Multiple wd my cloud nas ex2 ultra on the same network

My Cloud OS 5 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX Series
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Dear All/WD TEAM,
I am in urgent need tonsetup multiple mycloud ex2 ultra on my single network.

I am receiving misleading messages from WD customer service warning me that settting up a seconf wd mycloud NAS on a network where I already have a Wd mycloud Nas wx2 ultra already setup will cause the data on my existing cloud being wiped out.

Thisnis unacceptable and a total sign of incompetence by WD

Now LET S KEEP IT SIMPLE, i have a nas 1 8tb totally full. I justbpurchased a nas 2 same model and i need to set it up.

This will.allow me to.keep.files for multiple business separated across two cloud devices.

HOW on earth this simple setup is not supported?
Whilst the incompetent of the WD customer service is quite disappointing, i trust there will be someone here that can help reassuring me that setting up a second NAS will NOT wipe out my files from my current in use NAS and that i wont have any conflicts when accessing my files from two devices.

I am expecting to see two.devices on my cloud app.

Thank you

2

That - - -simply sounds wrong.
It may apply to mycloud HOME devices (not sure), but not to OS/5 boxes like the EX2 Ultra

I used to have a single EX2 ultra on OS/5 and another on the older OS/3 software
I have not tried any of the OS/5 internet functions for over two years. (the OS/5 box was downgraded to OS/3; and all of my NAS boxes are isolated from the internet)

In general, you can have local access to any number of OS/5 boxes.
The KEY is to make sure the devices have unique device names, and to assign IP addresses to them (i.e. don’t rely on DHCP). Once that is done; you can map as many shares as you like on your PC.

What I do NOT Know is if you can see both devices with the MyCloud App. I vaguely remember the app as being SEVERELY limited in capability, and I seem to recall that it was not really able to deal with multiple shares and multiple users; let alone multiple NAS boxes. I think it would only work if you have one “account” per “share”. (i.e. you would have to log out of one account and log into another to see different shares)

Honestly, last upgrade I did was with a competitor NAS. I now have multiple WD NAS’s and the competitor NAS living happily on an isolated network. Transferring data between the NAS’s is routine for me.

1 Like
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Hi,
that`s very reassuring to read. Thank you so much for sharing.

WD customer service also mentioned that setting up a second WD EX2 NAS would data destroy the existing one.

Q1: Have you ever experienced any data wipe out when setting up a second NAS?

Q2: Would it help better to setup the second NAS with the same email address/accout of the existing NAS or is it better using a different account from the incumbent (in this case I will definitely need to ligin and out regularly which is annoying)??

I am also considering looking at a Synology NAS. I understood from your note that having two separate NAS from two different providers is a smooth run and from a user perspective it may be better…considering i will have two different apps to access two separate NAS.

Pity WD cannot support access to two+ NAS from the same app without logging in/out

Thank you for reassuring me

Luca

Dott. Luca Viani
www.lucaviani.co.uk

| NAS_user
March 17 |

  • | - |

That - - -simply sounds wrong.
It may apply to mycloud HOME devices (not sure), but not to OS/5 boxes like the EX2 Ultra

I used to have a single EX2 ultra on OS/5 and another on the older OS/3 software
I have not tried any of the OS/5 internet functions for over two years. (the OS/5 box was downgraded to OS/3; and all of my NAS boxes are isolated from the internet)

In general, you can have local access to any number of OS/5 boxes.
The KEY is to make sure the devices have unique device names, and to assign IP addresses to them (i.e. don’t rely on DHCP). Once that is done; you can map as many shares as you like on your PC.

What I do NOT Know is if you can see both devices with the MyCloud App. I vaguely remember the app as being SEVERELY limited in capability, and I seem to recall that it was not really able to deal with multiple shares and multiple users; let alone multiple NAS boxes. I think it would only work if you have one “account” per “share”. (i.e. you would have to log out of one account and log into another to see different shares)

Honestly, last upgrade I did was with a competitor NAS. I now have multiple WD NAS’s and the competitor NAS living happily on an isolated network. Transferring data between the NAS’s is routine for me.

4

I am very rusty on the OS/5 app, so you may need the advice of others.

There is this list of OS/5 features, which implies you can “access content from different NAS under user account”; but it does not "allow “file management across different NAS”.

You will note that the feature list states that “COPY” is not supported by the app (which is totally nuts) and that you cannot move files BETWEEN shares. (so - - > you can’t moved data between two NAS boxes). You should also note that you can’t do major operations like download/upload entire folders. Unwritten was a 5 gb limit on individual file transfers.

I seem to recall the OS/5 app being very “share” centric; and that there was a step needed to switch viewing between different shares. Naturally - - - content on different NAS boxes will be on different shares.

Bottom line: Depends how cost conscious you are, and how “mission critical” the NAS will be; and how much time you have to fool around with the stuff.

I personally found the OS/5 web app to be VERY single user/single share centric; and quite limited in capability. I definately did not get the sense that WD was thinking very much about “advanced” users with “sophisticated” use cases.

