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StarWind Virtual SAN

StarWind Virtual SAN

Overview

What is StarWind Virtual SAN?

StarWind Virtual SAN is software-defined storage for efficient storage and backup.

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Product Details

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

Screenshot of StarWind Management ConsoleScreenshot of StarWind Management ConsoleScreenshot of StarWind Virtual SANScreenshot of StarWind Virtual SAN

StarWind Virtual SAN Video

StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN)

StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

StarWind Virtual SAN Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux
Mobile ApplicationNo

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 Usability highest, with a score of 9.7.

The most common users of StarWind Virtual SAN are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(146)

Reviews

(1-25 of 142)

StarWind Virtual SAN

Rating: 10 out of 10
October 31, 2024
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
5 years of experience
Hyper-V converged with 2 nodes using as storage Starwind Virtual SAN implemented a few years ago. A very reliable and versatile storage solution. Zero problems so far, exceptional technical support during this time. Very good in terms of costs, the alternatives being at least double in terms of implementation costs.
  • Functionality
  • Fiability
  • Cost efective
Cons
  • I did't find any functional feature that I miss
I only used and study Hyper-V converged scenario, is excellent storage solution for that. Very easy to setup and full featured I needed. Extremely reliable even in worst conditions even when both nodes go down, resynced without any issues. I recommend anytime this solution in any HA scenario as a good virtual SAN storage.

A very reliable and cost-effective solution for a Hyperconverged Environment

Rating: 9 out of 10
July 23, 2024
EC
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
We switched from a standalone Windows Server to a more reliable and redundant cluster. The challenge we had was to find a server solution that is scalable but cost-effective at the same time, so we decided to implement a Hyperconverged Solution. Challenges: Reliable sync in a 2-node cluster, e.g., avoid split brain Low latency and lightweight solution for storage Support as well as community size and up-to-date documentation The scope is to synchronize a 70TB storage with an additional SSD partition, which runs several critical VM instances, such as HA-Databases, Network Authentication, and ADFS. Additionally, we run a Fileserver on Hyper-V. Considering all those requirements, the storage needs to be reliably fast on broadband of workloads (small to big files). Another important factor is scalability, the free version received better documenation, which makes the expansion much easier through updated PowerShell script, plus the Support has been extremely helpful with any questions through the Forum (Thank you Yaroslav!)
  • StarWind Virtual SAN helps in reliably synchronizing in a 2-node cluster via a reliable heartbeat (384 days uptime so far)
  • Ample boost is provided through L1 (RAM) and L2 (SSD) Cache Partition with industry leading bandwidth
  • Fantastic Forum Support and even better mail support, as well as up-to-date documentation helped us in setting up StarWind Virtual SAN within 48 hours and bringing it online within 3 days after setup and initial full syncronization
  • Avoiding a full sync through its fast sync technology: When running maintenance on the cluster, StarWind Virtual SAN reliably synchronizes data in the background when e.g. restarting the service
  • Full utilization of our bandwidth: We use 2x 25GBit for Sync Interface and 2x 10GBit for end user interface and reach a file transfer performance of over 750MB/s through a Windows Fileserver VM
  • Scalable storage and easy implementation, even on the free version through powershell scripts. Rollout took under one day with 2 days of synchronization of 70TB over 25GBits
Cons
  • While StarWinds Documentation is well maintained and up to date, we wished that it was clearer in providing a clearer guideline in setting StarWind Virtual SAN up with a free license of the Management Console, resulting in a setup with the provided PowerShell templates. Though with the recent update, this got improved by a lot and as mentioned before, the Forum support is superb.
StarWind Virtual SAN is especially effective in a Hyperconverged environment where you want to have the best possible scalability while keeping an eye out on your budget. We utilize all hard drive slots for our cluster as redundant iSCSI storage and have the option to expand it anytime, for example, via storage enclosures. Another factor in our cost-driven decision was the maximum utilization of hardware, such as network interface and performance-boosting caches, such as RAM and SSD. Those requirements were met as well. The third and, in my opinion, most important factor was the support, which was fantastic. Even though we did not have a support license, a technician offered us help in correctly setting up StarWind Virtual SAN and checked our configuration. This positive experience is the reason we will be staying with StarWind Virtual SAN for a while.

