devices are no t
supported.
l Any USB disk must be formatted before you can use it with the storage
system,
and only the first partition o f a FAT or FAT32 file system will be
recognized
.
l Do not use a USB cable to a tt ach the storage system directly to a USB port on
a computer .
Key features and benefits
l Flexible storage capacity —The storage system supports up to four 3.5"
SATA-I hard disks, with a capacity of 250–500 GB each.
l Built-in data protection —In addition to a linear disk con f igura t ion in which all
the
disks are treated as independent entities , the storage system supports
several
dif f eren t types o f RAIDs (redundant arrays of independent disks). This
means
that you can t ake advantage of the build-in da t a protection and da t a
duplication
offered by advanced RAID levels. If your storage system has
multiple hard disks and one fails, you won’t lose important da t a . For more
informa
t ion, refer to Appendix B , "Disk Con f igurations ."
l Simple administration —You can run the browser-based managemen t
interface from any computer in your network, and it s informative wizards and
configuration
pages will help you accomplish your t asks quickly and easily .
l Status at a g l ance —The Home page of the managemen t interface lets you
quickly
determine how much space is being used and who’s curren t ly
connected.
l Support for multiple p l atforms —Whether the computers in your network run
Windows,
Mac OS X or other Mac operating systems, or Linux, you can set up
file
sharing for each o f them.
l Security —Only authorized users can access t he shared folders on your storage
system.
You can also con t rol whe t her the user can only view the information in
the shared folders or also add, modify , or dele t e files there.
l Fast performance —With it s gigabit Et hernet support, the storage system
provides
fast access t o the da t a you need, when you need it.

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Chapter
2 Getting Started
3
Getting Started
2
Getting started with your storage system involves the following general steps:
1 . Set up your storage system.
This involves attaching any optional USB devices, attaching the storage system to your
network, and powering up the system.
2 . Install the S t orage System Console on a computer in the same subnet as your
storage system and initialize the hard disks on your storage system.
Initializing the hard disks involves installing the operating system and other sof t ware from
a file on your installation CD to each of the hard disks in your storage system. (Altos
easyStore comes already configured)
For information about this step, refer to “Initializing your storage system.”
3 . A ccess the Web-based management interface (the Manager) and log in.
For information about this step, refer to “Accessing the Manager” and
“Logging in to t he
Manager.”
4 . Add users.
This is necessary only if you’re using local authentication mode and want to control
access to the shared folders, or if some users in your network use Linux
or Macs other than those running OS X.
For information about this step, refer to “Adding users.”
5 . Create shared folders.
By default, the storage system includes a shared folder named public .
However , you might want to create other shared f olders as well. For example, in an office
environmen t, you might wan t to create a shared folder for company policies that everyone
can view , and separate folders for confidential business documents tha t only selected
individuals can view or change. In a home environmen t, you might want t o se t up separate
folders for dif f erent types of
files, like photos, videos, or music.
For information about this step, refer to “Creating shared folders.”

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6 . Access the shared folders.
For information about this step, refer to “Accessing shared folders.”
7 . Protect your compu t er hard disks.
This involves installing DiskSafe Express on each compu t er that you want to pro t ect and
specifying which hard disks or partitions to back up and how often backups should occur .
For information about this step, refer to Chapter 5 , "Protecting Local Disks."

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Chapter
2 Getting Started
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Initializing your storage system
Altos easyStore comes with four hard disks drive, they are already initialized. You
must install the S t orage System Console on a compu t er in the same subnet as your
storage system and use that application to connect to the storage system.
Inst alling the Console
You can install the Console on any computer that runs one of the following operating
systems
:
l Microsof t Windows Server 2003
l Microsof t Windows XP
l Microsof t Windows 2000 Professional, Server , or Advanced Server with
Service Pack 2 or newer
Note: To access t he storage system, the Console launches a Web browser , so
the compu t er where you install the Console must have Microsof t Internet Explorer
6.0 or Firefox 1.06 or newer installed as well. In addition, one of those browsers
must
be your defau lt browser . If you’re not sure how to configure the defau lt
browser , refer to the documen t ation f or your browser .
To install t he Console:
1 . At a computer in t he same subnet as your storage system, insert t he installation
CD into a CD-ROM drive.
2 . S t ar t the setup utility for the Console.

