StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

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.

We provide managed web hosting services, including dedicated servers in physical or virtual configurations, for various customers, including small, medium, and large companies. We started hosting operations in 1995 and operated our own hosting infrastructure in data centers in North Carolina and Virginia, USA.

Our infrastructure included physical and virtual hosting environments based on VMware, which is where our StarWind Virtual SANs were deployed.

With our growing needs and customer requirements and demand, we added virtualization to our infrastructure, based on VMware. Storage requirements for the virtualized infrastructure also grew rapidly. We explored all available options, from hyper-converged solutions to the large "big name" solutions. Our infrastructure was too big for hyper-converged solutions. However, we were not ready for the major investments that a full-sized storage infrastructure would need. StarWind's offerings were a perfect fit for us, and remain so until today, almost ten years later.

Prior to StarWind, we were using "local storage" with each hypervisor, and this had many drawbacks, including size limitations, performance, technical management, and redundancy. 

With StarWind Virtual SAN, we could easily deploy and manage the storage solutions, add additional storage servers when needed, implement automated redundancy and failover, and scale storage allocations as and when needed, including adding high-performance SSD solutions alongside traditional hard disk solutions.

The Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well.

While it is possible to implement disk encryption in StarWind using Windows Bitlocker, such a solution can be a little tricky to manage, for example, when servers are rebooted. Bitlocker solutions require a physical presence in the data center to enter the encryption string on the server's physical console.

Built-in "Data at Rest" encryption would be an important need, especially for customers with sensitive compliance requirements e.g. Government customers, healthcare customers, eCommerce customers, and many other compliance-sensitive application areas.

We have been using the StarWind Virtual SAN product since 2014.

StarWind Virtual SAN is very scalable, simply by adding additional Windows servers and installing the StarWind Virtual SAN software on it.

We did not previously use a different solution.

Compared to similar solutions from NetApp etc., our savings were likely in the tens of thousands of dollars over the years, and we did not need to pay for features that we do not need.

We were very happy and impressed with StarWind's products and the technical support from StarWind's support team. If and when we needed assistance, StarWind's tech support has been very responsive, thorough, and very helpful.

We found the licensing costs and pricing to be very affordable and manageable.

We looked at big-name solutions such as NetApp, Cisco, and others.

Our storage infrastructure had been operating flawlessly with great performance and reliability.

Our use case is to provide a vSAN for Microsoft Windows Server failover clusters. We are a web hosting company that prefers to purchase smaller discrete servers rather than larger and expensive integrated with SAN solutions. However, we still want to provide a high-availability environment for even our small web applications.

We use StarWind vSAN to accomplish this goal without having to use the extremely tightly validated server hardware and networking options required by Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct.

StarWind vSAN has solved the problem of cost-effectively providing a high-availability failover cluster utilizing standard server and networking hardware. We save many thousands when purchasing hardware and the vSAN has never been the cause of any downtime. So, not only have we saved money, we have beaten our internal SLAs that our previous solutions were negatively affecting.

In addition, the highly competent support alleviates stress when we do have questions. Our technology stack has improved since we have started using StarWind vSAN.

First, we have found StarWind to be a "set and forget" type of product. It really is nice to not have to spend administrative time monitoring, tweaking, and configuring a product.

Second, the reliability has been exceptional. In the three years that we have been using StarWind, the product has yet to cause us any problems.

Third, their support team is excellent to work with when we do have questions.

Fourth, the documentation on the product is exceptional, and while not necessarily part of the vSAN product, they publish a lot of helpful information on their blog.

Perhaps more reporting features on the utilization, usage, and performance of the configured high-availability images and underlying physical disks would be helpful.

We have been using StarWind Virtual SAN for three years.

We've never had to handle any problems with the product.

Beyond a three-node direct-attach, some of the cost advantages decrease a little.

The technical support is responsive and competent. If only more companies were like this...