Exploring StarWind Virtual SAN as an iscsi Server Solution

Rating: 9 out of 10
May 27, 2024
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
5 years of experience
I have utilized Starwind Virtual SAN (VSAN) as an iscsi server alternative in a Hyper-V based installation. We ran a 30-day trial license in a lab environment. The StarWind Virtual SAN solution was used as a software-defined iSCI storage solution for an imminent SQL Server cluster installation. This allowed us for a fairly quick integration solution for our SQL Server Cluster shared disk requirements, without the need to invest in a high-cost Storage Area Network (SAN) solution. There are various reasons which lead us to pick StarWind Virtual SAN for our implementation. Firstly, because it offers a robust iscsi-based virtual server which is software-defined and comes at the fraction of the cost, as compared to buying an expensive hardware Storage Area Network (SAN). Secondly, because it is compatible with KVM. We do implementations based on the KVM hypervisor besides HyperV and VMware, and StarWind Virtual SAN is among a limited number of platforms which offer native support for KVM . Last but not least, because it offers a fully functional trial license to test the product in a lab environment in a variety of deployment options, including both Linux-based virtual appliance and Windows-based executable.
  • Lower time to market
  • Lower costs as compared to high-end hardware-based SAN systems
  • Validated stability, scalability and performance
  • Native support for HyperV, VMWare and KVM
Cons
  • One point for improvement is to increase the performance capabilities of the Windows-based executable, as compared to its Linux Controller Virtual Machine (CVM) equivalent.
  • Another point for improvement would be to incorporate a more granular Role-based access control system (RBAC) natively inside the software to allow for more granular administration.
  • Yet another point would be to achieve tighter integration and automation with cloud-based platforms, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Any type of application or server software which requires highly available shared disk, such as SQL Server clustered instances or other types of application clusters are well-suited for the StarWind Virtual SAN solution. Higher end solutions with greater number of overall served users and application servers or Internet-facing applications requiring a low latency and highly performing system for servicing millions of users simultaneously may be better suited for a more experience solution built on top of a hardware based Storage Area Network (SAN).

StarWind vSAN - Highly available, redundant storage!

Rating: 9 out of 10
May 24, 2024
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
3 years of experience
We utilize StarWind vSAN primarily for the fault tolerance and high availability feature. We have multiple hosts running StarWind VSAN, which gives us the freedom to perform maintenance on one node without impacting the availability with other nodes. Our organization has been saved many times now after implementing multiple, redundant instances StarWind VSAN in a clustered configuration.
  • High availability file shares with high-availability quorum.
  • Redundancy and availability of VMs hosted on multiple hosts.
  • Flexibility to host vSAN independently from old-school physical SAN LUNs.
Cons
  • StarWind vSAN should include higher storage limits per license tier.
  • The free trial should come with more features to really ensure a proper deployment can be evaluated before committing to purchasing.
  • StarWind should look into officially supporting nested configurations; such as vSANs within a VM.
StarWind vSAN is best suited for high availability file servers, high-availability VMs, and running SAN storage independently from a physical machine. It is not best-suited to be ran in a nested configuration, from within a VM. Overall, StarWind vSAN is an excellent alternative to competing solutions for price, ease of use, and overall performance.

StarWind Virtual SAN - Easy, Resilient, and Cost Effective

Rating: 10 out of 10
April 18, 2024
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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.
Cons
  • 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
StarWind Virtual SAN is best suited in any scenario that involves the need for a virtual SAN. Support is very picky about deployment scenarios, and hardware compatibility is carefully scrutinized, but I believe this to be a good thing because no one wants storage to fail. It's much easier to configure and maintain than Vmware's vSAN product.

Needed a SAN - StarWind fit the bill

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 27, 2024
DT
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
2 years of experience
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.
Cons
  • No real improvement required.
One of the primary use cases of StarWind VSAN is to ensure high availability of storage resources. By synchronously mirroring data between multiple servers, it eliminates single points of failure and provides continuous access to critical data even in the event of hardware failures or server downtime. This is particularly crucial for mission-critical applications and virtualized environments where uninterrupted access to data is paramount.

It's a Winner!! for us

Rating: 10 out of 10
March 21, 2024
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
8 years of experience
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.
Cons
  • none yet
It's an easy and simple way to get a great HA Cluster environment without the need for expensive third-party appliances like physical SAN/Switches.

