Seth Weber - PeerSpot reviewer
Network & Systems Administrator at Clarion Forest VNA
User
Top 20
Easy to use with good support and reasonable pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very easy to resize disks and they show up in VMware almost instantly."
  • "The initial setup got a little confusing at a few points with differences between the VMware version in documentation vs the latest, etc."

What is our primary use case?

StarWind was the perfect solution that I was looking for: a true, two-node virtual SAN solution.

We're too small for three physical hypervisors, however, we still have two and want high availability. Native vSAN for the hypervisor we use requires two nodes plus a witness, or three, and we just couldn't do that.

In a search for an alternative, I found StarWind. They offer a true two-node setup with agent VMs on each host and two high-bandwidth links to each other, and that's it!

We're a visiting nurse association and rely on redundant hypervisors to keep our patient software up and running around the clock.

How has it helped my organization?

It has cut costs that we would've spent on network links and SAN appliance(s), allowing us to just include drives with our hosts and run a Virtual SAN.

Not only that, but the addition of two 10GB links now means that our hypervisor can live-migrate virtual machines very fast between hosts, and data is also synced between StarWind RAID arrays quickly too.

All this combines into a very efficient, fast, and reliable Virtual SAN solution that blazes past our previous physical SAN infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

The accessibility is great. It's very easy to resize disks and they show up in VMware almost instantly. It's pretty darn fast at syncing and I appreciate how friendly it is to SMBs.

Pricing is also very fair and their support is top-notch. I had some trouble setting it up. That said, it didn't take long at all to get in touch with support reps and they were knowledgeable on the product, not just an agent reading a script.

PROS include:
• Relatively easy to use
• True two-node vSAN
• Redundancy
• Stability (no issues in the years thus far of using it)
• Friendly pricing for SMBs and great support
• Great solution for SMB environments overall

What needs improvement?

The only thing I could suggest to improve is the documentation. The initial setup got a little confusing at a few points with differences between the VMware version in documentation vs the latest, etc.

CONS include:
• Documentation for initial setup can be a bit ambiguous at times, yet support helps you get through it; you're good once you're up and running.
• It's not native and not a bad thing. Just keep in mind it's a third-party solution so it won't be as "drop-in" as a native solution offered by your hypervisor.

Buyer's Guide
StarWind Virtual SAN
September 2023
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For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for about 11 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far. I have had no issues or lapses in performance/stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. It is very easy to add more virtual disks.

How are customer service and support?

Customer support is very good! The support rep knew what they were talking about and quickly got back to me with an answer.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before we had a physical SAN, maybe the HP MSA P2300 (I may have gotten the model number wrong).

It was just too expensive and demanding of physical links/resources to go with another MSA, so we decided to try a Virtual SAN.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was both straightforward and complex. It wasn't too hard, however, there were some little parts in the documentation where I got stuck without much help other than calling for a support agent, which solved my issue and cleared up the confusion.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was done in-house.

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

Pricing is pretty fair and includes one year of support (as of purchase in August 2022).

The license is based on how many hosts you have and how much in TB you need the vSAN to accommodate.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at our native Hypervisor's vSAN product, however, it required three nodes (or two with one witness node) and just wasn't feasible for our setup as an SMB.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Tayre José Rivas Salas - PeerSpot reviewer
TI support analyst at Invermedia
Real User
Top 10
Easy to clone virtual machines, great for virtual servers, and offers good ROI
Pros and Cons
  • "I save both physical and virtual space."
  • "I wish they would improve the documentation for the beginner level as it's not very clear on the web page."

What is our primary use case?

I am doing a change from physical to virtual servers and my goal is to change all the servers. There are a total of nine, and at this moment I have three servers that I have migrated. They now work better than the physical ones.

I am also doing backup copies of these virtual servers in case I have problems with any server, since in this area, we have problems with electricity and I already lost a physical server from that. That’s why I decided to make a new network of virtual servers with copies and clones of these servers and so far, it has worked very well.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind Virtual SAN has been a great solution for this organization. In this area, we have electricity problems and the physical servers can be damaged - something that has already happened once. 

I made the decision to migrate the servers to virtual ones due to the fact that, if a virtual server is damaged, I just have to take the backup that I have already made of that server and replace it without any problem. The end user of the company does not notice the change. 

My intention is to have all the physical servers become virtual

What is most valuable?

StarWind Virtual SAN is a great solution when it comes to making virtual servers. I like this tool as it is simple and easy to use, robust, and 100% working so far. It’s also compatible with Windows Server 2019.

I was able to easily clone virtual machines. I save both physical and virtual space. You can also run Linux virtual machines and make it easy to manage replication between nodes within the cluster when needed. iSCSI support is also included and very good support from the technical staff during the installation phase.

