StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

In our remote offices, we have two servers on VMware. With no HA for the 10 VMs, StarWind VSAN came to use to address this need. As I had previous experience with it and truly believed that this was the best option, I set up our first remote site and used it for three months on a test. I used that time to gather information on my company's use and tested fail-over, replication, and sync. I was concerned about network usage for replication in my company due to the volume of VMs and data modification needed to replicate; it turns out it was never an issue.

It provided the much-needed HA on an extremely low budget. 

There was always a need to have HA in our remote offices. However, it was never addressed due to a lack of budget. For a time, we experienced faults due to failing hardware, and, finally, when the budget allowed, we started using StarWind vSAN and never experienced outages again. 

As we adopted StarWind vSAN we also replaced some hardware that was the root cause of our problems. Nevertheless, StarWind vSAN provided me the certainty of reliability and much-needed tranquility to sleep again.

The reliability is the most valuable aspect of the solution. It does not need constant babysitting as it is stable as you need it to be. In our company, the team is small, and we do not have the time to keep checking everything all the time. As unadvised as it is, I simply do not have time to always monitor and check. With this product, I have gone months without even accessing the management console. Support is also reliable, and it is necessary to know you can trust it! I've not used it much; however, the few times that I did, it provided me with the help and guidance I needed.

The documentation can be better for the free tier. I've learned that in my home lab. To be fair, I cannot imagine anyone that will use this without performing several tests beforehand. Overall, documentation can be more explanatory and straightforward. That said, it is not bad, it just can be better.

I honestly like that the product is simple and does the job well; for the next release, I hope they keep it that way.

I've used the solution for several years now. I've started using the free edition on my home lab and never let it go. I still use it today at home. I'm decommissioning at my company as we are removing the servers of our remote offices.

I did not use a different solution. After researching my needs, I found a post guiding the simple home lab test use, and it was good enough. I've tested it, loved it, and never looked back.

The setup costs depend on your approach. I like to test everything, and as I do this, I learn. I like to implement everything, so the cost is time allocation in my case. In my company, this is a good investment. As for price and license, there is not much room for negotiation.

I did not evaluate other options. 

Go for it; it is awesome.

Our company needed a Virtual SAN solution that would fit perfectly into our private cloud architecture based on Windows Server virtualization (Windows Server 2016/2019/2022) and Hyper-V without having to substantially modify its composition. In this case, it has allowed us to provide storage with geographic clusters for the evacuation of resources in the event of a disaster, allowing data to be migrated between the different delegations and guaranteeing that we comply with current regulations regarding data protection, as well as ISO 27001 and ISO 22301.

The StarWind Virtual SAN product has allowed us to improve the availability of our services, as well as their security. On the other hand, it has allowed us to make these improvements without having to make a large increase in investment, as could have happened with solutions such as those from VMWARE, Dell, etc. In this way, we have also achieved clear profitability and an immediate return on investment (ROI). Of course, it has allowed us to align with the business continuity management strategy using geographic clusters for the evacuation of resources.

The StarWind support team is, without a doubt, the best part of this product. The engineer assigned to us for the implementation showed great involvement and a willingness to work and share his knowledge with our team, which was great and smoothed out the resistance to change as well as the learning curve. The support team is available to solve any problem efficiently. The team is always aligned with our needs, and they try to give maximum performance to the vSAN. So far, the solution has shown great stability with no noticeable issues. The ease of use has helped our juniors.

The only point they should improve is the amount of documentation available for the user, especially in the first preliminary phase in which we were testing the product on our own. This problem is really solved when the team of engineers is assigned to the project since, with the willingness of the support team to provide information when required, it is very easy to move forward and solve these deficiencies. On the other hand, perhaps it can be said that it would be interesting to publish a greater number of pre-generated scripts.

I've used the solution for three years.

So far, we haven't had a noteworthy problem to attribute to the solution. We only had initial problems due to the operation error of the junior technicians while they were learning to use the tool.

The scalability for us is perfect. The solution allows us to work elastically, responding to changes in the requirements of our infrastructure according to demand. In addition, it scales easily and quickly.

In my experience of over 20 years in the IT industry, I've noticed that they provide one of the best services available today. They are very involved and proactive technicians.

Positive

We evaluated other solutions, however, it is the first one that we implemented.

In terms of the initial complexity, it would come from the previous tests in which we did not have support or all the documentation. As soon as we contracted the software and had support, everything was easy, and we had an engineer that was really valuable.

The experience of the team that collaborated with us in the deployment is undoubtedly very high. The desire to work and the availability to share knowledge are points that, without a doubt, must be valued very positively.

Replacing the previous model with a vSAN model has allowed us significant cost savings. Even if we consider the license, it will not cost much to amortize the investment.

The investment is really low compared to other options, and the stability and flexibility guarantee the security of the investment.

