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Excellent software that does what it says on the tin
Updated April 25, 2022

Excellent software that does what it says on the tin

Ben Mottram | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with StarWind Virtual SAN

I use StarWind Virtual SAN to provide a cost-effective shared data volume for a simple two-node Windows cluster that provides services to the whole school community via Hyper-V roles. The software was selected on price and performance criteria - at the time of implementation the school did not have the budget for a hardware SAN and StarWind vSAN was a perfect fit for our use case.
  • Great user Interface
  • HIgh performance even on slow networks
  • clear and helpful knowledge base articles
  • Great command line support
  • C# and VC++ APIs
  • Post installation support call very useful
  • Occasionally the documentation/knowledge base isn't explicit about the implications of particular configuration choices.
  • unsynchronized volumes, it is a manual process to trawl event logs looking for information; as this information is available and the process to determine the last written copy of the data is deterministic/repeatable I would have thought a tool to search the available node event logs would be handy to have.
  • It could be clearer that if you use the GUI (Trial license) AT ALL, you cannot then configure the system to use the Free Tier license.
  • Enabled us to replace separate servers with a fail over HA cluster
  • Provided a cost-effective alternative to a hardware-based SAN
  • Provide timely configuration support
  • Reduced reliance on aging hardware
StarWind is exceptionally responsive to help requests, even when one asks questions in the support forum (which is meant for use by free tier users in general). In my case, StarWind has always helped sort out my mistakes (which, inevitably, the problems are) with patience and good humor. Post-installation, they provide a 2-hour consultation to ensure that everything is configured by their best practices - during which they accept any decisions you may have made/constraints imposed by hardware without issue.

Do you think StarWind Virtual SAN delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with StarWind Virtual SAN's feature set?

Yes

Did StarWind Virtual SAN live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of StarWind Virtual SAN go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy StarWind Virtual SAN again?

Yes

StarWind vSAN is an excellent fit for my cluster use case:- A two-node cluster in which the host nodes have four off 1Gbps directly connected NIC interface ports across three physical cards for exclusive StarWind use. The hosts provide 4.8Tb of DAS, represented by StarWind as a highly available iSCSI target, used as the CSV, and accessed by the host cluster across the dedicated interfaces. Even on old servers (Dell R620s) with traditional 800Gb SAS disks and 144Gb RAM, the performance is adequate for the network here (15 Hyper-V roles use the CSV). Cluster shutdown is a problem that we still have to address; be aware that the StarWind document that talks about a PowerChute script are not entirely clear that you MUST shut down your guests before setting the StarWind Device into maintenance mode (if you don't, they all get a hard stop with potential consequences for your virtual estate). Despite generally high-quality documentation and useful user forums, occasionally, StarWind does not state the 'obvious' in their documentation where that would be helpful and perhaps eliminate some support calls/messages.