StarWind HyperConverged Appliance's have been stellar for our nonprofit organization!
I am the sole sysadmin at a small nonprofit. We replaced our old VMware hosts/SAN storage with a pair of StarWind HyperConverged …
StarWind HCA
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StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Overview
What is StarWind HCA?
The StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution designed to reduce application downtime on a reasonable budget.
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Pricing
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What is StarWind HCA?
The StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution designed to reduce application downtime on a reasonable budget.
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- No setup fee
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- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting / Integration Services
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What is Azure Stack HCI?
Microsoft offers hyperconverged infrastructure solutions via Azure Stack HCI. Azure Stack HCI provides a variety of preferred hardware solutions for building a hybrid cloud infrastructure, allowing the user to run virtual machines on hyperconverged systems and use Windows Admin Center to connect to…
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StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
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Product Details
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What is StarWind HCA?
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is a turnkey hyper-converged platform that merges compute, storage, network, and software into a nuclear 2-node footprint. The solution is designed to simplify HCI management for Enterprise ROBO, SMB & Edge, while offering flexible scalability and powerful performance.
Users can start with two nodes, based on HeartBeat, that can be switchless and function without additional equipment. StarWind HCA is a software-centric architecture that removes the need for proprietary components. StarWind Engineers perform the configuration, testing, migration, and integration for users, free of charge.
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance:
- allows using 100% of underlying storage performance
- has no hardware compatibility lists (HCLs)
- does 2- or 3-way replication + local RAID 5/6/10
- does VAAI and ODX data offloading
- includes load balancing and data locality
- does VM-centric hypervisor-level snapshots, and more.
To minimize CapEx and OpEx further, StarWind ProActive Premium Support (included in every license) substitutes an IT squad for the sake of cluster health assurance. ProActive Support monitors user environments 24/7/365, and uses machine learning to detect abnormal behavior so issues are prevented before they can become a problem.
The vendor presents StarWind HCA as a hyper-converged world enclosed in a tiny “building block” that comes at a reasonable price.
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StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
StarWind HCA Competitors
StarWind HCA Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Linux |
| Mobile Application | No |
StarWind HCA Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
The StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution designed to reduce application downtime on a reasonable budget.
Scale Computing Platform, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, and NetApp HCI are common alternatives for StarWind HCA.
Reviewers rate Availability and Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.7.
The most common users of StarWind HCA are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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August 12, 2022
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) - It just works
We needed a solution to our ever-growing server racks. We previously had a small implementation of ESXi on a single host and many physical servers. We were looking for a solution that would help consolidate all of the physical servers and allow us to scale easily in the future.
- Scalability
- Service and Support
- Reliability
- 24/7 monitoring
- Reporting & Monitoring
- Hardware upgrades can be costly after implementation
- No product update notifications
- Cost Savings - no new physical hardware needed for 4+ years
- Increased storage speed
- Zero downtime
- Reduced admin time
- Full redundancy
We worked with StarWind to help design our environment. The host machines came preconfigured with all hardware installed. It required a short hour-long phone call with support to fully implement the solution in our environment. It took all of the guesswork out of the process. I would definitely use the services again in the future.
2
Two IT team members are responsible for maintaining StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA). StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) requires very minimal time from an administrator standpoint. We occasionally look at resource requirements and make sure we have enough headroom when adding new VMs into the mix. On a larger scale, all users in the company benefit from having our servers hosted in the HCA cluster.
1
Very little knowledge is needed to support StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA). Support is a phone call or email away. They will help over the phone or remote assist at any time during the day. With the 24/7 monitoring, they often know about problems before our staff does. This has freed up a large amount of time for our admin team.
- Failover
- Data redundancy
- Cost savings
- Increased IOPS
December 27, 2021
A rock-solid and affordable alternative to VMWare native vSAN
We settled on StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) as a less expensive alternative to VMWare's more expensive license for vSAN shared storage between our two VMWare hosts, providing full hardware redundancy of everything. The peace of mind knowing that all of our data and VMs are running on two fully redundant hosts is amazing.
- Fully redundant shared storage (vSAN)
- Proactive monitoring of all of the hardware
- 24/7 support
- Substantial cost savings over VMWare's vSAN license
- Massive increase in performance/IOPS compared to our previous hosts
We ordered the new Dell hosts through StarWind, and they preconfigured everything, then shipped them to us. Implementation was as simple as racking them, connecting the cables as directed, and turning everything on. Once this was done, I added the new hosts to my existing vCenter server/environment, migrated all of the VMs over to the new hosts, then decommissioned the old hosts. It was extremely painless, and while I didn't need much help with that part, StarWind was right there with me in case anything went wrong.
In our simple two-host environment, StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) won out hands down in cost, and while I had no prior experience with the technology, I have been extremely pleased with the result. I wouldn't hesitate to go with them again in the future, although our current hosts will likely still be going strong for at least another 5-7 years.
1
I'm the IT director and one-man IT support for the company.
1
Knowledge of networks/networking and VMWare vCenter server and host management. It is really quite simple for anyone with a decent general skillset.
- Full hardware redundancy for both VMWare hosts and all of our data
- There are none, but our needs are extremely limited, and StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is doing exactly what we need.
- Possibly integrating with one of the clouds for backups and/or VM migrations
Yes, for the peace of mind, and I don't regret it.
No
One weekend we had a fiber module fail in our ISPs internet router. StarWind support notified me they'd lost connectivity, so I came in and figured out what the problem was and was able to get Cogent out in time to fix it before everyone came in for work on Monday, so there was no downtime that affected business operations.
October 07, 2021
StarWind HCA vSAN Post-Purchase Review
We use StarWind vSAN to support the IT needs across the entire company. It allows us to provide high-performance computing and storage to the business needs (i.e.: VMs, apps, desktops, etc.). It also reduces our IT complexity in hardware and maintenance.
- High performance storage.
- Great customer service and support.
- Simple to deploy.
- Reduced single points of failure.
- Documentation.
- Reduced IT maintenance.
- Increased infrastructure redundancy.
- Reduced hardware/rack wiring complexity.
We customized the hardware, but nothing drastic (change CPUs, memory, storage). It was very simple.
We compared against just general servers + SAN solution from Dell. StarWind had fewer single points of failure, reduced hardware, and better performance.
45
All.
1
General IT knowledge. General vSphere knowledge. General hardware knowledge.
- Compute
- Storage
- Reduced single points of failure
- General IT infrastructure needs
- Disaster Recovery, offsite
Yes
Dell VRTX all-in-one compute and storage, and prior to that a nodes, network, and SAN system. We replaced primarily because our warranties were expiring although we did want better performance and more resiliency as well.
- Price
- Product Usability
Ease of use with good support at a reasonable price.
Wouldn't change anything.
- Implemented in-house
No
- None
Yes. We purchased it to have an extra set of eyes on the infrastructure since we have a small staff and limited time to monitor the HCA/vSAN constantly.
No
Every time. Pre-purchase discussions, customizing the hardware, initial setup, and resolution of issues.
- Initial setup.
- Daily usage.
- Power loss graceful shutdown.
- Testing.
No