Item: StarWind Virtual SAN
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with StarWind Virtual SAN

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We're VMware customers, but we began using StarWind Virtual SAN before VMware VSAN was very well established. It works just as well but at a more affordable price. I'm not sure if StarWind Virtual SAN has an option for a 2-node cluster, but I know in the past 3 nodes were minimum, which was a large difference for our relatively meager IT budget.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It is "set and forget." I've administered two StarWind Virtual SAN clusters for 5+ years; it's always been rock solid.
Support is very responsive.

Cons

Update appliances to newer OS

Return on Investment

Pricing was more affordable than the other options.

Support Rating

I let our support lapse by mistake one time, and even then, they still solved my issue with "best effort" after-hours support.

Alternatives Considered

VMware vSAN

VMware vSAN did not support 2-node clusters and was more expensive.

Key Insights

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

Other Software Used

VMware vCenter Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Windows Server

Likelihood to Recommend

StarWind Virtual SAN is great for smaller deployments but I have not tried it in a larger configuration. I would consider using their hyper-converged nodes but we already had existing hardware so have never gone down that path.

Comments

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Stable product with great customer support at an affordable price