StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

We use the solution as a hyper-converged appliance for critical business applications for a 12+TB data set with high availability and proactive storage monitoring. 

We use a two-node HCA cluster running Starwind's vSAN on VMware with 40Gbps storage replication links and heartbeat channels. 

We have been through two sets of StarWind vSAN/HCA appliances over five or more years and migrated from all physical servers to two hyper-converged nodes and then from the two hyper-converged nodes to two new nodes when the old nodes had reached maximum service age. 

We have leveraged StarWind's team for assistance with setup and configuration on both sets of appliances and their support as needed.

StarWind's vSAN took us from an organization with no failover for our infrastructure to having a complete failover within four to five minutes. It also allows our IT staff to perform hardware and software maintenance on infrastructure during business hours, cutting our need for overtime and extended work hours. 

We no longer have to worry about hardware failure since either of our vSAN nodes can support our entire workload until the failed node can be repaired or replaced, then the data stores resynced, and high availability returned.

The ease of reaching the support team and their promptness for support is great. The install team has also been excellent, always performing a thorough job and never rushing thru the process. 

The simplicity of architecture since the nodes can be directly connected. There is no need for a storage network unless you exceed three nodes of storage this is a large cost saving for most organizations that do not have extremely large datasets.

StarWind's VCA also provides a great TCO for the provided features and costs versus other solutions.

I would love to see more vendor selection to be available for the HCA/vSAN appliances. All the appliances are currently Dell, and the additional cost savings could be found with Supermicro or Lenovo configurations. 

If StarWind's proactive support alerting could also have an email integration or work with a PSA system so we open alerts when StarWind has an event generated, it would be great. Right now, we operate off the alerts being sent to StarWind and their proactive service team is reaching out to us to work on remediation.

I've used the solution for over five years.

In our experience, it has been extremely stable. We have several clusters deployed and have never had any large issues with any of them.

The solution is very scalable. You can add nodes to increase computer and storage. You only need to add storage networking once you exceed three nodes.

Support is prompt and usually, they can meet via Zoom in just a few minutes from the creation of a support request/ticket.

Previously we have used other SAN solutions that did not provide the same level of redundancy or support.

The initial setup was very straightforward and well-documented. When purchasing a vSAN, the appliance setup is included with StarWind, and they can do most of the setup with you over a Zoom call.

We used a mix of in-house and vendor support. The vendor's level of expertise is excellent. I've never gotten off a call without a solid answer being provided.

Our ROI was achieved within 36 months of deployment. We ran our first vSAN cluster for 60+ months before replacing it with a new vSAN cluster.

The setup is the most cost-effective as a two or three-node cluster yet is still cost-effective in larger configurations.

We evaluated several solutions, including SCALE, Dell EMC, Dell MD Storage Arrays, HPE 3PAR, and others.

Starwind's vSAN software is available on their websites and you can set up a test environment to vet the product.

This solution was implemented for a Hyper-V production build, where we used StarWind virtual SAN to create and build a redundant DataStor for our clusters. Once this was completed, management and troubleshooting were simple as the application is very user-friendly and highly flexible in terms of configurability. We have never encountered any issues with this product, as it is very reliable.

It has improved our organization in terms of its uptime as our main cluster has never been offline due to a SAN failure. This is a huge plus for us as we need our data available 24 /7. 

There are not many futures I can recall that would stand out to me the most, as the entire application functions as one working function.

It could have a dashboard so that you can check all servers' SAN health and performance.

I have been using this solution for approximately five years.

The solution is very stable.

very good

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution.

Technical support was more or less straightforward.

it was done in-house

We did evaluate VMware.

We were using traditional physical storage for our environment, and it was costly for us. On top of that, the performance was not satisfactory. We started using the StarWind vSAN for virtual storage. 

It is cost-effective and has amazing features. The capacity to scale assets to address changing issues and upgrade execution contrasted with conventional capacity arrangements and therefore is another positive aspect when utilizing StarWind Virtual SAN. 

Utilizing the StarWind Virtual SAN gave us a more steady and adaptable arrangement. I noticed a persistent upgrade in the functionalities of the StarWind Virtual SAN, so its development is great.

