A very reliable and cost-effective solution for a Hyperconverged Environment

We switched from a standalone Windows Server to a more reliable and redundant cluster. The challenge we had was to find a server solution that is scalable but cost-effective at the same time, so we decided to implement a Hyperconverged Solution. Challenges: Reliable sync in a 2-node cluster, e.g., avoid split brain Low latency and lightweight solution for storage Support as well as community size and up-to-date documentation The scope is to synchronize a 70TB storage with an additional SSD partition, which runs several critical VM instances, such as HA-Databases, Network Authentication, and ADFS. Additionally, we run a Fileserver on Hyper-V. Considering all those requirements, the storage needs to be reliably fast on broadband of workloads (small to big files). Another important factor is scalability, the free version received better documenation, which makes the expansion much easier through updated PowerShell script, plus the Support has been extremely helpful with any questions through the Forum (Thank you Yaroslav!)

If I had to do it again, I would start with researching the documentation as well as having a wide and active community. The reason we were successful in setting up StarWind Virtual SAN in such a short time was thanks to the easily available and easy-to-understand manual from StarWind as well as the community/technician support we received.

Although the implementation was without any prior training, I recommend anyone diving into this software to have knowledge about failover clustering and proper redundant network setup. I also followed their 2-node failover cluster manual to the letter. One bummer for me was that they stopped offering the management console for the free version, so after my subscription ended, I had to rebuild with PowerShell Scripts, fortunately the support from StarWind was fantastic.

Make sure you know which version you want to use before implementation. Switch from paid to free would require the reconfiguration of the storage, as was with out case. Other than that, the website of StarWind is very helpful in the first time setup with the paid version, the free version has PowerShell scripts and can also easily be enrolled with some help of the forum, unfortunately the documentation of the free version is yet to receive some attention.

There was no custom configuration done by our side. The software, as mentioned before, is straightforward and the setup can be done within one day with additional time for synchronization. In our case, a 2 node cluster needed 2 days for synchronising 70TB of storage via 2x 25GBit network cards.

I did not purchase premium support. The reason for that was that StarWind provides a good community as well as good documentation, which was my basis to start configuring StarWind Virtual SAN. Though if that would not work out, then Plan B was to purchase a premium support plan. Fortunately, that was not needed in our case, since the community was a great help.

Yes, we had 2 issues which needed to be cleared up; we posted them on the official StarWind forum:

1. What are the recommended configuration parameters in setting up the RAID array for StarWind Virtual SAN
2. How do we efficiently set up L1 and L2 cache without buying the StarWind Management Console

Our post was answered within 2 hours by a StarWind technician, which not only excellently addressed the issue but offered remote support from a certified StarWind technician the same week.