The right sized storage solution for our business

Rating: 10 out of 10
January 31, 2024
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
Cons
  • Virtual appliance password security
  • Taking full advantage of NVMe storage performance
The excellent support I experienced during the onboarding process really sold me on the solution as a whole. I feel that our company can count on StarWind Virtual SAN to be there if we have a question or if we have an urgent situation.

StarWind Virtual SAN, reliable and easy to use.

Rating: 10 out of 10
January 19, 2024
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
3 years of experience
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
Cons
  • Sometimes connections are lost between the nodes
  • Technical knowledge essential
  • Updating must be done meticulously
Very good support and very good value for money. If you want redundancy with reliable software it's my choice to implement this in a failover cluster. Nice not to depend on MS for a change. Due to hardware restrictions we couldn't use Microsoft. Another reason to choose Starwind, it's quite independent of the hardware you use in your environment

StarWind Virtual SAN Review

Rating: 8 out of 10
November 30, 2023
SK
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
4 years of experience
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
Cons
  • 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
it's a good solution for people that want the benefits of having a physical tape library but without the costs that come with it and also the manpower required to physically change tapes and then store them somewhere in a secure place.

Simple, effective, and reliable

Rating: 10 out of 10
November 30, 2023
CG
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
4 years of experience
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
Cons
  • There are no areas that need improvement for our use - it just works.
StarWind VSAN is excellent for hyper-converged scenarios.

StarWind Virtual SAN user review

Rating: 10 out of 10
November 14, 2023
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
10 years of experience
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
Cons
  • backup and restore the configuration
  • sync pause for node restart
  • zero-configuration when adding node
it's doing particular well in our cluster storage environment and we using these V-SAN storage for the virtual machine, Docking

Great product and nice and reliable team behind! Very professional

Rating: 10 out of 10
October 24, 2023
Vetted Review
StarWind Virtual SAN
2 years of experience
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
Cons
  • Compatibility with broadcom network adapters
The team was very reliable and helpful to answer an RFP and design a solution for our customer. They gave good hints how the network design should be done and what network adapters are not recommended. Very experienced! Clear pricing structure! The deployment and maintenance is very easy and the scalability of the SAN is great!
Only one point is not so nice. The vendor does not recommend to use broadcom network adapters. We currently cannot find other negative points.

Great Hyperconverged solution for the price and stellar support.

Rating: 9 out of 10
August 22, 2023
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.

  • Support is stellar. better than most
  • Usage of existing Tools
  • Proactive monitoring and alerting to issues that come up
Cons
  • Improve supply chain availability
  • Diversity of hardware providers
  • a smaller entry level solution for branches or small offices
For companies that have 4-5 or more servers, StarWind is a great solution to provide high availability for a low price. It can scale up very nicely for larger implementations to more like 15-20 servers with ease. Although we haven't used it for even larger environments, it's doable. What its not appropriate are really small locations that have 1-2 servers. Unfortunately no one seems to have a good HCC solution in this space.

True 2-node VSAN, perfect for SMB!

Rating: 9 out of 10
August 18, 2023
SW
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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
Cons
  • Documentation
If you're a small business (SMB), StarWind is PERFECT for your virtual SAN needs. Whether it be initially designing your infrastructure or replacing an existing SAN setup, a VSAN with StarWind will cut costs and give you all the benefits of SAN (redundancy, expand-ability, etc).

Starwind vSAN 2 thumbs up

Rating: 10 out of 10
August 11, 2023
DR
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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
Cons
  • Deduplication
  • Encryption
  • High latency stretched DR
Our needs were pretty basic. We needed a 3 node cluster without using switches. Vmware could NOT accommodate this so we looked for an alternative which I am glad we did as Starwind customer support is 10x better than VMware and the vSAN product is near comparable. Only drawback was the lack of encryption and dedup which was not a deal breaker for us luckily as it hit every other mark we needed.

Starwind HCA, a scalable solution for SMB that won't break the bank

Rating: 9 out of 10
August 10, 2023
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
2 years of experience
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
Cons
  • Command Center availability with VMware
  • More proactive touch points
  • Recommendations based on monitoring, proactively
Starwind allows for organizations with a small budget to deploy a modern, robust HCA solution.
Organizations that have a need for remote office deployments can find a resilient solution with Starwind HCA as well.
The ability to scale by simply adding additional nodes to the stack provides a unique opportunity.