We were facing issues with high availability and the integration of virtualization platforms then we started using StarWind vSAN to help us improve the high availability and the integration with the virtualization platform. 

StarWind Virtual SAN permitted me to have extraordinary adaptability in making an exceptionally basic framework, where I could gather total independence over vSAN, yet connect it so that it was fit for working with the VMware Hypervisor. That way, I had a more powerful and dependable framework.

The high availability features helped with storage availability 24/7.

Integration with virtualization platforms helped us to resolve many issues we were facing while using the physical storage.

StarWind Virtual SAN is great for a financially savvy arrangement if you're utilizing Hyper-V or VMware. 

Thanks to a simple execution, you can save your expenses and convey the product with your inner sources with the help of a merchant.

The onboarding is effortless. Setting up and designing the Virtual SAN is clear, with an easy-to-use interface that makes it simple to oversee and screen the capacity climate.

We have an elite execution. StarWind Virtual SAN can convey quick, dependable capacity for virtual machines. Its abiluty to use nearby capacity as a component of a profoundly accessible capacity group assists with guaranteeing superior execution.

The platform needs to improve user management and the web console. 

Improved help for more up-to-date advancements would be ideal. As fresher innovations and guidelines arise, it tends to be provoking programming suppliers to keep up. 

While StarWind Virtual SAN, by and large, works effectively to support the most recent advancements, there might be a few regions where it lingers behind the opposition. Further developing help for fresher advances could assist the product with remaining cutthroat and pertinent.

Upgraded investigating capacities are needed. While the product incorporates a scope of symptomatic and investigating devices, there might be a few regions where it very well may be gotten to the next level. For instance, giving more nitty gritty mistake messages or better direction on the most proficient method to determine issues could be useful for clients.

I have been using the StarWind vSAN solution for the last six months and I found this product exceptional and amazing for virtual storage.

StarWind vSAN allows the use of commodity hardware, reducing the dependency on proprietary hardware. 

It ensures that data and applications are always available, reducing downtime and increasing productivity. 

It eliminates the need for expensive storage hardware and provides an affordable software-defined storage solution. 

By using StarWind vSAN with our current hardware and Microsoft Hypervisor capabilities, expenditure can be reduced. 

The easy-to-use administration interface makes light work of required configuration changes and settings that must be applied.

The customer support provided by StarWind is excellent. The company offers a variety of support options, including phone, email, and chat, and their support team is responsive and knowledgeable. 

Another advantage of StarWind vSAN is its performance. The solution is designed to deliver high-speed storage performance, with support for SSD caching and advanced data compression techniques. This can help to improve application performance and reduce latency, particularly for high-demand workloads. 

The product is highly flexible and provides excellent performance and customer support from StarWind Software Inc.

The valuable aspects of the solution include:

Cost-effectiveness. It eliminates the need for expensive storage hardware and provides an affordable software-defined storage solution.

Simplified management. It provides a simple and intuitive interface to manage storage infrastructure.

Flexibility. It allows organizations to use commodity hardware, reducing the dependency on proprietary hardware.

High-availability. It ensures that data and applications are always available, reducing downtime and increasing productivity.

Any product, service, and solution always have room for improvement. By continuing to utilize emerging technologies and integrations with relevant storage technologies, the StarWind vSAN platform has ample room for growth.

Regular updates to the software are required, and subtle design changes would be welcome. 

To make it easier for new customer adoption, the software setup and configuration could be presented in a more simplified manner. Instructions in email communication to obtain support during the implementation and configuration of the software need to be more visible. 

Using a "Newsletter" design approach during email communication would be beneficial. This would allow clients and newcomers to see that StarWind Software Inc. is able and ready to accept support and assistance requests as required. 

I started using the solution this year.

StarWind vSAN is a robust and reliable software-defined storage solution that can help organizations create a highly available and fault-tolerant storage environment. While there may be some challenges with setup and configuration, these can be overcome with proper planning and support from StarWind Software Inc.

We use the solution mostly for the backup sections, VTL and Hyper-v physical tape drive pass-through.

