Review: Buffalo Terastation Pro network attached storage

Advanced plug-and-go data protection that is simple to manage

It may look like a small server but Buffalo's Terastation Pro is a Network Attached Storage (Nas) appliance, dedicated solely to sharing files on a small business network.

And, although it's Linux based with a state-of-the-art journaling file system, you don't need to be a Linux expert to use it, with everything configured and managed via a user-friendly browser interface.

The hardware is delivered ready to use. A Gigabit Ethernet port connects it to the network while the disks are mounted on special carriers behind a lockable front door.

A set of four 250GB Western Digital Sata-150 drives were installed on the model we looked at, giving a total of 1TB (terabyte), with a slightly smaller 0.6TB model also available (£430 ex VAT), along with a 1.6TB version at £1,000 ex VAT.

As delivered, the disks are configured as a single Raid 5 array which, on our test server, meant just 750GB of usable space. The remainder holds parity information, which enables lost data to be recovered automatically should a disk fail and have to be replaced.

Note that despite being mounted on slide-in carriers, the disks can't be hot-plugged, which means powering the server down to replace a faulty drive.

If you prefer, you can reconfigure the disks as two mirrored shares or, if space is an issue, as either a single 1TB or four separate 250GB volumes.

However, some thought is called for before doing so as, although it's not difficult, 750GB is more than enough for most small networks and the Raid 5 protection is well worth keeping.

Deployment is simple. Plug the Terastation Pro into the network, switch it on and it boots in just under a minute with a small LCD status display to tell you when it's ready.

You can then run the Tera Navigator setup utility provided or use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) to assign an IP address automatically.

Either way, it's then a just matter of connecting via a browser and specifying the Windows workgroup or domain you want the Terastation Pro to join, then you're ready to go.

A public share is available straight away, which Windows users can browse to and configure as a mapped drive just like any other network resource.

In addition it's possible to create custom shares and restrict access to files and folders to particular users or groups.

Users, in turn, can be defined locally or authenticated against an external domain server, although there's no support for externally defined groups and no disk quota facilities.

You can also reconfigure and manage the array via the graphical user interface (GUI), and take backups either to another Terastation or USB-attached external disks, with facilities to schedule regular backups.

There's UPS support for managed shutdown of the Terastation in the event of a power cut, and alerting facilities to let you know when attention is required.

A quiet fan is another plus, but we would prefer it if the on-off switch was located behind the lockable disk door. As it is, anyone can power down the appliance. A lack of expansion is another drawback, although if you run out of space you can add another Terastation Pro to the network.

Neither can you run other applications on the Buffalo appliance or share printers with it. Still, if network storage is all you need then none of that really matters, and with all that Raid-protected storage available, the Buffalo Terastation Pro is well worth a look.