The ix2 is a refreshed version of Iomega’s StorCenter Network Hard Drive running EMC’s LifeLine OS and with some new features.
The dual-SATA drive NAS comes in 1 and 2 TB versions and shares the StorCenter Network Hard Drive’s compact package and hardware design, which includes Marvell’s 88F5182 "Orion" Network Storage Processor. RAM, however, has been increased from 64 to 128 MB. The LAN port is 10/100/1000, but does not support jumbo frames.
Although power draw is a relatively low 22 W, the internal fan became very noticeable when the NAS was under heavy load during performance testing.
Both CIFS/SMB and NFS network file systems are supported, and you can join Microsoft NT domains or Active Directory for user authentication. There are email alerts and simple logging but administration via HTTPS isn’t supported.
Media servers are available for UPnP AV and iTunes devices as well as USB print and FTP servers. A Video Surveillance feature allows direct recording from Axis network cameras. Upload from Bluetooth devices is also supported when an optional adapter is attached.
Client backup is supported via unlimited bundled EMC Retrospect licenses. Also bundled is access to EMC’s Mozy online storage service.
RAID 1 write performance with a gigabit LAN connection averaged 10.7 MB/s for file sizes between 32 MB and 1 GB, while read performance for the same conditions was significantly better averaging 16.7 MB/s. This ranks the product toward the lower-end of dual-drive NASes for write and in the top third for reads.