I would definitely, recommend this product. I have been dealing with support for over three years and normally support is the biggest grievance we have in the IT industry. However, support is great, including after-sales support. Sales representatives were knowledgeable and very helpful whether you use the free or paid versions.

This is perfect for mainstream organizations. Even small businesses can use it. They cover legacy methods and all new methods in terms of hypervisors and backup methodologies. I work for an organization that has standalone hosts in rural areas in Africa where tape backup is still a thing. With the assistance of StarWind we were able to share a backup device on "Hyper-V" as Hyper-v does not support pass-through natively.

This is a fantastic software that is highly recommended for the virtualization of storage and for backup methodologies.

The VTL feature is useful as StarWind is the only organization that is suited to the business needs of companies that still run legacy EHR systems.

We have over 30 sites that utilize this technology, and it is very simple and easy to use. Installing the software and maintaining it is very simple. Support and after-sales support are amazing.

It has great free trials that allow end users to test a large variety of their products before deciding to buy the full product.

The team is very knowledgeable, helpful, and willing to see if they can cater to your business needs,

I would like them to release a GUI on the free version

They need to build an interface that will interact with the VTL with a media changer.

I would like to see more advanced free versions.

A suggestion box or feedback box would be a good start with the products.

We need the support of newer VTL technologies and older ones, from LTO4 all the way to LTO8, on one interface.

It would be helpful to have integration with a StarWind backup appliance instead of having a second software to manage the VTL files and operations.

They need to allow us to download older versions of the software and licenses.

I have been using the product for over three years now.

This is a new product for us, and right now, we are using it in our lab environment, using one HP Z640 workstation and 2xE2267 processor with 64 GB of RAM. 

We have installed StarWind vSan to support our VMware vCenter v7.0.3 infrastructure with 2x2TB HDD. 

We're also using the same ISCSI service for our Veeam and Commvault backup infrastructure. During our tests, we did not notice any problem with the product. 

It was a reliable, simple solution to add more storage on the go and allowed for flexibility. We are truly thinking of using this product in our production.

I have been using Starwind vSan for some time, and the experience is great. In terms of simplicity and the features it offers. It takes little time to set up everything and prepare the system.

It includes every feature that a traditional SAN offers and so much more.

With the flexibility it offers, we can use expand the storage on the go as soon as our backup services need more space. We are not limited the same way were are on physical SAN storage. 

For different services, we use different protocols. SMB, ISCSI, etc.

The ability to add storage on the go without putting down the entire infrastructure is useful. This means SLA improvements for our customers, and the continuity of the services is increased. 

We also like the ability to use it on the cloud, as our clients use also backup services on the cloud, meaning more security for backups of our clients. 

We like the simplicity of setting up the system and making it ready to use for the client. 

We appreciate the integration with popular hypervisors and backup systems.

I would like to see improvements in the documentation area. Some things need to be clear, although, for some people, the manuals being larger is a big no. That said, it is more important to explain things in detail.

The free version does not offer GUI, and for some people, it will be very difficult to test all the features of the product. They might feel disappointed about the product without a GUI. It would be better to have a trial of the full features for new customers that want to learn about the product. 

Other than that, I have no other improvements to talk about.

I've been using this product for some months now.

The previous solution we used was a traditional SAN.

The first setup was simple and intuitive.

We implemented the solution by ourselves in-house.

I did not see any hidden costs. That said, everyone has to keep in mind that on the cloud, of course, the cost will be higher than using local storage.

We did not evaluate other products before StarWind vSan.

We have two Windows Servers (2019), and two locations, and needed Virtual SAN so that we can use disks that are installed on each server. With StarWind Virtual SAN, we created multiple SAN disks that helped us create a real-time failover cluster replication service for data and SQL. 

Installation of Virtual SAN from StarWind was very easy, with a pre-ready directory full of PowerShell scripts that you can easily edit to suit your needs and just run them. That way, you create an environment that fits your needs and is something that you can edit very easily or delete.

