StarWind Virtual SAN - Easy, Resilient, and Cost Effective
We have StarWind Virtual SAN deployed on a 2-node cluster to achieve the need for shared storage for our virtualization project. …
Overview
What is StarWind Virtual SAN?
StarWind Virtual SAN is software-defined storage for efficient storage and backup.
Recent Reviews
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is StarWind Virtual SAN?
StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) is presented by the vendor as a lightweight software-defined storage (SDS) for Enterprise ROBO, SMB & Edge that removes the need for physical storage. The solution is compatible with any hypervisor of choice, and is hardware-agnostic. The vendor invites users to integrate it into an existing infrastructure with minimum requirements, and enjoy constant uptime in a true 2-node scenario.
StarWind VSAN has no strict hardware compatibility lists (HCLs) and is licensed per node. A license unlocks access to all features upon purchase and differs only by capacity volume. The vendors promises customers get the chance to reduce their total cost of ownership (TCO) while receiving 99.9999% uptime. StarWind also helps with configuration, deployment, and migration.
StarWind Virtual SAN:
- provides 90% of raw performance
- squeezes 100% IOPS out of existing hardware
- works on the iSCSI layer
- “speaks” most uplink protocols, including NVMe-oF
- works on top of Hardware or Software RAID (MDADM, ZFS)
- does 2- or 3-way synchronous replication, and more.
The true 2-node solution is enabled through HeartBeat (no witness required). Thanks to “mirroring” of internal disks and flash between hypervisor servers, customers receive fault-tolerant storage. It’s scalable up and out, allowing users to introduce infrastructure changes without downtime or additional licensing costs.
StarWind Virtual SAN makes enterprise-level virtual shared storage accessible.
StarWind Virtual SAN Screenshots
StarWind Virtual SAN Video
StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN)
StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors
- VMware vSAN
- StorMagic SvSAN
- Microsoft S2D
StarWind Virtual SAN Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Linux |
| Mobile Application | No |
StarWind Virtual SAN Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
StarWind Virtual SAN is software-defined storage for efficient storage and backup.
VMware vSAN and StorMagic SvSAN are common alternatives for StarWind Virtual SAN.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.6.
The most common users of StarWind Virtual SAN are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(142)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 139)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
We have StarWind Virtual SAN deployed on a 2-node cluster to achieve the need for shared storage for our virtualization project. Purchasing a traditional SAN was going to be costly and complicated. StarWind Virtual SAN allowed us to achieve the redundancy and resiliency we required for our server infrastructure, without breaking the bank. We also needed something easy to deploy and operate.
- Resiliency using the built-in replication features
- Ease of management using the Web UI or Management Software on Windows
- Performance is very good.
- Support queries had to be submitted via email, it would be nice to have a phone option
- Some of the documents/articles on the website contained info that was slightly contradictory to what support had told us. I think the documents may have been a little outdated
March 27, 2024
Needed a SAN - StarWind fit the bill
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We wanted to create a diverse data centre in 2 parts of the building where data is stored in both data centres. We initially looked at replicated Sans but this became quite expensive. We then looked at virtual SAN with Microsoft Storage spaces but then saw the StarWind offering with Pro support. We did a trial of the VSAN product on 2 failover cluster hosts and the solution was faultless.
- Replication of data between 2 server rooms
- 24/7 Support
- Remote help when needed.
- No real improvement required.
March 21, 2024
It's a Winner!! for us
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have been using a StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) on two production locations with a Hyper-V Cluster for almost 7 years now in my current company but have 10 year of experience with the product. It has given us very good performance and we haven't had any issue with it in the past years. StarWind support is excellent, very fast and has very good knowledge of the StarWind and Hyper-V Cluster software. What we like best about it is that it's the only true two-node Hyper-V cluster solution that's available. On both production locations, we have a 2-node setup over 2 different server rooms. Our main goal was that we want to have all VM servers available on one Cluster host, in case of a disaster in one of our server rooms. Microsoft SSD (Storage Space Direct) always needs a 3rd witness (SMB or Cloud) but in ours a two-node solution this is not ideal. Direct connected fiber connections between the nodes makes everything fast and makes the chance of a Cluster split-brain fault less likely.
