A recommendation for Buffalo NASes (or at least their support)
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ok, not involved with buffalo, just a customer of theirs. but this is my story.
a couple of years ago I wasn't aware of Buffalo as a NAS vendor. I've found their appliances in the current company.
Today , back from my citrix event I've received a mail from the NAS daily check: SMART has detected "6 bad sectors" in one of the 4 3TB disks. <- they sell populated units in Italy.Now the NAS is still covered by the default 3-year warranty, so I've called the tech support. Yes, I'm in Italy and they provide phone support localized in my language in the 9x5 timeframe. This is great, ok, but what about L1 support... everyone knows it: "hey did you check the power plug? oh, it is plugged...err.. sorry I've to ask L2 for this."
No! As with other enterprise grade companies, Buffalo L1 is really skilled people, I've asked them for other issues and always L1 solved them, being them replica issues, firmware issues etc...
OK, back in topic. I call them...
me: my daily SMART check mailed me about 6 bad sectors in 1 of the 4 disks: disk is still working and raid is not degraded but I would like to have a feedback (I actually wanted them to replace the drive).buffalo: please give me your S/N... ok you buyed a populated NAS and it is still under warranty period. I suggest to replace the drive ASAP before it will deteriorate. Please, send back the info I will ask you by e-mail and we will send a new HDD in 24 hours. you have 15 days to return the broken one.
Honestly, I'm not aware of a vendor in the SMB/ROBO/SOHO italian market, which:
- covers every NAS with a 3+2 year warranty
- sells you populated units covering HDD damages
- has a support center close to you, in your country, givin 9x5 support to both resellers and end users
- provides 24h replacement at vendor expense (including the returned unit)
- does this even for small 2-bay units!
they HW is not so great and the SW quite old and clumsy, but this kind of support/service is great for vendor standards in my country and always lets me think about buying a new one.
well... at least when you can't afford a SAM-SD of course
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to be fair: this applies entirely only to their Terastation 5000 series. Just avoid the other stuff: it doesn't worth IMHO.
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@matteo-nunziati said in A recommendation for Buffalo NASes (or at least their support):
to be fair: this applies entirely only to their Terastation 5000 series. Just avoid the other stuff: it doesn't worth IMHO.
Buffalo has a large non US presence. I have found their hardware to be solid, but their interface on their gear is so old and slow. They have spent like zero time updating things.
When buying their real gear (TeraStation not LinkStation), I have never had a problem with the equipment or support in the US.
I do prefer Synology over Buffalo though.
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@matteo-nunziati said in A recommendation for Buffalo NASes (or at least their support):
ok, not involved with buffalo, just a customer of theirs. but this is my story.
a couple of years ago I wasn't aware of Buffalo as a NAS vendor. I've found their appliances in the current company.
Today , back from my citrix event I've received a mail from the NAS daily check: SMART has detected "6 bad sectors" in one of the 4 3TB disks. <- they sell populated units in Italy.Now the NAS is still covered by the default 3-year warranty, so I've called the tech support. Yes, I'm in Italy and they provide phone support localized in my language in the 9x5 timeframe. This is great, ok, but what about L1 support... everyone knows it: "hey did you check the power plug? oh, it is plugged...err.. sorry I've to ask L2 for this."
No! As with other enterprise grade companies, Buffalo L1 is really skilled people, I've asked them for other issues and always L1 solved them, being them replica issues, firmware issues etc...
OK, back in topic. I call them...
me: my daily SMART check mailed me about 6 bad sectors in 1 of the 4 disks: disk is still working and raid is not degraded but I would like to have a feedback (I actually wanted them to replace the drive).buffalo: please give me your S/N... ok you buyed a populated NAS and it is still under warranty period. I suggest to replace the drive ASAP before it will deteriorate. Please, send back the info I will ask you by e-mail and we will send a new HDD in 24 hours. you have 15 days to return the broken one.
Honestly, I'm not aware of a vendor in the SMB/ROBO/SOHO italian market, which:
- covers every NAS with a 3+2 year warranty
- sells you populated units covering HDD damages
- has a support center close to you, in your country, givin 9x5 support to both resellers and end users
- provides 24h replacement at vendor expense (including the returned unit)
- does this even for small 2-bay units!
they HW is not so great and the SW quite old and clumsy, but this kind of support/service is great for vendor standards in my country and always lets me think about buying a new one.
well... at least when you can't afford a SAM-SD of course
Glad to hear that! Not so many IT companies have good support in Italy…
Nonetheless, I will always prefer a Linux box (with LXD or KVM if it's more powerful) on a commodity x86 like a basic HP/Dell or supermicro also.Much more powerful, expandable, and durable.
I use commercial NAS only with occasional customers… -
I've never bought Buffalo but have supported it and dealt with support and when doing so, they were good.
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@JaredBusch said in A recommendation for Buffalo NASes (or at least their support):
I do prefer Synology over Buffalo though.
HW wise, the main argument for synology over buffalo here in Italy is if you use a NAS as a primary file server: no Terastation 5000 has redundant powersupply, nor easy maintainance is allowed on site. If power suppl. blows: byebye data, you are KO for a couple of days.
synology is really well engineered. I'm thinking specifically at TS5400r vs rs815rp+
(also buffalo do not provides units populated with 8TB disks (not yet... hell 8TB in a single disk, brrr))
