The Buffalo TeraStation network-attached storage series are network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The current lineup includes the LinkStation and TeraStation series. These devices have undergone various improvements since they were first produced, and have expanded to include a Windows Storage Server-based operating system.

History

Buffalo released the first TeraStation model, the HD-HTGL/R5, in December 2004. The second generation models, the TS-TGL/R5, was released the following year with uninterrupted operation and improved operational stability. This was followed up with the TeraStation Pro and the TeraStation Pro II in 2006, which offered

iSCSI Internet Small Computer Systems Interface or iSCSI ( ) is an Internet Protocol-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. iSCSI provides block-level access to storage devices by carrying SCSI commands over a TCP/IP ...

support, as well as 2U

rackmount A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronic equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide. The 19 inch dimension includes the edges or ''ears'' that protrude from each side of the ...

models. in 2008, the fourth generation TS-X models were released with

hot swapping Hot swapping is the replacement or addition of components to a computer system without stopping, shutting down, or rebooting the system. Hot plugging describes only the addition of components to a running computer system. Components which ha ...

and replication, along with IU rackmount versions.

TeraStation

The TeraStation is a

network-attached storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a Heterogeneous computing, heterogeneous group of clients. In this context, the term "NAS" can refer to both th ...

device using a

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

ARM architecture ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer, RISC instruction set architectures (ISAs) for central processing unit, com ...

processor. Many TeraStation models are shipped with enterprise-grade internal

hard drives A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

mounted in a

RAID RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...

array. Since January 2012, the TeraStation uses

LIO Lio or LIO may refer to: People *Lio (singer) (born 1962), Belgian singer and actress * Leonel Cunha Guerra (born 1987), Portuguese football player known as Lio * Lee Hyung-sang, nickname Lio (1985), South Korean football player * L.I.O. Petrodol ...

for its iSCSI target.

LinkStation

The LinkStation is a

device using a

processor designed for personal use, aiming to serve as a central media hub and backup storage for a household. Compared to the TeraStation series, LinkStation devices typically offer more streamlined UI and

media server A media server is a computer appliance or an application software that stores digital media (video, audio or images) and makes it available over a network. Media servers range from servers that provide video on demand to smaller personal compu ...

features.

Current Product Lineup

LinkStation

The LinkStation is notable among the Linux community both in Japan and in the US/Europe for being "hackable" into a generic Linux appliance and made to do tasks other than the file storage and sharing tasks for which it was designed. As the device runs on Linux, and included changes to the Linux source code, Buffalo was required to release their modified versions of

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

as per the terms of the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

. Due to the availability of source code and the relatively low cost of the device, there are several community projects centered around it. There are two main replacement firmware releases available for the device: the first is OpenLink which is based on the official Buffalo firmware with some modifications and features added. The other is FreeLink, which is a

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

distribution.

TeraStation

Like the LinkStation, TeraStation devices run its own version of

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, and some models run Windows Storage Server 2016.

and

Gentoo Linux Gentoo Linux (pronounced ) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for ...

distributions and

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...

are reported to have been ported to it.

Operation

The device in various iterations ships with its own

Universal Plug and Play Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols on the Internet Protocol (IP) that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices, to seamlessly discover ...

protocol for distribution of

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

stored on the device. It can also be configured as a variety of different media servers TwonkyVision Media server, a SlimServer/ SqueezeCenter server, an

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

server using the

Digital Audio Access Protocol The Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP) is the proprietary protocol introduced by Apple in its iTunes software to share media across a local network. DAAP addresses the same problems for Apple as the UPnP AV standards address for members of the ...

, a

Samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

server, an

iSCSI target,

MLDonkey MLDonkey is an open-source, multi-protocol, peer-to-peer file sharing application that runs as a back-end server application on many platforms. It can be controlled through a user interface provided by one of many separate front-ends, including ...

client, as well as a

Network File System Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file system protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems (Sun) in 1984, allowing a user on a client computer to access files over a computer network much like local storage is accessed. NFS, like ...

server for

Posix The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX; ) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines application programming interfaces (APIs), along with comm ...

-based systems. For use as a backup server, it can be modified to use

Rsync rsync (remote sync) is a utility for transferring and synchronizing files between a computer and a storage drive and across networked computers by comparing the modification times and sizes of files. It is commonly found on Unix-like opera ...

to back up or synchronize data from one or many computers in the network pushing their data, or even having the LinkStation pulling the data from remote servers—beside the use of the Buffalo-provided backup software for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It has also found use in a number of other ways, notably through its

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

interface which comes configured as a

Print server In computer networking, a print server, or printer server, is a type of server that connects printers to client computers over a network. It accepts print jobs from the computers and sends the jobs to the appropriate printers, queuing the jobs ...

but can also use the

Common Unix Printing System CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs f ...

to act as such for a USB Printer. Users have managed to get it to use a number of other USB devices with the version 2.6

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

's enhanced USB support. Additionally, because the

Apache HTTP Server The Apache HTTP Server ( ) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source cross-platform web server, released under the terms of Apache License, Apache License 2.0. It is developed and maintained by a community of developers under the ...

software is already installed for the purpose of providing the Buffalo configuration screens, the device is easily converted to be a lightweight web server (with the Buffalo content deleted) that can then serve any content of the operator's choice.

Achievements

The LinkStation and TeraStation NAS devices have won various industry awards since their introduction, such as the TS51210RH winning Storage Product of the Year for the 2018 Network Computing Awards. The TeraStation has also won the SMB External Storage Hardware category of the CRN® Annual Report Card (ARC) awards, which recognizes exceptional vendor performance, for three years in a row.

Gallery

File:TeraStation 6000.png, TeraStation Desktop File:Buffalo LinkStation Mini and a PP3 battery.jpg, LinkStation Mini and

PP3 battery The nine-volt battery, or 9-volt battery, is an electric battery that supplies a nominal voltage of 9 volts. Actual voltage measures 7.2 to 9.6 volts, depending on battery chemistry. Batteries of various sizes and capacities are manufactured; a ...

File:Buffalo LinkStation Pro and KuroBox Pro together.jpeg, LinkStation Pro and KuroBox Pro File:Kuro-box pro.jpg, Kuro-box pro File:Kuro-box hg.jpg, Kuro Box File:Terastation.jpg, Two TeraStations stacked

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffalo Network-Attached Storage Series Network-attached storage Storage area networks Computer storage devices Backup ARM architecture Linux-based devices Server appliance

History

TeraStation

LinkStation

Current Product Lineup

LinkStation

TeraStation

Operation

Achievements

Gallery

See also

References