- True two node Hyper-V cluster solution.
- Performance.
- StarWind support will install and configure the software and also update it for you.
- Simplicity.
- none yet
January 31, 2024
The right sized storage solution for our business
We deployed StarWind Virtual SAN in a 2-node configuration along with a brand new deployment of two HA VMWaRe vSphere nodes. We were looking for a solution that would work with less than 3 nodes and not further increase our dependance on VMWare licensing while retaining good support and performance.
- High availability
- Storage Performance
- Direct hardware passthrough
- NMVe storage
- Virtual appliance password security
- Taking full advantage of NVMe storage performance
January 19, 2024
StarWind Virtual SAN, reliable and easy to use.
StarWind Virtual SAN was very easy to install with help from support which was offered. Also the updating along the installing was very nice to get. The use is very easy and it's a very simple and effective GUI. I would definitely recommend it. Although we just use it in a 2-node setup. We wanted a 3 node at first but StarWind Virtual SAN support advised that a 2 node would do as well. So they are giving the best help instead of making money. Definitely very easy to use software and very good support. We altready had some unexpected reboots from omnde of the nodes and it was good we had Starwind VSAN because the other node picked up the jobs flawlessly.
- Easy to use GUI
- Great support
- Active community
- Fast connectivity
- Sometimes connections are lost between the nodes
- Technical knowledge essential
- Updating must be done meticulously
November 30, 2023
StarWind Virtual SAN Review
we and our IT consultnat were looking for physical tape backups to protect against DR situations but were concerned about the fact that it would require the manual intervention of changing the tapes and sending them offsite as we could easily forget. But then our consultant came across StarWind Virtual SAN, which is the same as having a physical tape library without the hassle of changing tapes. The whole process is automated and we have the option of choosing between multiple cloud storage providers such as Amazon, Wasabi, Azure, etc.
- we can leverage our existing backup software without replacing it
- we can create multiple VTL libraries that allows simultaneous upload to cloud
- Much cheaper than physical tape library and has similar functionality
- You cannot see how long it takes for the cloud replication will take to complete
- you cannot search for tapes so you manually have to search when troubleshooting
- you cannot sort by date/time so it can easily get confusing on finding specific tapes
November 30, 2023
Simple, effective, and reliable
We use StarWind VSAN to provide highly-available storage for a hyper-converged two node cluster. It allowed us to reduce costs and remove a single point of failure by retiring an aging physical SAN.
- It is simple to setup and manage
- It is very reliable
- There are no areas that need improvement for our use - it just works.
November 14, 2023
StarWind Virtual SAN user review
n our 3-node Hyper-V Clustering Environment with a 2-node standby, three nodes are online, and two are on standby. Windows Server 2019 is our chosen operating system for the Virtual Host environment. StarWind Virtual SAN serves as our storage solution, utilizing three nodes to virtualize the cluster volume, ensuring optimal performance, high availability, and reliability. The strategic use of standby nodes minimizes potential downtimes, aligning with industry best practices and enhancing our IT infrastructure's efficiency and adaptability to diverse workloads
- it's minimal the hardware requirement
- it's can be scale to unlimited node
- low maintenance
- backup and restore the configuration
- sync pause for node restart
- zero-configuration when adding node
Starwind Virtual SAN improved our organization by giving us data recovery options with their Virtual SAN Hyperconverged approach. We deployed the virtual appliance on our existing hardware and connected it with SFP+ Supermicro network adapters in a highly redundant scenario. We are convinced by StarWind Virtual SAN so we are offering this to our customers as well.
