Software:

Once the hardware is all set up, the next thing is to install the software.  The first step is to grab the latest software package from the Thermaltake website, especially if you are using Vista.  This unit shipped with 1.5.6, and the most recent is 1.7.1.  The 1.5.x versions all have serious compatibility issues with Vista that are mostly fixed with 1.7.1.  For the initial install, the "Complete Package" version should be used.

Once the new package is downloaded, we will need to install the software.  If you run "Autorun", the above screen should be what you see.  For most users, you will need to install the Java client as well as the "NAS Discovery Utility".  The "Non-JAVA based discovery tool" is new to 1.7.1 and as far as I can tell, it does not work yet. 

Once all the software is installed, you will configure the NAS box using your favorite browser.  Initially, it should be in "Zero-Disk" mode, and you will determine which RAID scheme you want to use by selecting "Click to Upgrade".

 With the latest firmware, your choices will be RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD.  Upon the first initialization, you will also have the option to "log in" to change the RAID type.  The user name is "root" and the password is blank.

Once you select the RAID type, and upload the latest firmware, the Muse X-Duo will automatically go into an installation routine that can be monitored through the NAS Discovery Utility page.  The firmware will upload and be extracted, and the operating system will be installed.  The whole process takes about an hour.

Once the installation finishes, the MAP Shares link becomes active, as well as the Configuration URL.  We will want to hit the configuration page before we bother with mapping the shares.

When you click the Configuration URL link, a new browser window is opened and it displays a login prompt.  Here, the default user name is "admin" and the password is "password". 

Here is the configuration page for the device.  The page is constructed of a two layer navigation pane, with the first layer along the top and the second layer on the left side.  The first page displays general information about the device, such as the name, firmware and software versions, IP addresses and current connections.

The Network setting page allows you to set the Workgroup or Domain name, set the IP to static or dynamic, and allows you to enable the FTP server.  The login credentials for the FTP server are determined by the Users and Groups page, and users will only be allowed to access their own /content/home/user area.  I would have liked to have setup a super-user account that can access all areas of the NAS, but that is not the case as far as I have found here. 

Here is the previously mentioned Users and Groups section.  A user can be set up as either a Windows/Mac OS X user or a Linux user, if you are so inclined.  For groups, Windows users can be assigned into different groups, in order to make policy management easier if there are lots of users.  Quota Management can be used to limit individual users to a specific amount of disk space.

The Muse X-Duo comes setup with four shared folders, each of which can be manually configured for user access.  Users and groups can be assigned with either Read/Write or Read Only access for each folder created. 

The Disk area shows basic information about the layout of hard drives and the array.  If a disk fails, the Status column will show "Degraded".  If the array is being rebuilt, then the Status will show how far along the rebuilding process is in percentage points.

When it comes to the meat of the configuration of the Muse X-Duo, the Advanced tab is where it's all at. First off is the Alerts page, where you can opt to have the NAS device send you an e-mail with any alerts.  This requires that you know what your SMTP settings are, which should be available from your ISP or domain host.

Under firmware, you can flash the firmware if you need to.  It also shows the versions of the firmware and middleware that are currently installed. 

Another nifty option provided by the NAS is the ability to act as an iTunes server. 

If you have an HTPC in the house, you can also use the X-Duo as a streaming Media Server.  The Media Server is DNLA 1.0 compliant, which means it should be plug and play with other DNLA devices.  The scan folder can be any folder on the array, though scanning is quite slow; it took two minutes to scan a folder with only 36 songs.

The X-Duo can also act as a USB Printer Server, allowing all PCs on the network to print without the printer actually having to be attached to a PC. 

The X-Duo also has support for UPS functions as well.  If you have a compliant UPS that can plug into USB, then the X-Duo will automatically send out an alert e-mail and shut itself down if the power level drops below 3% of the nominal level. 

The USB Backup system allows the X-Duo to automatically copy any data that is connected as Mass Storage via the USB port.  This feature supports FAT32 and NTFS file formats, and all data will be copied to the /USBBackup/ folder.

The next option is the Download Station.  This is essentially the built-in bittorrent service.  The configuration options are a bit limited, so some users may still opt to run a torrent client on one of the PCs with the mapped NAS as the download target.  The X-Duo uses MLDonkey as the P2P engine, and once the Download Station is configured, the running torrents can be monitored at http://nas_ip:4080. 

To run a torrent, all that you have to do is copy the torrents into the mapped /torrents directory when you download them. 

The System Log is pretty basic, it simply shows a log of all system events.  Informational, Error, Warnings and Critical Errors are all classified with their unique codes. 

The Shut Down screen does exactly as you would expect; with the admin password, it takes the NAS device through its shutdown sequence.

The final screen is the Reboot screen.  Again, with the admin password, we can take the X-Duo through a restart sequence. 

So, there we have it on the installation and initial configuration procedures.  All things considered, once the latest firmware is installed, most of the functions run fairly smoothly.  I still have run into instances however, where Explorer hangs in Vista, and the only option is to force a system reboot.  It does happen much less often with the 1.7.1, but still more often than I would like.