We previously used DFS to synchronize between nodes; however, it did not provide nearly the same level of reliability and is not a true HA solution as a hyper-converged environment with StarWind vSAN.

With the excellent documentation and having their support review our configuration, the initial setup was very easy.

We deployed using our in-house team.

StarWind vSAN has saved us far more than we've ever spent on it.

If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise. 

We tested out Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and priced out other competing traditional SAN options.

We are using StarWind as a two-node Hyper-V Cluster in order to have a highly available virtual environment. The two servers are interconnected with 25GB network cards. 

We then have our VMs installed on Hyper-V using the shared storage. Virtual machines will then instantly fail over to the other node in the event of a server hardware failure. StarWind keeps both of the disks mirrored to ensure no data loss. This has worked with no issues over the last year on many clusters that we have set up using StarWind. 

StarWind has been straightforward to configure. As a company, we have been able to install many StarWind clusters with no extra hardware required, meaning less hardware to maintain. The software is also cost-effective vs purchasing dedicated hardware SANS. 

We now have a defined config that is easy to replicate and works well with no downtime or maintenance required. 

StarWind support has been great in helping resolve other issues not caused by their software.

Shared storage between two devices is great. It was done seamlessly. StarWind has been straightforward to configure and installs StarWind organize a time and configures the software using their best practices. As a company, we have been able to install many StarWind clusters with no extra hardware required, meaning less hardware to maintain. The software is also cost-effective vs purchasing dedicated hardware SANS.

StarWind support has been great in helping resolve other issues not caused by their software.

A central management console may be nice to see all nodes.

I've used the solution for more than one year.

This has been very stable over the last 12 months.

We did not previously use a different solution.

Licensing used to be good. However, the pricing may have gone up in recent months. 

We did look at other hardware solutions.

StarWind vSAN is used to provide highly available storage for a VMware environment within a large factory complex. The storage solution needed to be hardware independent and capable of being moved to no Dell hardware when or if required. The customer had already decided upon and purchased a specific Dell hardware solution, prior to deciding that they would like the features and benefits of high availability storage and or the benefit of a hyper-converged infrastructure.

The StarWindvSAN solution stretches over two Dell VRX Blade chassis and provides synchronous replication of data for us.

StarWind Virtual SAN is essentially hardware agnostic, allowing us to build out a specific hardware layer based upon the customer's unique requirements, specifically around Dell VRX blade was the most valuable feature of StarWind vSAN. It is a pleasant change to encounter a company who are willing to be flexible over an implementation utilizing their product and varying slightly from their normal design specifications. They also helped us qualify the product against the customer's constantly changing requirements.

The solution allows for highly available stretched vSAN technology, independent of hardware vendors was the primary selling point of this platform. We have had a scenario where one of the server rooms, in this case, the primary where all of the virtual machines run, fail. The virtual machines are key to the management of a production facility that employs hundreds of staff on a rostered basis. In the event that the underlying infrastructure is no longer able to serve data the hourly cost and loss to the company in exceptionally large.

The ability to continue to be back up and running within minutes definitely saved the company hundreds of pounds.

As a company grows the ability to be able to deep dive into the minutiae of system performance becomes very important. Being able to see at a glance which systems are consuming IOPS/shares is very important indeed. 

The gathering of monthly consumption and performance reports for future dissemination to concerned parties is also very important. Unfortunately, StarWinds vSAN doesn't offer this functionality, however, it is something that would be greatly welcomed should they choose to develop it.

I've used the solution for two years.

We have had no issues regarding the stability or availability of StarWind vSAN. As such, my views are it is a good and reliable product.

It would be apparent that the solution will scale quite well. However, our actual capacity requirements for the implementation we performed are very small. As such we are unlikely to require future scalability.

We had one incident for which we required the help of their support. Our questions and queries were answered within an hour of their being raised. Overall, we have been very pleased with the response.

Positive

For this specific scenario, the customer hasn't considered the benefits of using this technology and it had not been a requirement.

