StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews and Ratings

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

StarWind has been such a huge win for our company. Using this software allowed us to create a two node cluster, without the need for any additional storage. We were able to create a hyperconverged cluster, with full failover capabilities, using only two servers. We now have highly available storage between the two, and VM's can live migrate freely between them. The real value comes with the Professional Support they offer. Within minutes of a node going offline, their Support reaches out to make sure everything is planned, and to offer assistance in getting the cluster back up and running. I cannot recommend StarWind enough. If you are looking for real 24/7 support, or if you have any limitations around storage, StarWind is an easy win for you and your company.

Likelihood to Recommend

StarWind is best suited for any infrastructure lacking a SAN solution. If you have two or three nodes that need to share highly available storage, this is exactly the software you need.

However, if you have a large amount of storage in your infrastructure, and it is able to communicate and be shared between the nodes, StarWind would not be as beneficial.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used StarWind Virtual SAN a few times in small and lab environments, and it's been a straightforward software-defined storage option. The setup process is easy, performance is good and it works well for creating highly available storage without needing dedicated SAN hardware.

Likelihood to Recommend

Used StarWind Virtual SAN a few times in small and lab environments and works very well there. I have no experience with the product in larger environments.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use StarWind Virtual SAN to provide a resilient platform to host business critical VM's. We came across StarWind Virtual SAN when evaluation Hyperconverged storage providers and it allowed us to repurpose our existing hardware which was great. We have had it running reliably for 3 years now and its a key piece of our infrastructure that just works.

Likelihood to Recommend

StarWind Virtual SAN is well suited for SME's who may be looking for a cost effective HA platform without having to purchase hardware SAN's and expensive switches etc. The 2 node solution can operate with direct connection hence no switches and and with a StarWind Virtual SAN support package gives you a solid platform for hosting critical workloads.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am using StarWind Virtual SAN for my small Proxmox Cluster. The StarWind Virtual SAN can be installed on commodity hardware or existing hardware. The StarWind Virtual SAN can be my shared storage cluster. So, my small Proxmox Cluster can do live migration or HA. Besides, StarWind Virtual SAN has replication ability for data protection

Likelihood to Recommend

StarWind Virtual SAN is suitable for small cluster like 2-3 servers. You can use it on small production or just for home lab. I am no recommend you to use it on big cluster. If you use Hyper-V, you can install it directly. If you use Proxmox, you can use it as CVM

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We've been using StarWind Virtual SAN in a 2-node cluster configuration across two physical servers, complemented by a storage array and a NAS. For our small to mid-sized business, this setup has been truly a relief as this solution delivers true high availability and performance without the complexity or any additional costs. Our main concerns were High Availability, Performance and flexibility with existing hardware.

Likelihood to Recommend

in our case, StarWind supports both Hyper-V and VMware and also integrates smoothly with our existing hardware stack, including the storage array and NAS. The software-defined approach gave us the freedom to design around what we already had. this gave us the ability to concentrate in other projects as we managed to have more time for those.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our organization used StarWind Virtual SAN to transform an older server into a feature-rich SAN based storage appliance for our organization. It was very easy to implement and we liked the fact that we could still run MS Windows Server along with the vSAN software. We were able to add storage and saved a lot of money vs the larger SAN manufacturers. It was a great fit and inexpensive for us to implement.

Likelihood to Recommend

I'd like to say that, based on your experience, StarWind Virtual SAN is well suited with transforming a server into a SAN. We were up and running with an iSCSI SAN in no time. Other solutions would have been costly to implement but this solution was very budget friendly and the user experience is great.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Great product with great support at a fair price, This StarWind Virtual SAN solution is working great and is easy to deploy, with detailed documentation. I recommended this solution for a VDI deployment that needed shared storage also not costing an arm and a leg like Vmware VSAN.

Likelihood to Recommend

VDI solution or any deployment that requires a shared storage and a dedicated one does not make sense, either cost wyse or space/cooling, etc.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

StarWind Virtual SAN is our production storage running on two VMWare ESXi hosts.

We are in the process of downsizing on site storage, moving as much as possible to the cloud - and there were not any affordable options available from NetApp a replace our out of production NetApp SAN. VMWare vSAN requires 3 host servers so it also was not a good fit. StarWind Virtual SAN has turned out to be a great soltuon that works just as well as what we had before but at a fraction of the cost.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's a great solution to downsize storage cost without sacrificing performance or high availability. But if it's critical that that everything will work automatically after a power outage with non-graceful shutdown, it may not be the right option.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Just like virtualisation, StarWind Virtual SAN helps us to maximise the utility and capacity of the server hardware in our environments for over 10 years now, while giving us reliable performance and availability for our server workloads. StarWind Virtual SAN has been easy to configure and administer and we have had almost no need to escalate any issues to technical support. It just works and keeps on working.

Likelihood to Recommend

Excellent fit for single site office and datacentre environments, small to medium-sized.Easy day-to-day admin along with responsive and competent technical support (from Starwind directly) makes this solution suitable for organisations and MSPs with small IT teams and/or junior/inexperienced technical staff.Less suited for geographically distributed environments, although it could function in this scenario as well, once the connectivity between locations deliver high-performance (high-speed, low latency).

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have been working with StarWind for over 10 years now. We have deployed their SAN software on physical Windows storage servers, Virtual Windows Storage Servers and as a storage appliance on VMware. We have deployed it as a single box solution for small customers and 2 and 3 way HA storage clusters for VMware environments for larger customers. In every scenario we have deployed StarWind, it has been the best solution we have found to push the full potential of the hardware for maximum data throughput and IOPs, while maintaining data integrity and availability with HA. We have worked with their support staff on many occasions. They are always quick to respond and they have always come through with a solution to our issues. They are always committed to ensuring the performance and functionality of their product. I would highly recommend StarWind to anyone! A+

Likelihood to Recommend

It is a great solution for SMB's as it has a free version that can be deployed and scaled up as the business grows.

It is hardware agnostic and give a great amount of flexibility in this regard.

If you are going to deploy it on a mass scale it needs a single pane of glass management interface.