We have been searching for a Virtual SAN for a long time. When we found the Virtual SAN from StarWind, our problems were fixed. The easy PowerShell scripts are ready to edit and run for everyone. We are using it for GEO Failover Cluster and have now been using it for a few months with no problem. We also have real-time replication that is working great. We've had no errors. The startup when using Windows is working with no problem with StarWind, so we connect very easily.

The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run. It comes with a bunch of free PowerShell scripts that you can edit and run, and also you can create your own with help of PowerShell.

Not so many Virtual SANs work great with a failover cluster as StarWind does; it has no lag, is working great, has no errors, and we can log it easily.

It has minimum hardware usage, which means a lot to us.

The deployment of StarWind Virtual SAN is very easy; they have online manuals that can help you and guide you with your installation.

We are really looking forward to the release of more PowerShell scripts that are easy to use and can be edited by rookies. 

Their support is really fast and reliable. You can get it via email or the there's forum community where you already find a lot of questions/answers to your problems and the community will help and guide you through the problems that you have.

We tried to find a con, however, it's really hard. The product just works. If I had to find something, then it would be the GUI. For someone entering the IT sector with little knowledge of storage, iSCSI, and virtual disks, they might not find the GUI immediately obvious.

I've used the solution for a few months now.

The stability is great.

The scalability is great.

They offer great support.

Positive

The initial setup is easy.

We handled the setup via an in-house IT team.

We added vSAN capability for Hyper-V. We had a three-node standalone that used Microsoft Hyper-V and we wanted to convert them into a hyper-converged solution instead of formatting the servers and losing the windows licenses and installing VMware with the high cost of licenses (especially since we have two CPU sockets on each host). 

We used StarWind Virtual SAN with was a cheaper solution while leveraging the existing all-flash standalone servers. 

The installation of StarWind Virtual SAN was pretty easy, and the configuration was done in no time.

We were looking for a cheap vSAN solution that worked with Hyper-V. StarWind Virtual SAN gave us the capability to have shared storage between hyper-v hosts without buying external storage or using VMware instead of Hyper-V. 

Using this solution improved our organization to take advantage of existing servers while we had a very low budget. 

While we have a worldwide issue in the supply chain of servers, this was a very essential solution that helped the organization meet the application team requirements for the new solution installed.

We can turn Windows Hyper-V nodes into a hyper-converged solution. 

I like the high availability and redundancy of the Hyper-V nodes.

This solution does not have any specific hardware or disk requirements that can be found in VMware, for example.

The solution was very easy to use and configure the three-node failover cluster - and you do need to configure the multipath and the network interfaces prior to the StarWind software installation.

It provided a way for replicating data and a way to have HA, which was very straightforward to set up.

The documentation is good. However, if compared with competitors, it could be enhanced and made more professional.

Other products like VMware vSAN have a bigger user base and more forums. It will take more customers to use Starwind Virtual SAN to change this. For example, You can find more PowerShell scripts on internet forums, and GitHub related to PowerCLI (VMware) than you can find StarWindX Powershell scripts. 

Reporting capabilities of StarWind vSAN are also limited compared to VMware, which is considered a more mature product in the market.

I've used the solution for six months.

It's been so far, so good regarding stability (we've had no issues).

The performance provided by the solution is good for SMBs and specific departmental solutions.

We are using VMware vSAN on other solutions, and we are still using it, however, it is better to use VMware only as a hypervisor (obviously). Also, the hardware requirements are very costly to be compliant with, while using StarWind Virtual SAN there are no hardware or hypervisor requirements.

The initial setup is straightforward and easy to perform.

The setup is pretty easy for any mid-senior administrator.

StarWind Virtual SAN is a cost-effective solution.

Support also is very good.

We evaluated the following other options:

• Using traditional architecture by buying external storage and connecting it to the three existing nodes 
• Using a VMware solution. However, this will lead to losing the Microsoft licenses, and VMware costs more than StarWind Virtual SAN

It is good to have diversity in this market, and StarWind Virtual SAN is a good solution.

I've used this mostly for lab testing with vSphere, where a SAN was not available. In that case, a vSAN was the best product for testing.