- Data recovery
- Cost-efficient
- Scalable
- Compatibility with broadcom network adapters
StarWind provides a standard based way to set up clusters on commodtiy servers using the tools you already know like HyperV and VMware. On top of that their support is steller. They proactively alert and assist you all along the way.
We leverage StarWind as the base of a Hyper-V Cluster at several clients. It provides immediate high availability, excellent performance for the dollar spent. Our technicians get to use the tools that they are already familiar with like Hyper-V manager.
We leverage StarWind as the base of a Hyper-V Cluster at several clients. It provides immediate high availability, excellent performance for the dollar spent. Our technicians get to use the tools that they are already familiar with like Hyper-V manager.
- Support is stellar. better than most
- Usage of existing Tools
- Proactive monitoring and alerting to issues that come up
- Improve supply chain availability
- Diversity of hardware providers
- a smaller entry level solution for branches or small offices
August 18, 2023
True 2-node VSAN, perfect for SMB!
We're too small for 3 physical hypervisors, but we still have 2 and want high-availability. Native VSAN for the hypervisor we use requires 2 nodes plus a witness, or 3, and we just couldn't do that.On a search for an alternative, I found StarWind. They offer a true 2-node setup with agent VMs on each hosts and 2 high-bandwidth links to each other, and that's it!
- True 2-node VSAN
- Redundancy
- Stability
- Ease of use
- SMB-friendly pricing
- Documentation
August 11, 2023
Starwind vSAN 2 thumbs up
We were needing an HCI setup so we could expand storage as needed without any downtime. Also we needed a setup that was easy to maintain without expensive 40gb switches. The final important feature needed was the ability to replicate to another drive on another host to minimize downtime during a failure, replacement or an upgrade.
- Customer support
- Failover by using HCI
- Expanding storage easily
- Deduplication
- Encryption
- High latency stretched DR
Looked to migrate to hyper-converged architecture with an affordable, scalable solution.
Starwind is a fantastic hyper-converged solution for SMB. The price point
and pricing options allow for SMB deployment of a plug and play, scalable
solution that won't break the bank.
Compared to other options in the HCA space, Starwind stands out. Their monitoring and support is built into the solution and allows for a production ready environment that doesn't take many resources to manage or deploy.
If you run a Hyper-V environment, their single-pane monitoring command platform will greatly assist management of the environment.
- Scalability
- Resiliency
- Affordability
- Command Center availability with VMware
- More proactive touch points
- Recommendations based on monitoring, proactively
We reduced our on-site storage by roughly half by moving it to the cloud so we wanted to also downsize our on-site storage cost as well when our NetApp SAN reached end of life. There did not seem to be any good options to accomplish this however until I discovered StarWind VSAN on an onine forum post. After thoroughy checking them out with other customers, scouring the net, talking with sales and tech people and doing a 30 day trial, I was sold. We ended up meeting our goal of reducing on-site stoage cost by half of what we paid for the NetApp 6 years earlier and performance and support have been second to none. I highly recommend StarWind VSAN!
- High availabilty
- High performance
- Easy to administer
- More guidance/examples/suggestions on how to conduct the free evalutation with ur system
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We needed a fault-tolerant, easy to use and simple solution to provide storage to a 2-node high availability cluster without having to invest in expensive and external NAS or SAN storage. Enter StarWind Virtual SAN which provided exactly that, by using the local disk to provide a safe solution to store our files. We can now rely on a cheap, easy to use and manage solution instead of having to invest in clunky external storage.
- High-availability storage using local disk
- Easy-of-use setup and managing of the storage
- Very cost effective compared to alternatives
- Better and updated documentation on how the CLI works
- A GUI update would be nice, especially how to navigate the GUI
- Initial deployment guides for the free version are lacking
We needed highly available servers to run a food production line. Previously their controller ran on a Windows 10 workstation, and was prone to crashing. With StarWind we were able to deploy a simple 2 node HA cluster to easily deploy the controller and provide safety nets in case one server is to go down in the cluster. With Hyper-V, if one server goes down the other can easily restart it on the secondary node.
