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.
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).
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Reviews and Ratings
(143)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-6 of 6)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
July 09, 2022
Flexible Storage
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
A customer of ours purchased two platforms based around Dell VRX Blade technology. Their original thought was that they would replicate the workloads between two server rooms on a single large factory site and production facilities. After reviewing some replication technologies they quickly decided, independently of our consulting, that the RPO for their use case scenario was not sufficient. They decided that they needed a solution that was not only highly available but also as close to being 'synchronous' as possible. StarWind Virtual SAN addresses this synchronous replication issue and the high availability considerations the customer had.
- High availability
- Ease of maintenance
- Hardware agnostic
- Performance metrics
- Consumption prediction
- vCenter integration where required
August 03, 2021
Cost effective shared storage for customers with an investment in direct attached storage
Two years ago we purchased the VMware vSphere Essentials Kit and created a server virtualisation platform with direct attached storage. We found this to be a cost-effective solution that met many of our needs at the time. We started placing more of our workloads on this platform and reached a point where features such as vMotion and High Availability were becoming mandatory. We knew that the vMotion and High Availability features could be enabled with a simple license change to the VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit. However, for these features to work we needed to implement shared storage.
StarWind Virtual SAN was the missing piece that allowed us to implement this shared storage; we didn't have to purchase any new hardware.
We use this virtualisation infrastructure for all our on-premises workloads except for a couple of legacy systems and file sharing. We operate the solution 24x7 and have not had any operational issues.
- Excellent pre/post sales support. We felt like we could approach the company with any issue.
- After implementation the solution has been very low-touch, meaning that we don't need to devote valuable resources towards keeping the solution running. This is ideal for the SMB/SME market.
- StarWind have been in the business for many years and their focus is on storage solutions. This provided us with reassurance that the solution will continue to exist and be supported in the future.
- We scheduled an interactive validation/tuning session before we went live. We found this to be very valuable and it proved to us how much the company is invested in their product.
- Some of the technical documentation needs to be revised so it becomes clearer how the solution works. If you are planning to implement the solution yourself, then a dry run is strongly recommended.
May 23, 2021
StarWind Forever
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind is used throughout our platform and is the cornerstone of our high availability data management. We rely on it heavily and it does not disappoint. It is generally simple to use and provides the reliability and flexibility we need. You will find StarWind throughout our data center. I would be remiss if I did not boast about their tech support. Easily one of the best I have encountered since being in the IT industry for 43 years.
- Provides outstanding high availability with flexible options. Can even use your preferred hardware.
- Strong and reliable. Always being further developed as well.
- Huge ROI compared to every other vendor we compared them to.
- Really can't think of anything that needs improvement. It does everything we need it to do and does it reliably.
July 02, 2020
1 year - normal flight!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using StarWind's VTL to augments Veeam's ability to offload existing backups to a tape library. This allows for easy compression of backups to a virtual tape library. We were able to get rid of costly and backups of shipping hard drives. StarWind vSAN made it easy. We've been using it for 1 year. This is very easy when you want to configure and make changes. We are glad to be using this product.
- Support is quick to respond
- Allows you to use Veeam and other software that uses Virtual Tape Libraries while getting rid of actual tape drives and tapes
- vSphere integration would be a major improvement.
- There is no multi language ability, but technical support speaks my native language perfectly.
October 14, 2019
StarWind Virtual SAN is a good choice!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
StarWind Virtual SAN is used in our organization on servers for high availability. Hyper-V-based virtual machines that host database management servers access fault-tolerant storage. This allows us to give uninterrupted work of our employees with databases even while servicing one of the servers.
- Fault-tolerant and high-performance storage.
- Servers of one cluster can be located at a distance from each other.
- It works even on the oldest servers and requires nothing but two network cards.
- For me, management through poweshell is not very clear, and there is very little documentation on this issue.
- There is no multilanguage, but technical support speaks my native language perfectly.
My team supports the IT infrastructure of a college, K-12 school and a large church with several hundred full-time staff and about 1,000 total users. We needed a product that would meet our High Availability (HA) needs as well as interoperate with our existing Microsoft HyperV cluster. It currently provides the Virtual Machine (VM) backing for about 40 VMs.
- StarWind uses a lightweight frontend that runs on top of our HyperV storage nodes. It is fast, easy to navigate and provides a clear indication of the synchronization of our storage across nodes.
- StarWind leverages the server hardware and HyperV setup we already have. It was easy to stand up a second node and replicate our RAID 5 array to the second server, providing HA.
- Given the criticality of the storage, we were concerned about support. StarWind provided us several options for support and has always been available when needed. They worked with us on TeamViewer to get the configuration up and running in just a few hours.
- Starwind currently has a Windows native application that it uses for management. There is not a web-based GUI at this time. This may be a choice to reduce the services running on the storage nodes but does seem like it would be a good alternative.