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.
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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.
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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).
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Reviews and Ratings
(143)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I implemented StarWind Virtual SAN at the Cancer hospital I have worked at in Sydney for 9 years. We did a lift and shift from on-premises and required windows clustering and HA for some of our workloads. This product has been the core to that solution for three years and the product, services and support is outstanding.
- Virtual SAN in AWS between availability zones
- Real time data synchronisation between AZs
- Provide redundant HA within clusters
- There is not much missing but if I had a wish list, I would have stronger remote management capabilities
June 13, 2022
StarWind recommended for vSphere 6.7 integration
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Physical to virtual environment migration, requiring a VSAN storage for data center we had an old BLC 460 gen 6 blades with physical storage attached, so basically if we had any issues with the hardware or operating system the downtime for production would be for hours, so we created a virtual data center with VMware vSphere and added 3 20TB storage on each host then created 3-node StarWind scenario being shared on all 3 hosts, and creating virtual machines on 3 hosts and now running on StarWind storage.
- The three-node hyperconverged scenario for our data center works as fault tolerance and less worries on data loss.
- The management console over Windows, installing together with the PowerShell library, you can put images on maintenance mode from the management console which saves you a lot of time on syncing.
- With the PowerShell library I created a batch file for putting images on maintenance mode when our UPS reaches 10% battery capacity in case of a blackout and this lets you bring all host backup and StarWind storage not requiring sync.
- An easy migration to ZFS system that is being presented on a new version of StarWind, migrations look complicated as this restructures the whole architecture on the raid level, but could be a good option just by having it and letting the user decide this new feature migration, as based on our experience with ZFS systems they work pretty fast and secure.
- Android app for monitoring and receiving push notifications as alarms or monitoring I/O from any mobile device.
- SMTP makes management services to crash and restart if SMTP server not reachable
January 14, 2021
Well-built software defined storage
StarWind VSAN is used as a 2-node replicated storage, which allows us to eliminate single point of failure and re-use our current servers. It is being used across the whole organization as it hosts our critical systems like databases, remote desktop infrastructure and other systems that are most important for our non-stop work.
- Quick implementation.
- Runs really well and stable.
- Good support.
- No mobile app.
December 23, 2020
Practical and worth its value!
StarWind VSAN Solution is currently being used in one of our data centers located at Limassol, Cyprus. The solution includes utilization of storage out of physical servers in order to implement it to our VMware Vcenter environment, creating datastores/LUNS that we provide as a service to customers in order to create workloads.
- Read and write operation speed on VMs is incredible.
- Really easy to manage web interface.
- Integration with VMware was done pretty easily.
- Monitoring of workloads on mobile.
December 11, 2020
StarWind: Virtual SAN Reliability, Performance and Scalability
StarWind Virtual SAN is being used by the whole organization and it addresses the hyper-v needs with its ability to create use of high-speed storage across multiple high-speed NICs and with 2 separate 2 node clusters in use it makes it easier to leverage both of or heavy-duty needs and also the ability to move as needed between clusters.
- Consolidate NVME storage and allow for scalability.
- Allow for fast synchronization between cluster nodes.
- Allows for faster recovery when a cluster goes down.
- Notifications could use some work.
- Mobile app companion could be helpful.
- Better pricing would also be helpful.
October 30, 2020
Great performance at a great price.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Starwind VSAN in our main vsphere 7 cluster. It is the primary storage system for our organization and is used by every user in our organization. We selected Starwind VSAN to provide a boost to the speed of our VMware infrastructure and to provide better high availability to systems in our vsphere cluster.
- Speed
- High Availability
- Price
- Setup complexity