StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

We were looking for a way to utilize local storage for our Hyper-V cluster to prevent having to purchase a new SAN solution. I discovered this unique software and deployed it. It works well for sharing local storage in a Hyper-V cluster. Our existing, older SAN was too slow for this particular implementation. VSAN solved this problem successfully.

It helped us to save money by not having to purchase a new hardware SAN. The VSAN works better than our existing, older SAN. This software works well for the vital signs capture software we were implementing in a new Hyper-V failover cluster.

Our organization has less hardware to maintain since we didn't have to purchase a new SAN. Being able to run this software in the new virtual machines saved time and money. 

Their excellent tech and customer support also give our organization peace of mind.

The primary purpose of this software is to create a virtual SAN between local storage on Hyper-V hosts. I find this feature most valuable since it accomplishes this quite well. This is a unique product, as I haven't found another software that does this. 

I've also found their tech support very valuable. They helped me to save our data and set up new virtual disks using their best practices. Their customer support is also very responsive. They reached out to me to make sure everything is working as expected. 

If there was a way to automatically put disks in maintenance mode when shutting the host down and exit maintenance mode automatically, that would simplify things. I'm not sure how they would implement that, but I think it would be possible. 

Another feature they could add would be better integration with Windows networking and disk management tools. Maybe something as simple as shortcuts to those applications within the StarWind management console.

Perhaps automatic recommendations when setting up hosts/disks would be helpful as well.

We have been using this solution for about a year.

This product seems very stable and it seems to recover well if I do something I shouldn't.

This product is scalable. The number of virtual disks is unlimited, but each disk size is limited to 4TB with my license.

I found their tech support to be excellent. I had a major issue where we could have lost all of our data on the VSAN, and they helped me to resolve it. In fact, their customer service and technical support are both excellent. They are very responsive and knowledgeable.

I used the free version of StarWind VSAN initially. But when I had a problem, it was much more difficult to solve without a GUI.

Some parts of the setup are straightforward, but other parts are more complex. Their support team helped me through the complex setup portions.

The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very straightforward. They are exactly what you expect.

I didn't evaluate any other options, as I'm not aware of another software that does this.

We have been running Starwind Virtual SAN in a production environment since 2009 with VMware.

We run all types of software on top of Starwind (Different types of databases, factory software, security software, ERP, etc.).

We don't have performance issues with the software in fact it responds more than enough to our needs.

Since we are a mid-size company; Starwind is perfect for us.

Not everything is great, in the very first editions (a long time ago) there were some annoying issues with the software however, naturally, it evolved.

For us, in the last six or seven years, the uptime has been 100%. It has proven to be a great choice for us and of great value for money.

There are no future plans in changing to a different solution.

We have had Starwind in our infrastructure for about 13 years. It's easy to manage and understand. You can learn it very fast.

For those that aren't familiar with it, they can do a trial try and I am sure users will be surprised at how well it works. It has been a great investment!

Our Datacenter is based on VMware vCenter and initially, after some testing with other vendors and VMware vSAN itself, Starwind, in our case, was a better solution. We prefer to have the storage layer separated from the hypervisor kernel.

We have also products in our Datacenter like VxRail, however, in an honest storage level, in comparison, Starwind has an easier interface.

It's quite easy to manage. Good storage hardware is a must in our case, however, you can also run it in a software solution despite not being recommended in some cases.

Like many solutions today, Starwind should focus a bit on the alarmists of the product.

NVME Target for windows is taking a bit to become available!

There are so many potential alarmistic features and protocols that should be incorporated into the software.

Security on the ISCSI protocol could be improved by adding features like OS-type control access, especially for the data center environment.

I have seen 13 years of evolution in the product. Previously, it was short in features. Many customers' requests have been done. I do hope the solution continues to evolve in this way. 

I've used the solution for more than 13 years.

The solution offers good value for money.

Licensing needs to consider future needs.

We also looked at Microsoft and Dell.

The solution is very stable.

StarWind Virtual SAN, along with two Fujitsu Primergy servers, forms the backbone of our hyper-converged solution. This storage, network, and compute solution is used for our Hyper-V cluster. From this cluster, we run all of our virtual servers, which in turn run our business-critical infrastructure. This includes domain controllers, file servers, database servers, application servers, and everything to support it.

We once operated with a physical SAN, several servers, along with the networking equipment and the required fiber-channel infrastructure.

StarWind Virtual SAN allowed us to eliminate the need for any physical SANs. We also got rid of the expensive fiber-channel equipment. Now, we just have two servers that form the StarWind nodes and that's it!

All of our storage, networking that includes 1GB and 10GB Ethernet, and compute power are all housed in the StarWind Virtual SAN solution. 

It's simple and very reliable.