- Cost effective software SAN
- Real time data replication
- Ease of deployment and management
- Better documentation about recommended hardware
- Better deployment instructions and guides
- Better documentation about update procedures in a 2 node cluster
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN is a good solution. It helps our organization to fulfill the need of backup and restoration. Our organization was implementing business continuity plan in which there was a regulatory compliance to implement a solution that help to do scheduled backup and its restoration when needed. The process of implementing a solution is pretty simple and it is readily available for use as well.
- Improve compliance & risk management
- Create internal/operational efficiencies
- Unrivaled Performance on Minimalist Terms
- The management console of StarWind Virtual SAN is petty complex for does who are new with the product.
- It does not have local support partner in my country.
May 02, 2023
Enterprise grade software for SMB pricing.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
As a seasoned MSP leader, I recognize the significance of dependable and high-speed shared storage for our VMware vSphere Essentials setup, particularly for implementing vMotion and High Availability capabilities. After evaluating the exorbitant costs of external storage alternatives, we decided to leverage a vSAN solution to minimize expenses. Our setup comprises a 3-server VMware vSphere Essentials Plus solution equipped with 8 x SSDs and no HDDs for on-server storage. The solution connects to a 1GB network for production, but we also have 10GB network connections that allow for direct connectivity between servers, further enhancing performance. To ensure seamless integration and centralized management of our resources, we chose StarWind's vSAN solution implemented as a hyper-converged solution, enabling all components to run on the VMware vSphere solution.
- Ease of Use
- Product Support
- Minimal Maintenance
- Reliability
- Deduplication
The MSP that I work for brought on a client who realized they needed help with IT after the acquisition of another company. In the space of a few weeks, that client nearly doubled in size, and the aged tech in use at each location previously wasn't going to cut it. While we originally quoted a traditional SAN deployment for the client, they were concerned about having a single storage unit with two very distant servers. They weren't interested in buying two SANs so that each location could host one. StarWind Virtual SAN allowed us to keep their data synced between two sites without the extra hardware expenditure. This also meant we had rolled out an off-site disaster recovery location since it's unlikely both units would be affected by a disaster simultaneously.
- Cost-effective
- Easy to deploy
- Good support
- Documentation could be more succinct
- Support is sometimes difficult to understand verbally
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The main issue which has been resolved by StarWind Virtual SAN is virtualization with no extra physical storage required. Backup and restoration is easy with StarWind Virtual SAN. It is easy to use. In our organization we have hypervisor infrastructure it is compatible with hypervisor. The internal storage is shared in between which makes it easy to distribute.
- Performance Efficient
- Cost Effective
- Easy to Deploy
- Management GUI
- Documentation
We deployed a pair of Dell hypervisor servers (1U each) and they share the internal storage between each other using StarWind Virtual SAN, eliminating the need for a separate, physical SAN. We have had great success Live Migrating VMs when needed, adding VMs, removing VMs, and backing up and restoring VMs. Their support was very helpful and I highly recommend getting their support.
- the StarWind Virtual SAN allows us to use Starwind Management Console to confirm health of the sync
- The High Available nature of the deployment means we can fail over VMs without end users noticing any downtime
- Their support is proactive alerting when firmware updates are needed (including iDRAC firmware) or when there are any warnings in the event logs, and schedule a time to remediate the issue with you.
- there is a "command center" VM recommended for monitoring and management which doesn't seem to provide as much value as hoped.
- We could not install SentinelOne EDR/XDR onto the hypervisor hosts due to the logic behind the vSAN storage.
- We realized we can not use Azure File Sync Share with Guest VMs on these hypervisors.
April 14, 2023
Great VSAN solution for limited budget
After one of our Hyper-V hosts went down with a hardware failure, we sought to create a highly available on-prem infrastructure with very limited budget. StarWind Virtual SAN became the obvious choice as it supports a mere 2-node hyperconverged for Hyper-V. We now runs all our production VMs on this cluster and it has been great - we can take down one of the nodes for maintenance even during working hours and VMs just live migrates to the other node in a few seconds - almost no perceivable downtime to end users.
