Item: StarWind Virtual SAN
Rating: 10
Author: Lukas Wendelin

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Starwind Virtual SAN for a HyperConverged 2 Node VMware MS-Windows Server 2019 Cluster. It provides HA iSCSI virtual drive space for our SMB file share. In case of a power outage or system failure, the workload will be shifted to the partner node within seconds so that the file share has practically no downtime.

Pros and Cons

Fast installation and setup
detailed documentation and guides on their website
active and fast support

I would like to see:
an ETA for Synchronisation / Replication
a general Enter/Exit maintenance mode Button
different options for automated notifications

Return on Investment

Starwind Virtual SAN performance is very good
once set up, it runs on its own

Support Rating

We ran into some problems setting up our hyper-converged 2 node Failover-cluster. After many unsuccessful tries our Trial licence had expired. So we contacted support via Email and got an answer within 5 minutes. They just gave us longer trial to figure out if we can use Starwind Virtual SAN for our application.

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?

Would you buy StarWind Virtual SAN again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Hyper-V, Microsoft Windows

Likelihood to Recommend

Starwind
Virtual SAN is the perfect solution for our redundant 2 Node VMware
system. It provides storage space for our Windows Server 2019 Failover-cluster. Starwinds HA storage space in combination with the failover-cluster features, creates a failsafe redundant file share. The GUI is self-explanatory, and there are Step-by-step guides on how
to set it up on the Starwind Website.

Quite fast and active Support

Overall Satisfaction with StarWind Virtual SAN