- Wd My Cloud Ex2 Software
- My Cloud Ex2 Ultra Review
- Wd My Cloud Ex2 Manual
- Wd My Cloud Ex2 Ultra Desktop App Mac Pro
Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra
This answer explains how to install a My Cloud device on Windows or Mac OSX. Backing up Windows or Mac to WD Network Attached Storage (NAS) This article explains how to perform a backup to a My Cloud, WD Sentinel or My Book. Ensure the WD My Cloud app is installed on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch from the App Store and you have performed the standard drive setup. Look in Settings Wi-Fi on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to wirelessly connect your mobile device to the Wi-Fi network of your My Passport Wireless SSD or Pro. May 21, 2020 With WD My Cloud Desktop app installed on Windows PC or macOS Mac, users can access, manage and share content stored on the WD My Passport Wireless and WD My Cloud network device from anywhere easily. In addition, WD MyCloud Desktop can also be used by people who is invited to browse the shared media hosted on WD connected network device to.
Pros
- Clean and neat design. Easy to set up. Offers simple remote access configuration via the My Cloud service. Excellent read speeds.
Cons
- Average write speeds. Plastic handle to pull drives out of bay is flimsy and easy to break.
Bottom Line
If you are looking for a NAS drive for use in your home or your small business setup, the Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS could be one of the options you could look at.
Wd My Cloud Ex2 Software
Western Digital's My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS fits a niche between WD's consumer-targeted My Cloud and its four-bay business storage solution the My Cloud EX4. The EX2 Ultra is as easy to set up as the My Cloud home NAS, and it incorporates some of the advanced capabilities of the EX4.The NAS has the same clean, user-friendly interface of WD's other two NAS drives.
It also offers simple remote access with the My Cloud service and excellent read performance. The EX2 Ultra is a two-bay NAS available in a diskless configuration. The review unit we received came with two WD red drives with a storage capacity of 2TB each, which are pre-configured with RAID 1. The drives also support NASWare 3.0 and this NAS drive is priced at $360.
Inside the EX2 Ultra is a 1.3GHz dual core Marvell Armada A9 processor and 1GB of memory. The rear panel has dual USB 3.0 ports and a Gigabit Ethernet port. It's targeted at the power, prosumer user rather than businesses. Business users will want to look to the next-tier Western Digital NAS, the EX4, which not only offers more storage and fault-tolerance options with its four drive bays, but also provides hardware redundancy with dual power supplies and multiple Ethernet ports—more than even prosumers are likely to need.
Having said that however, the WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra can meet your needs if you run a small business. The EX2 Ultra has a clean, industrial design, measuring 6.75 by 6.1 by 3.9 inches (HWD). Overall, this is as attractive a device as WD's My Cloud and the EX4. It looks like a fat Western Digital My Book. The front of the EX2 has three LEDs for system status and for status of each drive.
A button on the top opens up the drive bay door with a light press. Within, the placement of the drives in this chassis is somewhat unusual. In most NASes, hard drives are installed horizontally into a backplane in the front of the device. In the EX2 Ultra, the drives sit vertically, installed from the top of the unit.
A small plate keeps the drives in place. This plate unscrews when you want to remove a drive, and each drive tray has a plastic handle that lets you pull the drive from the bay. I found the EX2 Ultra's entire drive-bay seating design disappointing, with the plastic handles on the drive-bays seeming a bit flimsy.
On the software side, the EX2 Ultra supports Windows XP SP3 and later and Mac OS X Snow Leopard and later. The native file system is EXT4 and file systems supported on connected USB external drives are FAT/FAT32, NTFS, HFS+J, and Linux EXT2, 3, and 4.
Setup is very similar to, and as easy as, the setup of WD's consumer My Cloud NAS. The EX2 Ultra ships with a quick installation guide, which shows you how to connect the cables and tells you where to get the software to install, depending on what system you're using for setup. There's a specific URL in the guide for downloading the setup software for desktop computers. Those using mobile devices are instructed to connect a mobile device to the same network as the EX2 and browse to http://wdmycloudEX2ultra/ on Windows and http://wdmycloudEX2ultra.local/ on Mac to launch a Web-based setup.
My Cloud Ex2 Ultra Review
The interface is the same as that of the home My Cloud device. Its striking, modern design is very graphics-heavy, and there is a fair amount of in-UI help and explanations on the various settings and features in the EX2 Ultra. The homepage provides system information including amount of free space, a real-time network-activity monitor, a list of cloud devices (devices that are paired with the EX2 and can remotely connect), and more.
The EX2 Ultra has the same functionality as the consumer My Cloud NAS. It's simple to create folder shares, as well as users and groups. As with most NASes, the EX2 Ultra has features common to network storage devices, including FTP, remote backup, media streaming, DLNA, and several third-party add-ons to extend the feature set. Some of these add-ons include Joomla, WordPress, Plex, and Git.
Western Digital's My Cloud service provides remote access to the EX2 Ultra. For access from a smartphone or tablet, each mobile device has to be registered with the My Cloud service. Registration is managed in the EX2 Ultra's user interface. You create a user account for anyone who will remotely connect with a mobile device.
Next, you generate a code to give the user by clicking the Generate Code button in the UI. The end-user enters this code into the WD My Cloud mobile app (downloadable from WD's site), which pairs that user's device with the EX2 Ultra's cloud service.
Administrators may also send any user their login information via email directly through the interface. Those remotely connecting via a desktop can download the WD My Cloud desktop app. Desktop app users can log into the app via the login account the EX2 Ultra admin establishes for them, or by entering a generated activation code.
Wd My Cloud Ex2 Manual
Overall, the app offers a simple way to remotely connect to a WD NAS, although security and some features, such as syncing between the NAS and app, could be stronger. Users also have the option of using a Web browser to access data remotely on the NAS, but the app provides more functionality.
Wd My Cloud Ex2 Ultra Desktop App Mac Pro
The EX2 Ultra's performance was impressive. I tested read and write speeds by doing a simple copy operation to and from the NAS with a 1.5GB video clip. Read speed was the fastest we've seen yet from a two-bay prosumer NAS. The write speed was also good. Looking at the performance, we reckon the EX2 Ultra would be a fine performer for streaming multimedia and other tasks that require you to access data from the NAS.
All in all, the WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra impresses, with an awesome interface and very good performance. Yet things such as the flimsy drive-bay plastic handles are something WD need to ponder upon to make its products better. If you are on the market for a two-bay prosumer NAS drive, the WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra would be a good match.