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3 . On the welcome page , click Next .
4 . If you agree to the terms o f the license agreement, click Yes .
5 . Enter your name and company name and then click Next .

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6. Click Next to install the Console in the displayed location , or click Browse to
select or specify a dif f erent location and then click Next .
7 . Review your selections and click Next .

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8 . To install t he Console, click Finish .
If you wan t to start the Console immediately after it is installed , select the
Launch Storage System Console check box before you click Finish .

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Starting the Console
Once you have installed the Console (as described in “Ins t alling t he Console”), you
can use the following procedure to start it.
Note: If the storage system is not directly connected to your compu t er and your
network
does not have a DHCP server , you must change the IP address of your
compu t er to use the same subnet as the storage system. (You can change it back
after
you have configured the storage system.)
To do this, access your local area network properties . (For example , you might
right-click
My Network Pl aces and click Properties , and then right-click your
network
connection and click Properties .) In t he list, select Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP)
and click Properties . The IP address can be any address beginning
with
192.168.0 except 192.168.0.101, since that’s the IP address used by the
storage
system. The subne t mask must be 192.168.0.1. Then click OK to close
each open dialog box.
When you con f igure the storage system (as described in “Configuring your
storage system”), you can specify whatever IP address you would like the storage
system to use . If the IP address of the storage system is in a dif f eren t subnet than
your computer , you must also specify the gateway to use (as
described in “Changing t he network settings”). This ensures that you can manage
the storage system from any computer using a Web browser (as described in
“Accessing the Manager using a Web browser”). Then
you can change your computer’s IP address back to it s original setting.
To start the Console:
1. Click Start --> Programs --> Storage System Console .
As soon as you start the Console, it automatically scans the network for storage
systems.
This might t ake a few minutes. As soon as the scan is complete , the
le ft pane displays a tree view o f all the storage systems it found.

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Note: If you connect a storage system to the network a f ter the Console has
already scanned it, or if you subsequently change the IP address of the
storage
system, you must click Discover Storage Systems to scan the
network
again and update the tree in the lef t pane.
If no storage system displays in the lef t pane, your compu t er might no t be in
the
same subnet as the storage system. Be sure to install the Console on a
compu
t er in the same subnet as the storage system and try again.
2 . In the le ft pane , select the name o f the storage system that you want to access
(for example , Storage ), and then click Log On Storage System Manager .
If your storage system uses both available ports to connect to the network, you
can
select either item .
3 . If your storage system has not yet been initialized, the System Initialization
page displays. For more information, refer to the next section, “Initializing the
disks.”
If your storage system been initialized but no t yet configured, the welcome page for
the System Setup Wizard displays. For more information, refer to
“Configuring your storage system” .
If your storage system has been initialized and configured, the login page for the
Manager
displays. For more information, refer to “Logging in to the Manager”.

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Ini t ializi ng the di sks
Once you have installed the Console (as described in “Ins t alling t he Console”),
started it, and connected to the storage system (as described in “S t arting the
Console”), t he System Initiali zation page displays:
If all t he hard disks have not been detected , or if you want to add, remove , or
re-order the disks at this time, insert or remove the disks one at a time and click
Scan af t er each action.
1 . Insert the installation CD into your computer’s CD-ROM drive, type the path to
the firmware package in the File name text box, and click Upload .
Alternatively , you can click Browse and browse the CD for the firmware package .
The firmware package is the f ile on the CD that ends in the PKG file extension.

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The firmware is uploaded to the hard disks. When this process is complete, t he
storage system restarts .
Note: The operating system and storage system sof t ware are installed on each
disk in your storage system to ensure that the failure or removal of any one disk
will not cause the entire storage system to fail.
2 . If t he welcome screen does no t appear immediately a f ter the storage system
restar t s , close the browser window and log in again using the Console.
You can now perform initial con f igura t ion (as described in “Configuring your
storage
system” )

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Configuring your storage system
Once your storage system has been initialized (as described in “Initializing your
storage
system”), follow these steps to run the System Setup wizard and perform t he
necessary initial configuration:
1 . If you have no t already installed the S t orage System Console, install it (as
described
in “Installing the Console”) and start it (as described in “S t arting the
Console”) .
In the le ft pane , click the name of the storage system. Then click Log On
Storage System Manager .
The welcome page displays:
2 . On the welcome page , click Next .