Done with the cloud? This NAS takes only 10 minutes to set up – and is the easiest network storage I've tried

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Network attached storage (NAS) refers to a device deployed to your home or office network that makes storing and sharing files much easier. These devices are generally built for speed, reliability, security, and simplicity. Not all NAS devices achieve all of those goals, but one I’ve tested certainly does.

The NAS in question is the Zettlab D4 AI NAS.

With four drive bays that offer up to 100 TB of storage, you could easily migrate everything in your Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, or other cloud storage into the safety and privacy of your own home network.

Also: The best NAS devices: Expert tested

I’ve tested several NAS devices over the years and deployed my own using platforms such as Open Media Vault, Rockstor, and TrueNAS Scale. Although these distributions make deploying a NAS very affordable, if you want ease of use, you should opt for the D4.

In fact, I was surprised at how easily this NAS device got up and running. In roughly 10 minutes, I had the D4 deployed and ready to go. It took very little effort or knowledge of NAS devices to get this ready for use.

Let’s dig in.

My experience

The single most important aspect most users will appreciate about the Zettlab D4 AI NAS is the ease of setup. I’ve never experienced a NAS that was this easy to get up and running. 

Here’s the process:

1. Insert your drives into the bays.
2. Plug it in.
3. Connect the included Cat5 networking cable to the NAS and your router.
4. Turn it on.
5. Point your web browser to the IP address shown on the LCD screen.
6. Walk through the simple setup wizard.

It took me less than 10 minutes to get all of this completed (including the initialization of the two 4 TB drives I installed). During setup, you create a local account (no information is shared) that you’ll use to log in to the web-based UI.

Also: 8 ways to get more iPhone storage today – and most are free

Speaking of which…

The ZettOS UI has been very well designed. Thanks to this user-friendly GUI, anyone can have accessible folders ready to house files from any device on their network. From the ZettOS UI, you gain access to the app store, ZettAI, Files, Settings, Search, Photos, and more. Everything is laid out in a way that makes it easy to understand how the UI functions.

It’s all about storage

OK, I realize that the D4 includes AI and quite a lot of other features (especially when you install apps like Nextcloud from the app store), but the primary feature of a NAS is storage. If such a device performs poorly with storage, it’s essentially useless.

I’m happy to report that the Zettlab D4 AI NAS makes setting up storage incredibly easy. It even avoids one of my biggest beefs with other NAS devices.

Typically, NAS devices use SMB/CIFS for network access and folder/file sharing. On some devices, you need a bit of Linux skills to get Samba working. For example, after creating your user account via the NAS GUI, for folders associated with a user account to be accessible from a network, you have to add and enable the user for Samba, which involves the following commands:

smbpasswd -a USERNAME
smbpasswd -e USERNAME

Not everyone has those skills.

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Fortunately, ZettOS handles all of this for you, making it incredibly simple to share folders and files. A couple of clicks of the mouse and you’re ready to go. 

This proves to me that the Zettlab D4 is an ideal storage solution for those without a lot of tech skills. If you can use a website, you can use a D4. Given that NAS devices can sometimes be a bit complicated, that’s a big relief. I’ve worked with some that require you to manually format disks, create pools, set RAID, create file systems, etc. Those without admin-level tech skills have no business attempting to deploy such a device. 

File transfer speeds

One of the first things I did was copy several video clips from a project I’m currently working on to the D4. I copied 34 GB of files (which consisted of eight video clips), and the transfer time was about 15 minutes. I’ve done the same thing with other NAS devices and found the transfer time for similar file sizes to be nearly twice that of the D4.

Also: My 5 favorite cloud sync tools for Linux – including free options

Of course, your mileage may vary, depending on the speed of your home network. Because the machine I use for video editing is connected to my LAN via Wi-Fi, the transfer speed is considerably slower than it would be if the computer were connected via Cat5 cable. Given my setup, I’ll take those transfer times.

Apps

I did install Nextcloud because I wanted to see how easy it would be to create a Google Workspace replacement on my LAN. With the combination of the D4 NAS and the Nextcloud app, I could imagine the transition from Google to the Zettlab would be very simple.

Installing Nextcloud was a simple matter of opening the Zettlab App Store, locating Nextcloud, and clicking Install. Once the installation is complete, you can open the Nextcloud app, click Open, and a new tab will appear, allowing you to complete the installation.

I set Nextcloud up for testing purposes, so I used the SQLite database. If I decided to keep Nextcloud around, I would delete that installation and go with deploying both Nextcloud and MariaDB via Docker. When using the SQLite database, Nextcloud is relatively slow, so MariaDB is a better option.

Also: How much RAM does your Linux PC actually need? An expert weighs in

Ultimately, I found the combination of the Zettlab D4 AI NAS and Nextcloud to be a worthy successor to Google Workspace. 

As for the ZettAI, it’s designed to help you search your data. You can’t simply ask it questions without first uploading files. If you need AI to help summarize files you’ve uploaded, ZettAI is an easy and convenient way to go.

ZDNET’s buying advice

The Zettlab D4 AI NAS gets two big old thumbs up from me. When a NAS device makes it this easy to set up and use, you know it’s an outstanding solution for anyone who needs local storage or wants to migrate from a third-party cloud option.

One thing to keep in mind is that the D4 does not ship with drives. You need to buy drives that are rated for NAS, such as the Synology HAT3300 4TB Plus Series SATA HDD 3.5

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The specs

• Model: Zettlab D4
• Type: Network-attached storage (NAS)
• Operating system: ZettOS (custom Linux-based)
• Storage capacity: Up to 100 TB
• Drive Bays: 4
• M.2 SSD Slot: 1 (supports up to 4 TB SSD)
• HDD capacity per Bay: Up to 24 TB per HDD
• RAM: 16 GB (expandable)
• AI features:  On-device AI search, media categorization, transcription
• Ethernet ports: 1 x 1 GbE, 1 x 2.5 GbE
• SD Card Slot:  1 x SD 4.0
• Built-in display:  Yes (LCD for system metrics)
• UPS support: Yes
• Docker support: Yes