** SO THIS IS WHAT I WOULD DO

Certainly - - - MAKE A BACKUP OF ALL DATA FIRST. Based on WD comments, I would be slightly nervous and MAKE A BACKUP OF ALL DATA FIRST. That way - - -you can be bolder with experimenting with the NAS. Heck - - - even if you do nothing - - → Make a backup of all data. :slight_smile:

OPTION 1:

  • Get the second WD NAS.

  • Create a new user with a SMALL share on your old NAS, and set up the appropriate cloud account (with new disposable email address)

  • Disconnect the old NAS from the network.

  • Setup the NEW NAS, with the “new user” account, and set it up.
    a) Make sure the NEW NAS has a unique device name
    b) As a precaution, the new user share on the NEW NAS should have a different share name than the share on the old NAS.
    c) Make sure the both NAS boxes have a dedicated IP address. (you can set this from the two NAS boxes; or from your router. I prefer to setup from the router)

  • Reconnect the old NAS, and see if you can access the shares on the old NAS with the NEW USER account.

  • READ ANY WARNING MESSAGES VERY CAREFULLY.

This way, if anything goes really wrong - - you only compromise the new user account; and hopefully the old user is unaffected. And if the old NAS is completely messed up. . . .well. . .you will have a backup, right? (Worst case is most likely doing a 40 second reset to wipe accounts - - - > but the 4 and 40 second resets do not wipe data)

OPTION 2:

  • Stop fooling around with the cludgy WD software, and look for a more sophisticated system.

I will say this. My “new nas” is a ***ology unit. The software is FAR more sophisticated than the WD offering. It plays on my network JUST FINE with my WD NAS boxes. I was even able to “mount” a WD NAS share onto the ***ology NAS, so that I could do file operations completely within the ***ology *SM UI. (this is directly analogous to mapping a network drive in windows).

Now - - - I will freely admit:

  • My ***ology NAS is not on the internet. I have NO WORKING KNOWLEDGE how their internet functionality works.
  • If you google “***ology *SM remote app”; it is quite apparent that you can either use the “app” or log directly into the *SM UI. The ***ology *SM software has a completely graphical UI. This UI includes a full featured graphical file manager. This file manager allows you to do all manners of file operations (Drag and drop copy; move, folder operations, etc.)
  • The steps to achieve getting the ***ology UI on your PC screen looks awful similar to establishing a VPN connection directly to your home network.
  • I have accessed WD NAS units remotely using a VPN connection connection in the past. Works dandy. The only flaw with the ****ology connection that I see is that I don’t think it will encrypt your traffic like a proper VPN connection (pretty sure the WD app data isn’t encrypted either)
  • Basically, If you can get to the *SM UI, then you can access any shared resource on your network (i.e. your new NAS, your old NAS, or shared folders on your PC)

So to sum it up (TL:DR)

  • Make backup :slight_smile:
  • If you want to save some dough; or don’t really want to learn new system. . . go for WD EX2 Ultra.
  • If you really want some sophisticated features in a more powerful box, and are up for a small adventure in networking. . .go for the ***ology (cost delta is about $150 for the diskless NAS box)

The real value is in your data.
The real money is in the disk drives
(Avoid WD Red: WD Red. Only use WD Red Plus or WD Red Pro; or any other brand that specifically calls out CMR Drive) (So, WD 8tb about $150+(2*$150) =$450; Brand “S” for 8tb is about $300 +(2*$150) = $600)

**Edited for typos and content

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Hi,
Thank you so much will do some reflection and planning.
Curious you say to avoid wd red / wdred plus or pro drives.

What drives would you recommend?
I thought even **ology was using thosenin their boxes.
Am in need of at least a 214tb hard drives. Total 28tb (14tb mirror)

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My bad; I meant to say “Avoid WD Red; Only use WD Red Plus or WD Red Plus”.
(I have now edited my original post)

The 2, 4, 6, (maybe 8?) TB WD Red drives are SMR technology. THEY DON"T SAVE MONEY, AND THEY ARE NOT FIT FOR ANY PURPOSE. The rest of the WD Red drives are supposedly CMR (Which is ok); but the WD published data is a few years old. . . so who knows?

In terms of other brands; I have a few ***gate ****wolf; but some say they are just as bad as WD. Others on this forum swear by ***hiba.

Last I checked; ***nology only sells the boxes. I do know some retailers will bundle drives and boxes. For 14tb drives. . . . .the money really is in the drives, right?

Today, being cautious, you need to ensure any drive you get is CMR technology. If it is not explicitly CRM; presume it’s SMR and avoid.,

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Thank you. strangely and sadly WD cannot confirm what drives are going to be installed in the EX2 Ultra 28tb but since it s a two bay NAS I would say they probably have x2 Red 14tb each CMR.

Thank you for your advise

NOTE: I think there may be the opportunity to switch cloud nas access within the same application OS5 seamlessly as long as the two NAS are setup with different email accounts