We looked into VMware, Hyper-V, and some other options.

The solution is really easy to implement, manage and maintain.

I used the software as a virtual SAN solution. When I tried it for the first time, I found it easy to use and working perfectly. The most important thing is that the vendor keeps developing and enhancing the solution to include more robust features.

I have three servers running VMware ESXi and used the solution as a SAN for the VMware Cluster by connecting the servers as ISCSI targets to the StarWind vSAN using a 1GB network connection peer. That helped me to run my application with peace of mind.

I am currently running servers with a hosted application for my business, and I had a problem having them online all the time thanks to of server maintenance and updates. 

That's why I used a vSAN to avoid buying a hardware SAN and use my existing servers only. The software improved my productivity by allowing me to have high availability and fault tolerance in virtualization.

I plan to invest in NVME disks where the software provides perfect integration to speed up the systems and get cache capabilities.

We like the ease of management. The management was very easy and I was able to find all that I need in the software dashboard.

The ISCSI is good. The connection using software made it easy to me to connect my servers without extra investment in hardware SAN.

I like the vCenter plugin. This allows me to monitor the SAN performance in the VMware web interface.

It offers good fault tolerance and high availability. I can update or restart the physical server without worry.

It's got great deduplication and compression. I am planning to use this feature when investing in new NVme disks.

They need to invest more in the support documents for real issues happening when integrating the solution with the hypervisor. Also, they need to provide how-to videos on social video networks about the setup, upgrades, and migration from real hardware like HPE, DellEMC, or Fujitsu to vSAN solutions.

They need to make it easy for the customers to find a solution for any error happening during migration or setup. That way, it will be more accurate and have fewer errors.

We've used the solution for ten years up until now.

We use the solution in order to share storage across multiple virtual server hosts. We are currently running VMWare ESXi with vCenter across two locations and with a total of 8 ESXi Hosts. 

We use a storage server with a 30 TB RAID10 Array which is being shared out across all servers. We are using a mixture of Dell R730XDs, and Dell VRTX with M620 Blades, all across a 10GB server backbone and a 1GB End user network. The two locations are 20 miles apart, linked by an MPLS provided by AT&T. 

We currently use Synology for our backup appliance.

Before implementing StarWind Virtual SAN, we would have to copy over every single virtual hard drive file before we could migrate and VM. With Virtual SAN, though, we can use a shared Storage volume and rarely have to move files. This has allowed us to expand our virtual server host threefold and allows us to have a more robust disaster recovery plan. I am now able to do Migrations during the work day which has saved me from having to do things like this overnight. I could not be happier with my shared storage solution.

I have found the graphical user interface to be the most useful thing about Virtual SAN. Most other shared storage utilities either do not have a graphical user interface or a poorly laid-out one. Every single wizard I have used in Virtual SAN is easy to follow, has clear labeling, and just makes sense. There is also an overabundance of documentation every step of the way if you run into any questions about the lingo or what this checkbox does. I could not be happier with my purchase and decision to use Virtual SAN.

This is a tricky question since I do not have many issues with StarWind's Virtual SAN product. Every step along the way, if I ever had any questions, there was either documentation to answer a question, or customer service was able to help quickly. 

There is one issue as far as licensing goes and that is a lack of documentation online by users when transitioning from the free version to the paid version, or vice versa. Customer Service can take care of the issue though without any issues. That's about the only issue I can think of.

I've used the solution for two years.

I had one issue with the product, however, reinstalling solved the issue, and it was nothing crazy.

The product is all about scalability. I have no concerns about future company growth and this solution.

The few times I reached out to technical support, my issues were solved in minuets, not hours.

Positive

I did not use a different soltion. 

The setup wizards are amazing!

I did the implementation myself.

We witnessed an ROI in six months.

I was intimidated at first about the setup, however, it is super easy.

I did evaluate VMware vSAN.

I'd advise new users to give the free version a try to see if the product is right for them. That's what I did, and I am so happy with the solution.

StarWind is used as our primary physical server with nine VMs. This serves different locations around the US. 

One application is shared using RDS where as before it was being shared using individual pcs for each remote user. This caused major issues with data integrity.

Also with the two-node environment, not only are we benefitting from the redundancy, we are able to load balance between the servers. This allowed us to bring our hosted ERP environment in house. 

The price was right. It is very hard to beat this system! 

We had a very dated infrastructure. One that had been a hodge-podge over many years with no clear direction or future needs planning. 

I was brought on board to correct this and give us some growing room in the future. As the business continues to grow at this time, redundancy/DR planning became a significant focus as well.

StarWind, with a low-cost two-node HCA system, was truly turnkey.

With the redundancy and efficiency of the software and servers, we are running better than ever, with room to grow.

