Shuttle OmniNAS KD20 review

The Shuttle OmniNAS KD20 is a relatively low-cost two-bay NAS enclosure built with media streaming in mind. The OmniNAS KD20 lacks support for advanced features such as iSCSI targeting and can’t be used as a web or FTP server; instead, it aims to make life as simple as possible for users who want their NAS to function as a media server, USB print server, simple backup target or even as a BitTorrent client.

At the rear of KD20, you can see the enclosure’s internal cooling fan; below it is a Gigabit Ethernet port, a couple of USB2 ports and a tethering point for a security lock. At the front of the NAS, a plastic door swings open to reveal a couple of drive trays. Below them is a USB3 port and SDXC card reader, along with a few status lights.

The KD20 comes with a finder utility that makes it easy to locate the device on your network. Once you’ve found it, you have to visit its web page to begin the initialisation process. A simple wizard guides you through setting up your choice of RAID configuration, with RAID1, RAID0, JBOD and single disk configurations being available. Of those, we only recommend using RAID1, as this is the only mode that provides you with the security of redundant storage – handy should one disk fail.

The NAS then sets itself up with no further interaction from you. We were also pleased to find that our review sample shipped with the latest version of the OmniNAS firmware, although the KD20 doesn’t have a web-based update option, so you’ll have to download and install incremental firmware updates manually as and when it needs them.

The NAS’s interface is clean, simple and well-designed, but it’s not as feature-rich as many of the enclosures we review. Even so, if you only want to carry out the most basic tasks, everything’s incredibly easy to set up. To configure an SMB share, just click on the Share icon, add a folder, name it and set it up as either a public or private share. If you want it to be private, you’ll then have to specify which of the NAS’s users and groups are allowed to access it. If it’s public, then anyone on your network will be able to use it with no further configuration.

The NAS has both UPnP and iTunes media servers enabled by default, so all you need do is copy your audio and video files on to the NAS and you’ll then be able to stream them from any computer or console on your network. To be accessible within iTunes, files must go into the iTunes directory on the NAS. The OmniNAS will also share any connected USB drive as an SMB folder on your network, so you can browse to it via your file manager, but its contents won’t be automatically streamed via UPnP or iTunes; you must copy them to the NAS’s internal storage first.