Great solution to downsize on-site storage/costs when moving systems to the cloud

Rating: 10 out of 10
August 01, 2023
TE
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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
Cons
  • More guidance/examples/suggestions on how to conduct the free evalutation with ur system
StarWind vSAN is a pefect solution for a small to medum size organization that has reduced on-site storage by moving systems to the cloud and now wants to downsize storage costs as well.

Simple, great and cost effective, doing exactly what it is supposed to do

Rating: 10 out of 10
August 01, 2023
JL
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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
Cons
  • 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
Despite some of the drawbacks (lacking documentation that is not updated, GUI not being the prettiest), there really is no alternative to a simple, reliable and cheap virtual SAN solution on the market today. In my opinion, if you have local disk and need fault tolerance for a failover cluster for example, StarWind Virtual SAN really is the best. If you do need a bigger high availability setup using more than 3 nodes, then I'd look at investing in an actual SAN or similar solution instead. But for everything else that is 3 nodes or smaller, StarWind Virtual SAN does the job.

Cost effective solution that works exactly as advertised.

Rating: 10 out of 10
June 07, 2023
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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
Cons
  • Better documentation about recommended hardware
  • Better deployment instructions and guides
  • Better documentation about update procedures in a 2 node cluster
It is a great solution if budget is of concern, or if you are using a virtualization product other than VMware and cannot utilize their vSAN. If you're deploying a large scale cluster and using VMware, vSAN might be a better option, depending on the budget available.

StarWind Virtual SAN Quick Solution For Backup And Restoration

Rating: 8 out of 10
May 29, 2023
Za
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
2 years of experience
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
Cons
  • 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.

Enterprise grade software for SMB pricing.

Rating: 10 out of 10
May 02, 2023
DC
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
4 years of experience
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
Cons
  • Deduplication
Based on my knowledge of StarWind Virtual SAN, I can suggest the following scenarios where it is well suited:
Small to medium-sized businesses: StarWind Virtual SAN is an affordable and easy-to-deploy solution for businesses with limited IT resources. It provides high availability and fault tolerance for mission-critical applications.
Hyper-converged infrastructure: StarWind Virtual SAN is ideal for organizations that are looking for a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution. It eliminates the need for a separate storage area network (SAN) by converging compute and storage resources into a single server.
Remote and branch offices: StarWind Virtual SAN is a good fit for organizations with remote and branch offices. It allows for centralized management and monitoring of storage resources, while providing local access to data.

On the other hand, there may be scenarios where StarWind Virtual SAN is less appropriate. For instance:
Large enterprises with complex IT infrastructures: While StarWind Virtual SAN can scale to support large environments, it may not be the most suitable solution for complex IT infrastructures that require advanced features such as storage tiering, QoS, or advanced deduplication.

StarWind's Very Simple, Veritably Sound Virtual SAN

Rating: 9 out of 10
May 01, 2023
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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
Cons
  • Documentation could be more succinct
  • Support is sometimes difficult to understand verbally
The StarWind Virtual SAN is a wonderfully cost-effective solution for vSAN deployment. Whether it is being vetted as an additional solution to your existing stack of tech offerings by your R&D department or is simply meant to allow them to dip their toes into virtual SANs for the first time, this vSAN is a very low-risk venture.

However, this vSAN is meant squarely for the small to medium business market. As tempting as it might be, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

StarWind Virtual SAN Hypervisor-Centric Virtual Machine cost effective solution

Rating: 8 out of 10
April 27, 2023
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
1 year of experience
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
Cons
  • Management GUI
  • Documentation
If your organization need SAAS model. The best model so far used is StarWind Virtual SAN. You can have access to trail version free of cost. The same instance can be used for production environment as well.

StarWind Virtual SAN adds High Availability with little complexity

Rating: 10 out of 10
April 21, 2023
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN
3 years of experience
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.
Cons
  • 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.
If you are considering a High Availability deployment of hypervisors with a physical SAN, you should consider StarWind Virtual SAN, especially if space or technical complexity is an issue. If you are a company with no servers considering buying your first server, consider whether the downtime of guest VMs due to installing updates and rebooting the physical hypervisor is costly downtime or potentially difficult-to-schedule maintenance windows. IT appreciates times when they can avoid working after-hours.
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