Buffalo Technology TeraStation Pro NAS

TeraStation Pro 1TB NAS

Strengths: SATA.

Weakness: Somewhat noisy. Included Network cable is just CAT5. Not Hot-swappable.

This unit is simple to configure and is good for home storage.
However, you need a CAT5E or CAT6 network cable to take advantage of Gigabit ethernet. The included cable is just CAT5 which is good for 100Mbps.
This unit is more noisy than TeraStation. It seems that most noise comes from the fan.

By pgyoon - Dec 29, 2006

Good Unit

Strengths: Easy!

Weakness: None for my applications

Installed as a file server for a small engineering office running CAD designs and Specifications. Have a peer-to-peer setup with 7 pc's all running XP pro; had been using one of the PC's as a file server. Added this unit and purchased 2 USB drives for auto backup (one will be out of office at all times, will switch once a week). Adding the Terrastation was absolutley seamless and painless, and...
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Installed as a file server for a small engineering office running CAD designs and Specifications. Have a peer-to-peer setup with 7 pc's all running XP pro; had been using one of the PC's as a file server. Added this unit and purchased 2 USB drives for auto backup (one will be out of office at all times, will switch once a week). Adding the Terrastation was absolutley seamless and painless, and Page's service was Excellent, as usual. Would buy again, and would buy from Page.

By brayengr; - Nov 29, 2006

Not Ready for Windows Server Environments

Strengths: Cost, simplicity of set-up

Weakness: Not for real Windows Environments, too slow for live media

If you don't need Windows Server environment integration or live media network speed, it seems like a good box. But if you need a server that works in your Windows Server and AD environment or you have a need for moderate or better performance, the solution is not yet ready; you are better off adding SATA drives and a controller to a full Windows Server. The box has a great price compared to...
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If you don't need Windows Server environment integration or live media network speed, it seems like a good box. But if you need a server that works in your Windows Server and AD environment or you have a need for moderate or better performance, the solution is not yet ready; you are better off adding SATA drives and a controller to a full Windows Server.

The box has a great price compared to adding a SATA controller and disks to a Windows Server if you consider your time. It takes a few minutes to have it up and running. If you just needed a bunch of space it is probably great.

But there are big issues that may block you from doing your business that Buffalo doesn’t tell you about on their web site.

Performance Issues:

Our small call center requires about 8MBps of file server throughput to record everyone at once so we have training recordings. Unfortunately the box only does about 7MBps. In contrast, our entry level Windows Server has no problem what so ever; it just needed more disk space. The TeraStation may not be enough for live media needs. This was a disappointing since Buffalo did not respond to at least 3 voice mails and emails on throughput and max drive connections.

Windows Security Model Issues:

I bought the box for AD support. When you say you support AD, most AD admins expect reasonable support for group management models of AD and Windows. To say you support AD and not support the group models is a bit like saying you support the English language but you don’t support vowels. There are only 7 out of 26 letters involved bt ths cld b mprtnt t ___

If you don’t use AD and won’t use AD and you don’t use Windows Servers with file sharing today, you may not care about what follows. But if you have any interest in a security model that lets you think of groups like humans do, this is important stuff.

Out of the box the network UI presents fields to join an AD domain, you can't enter anything into the fields and you can't join the domain. The Buffalo web site tells you to update the firmware.

After joining the domain, you use the web UI to create shared folders. It is pretty straight forward.

The access control interface is very odd. It presents a list of AD groups and users in two separate list boxes. You select a user or a group, press an arrow button to add the user or the group to the “READ ONLY” list. Then you have to press another arrow to move it from the READ ONLY list to the READ/WRITE list (a bit klutzy).

If you use AD and groups much, you will now become very frustrated. In Windows Server, the file system uses a model that grants you the most access you are permitted from the groups you belong to unless you have an explicit DENY permission. The TeraStation has a most restrictive rights option and no explicit DENY. The difference is the TeraStation requires a lot more administrative effort to create the types of access control structures you might need.

To understand the ramifications of this, consider this example scenario:

Lets say you have WORKERS who need read/write access to some shared folders, read only to others. For a few shared folders, you want to delegate special WORKERS as TEAMLEADS to create content that is only read by the other non-teamlead WORKERS. You also have some contractors who need the same access to almost everything WORKERS need except one employee only shared folder.

Let’s say JOE is your teamleader, Sally a worker, and Dave a contractor.

In Windows, you put JOE into the WORKERS and TEAMLEADS groups, Sally into the WORKER group and DAVE in the WORKER and CONTRACTOR groups.

For shared folder ACLs, Windows gives you the option to independently “GRANT” and “DENY” permission for “FULL CONTROL, CHANGE or READ”

For the employee only shared folder where TEAMLEADS are the content generators, you give TEAMLEADS FULL CONTROL, WORKERS get READ and you set CONTACTORS with DENY FULL CONTROL, CHANGE and READ.

For shared folders where everyone has read/write but no permission to change rights, you give WORKERS CHANGE and READ.

In the TeraStation using the same group membership, JOE can’t do his job because JOE is limited to the most restrictive access. Since WORKERS only have READ access, JOE can’t read and write even if you put TEAMLEADS in for READ/WRITE access. SALLY is fine, but there is no DENY model so you can’t block read access for CONTRACTORS.

The work around results in way more groups or (worse) you skip groups and manage permissions for each person individually. Its like wrtng sntcs wtht vwls. If you’re a Windows shop you may have to completely redesign your entire organization’s group structure in order to implement the kind of share permissions control you do today with your Windows Server.

By RJC48 - Jul 26, 2006