TerraMaster OS (TOS) 3 Software Introduction

Storage and Network Management

TerraMaster OS has most of its functions located within the control panel, which includes the storage and network functions.

Storage Management – Disk Details

Keeping an eye on your installed drives is important. Within the Hard Drive section, you can do just that. From the model number over bad-block scan to a general status, you get it all on the first page.

The second page is for the details of each drive. This page will list things such as serial number and firmware along with the available S.M.A.R.T. details. There is no support for Seagate IHM in TerraMaster OS, not at this point. I’m sure it will be added at some point.

Storage Management – Drive Setup

I’m guessing that most people will run all their drives in a single setup, but they don’t have to. You can easily create more than one. Here is a single drive, a single encrypted drive, and a JBOD setup in a 4-bay NAS. SSD caching is also possible, with the right drives installed. However, the SSDs will naturally take away drive bays from the HDDs. The amount of available drive bays will not change based on the setup.

Storage Management – iSCSI

Depending on your usage scenario and setup, an iSCSI setup might be the way to go. TOS supports this in full. LUNs and targets can be set as you need them.

Storage Management – USB Drives

Connected storage can be viewed on the External Storage page from where you can format the drives too. Drive ejection is done from the status bar.

Network – Hardware Settings

The network starts with your connection options, also found within the Control Panel. Devices such as the TerraMaster F4-420 have two LAN ports which can be used individually for different IP ranges and subnets. The service order, or priority, can be set for all connected networks. That includes Wi-Fi networks too.

Bonds can be created when multiple connections are available. They can either be for extra bandwidth or failover protection – or both. Which you pick depends on your needs and other available hardware. Devices such as switches need to be able to handle the setup you pick.

Network – USB Wi-Fi Options

TerraMaster NAS’ can also be connected to Wi-Fi networks. However, this feature requires a USB Wi-Fi adapter supplied by TerraMaster. Since the OS is Linux-based, there is a theoretical option of manually installing drivers for other dongles.

Network – General Settings and Services

All major systems are covered when it comes to sharing your files across the network. There is Samba for Windows, Mac File Service for the Apple users, and NFS for Linux and Unix.

TerraMaster OS also comes with a built-in FTP server for remote as well as local connections.

Telnet and SSH connections to the prompt are naturally supported too. Anything else would be surprising.

An SNMP service is also available when needed.

Naturally, you can change the default interface port and set the NAS name too.

Network – Discovery Service

With UPnP, the NAS can automatically tell other devices of its presence. Whether this is a desired feature or not depends on you and your setup.

Remote Access

With services such as the FTP server, remote access gets desirable. You have two options to make this easy, even if you have a variable IP address. With DDNS services, you get an easy-to-remember name instead. TerraMaster has their free TNAS.online service, which is available for all TerraMaster NAS owners.

NOIP and DynDNS are also supported. Whichever you want to use, they’re all found in the separate Remote Access app.