Asustor on Michael’s Domain

The find command on an old Asustor

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Instead of clicking randomly through endless hierarchies of folders on the web GUI of Asustor, you can just ssh into the device and search on the command line using find. However, there are important differences between the find command on contemporary Linux systems and the find command of ADM (the OS of Asustor NAS servers). My EOL Asustor (AS-304T) uses 3.5.9.RWM1, which uses the BusyBox find v1.19.3, while my Ubuntu Linux uses GNU find 4.9.0. BusyBox find trades features for a small binary footprint and is locked to GPL-2. On the GPL-3 side on Linux, significant new features and performance enhancements have been added. Here is the find command that you need if you want to search all disks on your Asustor:

The Asustor AS-304T NAS cannot mount contemporary ext4 filesystems

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Asustore AS-303T is meanwhile quite old (from 2013), but I still wanted to keep it around to store backups from the last 15 years or so. I originally had placed four 2TB-drives into the device, but now I happened to have four old 3TB-drives lying around and I wanted to use them to maximize the storage capacity. So I temporarily copied the data from the NAS’s RAID to a few external drives before upgrading the NAS with the 3TB-drives. I did some of the copying via a direct point-to-point cable connection with my laptop , which was a bad idea, because when I later tried to copy back the data using the local USB3-port on the NAS, the NAS’ operating system did not recognize the ext4 file system, that my Ubuntu 24.04 had been using. It turns out that the Asustor NAS uses BusyBox v1.19.3, and even though it can read the ext4 filesystem, it does not know the modern ext4 features and thus failed to mount the drives (ADM version 3.5.9.RWM1, which received its latest update on August 29th, 2022). In order for the Asustor OS to recogize these drives, I needed to “downgrade” the ext4 filesystem. Below are the necessary commands to disable the newer ext4 features:

Instructions how to convert an Asustor AS7004T into an Ubuntu Server

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This weekend, I upgraded our old Asustor AS7004T NAS to run an Ubuntu 24.04 server. The ADM OS had not been received any updates anymore for more than a year and it had been switched off and sitting on shelf since. This is a shame because there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I had early on upgraded the original 2 GB memory of the device with an 8 GB module to a total of 10 GB. But you can run an Ubuntu server on 2 GB if you wanted to… What do you need for the conversion? Obviously, you need to plug in a USB-keyboard and a mouse. Apple USB keyboards do not work. The cheaper the keyboard the better. Sometimes there were problems with the mouse and then it helped to plug it into another USB port. And of course you need to connect the NAS to a monitor via an HDMI cable. I recommend to install Ubuntu Server 24.04.3. Ubuntu Desktop 24.03 also works (I tested it), but I don’t need it and the server has a much smaller footprint. Unlike with older Asustor NAS devices and distributions, fan control worked without problems. However, LED control and display info do not work: The display always shows “Starting system. Please wait…”.

Asustor AS7004T RAM upgrade

Sun, 31 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Are you about to buy the new Asustor AS7004T ? It is certainly an impressive small NAS server, but it comes only with 2GB RAM and if you want to utilize some of its cooler capabilities (like running virtual machines ) you need to add RAM. Its specs are uninformative (“2GB SO-DIMM DDR3 (Expandable. Max 16GB)”) and the memory installation guide misleading. However, it really does have two RAM slots for DDR3 SO-DIMM. The device that I bought had 2GB RAM glued into the user-serviceable RAM slot, while the virtually inaccessible factory RAM slot was empty. If you want to add RAM, it requires you to void the factory warranty as the empty RAM slot is not accessible without removing the screw that is covered by the “Void if removed” sticker. Anyway, almost complete disassembly is required for you to access the free RAM slot, which is not for the faint of heart. Especially since Asustor’s own YouTube video shows the disassembly only for the 10-bay AS7010T model, which is significantly different from the AS7004T. The biggest difference between the 7004T and the 7010T is that the 7004T has an additional cooling element screwed to the PCI back plane. This cooling element takes the heat from the mother board, but also makes removing the back plane and the mother board more tricky. You also need to remove the power supply and disconnect the power cables from the motherboard before you can take the motherboard out.