We didn't want to have to purchase a whole load of new hardware just to complete some testing for ESXi/vCenter/vSphere, et cetera. We had a fairly large server in terms of computing (CPU, RAM) and storage that wasn't being used, so we decided to use this to host nested ESXi hosts. 

We didn't want to purchase a SAN to complete the testing works, so we could deploy a Windows VM, pass the storage through and use StarWinds vSAN software instead.

It has allowed us to save a lot of time and money by letting us create a vSAN within a Windows VM on the environment it controls. 

There are 5 ESXi servers (all virtual, nested inside the host ESXi server, so six in total). We then have a single Windows VM deployed with storage passed through directly to it. This was then set up very quickly with some PowerShell scripts. This immediately made the storage available over ISCSI to ESXi and then allowed us to complete testing of failovers and DR, et cetera, without impacting anything live and also keeping costs down.

The ability to deploy this software in full for free is great. The fact that StarWind provides this product with pretty much full functionality for free if you're willing to invest your time into working through PowerShell is very helpful. You get a lot out of it. You can also make it highly available, again, all for free! 

The fact you can use the deploy to the same host it will also be managing is excellent, and also, the update process for the software is nice and easy. It's just next, next, next. I've had no issues. It also seems to not suffer from any obvious performance issues on the Windows VM. The resources I've given to it are low in terms of computing and it plods along without issue.

It would be good to have a little more access to control certain aspects within the UI. However, when you're using it for free and have the full functionality of the product available to you with scripts and other means, you can't complain. 

Right now, I don't think there is anything I would think to add for my use cases. It's mostly used in a lab environment, and it does the job for us perfectly. If I was to use it in full production, I would certainly look to purchase it rather than use the free one, mostly for the simplicity of using the UI for lots of tasks.

I've used the solution for one to two years.

The stability is excellent so far. We've not had any issues and I've been using it for a couple of years.

So far, scalability is excellent for the paid version. 

I've not needed to speak to them for any support. That said, I've spoken to a customer service rep, and they are very nice.

Positive

I did not previously use a different solution. I was looking for some vSAN software for testing, and this fit the bill immediately.

The installation is very easy. It's just a typical next, next style. The configuration of the product afterward was a little more complex, however, StarWind provides you the tools, even for free, for setting it up (PowerShell scripts).

I implemented the product personally, in-house. 

I'm using a free edition at the moment. ROI does not apply.

I would start out by testing the product in the free edition. You get full functionality, and you can see how it will perform in your environment. If you're happy with it overall and want to use it in production, I would certainly pay for it for the UI aspects and the full support as well.

I tried to use things like FreeNAS/TrueNAS. However, it just wasn't quite right for my needs, whereas StarWinds vSAN worked as expected.

The solution can be used for configuration and management as well as a backup repository.

I have used it for Veeam Backup and Replication and VMware NFS Datastore and it has really worked well.

One point to highlight is how easy it is to configure and manage. You don't really need to be an expert. However, it is important to know the storage concepts.

Simply by following the intuitive interface, you can configure your devices. Following a tutorial, you get the basic administration you require.

The process of choosing this product was not very difficult. It fit what we were looking for and it fulfilled the technical requirements for the project. As for the IT department, the management and monitoring have been very easy since the solution's dashboard is very simple and user-friendly.

In the implementations that I have carried out with StarWind, something that is noteworthy is the way in which it impacted the processes based on the way the solution was chosen to how it was implemented.

They need to improve the speed of the interfaces, thus allowing for better traffic on the network. They should continue with the development of protocols such as LACP that allow aggregation and maximal connectivity.

As for the V2V converter, it would be a good option to develop it not only as a converter but as an option for the migration of virtual machines between platforms, creating integrations with Azure, AWS, and GCP. 

It could even be a way to migrate machines between HyperV, VMware, Nutanix, and other virtualization and hyper-converged environments.

I've used the solution for four years.

We had indeed tried a different solution, however, we opted for StarWind. Qnap did not have everything we needed at the moment.

The cost-benefit ratio is really well balanced.

We looked into Qnap and Synology.

This is a very user-friendly product that works well overall.