StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

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.

Our primary use case for StarWind vSAN has been to reinforce networks for our clients in a two-node Hyper V setup by utilizing the Hyperconverged configuration. This enables us to create a failover cluster for a cheaper cost than purchasing a physical SAN (plus adds more redundancy as you technically get two vSANs as each host becomes a vSAN). The Failover Cluster then allows us to live-migrate Virtual Machines when required, for example, for maintenance, or in the event that we suffer hardware failure on one of the hosts.

It enables us to provide more solution options for our clients, with the reassurance that, when implemented, they will be efficient and stable. Unfortunately, due to the cost of it and the size of our clients, we find that we can't always use it. However, it's an option that we know is always available and one that we'd leap to recommend if the scenario can fit it. Personally, it's something I'd always want to implement, as, without it, most clients with two Hyper V hosts can only replicate virtual machines and not live migrate. 

The extra redundancy in a two-node hyper-converged setup has been the most valuable feature. If we wanted this with an actual SAN, we'd need to purchase not only one but two SANs and enable replication between the two. With StarWind, you get the vSAN replicated between the two hosts out of the box. The vSAN also offers fine-tuning options for the replication between these hosts. For example, if there was a host failure and we were to run off one for a period of time, once the secondary host is recovered, it will need to resync with the one that stayed up so that the data is up to date. You can choose whether to prioritize the replication speed or performance of the virtual machines. 

For me, the product could be improved by it being made cheaper. We can't use this as an option for some of our smaller clients. Being able to replicate RAM between the hosts would be a nice feature so that VMs could be live-migrated fully in the event of a full host failure. Currently, the vSAN offers the ability to live-migrate the virtual machine as the VHD is on shared storage, however, if the virtual machine were to be rebooted, it would lose the running configuration (e.g. memory, etc). If this could also be live-migrated, that would be gold. 

I've used the solution for two years.

We didn't have another solution previously. This was our first vSAN experience.

I tend to deal with the technical side more and stay away from the pricing.

I can't recall seeing anything else that caught my eye.

Overall, I really enjoy this product. It's easy to use and support is fantastic.

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.

StarWind VSAN software was easily deployed on the commodity hardware and integrated into the existing IT infrastructure.

We have used in HyperConvergence and Citrix XenServer installations without any problem.

With our customized hardware, we have very good IOPS and throughput.

This solution has allowed the company to create an HA virtual server environment satisfying budget restrictions and reliability requirements. VM live migration was ensured by StarWind VSAN as well, thanks to building a failover cluster.

The price of StarWind VSAN was another tidbit.

On top of all of this, the StarWind Support Team did everything to ensure that the IT infrastructure was up and running as quickly as possible.

High Availability is the best feature of product. You have redundancy of storage systems at a competitive price. All other storage solutions are very expensive and without redundancy and if you have it the price is very high.

Additionally, the feature of asynchronous replication, both for on-site and off-site systems is very competitive. Also the support of LSFS file system is very good.

Maybe in the future, the replication will be supported in more cloud providers.

I don't think there are features that this product doesn't have it. It has all of the things that a system engineer will want.

I have been using this solution for two years.

This solution has excellent stability.

The scalability is excellent.

In one problem that I with the performance, they gave me a solution very quickly using a remote session.

Before our StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) deployment, we had NetApp, IBM DS Series, and HP StorageWorks MSA1000 storage systems.

They have low performance and no replication (is very expensive).

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward.

We implemented this solution in-house.

The ROI for this solution is very good.

This solution has competitive prices and the implementation is very easy.

We did not evaluate other options. We have only classic storage and filers.

I recommend this solution because it gives me flexibility and expandability.

It works like a charm without any problem or concern.

Our hardware is located in one of the largest data centers in the country, where we have high availability services for our company. Our internal systems include VPN, hosting services like website, email, database, DNS, FTP/SFTP, and SMB/CIFS.

Replication is between two servers with SAS and SSD storage, based on Dell servers. Network connectivity is 40GE for data synchronization and1GE for the heartbeat, directly connected.

We are using WMware vSphere as a hypervisor. This solution is highly scalable and cost effective.

This solution improves many areas in our company including performance, data availability, and data security.

StarWind VSAN allows us to build high availability and real-time replication, even between two servers. It offers multiple scaling and replication capabilities and includes health and performance monitoring tools. For this reason, we can build highly available services for our company, which are currently essential for the organization's activities.

Our current implementation allows us to maintain the company's production continuity and to maintain constant access to data processed by the company.

The most valuable features are high availability and real-time replication between two servers. StarWind VSAN immediately copies all data to the second server over the 10GE/40GE network to ensure instant failover. Multiple connections can be made for the heartbeat. 

The StarWind Management Console is available only for Microsoft Windows/Windows Server, and should also be available for Linux and macOS, as it would reduce implementation costs.

We have been using StarWind Virtual SAN for one year.

This product is very stable.

The scalability of StarWind Virtual SAN is very good.

StarWind support is amazing. They are helpful and respond very quickly.

Support is available via teleconference, as well as online. They not only assist with the selection of the appropriate solution but also, help with testing and production implementation.

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

The initial setup was straightforward. It was done via teleconference, which made it very simple.

The vendor team assisted us with deployment using teleconference technology. They have a high level of knowledge and skill.

The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective.

We evaluated VMware vSAN and StorMagic.

The StarWind VSAN product is very well developed in many areas.

As traditional storage is too expensive, our clients are looking for a more affordable solution. If you compare StarWind to EqualLogic EMC or NetApp, it's a cheaper option.

Updating the software can be a bit tricky. You have to go down scripts to put it in maintenance mode, etc. It takes a while to update. From my experience, I think that's a thing that they need to improve on.

Every time I put it in maintenance mode, all of the replications stop. If they could fix this, it would be a great product.

We've been using StarWind Virtual SAN since June 2020.

Scalability-wise, it's hard to say because I haven't really added anything. 

Most of the information was quite clear on their website. The knowledge base is quite sufficient with all the info required. For this reason, I haven't had to contact technical support.

It's quite easy to install. Also, the configuration and documentation guide from their site was quite good.

We don't need maintenance. We do it ourselves. As I said, it's pretty straightforward —  standard, to install. It's not complex.

I think the cost of this solution is quite fair.

Make sure to consider the requirements of your environment. If you're in a high-performance-driven environment, I don't think this is the right solution. In this case, I would go with a traditional storage solution because you'll get better performance out of a physical one. For me, it's just a cheaper solution that doesn't require indigenous apps, etc.

I would not go for enterprise deployment. I'll go with the traditional one. Make sure your requirements fit with what you want to buy.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.