What needs improvement?

I wish they would improve the documentation for the beginner level as it's not very clear on the web page. Better documentation would have saved me time in the beginning. The documentation is hard for new users to understand.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this tool for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a very stable software; in these six months, I have not had problems with any virtual machine.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

They are very good and the product is scalable. It is excellent that it adapts to the needs of each company.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support can be a bit complicated by language barriers, however, the objectives have been achieved. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used VMware and switched to StarWind Virtual SAN for the cost savings.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is a little slow at first, however, after researching and installing the software, it was easy to finish the installation.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the setup internally.

What was our ROI?

The ROI is very good since the system has offered me a solution to change physical equipment for virtual ones and in the future the expenses will be reflected in that I do not have to buy equipment or hardware.

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

The price seems good to me compared to other tools that offer the same thing. That said, it's still worth seeing for yourself and looking at other tools before making a decision.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I used VMware and HyperV before, however, a colleague used StarWind Virtual SAN and he taught me how to use it and I liked the tool.

What other advice do I have?

My overall experience with StarWind has been very positive. It is a very simple solution. It is not tied to any hypervisor or hardware configuration. Their support people are excellent and offer assistance in setting up the solution in your environment. While there is a bit more setup than some other products, all you really need is a basic understanding of storage and networking.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
StarWind Virtual SAN
September 2023
Learn what your peers think about StarWind Virtual SAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2023.
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System Administrator at Wilson Logistics
User
Excellent support with simple pricing and perpetual licensing
Pros and Cons
  • "This software lets us maintain storage redundancy across both of our Hyper-V hosts, so if one goes down the environment fails over to the other and we have minimal to no downtime."
  • "Some of the documentation seems to be a bit older and refers to deprecated items."

What is our primary use case?

We purchased this product to manage storage between our two-node Hyper-V cluster. We're running a pair of Dell R740's with 16 core CPUs and RAID 6 storage arrays, all solid-state.  

We wanted this product to facilitate a hyper-converged environment while still maintaining two host redundancy. We're running about 25 virtual machines on this cluster, none of which are particularly storage IO intensive, yet we've still not seen any issues with performance when it comes to Starwind vSAN. We ended up on this option as it seemed to be simple, robust, and affordable.

How has it helped my organization?

This software lets us maintain storage redundancy across both of our Hyper-V hosts, so if one goes down the environment fails over to the other and we have minimal to no downtime.  

Keeping things running is an obvious benefit, and we opted to purchase their higher-tier support (for a very minor price increase). Knowing we've got them to fall back on if we can't fix something ourselves is good for peace of mind. The notifications built into the software mean we aren't constantly checking for issues as this is a very critical piece of our infrastructure.

What is most valuable?

Starwind support was extremely helpful throughout the entire process, from the trial period to the actual production implementation. They responded to my emails quickly and did a walkthrough to validate the final production configuration to ensure there were no issues.  

The engineer that assisted me with the walkthrough was very knowledgeable, and not just on Starwind software. He had several recommendations about our Hyper-V cluster configuration, and he always made sure to explain why he was making those recommendations. 

What needs improvement?

Some of the documentation seems to be a bit older and refers to deprecated items. This wasn't a huge issue as the technician that walked me through the install was very knowledgeable and gave me a clear list of steps to take.

The only major issue we had was with the NIC drivers we were using on the link between the two hosts. For reference, we're using a direct connection between a 40 gig QSFP+ NIC in each of our hosts. The issue was that the iSCSI connection between the two hosts would drop after about ten minutes during a full sync of the two storage arrays. The support tech was able to quickly identify the drivers as the issue to get it resolved quickly and prior to our production deadline.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution for two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's been very stable for our usage. We've had no issues since implementation two months ago.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I hear it scales well, however, we've not used it beyond our own small scale.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support was very good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we were using Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct across a three-node environment. We switched due to the fact that we sold a portion of our company and downsized to two nodes. Storage Spaces Direct doesn't seem ideal for a two-node system.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a bit confusing based on the documentation, however, support was very knowledgeable and able to assist with any issues and questions I had.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented it myself with assistance from Starwind support. It's not a complex process.

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

Pricing is very simple and a setup walkthrough is included in the price of the software. It's a perpetual license and you only pay to renew support, which was a reasonable price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We considered storage spaces direct, however, didn't ever implement it on our new two-node cluster.

What other advice do I have?

