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StarWind Virtual SAN adds High Availability with little complexity
April 21, 2023

StarWind Virtual SAN adds High Availability with little complexity

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with StarWind Virtual SAN

We deployed a pair of Dell hypervisor servers (1U each) and they share the internal storage between each other using StarWind Virtual SAN, eliminating the need for a separate, physical SAN. We have had great success Live Migrating VMs when needed, adding VMs, removing VMs, and backing up and restoring VMs. Their support was very helpful and I highly recommend getting their support.
  • the StarWind Virtual SAN allows us to use Starwind Management Console to confirm health of the sync
  • The High Available nature of the deployment means we can fail over VMs without end users noticing any downtime
  • Their support is proactive alerting when firmware updates are needed (including iDRAC firmware) or when there are any warnings in the event logs, and schedule a time to remediate the issue with you.
  • there is a "command center" VM recommended for monitoring and management which doesn't seem to provide as much value as hoped.
  • We could not install SentinelOne EDR/XDR onto the hypervisor hosts due to the logic behind the vSAN storage.
  • We realized we can not use Azure File Sync Share with Guest VMs on these hypervisors.
  • guest VMs uptimes are increased
  • time to patch is decreased
  • IT is able to manage the hypervisors, guest VMs, and vSAN remotely
StarWind Virtual SAN support has been fantastic proactively alerting us when there new firmware updates (including iDRAC firmware and BIOS), if there are any warnings in the event logs (like when we deployed SentinelOne to the Host machines), and they reach out and schedule a time to remotely assist. The support person is knowledgeable and will take control and "drive" the session.
we did not evaluate any other vendors with virtual SANs

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

If you are considering a High Availability deployment of hypervisors with a physical SAN, you should consider StarWind Virtual SAN, especially if space or technical complexity is an issue. If you are a company with no servers considering buying your first server, consider whether the downtime of guest VMs due to installing updates and rebooting the physical hypervisor is costly downtime or potentially difficult-to-schedule maintenance windows. IT appreciates times when they can avoid working after-hours.