- shared storage for hyperconverged infra
- great support
- documentation sometimes a bit confused
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The initial tests were simple to implement (without pleading with salespeople for a POC because a free version was available), and the documentation was correct and enjoyable to read because it was written by a tech (and wasn't hidden behind a pay/registration wall). We utilize the HA storage solution for HVs.We are a small to medium-sized business that cannot justify spending tens of thousands of dollars on suitable HA storage for a failover cluster with two nodes. As a result, StarWind's vSAN was profitable right away. We were coming from an S2D implementation that already caused us a ridiculous amount of headaches (bugs, performance stalls, "we know what's best for you" automatisms), was slow and difficult to manage and troubleshoot, and had the most annoying documentation ever written by human beings.
- High Availability
- Cost Effective
- Scalability
- Free Trail Version
- Easy to shift free trail to production
- Management Interface is quite techie for new users
March 30, 2023
Great Product - StartWind SAN
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our Company is a mid-sized IT and cyber security Reseller company that relies on a business-critical ERP system to manage their operations, including sales, and Inventory management. The company has two data centers located in different cities, connected by a dedicated high-speed network link. We were experiencing issues with existing storage infrastructure, which is causing unplanned downtime and system slowdowns, resulting in lost revenue and frustrated customers. After analyzing infrastructure and business requirements, the IT team decided to implement StarWind Virtual SAN to address storage issues. we deployed StarWind Virtual SAN on commodity hardware in each data center, configure the solution to replicate data between the servers, and integrate it with their existing infrastructure. Once the implementation is complete, Company experienced several benefits from using StarWind Virtual SAN. First, the system is much more reliable, with no unplanned downtime or performance issues. This has led to increased customer satisfaction and fewer lost sales due to system unavailability. Second, the company has been able to scale their storage infrastructure as needed, by adding more servers to increase capacity and performance.
- HA Functionality
- No unplanned downtime or performance issues
- Documentation can be improved
- 3rd Party Integration
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We deploy StarWind Virtual SAN to create a shared storage pool from the existing hardware resources. We install StarWind Virtual SAN software on the ESXi hosts and configure them to use local storage devices, such as SSDs and HDDs, to create a highly available storage cluster. By doing so, we achieve several benefits. First, we can improve the performance of virtualized environment by leveraging the local storage devices. Second, we reduce the costs associated with upgrading existing SAN, as StarWind Virtual SAN allows to use existing hardware resources. Third, we improve the scalability of storage environment by adding additional hosts and storage devices as needed.
- High Availability: StarWind Virtual SAN is designed to provide high availability for mission-critical workloads
- Performance Optimization: StarWind Virtual SAN optimizes storage performance by using a variety of techniques, such as write-back caching, automated tiering, and deduplication
- Easy Scalability: StarWind Virtual SAN allows organizations to scale their storage infrastructure easily and cost-effectively
- Flexible Deployment: StarWind Virtual SAN can be deployed in a variety of configurations, including hyper-converged, converged, and storage-only
- Cost-Effective: StarWind Virtual SAN is a cost-effective solution for storage virtualization
- Complexity: StarWind Virtual SAN can be complex to set up and manage, especially for organizations with limited IT resources
- Limited protocol support: StarWind Virtual SAN supports a limited number of protocols, primarily iSCSI and SMB3
- Limited scalability for storage-only deployments: In storage-only deployments, StarWind Virtual SAN has a limit of 32 nodes per cluster
- Lack of reporting and analytics: StarWind Virtual SAN has limited reporting and analytics capabilities, which can make it difficult to monitor and troubleshoot performance issues
- Limited backup and recovery options: While StarWind Virtual SAN provides some basic backup and recovery options, it lacks advanced features such as snapshot management, backup scheduling, and offsite replication