I really can't overstate how responsive their support was.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Chief Information Officer at Ohio Dominican University
Real User
A great, easily scalable solution with a helpful support team
Pros and Cons
  • "I've been really impressed with it so far. I think it's pretty great, actually. It does exactly what we need it to do, and it does it well, so I would recommend it. Plus, the support has been very good."
  • "I had to buy upgraded support, which was not a problem, but it wasn't a prorated amount, so I paid for the support, the full upgrade, but I only got a couple of months out of it because it was only good until renewal time."

What is our primary use case?

This solution replaced some old IBM DS 3400 SANs that we had for many years and we used it to build new, highly available storage. Most of our servers use Hyper-V, and this solution is the storage backbone for our Hyper-V Clusters.

What is most valuable?

We use the virtual SAN piece of the solution because we're not hyper-converged, so I value the highly available storage that all of my clustered servers can see and utilize.

What needs improvement?

I had an occasion last year where I needed emergency support from them, and the support we normally pay for didn't cover it. I had to buy upgraded support, which was not a problem, but it wasn't a prorated amount, so I paid for the support, the full upgrade, but I only got a couple of months out of it because it was only good until renewal time. That kind of thing should either be prorated or extended past the renewal time, so whenever you buy it, you get a year's worth of upgraded support. That's my only real problem with them. Otherwise, I think they're pretty good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has been stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. The version I have has unlimited storage, so as long as I have the space in my servers to add storage, then the solution will support it.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy, but mainly because we didn't do it ourselves. We had the support team work through it with us when we set it up, and just by working with their support, we got everything up and running. Once we had the hardware set up and ready to go, it took a half a day or so to get everything configured with the install. Then, because of the size of our volumes, it took several days for them to sync, but we did the initial setup in a day.

Once the solution is set, you kind of forget about it because you don't need to touch it that often. Anytime I've needed to get back in there and add more volumes, or if I have any problems, I just call their support team, and we work through it together, so it's been pretty easy. I imagine if someone had to deal with it daily, it would probably be pretty easy to understand and work with, but we don't touch it that much.

What was our ROI?

ROI is difficult to quantify because we used this solution to replace really old IBM SAN hardware. We can do everything that we need to do with it, and I've had it five years and other than one time that I had to upgrade support, I've had to pay nothing extra. I consider the cost of ownership low, because anybody who has to have on-premises storage, especially if you want to be compliant with backups, needs something like this and I'm sure there's other solutions out there that do it, but this is what we chose and it's worked perfectly.

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

I have the Enterprise version, which has unlimited storage, and we have two nodes, or two servers where all the storage is replicated to each other. For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support. If you want higher tier support, that will cost a little more.

What other advice do I have?

To any who are considering this solution, I'd say that I've been really impressed with it so far. I think it's pretty great, actually. It does exactly what we need it to do, and it does it well, so I would recommend it. Plus, the support has been very good.

I would rate this solution as a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
New Business and New Products Manager at dualBASE
User
Flexible with good GUI and nice documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "The available GUI is excellent for monitoring and operating the system in an easy and direct way."
  • "It should be improved in the way it detects the right filesystem image after a complete shutdown of the system or in the case of disaster recovery."

What is our primary use case?

One of the biggest hydroelectric power plants in the world asked us to prepare a project using HA Virtualization for environmental weather monitoring. In this project, we used three hosts virtualized by VMWare ESXI+VCenter (Essential Plus License). However, one of the prerequisites was that it should be able to integrate with other preexisting virtualized systems that were deployed by other suppliers and use other hypervisors like HyperV or Proxmox. That is where StarWind Virtual SAN comes in. It is really flexible and reliable. We were able to assemble this pilot project using it, and it is in testing, so far, without failures or any malfunctions. It is really an excellent solution.

How has it helped my organization?

The flexibility of StarWind Virtual San allowed us to create a system that is integrated into pre-existing solutions and is also independent of VMware itself, making it more reliable and robust.  

It made the system much easier to operate, maintain and manage inside the data center alongside many other systems. It is very easy to migrate the entire virtual system to other hosts or other data centers safely. 

It is really a good solution when you need to be flexible and, at the same time, reliable in a critical system.

What is most valuable?

First of all, the flexibility and reliability are great. 

The ability to be managed by PowerShell scripts made the management of the system really easy and efficient. We're able to do remote operations or even some operations different from the standard ones (allowed by the GUI).

It also runs under a Windows OS, so it is able to be installed in any virtualized system, independent from the Hypervisor itself.

The available GUI is excellent for monitoring and operating the system in an easy and direct way. It also makes it very easy to deploy and configure. 

It has good documentation, and I did not need technical support once during the entire deployment.

What needs improvement?

It should be improved in the way it detects the right filesystem image after a complete shutdown of the system or in the case of disaster recovery. I would also recommend an easier way to back up/restore and export the filesystem images.

