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Mahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Allied Engineering
Real User
The unlimited capacity license is a very good feature

What is our primary use case?

We had decentralized storage, inefficient storage and computer utilization, non-utilization of VMware vSphere advanced features like HA, FT, vMotion which require shared storage like StarWind.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind VSAN provided us an efficient performance with HA. We tried other solutions as well and found StarWind’s VSAN easy to install and manage. The unlimited capacity license is also a very good feature.

What is most valuable?

  • StarWind’s VSAN applications for VMware
  • Easy to install and manage
  • The unlimited capacity license is also a very good feature.

What needs improvement?

  • A detailed performance monitoring of the storage system.
  • A tool/wizard which analyzes the installed system and its configuration and gives a recommendation for improvement.
Buyer's Guide
StarWind Virtual SAN
April 2025
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For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1100463 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Real User
A cost-effective HA solution to solve the problem of expanding local storage
Pros and Cons
  • "StarWind allowed us to deploy highly available shared storage within our budget."
  • "I would like to see more monitoring and alert tools."

What is our primary use case?

We are using a two-node StarWind VSAN cluster on a Dell 720xds. The StarWind VSAN helps us to better leverage the computing power of our ESXi hosts and helped solve the problem of expanding local storage.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind allowed us to deploy highly available shared storage within our budget. Other solutions were far too costly.

What is most valuable?

The HA clustering and the ability to run on our own equipment have been the most valuable.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more monitoring and alert tools. StarWind offers a management console to configure the and monitor the servers, setting up SMTP alerts would be a plus.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options and this one was the most cost-effective.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
StarWind Virtual SAN
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about StarWind Virtual SAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
851,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.
System Administrator at a renewables & environment company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
The software is easy to setup and manage, and the support is excellent
Pros and Cons
  • "The software is easy to setup and manage, and the support is excellent."
  • "It should reclaim white spaces after big files are deleted."
  • "It would be great if it provided thin provisioned virtual disks."

What is our primary use case?

I use StarWind Virtual SAN software to change our old HPE Fibre Channel storage into an iSCSI solution for our development environment.

How has it helped my organization?

We have an old HPE Fibre Channel SAN that we wanted to reutilize for a development environment. However, we didn't want to spend too much on fiber infrastructure or replace the controller with iSCSI, since this would cost thousands of dollars. 

StarWind Virtual SAN software solves our problems. The software is easy to setup and manage, and the support is excellent.

What is most valuable?

I like the simple management interface:

  • It is easy to setup.
  • It has good support feature.                                                   

What needs improvement?

  • It would be great if it provided thin provisioned virtual disks.
  • It should reclaim white spaces after big files are deleted.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not faced any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not applicable.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are happy with the price. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT at SOMIAC
Real User
Increased server stability and the technical support is thorough
Pros and Cons
  • "In addition to the main functions of the software, I want to note the excellent work of technical support."
  • "Perhaps the developer should refine the product management through PowerShell."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for a High-Availability cluster for Hyper-V on two nodes. We are running on Windows Server 2016.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind Virtual SAN allowed us to increase the fault tolerance of our servers, which resulted in greater user loyalty.

What is most valuable?

In addition to the main functions of the software, I want to note the excellent work of technical support.

What needs improvement?

Perhaps the developer should refine the product management through PowerShell. It is not entirely clear and there quite a bit of documentation.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have been using the product for a long time and have not seen any glitches.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We plan to implement this solution on seventy servers in our branches. StarWind Virtual SAN allows you to do this quickly and it is not expensive.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support works very responsibly when we have questions. They connected remotely to our servers, performed an analysis and made detailed recommendations.

How was the initial setup?

The initial installation was easy since there are very detailed instructions for almost every server configuration.

What about the implementation team?

I managed to implement everything myself.

What other advice do I have?

I think the software is very good.

At the moment, I have not encountered problems that I could not solve.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1073631 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Helps to monitor critical infrastructure in our small business environment
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the managed service, which has been an important part of monitoring our critical infrastructure."
  • "I am expecting to see it more user-friendly in the future."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is to create vSAN for a small business environment and to manage it without using a physical SAN.

How has it helped my organization?

The managed service helps us to monitor our critical infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the managed service, which has been an important part of monitoring our critical infrastructure.

What needs improvement?

I'd like for it to be more user-friendly in the future.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have never felt that StarWind underperformed or was difficult to manage. The core technology just works. I am very happy that I am part of StarWind.

How are customer service and technical support?

The team at StarWind are professional and very skilled in a variety of disciplines. The most impressive factor of the StarWind team is its quick response. They are very cooperative.

How was the initial setup?

The setup and configuration for this solution is very easy and user-friendly.

Training provided by them was up to the mark. The documentation provided by them helps us to understand the functioning of the product more precisely.

What other advice do I have?

I have been very impressed with the StarWind application, referring to every parameter. Reliability, cost, and support.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1296921 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a pharma/biotech company
Real User
Cost-effective, easy to implement, and the technical support is good
Pros and Cons
  • "It has given the company an almost zero possibility of downtime."
  • "New versions of this solution should be tested more thoroughly before the release as we had a few problems with one version due to a bug."

What is our primary use case?

We have a fault-tolerant infrastructure, consisting of two storage nodes hosting the VM's storage and two Hyper-V nodes.

How has it helped my organization?

It has given the company an almost zero possibility of downtime.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are:

  1. Easy implementation
  2. Great Support
  3. It doesn’t break the bank

What needs improvement?

New versions of this solution should be tested more thoroughly before the release, as we had a few problems with one version due to a bug.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using StarWind Virtual SAN for four years.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
LeonKan - PeerSpot reviewer
Virtual Cloud Admin at IST
User
Build cheap, reliable, replicated virtual machines clusters using simple servers with an all flash disk or SAS/SATA hybrid tiered by performance storage
Pros and Cons
  • "You can build cheap, reliable, replicated virtual machines clusters using simple servers with an all flash disk or SAS\SATA hybrid tiered by performance storage."
  • "Ability to to test the virtual storage are network area and storage speed from StarWind Management Console."

What is our primary use case?

Replicated, high availability storage for VMware vSphere cluster of VMware ESX 2-nodes in an HA cluster for Virtual SAN storage, only this software can do a 2-node cluster.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides cost-friendly replacements for VMware vSAN or the dedicated storage solution that I am using it for to build shared, replicated storage for my VMware vSphere.

What is most valuable?

You can build cheap, reliable, replicated virtual machines clusters using simple servers with an all flash disk or SAS/SATA hybrid tiered by performance storage.

What needs improvement?

  • I would like to replace Windows nodes to Linux. As of today, Linux nodes are ready for production. 
  • Ability to to test the virtual storage are network area and storage speed from StarWind Management Console.
  • Ability to check network card settings (such as MTU), VMware settings, and other settings needed for work under StarWind best practices. I would like to have something like a StarWind Best Practices Analyzer.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is fast.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated VMware vSAN and HPE StoreVirtual VSA.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Real User
High compatibility with software and hardware

What is our primary use case?

In our organization, we use this software for the first year. It is used to work with backup data storage. Still, it never lets us down, and we never lost our data.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind made it quite easy to get started. The reliability of storing backup data and their processing speed has increased.

What is most valuable?

  • Excellent performance
  • High compatibility with software and hardware
  • Fault tolerance
  • It works well with Microsoft servers and Hyper-V.

What needs improvement?

The price is a bit more expensive than analogs.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free StarWind Virtual SAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free StarWind Virtual SAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.