The ease of use of the system overall. If you don't understand something or need any help at all, support is there. I cannot speak highly enough to the value the support team offers. They are very knowledgeable and willing to help. They work on your time, not theirs. I agree with some other reviews that they can be hard to understand at times, however, they are more than willing to make sure you understand. 

The redundancy is a big factor. As a very small IT department, that gives us the peace of mind needed as well as knowing that support is there to help me through any glitches.

Though I have learned some of the nuances with the upgrading of firmware/windows/etc., it would be nice to have a more efficient method of doing so. Though truthfully, it's not bad.

I have had to call support to help me through some of the updates, so I know they are done right.

A missed SSD update caused a few headaches. That said, thanks to support, no data loss occurred, and considering the issue, we had minimal downtime.

Overall, I find StarWind above par and am excited to see what they think of next.

I've used the solution for 1.5 years.

Support is nothing but stellar. The support staff is very knowledgeable and willing to help.

Positive

The initial setup is very straightforward.

We implemented it through a vendor team. The experience was extremely positive!

The initial cost included setup, and it was genuinely turnkey. It would be hard to find a lower-cost solution that offers what Starwind offers.

The primary purpose of the storage area network is to provide an active-active replicated SAN for Virtual infrastructure and file storage. This has replaced an active-passive infrastructure that relied on a competitive storage solution but was too old and inflexible to meet the company's growing needs. The active-active nature of the plan needed a reliable storage solution that could deliver over a large distance as such additional infrastructure was also needed. The outstanding support helped us achieve this goal. 

We went from an active-passive model. This has resulted in us being in a much better position. It has allowed us to meet business continuity needs; half of the infrastructure can go out of operation without impacting the business, or we can use this to perform planned updates and maintenance. 

StarWind SANs, along with their amazing support, really helped us achieve these improvements. When implementing this solution, we experienced firsthand how good the solution was; we applied some massive configuration updates without business downtime.

StarWind SANs provide fast and reliable storage. Migration from the old system has meant the storage is much faster now. In turn, this has improved our virtual infrastructure's reliability and access times.

StarWind SANs come with outstanding support. We decided halfway through to change the implementation in a major way, contacted their support, and found that they understood what we were trying to achieve and offered the best help and guides. Not only did they help us, however, they also provided remote assistance where necessary.

This currently relies on a virtual machine. This may be migrated to a container approach or integrated into the solution in the future. However, this isn't really a large area of concern. 

A better overall view of the different deployments could be beneficial, although this is difficult due to how flexible the solution is.  

You need to know what you are doing to get this set up. It could have a wizard-like setup for basic scenarios. This would need to be able to be skipped, however for advanced setups.  

I've used the solution for a few months.

We used to use Netapp and switched due to the cost and reliability.

We did look into a Netapp upgrade.

I'd advise others to use their support; it really is great.

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.

The product is for clients who require high availability of their servers, from file servers and domain controllers, through to line of business applications.

I've done installations of two-node HA clusters running Windows Server Hyper-V. With the HA cluster we then ran virtual machines, both Windows Desktop, Windows Server, CentOS and Ubuntu. We have installed on pysical servers with both DELL PowerEdge and HP Proliant server hardware (Windows clustering requires exact server hardware to be matched - so two-node DELL, and two-node HP).

As an MSP, stability is important for our clients. StarWind's virtual SAN solution has allowed us to have an always-on architecture allowing survivability of hardware failure. We install it for all clients who need high availability of their virtual servers on-premise.

Given the high availability of the server cluster, we were able to reduce separate physical servers onto one hyper-converged cluster - this saved in OPEX and CAPEX costs immediately, along with licensing costs of the Windows Server licenses.

We have multiple sites running StarWindws Virtual SAN, which have been running for years without any issue.

The thing that impressed me the most about the product is the technical support from the vendor. Everyone knows the benefit of high-availability clusters, but setting one up and reading the documentation is an enormous task in itself.

With StarWind Virtual SAN and the installation support, we have high-availability clusters running within a couple of hours. This has been repeated over and over on many customer sites, so they have their process perfected in this regard.

The documentation could be clearer in terms of explaining the installation, although I will make two comments on this.

The high availability of virtual SAN is by its very nature not a simple drop-in thing, so the documentation will understandably be complex.

Secondly, the installation process is completely guided and done remotely by StarWind certified installation engineers, who handle all aspects.

Given the above, the only thing I can really say needs improvement is that I am not keen on the pricing per storage tier model, however, understand this is a common model charged.

I've done multiple client installations over five years.

No, there was no other solution that we have tried.

Consider how much space you will need as pricing is per node and data.

No, we found the price point compelling, which led to immediately trying StarWinds versus traditional SAN costs from DELL and HP, etc.

Overall it has been a great product and company to work with for the past five years and many more to come.