The initial configuration was very simple. We utilized StarWind's expertise and recommendations when implementing the solution.

StarWind, the vendor, was involved directly with the implementation. This was accommodated remotely.

We have not measured ROI.

I'd advise users to go with StarWinds's design recommendations and utilize their technical support. It will help you get the best out of the product.

No other options were considered. This as hardware had already been purchased.

Our initial requirement was to have instant failover to another node in the cluster. Starwind Virtual SAN (vSAN) allowed us to meet the organizational requirements. It is installed on two of my Production servers for use in a Hyper-V cluster for a few years. 

Our initial requirement was to have instant failover to another node in the cluster. Starwind Virtual SAN (vSAN) allowed us to meet the organizational requirements. It is installed on two of my Production servers for use in a Hyper-V cluster for a few years. 

Starwind support was excellent in setting up all the connections between the servers and doing the configuration. Performance has been excellent with no issues. 

I don't even notice it's there. Since installing and initial configuration, I have not needed to engage with support.

The instant failover, with vSAN copying data to the second node, allowed for the continuous availability of our applications. By far, the best features are implementation and support. 

From our research into other options, an equivalent installation would have been quite a bit more than the StarWind solution. We did have to invest in another server and improve the connections between the nodes. This implementation now far exceeds our previous setup, which, in hindsight, was convoluted. 

So far, for our use case, I haven't noticed issues with the product. 

The few times I've ever engaged with technical support were during the initial phase of the implementation. However, I would absolutely like to see a lot more on the monitoring side. The information currently does not give any performance of the VSAN. 

I would also like to see the activities occurring on the nodes, bandwidth, replication and synchronization. Diagnostics information or alerts on the state of systems could also be implemented to give more visibility. 

I've used the solution for over two years.

Our team was looking for a reliable and cost-effective solution for our VMware vSphere platform.

VMware vSAN wasn't an option due to cost and scalability issues.

Enabling storage high availability across multiple nodes was our top priority as we couldn't risk having any downtime in case a node was to fail.

We ideally wanted a dedicated set of tools to administrate and perform maintenance on our hyperconverged storage.

That solution had to be as platform agnostic as possible so that we could reuse it with another vendor.

The product provides a robust and cost-effective alternative compared to other available products.

StarWind Virtual SAN allows our team to aggregate our cluster storage in a scalable way without seeing an explosion in the licensing costs.

It let us decouple our hyperconverged storage from the actual virtualization plartorm.

As an agnostic software solution, StarWind Virtual SAN could be re-used in other projects across different teams with another virtualization vendor. That aspect was key to the success of our department as all teams were able to work together.

Data replication is useful as it enables storage high availability on the cluster.

The fact that the solution is vendor-agnostic allows it to be used with any virtualization vendor while remaining a powerful abstraction over storage.

There are easy-to-use tools for the administration and maintenance of hyper-converged storage.

StarWind Virtual SAN also let us fine-tune the desired level of replication across all nodes, allowing the administrator to specify a custom number of fault to tolerate across the cluster nodes.

StarWind Virtual SAN architecture is slightly complex and requires the team to carefully identify and study how the solution integrates with VMware vSphere.

Tooling is spread across web UI plus desktop clients which can sometimes be confusing as the team isn't always sure which tool to use during maintenance procedures.

Also one drawback, when compared to VMware vSAN, is that StarWind Virtual SAN requires a lot of network interfaces in order to provide the same data replication and node redundancy features.

I've used the solution for one year.

We have never encountered any bug or problem that would bring the cluster down.

We are very happy with scaling, especially regarding licensing.

Technical support is very responsive, helpful, and friendly.

Positive

We did not use a different solution previously.

The initial setup was a bit hard to do by ourselves as there are many moving pieces and tools to operate. However, support helped us a lot with setting everything up.

I'd advise users to consider the scalability of the project as licensing can become a problem with competitors' products.

We did ook at VMware vSAN.