The most valuable feature is the reliable storage replication, which enables me to create a robust infrastructure to run our business.

Presenting Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) from StarWind Virtual SAN to Hyper-V simplifies my storage management and reduces costs vs having a physical SAN.  

The solution has matured and I have no points for improvement.  

We have had StarWind Virtual SAN for nearly nine years.

I've now been using StarWind Virtual SAN for over nine years. While I have had underlying hardware go bad during this time, the Virtual SAN never failed. I have replaced an entire hardware node with zero downtime. It's rock solid.  

Prior to adopting StarWind Virtual SAN, I had multiple Dell Equallogic SAN devices.  When it was time to replace the Equallogic with new hardware, the costs were unjustifiable after learning about and evaluating StarWind Virtual SAN.  

Communicate with StarWind, they will work with you and your team to size a solution that works for you.  

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.

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 are using this to replicate the onboard disks from our Hyper-V Hosts (Dell T640 Servers) for both replication/data protection, but most importantly, to function as shared storage enabling us to have a functional Hyper-V cluster with failover through the shared storage without needing to purchase oversized and pricey dedicated SAN hardware.

This solution enables us to make better cost-effective use of our existing hardware and leverage the current infrastructure at a higher level than we could before.

The data replication and shared storage have enabled us to dramatically reduce unplanned and planned downtime. With our Hyper-V cluster now able to do automatic failovers of our Virtual Machines, we have reduced the effects of reboots that would have interrupted access before.

We have also noticed performance benefits with this new deployment over the previous configuration that was implemented. This has also allowed us to increase our storage capacity by adding more cost-effective disks rather than pricier SAN solutions.   

As a technical admin, the GUI is a nice bonus that allows sometimes faster actions rather than going into the CLI. A great benefit in my current solution is showing off GUI configurations and monitoring to our non-technical administration in the school and helping them understand implementations and values from that.

This product would benefit from having automated alerting functionality.

We deployed StarWind Virtual SAN in March of 2021.

The scalability is great, so proper sizing makes entering into the solution easy and without waste. We should not exceed the scalability options available.

I have been very impressed with the support team. Every encounter I have had has been quickly responded to with both the right person and the needed solution. I feel very confident that they are available and accessible if any issue arises that I need to get help addressing or just ensuring my configuration is best practices.

We did not use another similar solution prior to this one.

The initial setup was straightforward and guided by a very knowledgeable engineer on their team.

This solution is very accessible and the pro-level for support is well worth the cost. 

Other than automated alerting, there is no real product feature that I feel would be useful to us. We have had no issues with the software as is. There are no gaps that we have had to fill in with other solutions or challenges that have caused us to redesign or change our intended implementations.

I have installed a few updates from the initial installation and found that process to be quite easy and successful each time as well. I look forward to seeing how they may innovate in the future and bring benefits we have not considered.

We use this product in our VMWare vSphere environment.

We use vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus and have a four host system. All four hosts have matching solid-state storage in a raid 10 array. We have two pairs acting as sync pairs so that one host in each pair can fail before we lose access to the VMs on those hosts. They are connected via 40GB redundant links for both iSCSI and sync.

We have really tried to focus on both speed and redundancy and feel that this setup was the best way to accomplish that goal.

StarWind vSAN has translated to a huge improvement in speed and high availability compared to our old iSCSI shared storage solution. Previously, we had a network-attached storage device with tiered arrays. Part of it was a standard spinning disk and the other was solid-state drives.

With this new solid-state local storage, we have massively improved our user experience.

The sync functionality is amazing as well, compared to our old replication system, in that it happens in realtime as data is written so that high availability is as fast as possible.

Speed and high availability have been the most valuable for us. Again, I would say the speed for our users has been extremely valuable. I wouldn't say it was terrible before but you know it's fast when normal, non-tech-savvy users are asking if we upgraded something because some local database app feels faster today!

From a business continuity standpoint, I love how it has improved our failover processes in vSphere. Having the data replicate in real time between host pairs has almost completely automated the process. 

I think the setup could be streamlined a bit. I was already familiar with iSCSI and setting up shared storage, but the abstraction process of getting from configuring the raid array on the local host machine, and making sure all the correct values are set to get the best performance, was a bit finicky.

Then, you had to prepare the appliances on each host and again make sure your VMDKs are properly formatted and then mounted correctly so they can be shared as iSCSI disks. It just felt like a lot of opportunities for a user to make big mistakes that would affect the end performance.

I was very impressed with the tech who walked me through the whole process, as I'm just not sure I would have gotten there on my own. 

We have been using StarWind Virtual SAN for five months.

I did not use another solution prior to this one.

I think the bang for the buck is much better with StarWind Virtual SAN.

I evaluated VMware vSAN.

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.