Another feature that I would like to see implemented is a configurable email alert and report system. While it can be managed using Powershell, it would not be hard at all to configure reports using PowerShell scripts, it would be nice to have some additional features in the GUI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is really stable and reliable. It perfectly fits our solution with an active-active failover solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The free version is limited, so it is not so scalable. If you need more scalability, you have different license options from the paid versions and the cost is totally worth it.

How are customer service and support?

I did not need any service and support as it is really well documented.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We also used VMware VSAN and Nutanix. The StarWind Virtual SAN seems to be more flexible and easier to manage in the case we were developing.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup took about ten days. This included the studying of the documentation, setup, testing, and commissioning. It is well-documented and really easy to operate.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the initial setup in-house.

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

The Star Wind Virtual SAN has a free/trial version that can be used for study and is suitable for simple solutions. The pricing for the paid versions is really worth it. When you need flexibility and reliability with good technical support, you are paying for what you get. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also evaluated VMware vSAN.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Wires382 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at WYATT EARLY HARRIS WHEELER LLP
User
Great support, easy to administer, and offers zero loss of performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The product only requires two VMWare ESXi host servers versus three host servers for VMware's comparable solution."
  • "I struggled when bit figuring out how to go about doing the evaluation."

What is our primary use case?

I am using it to replace an end-of-life NetApp SAN after moving about half of our storage to the cloud. It is reducing the cost when it comes time to replace existing on-site storage (this was part of the cost justification of moving systems to the cloud but quotes provided by several vendors and consultants for replacement systems were actually more than what we paid for the EOL system six years ago). I was greatly relieved that I was able to deliver on my promise to reduce storage costs by half with StarWind vSAN.

How has it helped my organization?

We were able to reduce our on-site storage costs by roughly half what we paid for the previous NetApp SAN six years ago (with no noticeable loss of performance or loss of High Availability). This allowed us to help cost justify the investment we had already made in cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings with existing vendors without breaking the bank when it came time to replace our end-of-life NetApp SAN. Since only two VMWare ESXi host servers are required, it's allowing us to use local storage; we should also be able to replace the system again the next go around for a similar cost. 

What is most valuable?

The product only requires two VMWare ESXi host servers versus three host servers for VMware's comparable solution.  

We have detected zero loss of performance and we still have High Availability in place. vSAN has run smoothly with zero issues whatsoever so far.  

It's easy to administer.  

Support has been great with knowledgeable, helpful, and professional engineers responding quickly.  

I had initial concerns there might be a language barrier yet have had zero issues in this area. Communication has been great with both sales and service before and after the sale.

What needs improvement?

I struggled when bit figuring out how to go about doing the evaluation. It would have been helpful to have been able to watch a video or two showing a quick track way to do an evaluation including the easiest approach to take, benchmark tools to use, and step-by-step instructions on how to go about it.  

I asked for assistance and was sent information on some tools to use but I struggled with understanding the best way to use them. Having a live person suggest the best, most meaningful way to go about the evaluation based on my individual situation, would have been helpful too. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is rock solid. There is no downtime so far and I have no performance issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability seems solid. You could add nodes if needed.

How are customer service and support?

Support is fantastic. It is quick, responsive, knowledgeable, and professional. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have a NetApp SAN. We switched as our storage was downsized by about half due to moving systems to the cloud and the SAN was EOL.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. A couple of hours on a remote support session with an engineer and we were up and running.

What about the implementation team?

The solution was implemented in-house.

What was our ROI?

I'm not sure how to quantify ROI.

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

The setup cost was included with the price - so that was great! Buy from them directly rather than going through a reseller and you get 20% off.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated NetApp, Dell, SAN, and NAS solutions. All were way too costly.

What other advice do I have?

Sales and support have been great to work with and the solution is solid without breaking the bank.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Raul Faria - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at Axanet GmbH
User
User-friendly with a nice web-user interface and good flexibility
Pros and Cons
  • "StarWind vSAN was very easy to integrate into our system and ran flawlessly during our entire use time."
  • "While we had no problems setting the system up, and service technicians from StarWind could assist us very well, they could provide some form of in-depth documentation."

What is our primary use case?

We set up a virtualized environment with the need for extreme flexibility and reliability to provide our IT-Services. 

We had to implement a solution that could take on this task and was very pleased with StarWind Virtual SAN

We could implement it into our environment easily with low maintenance and could focus on achieving our central task. 

It made our whole project a lot simpler and more user-friendly. We benefited from the scalability to expand our Service capability and were able to do so easily with StarWind vSAN.

How has it helped my organization?

We had a rough time using our previous solution. StarWind vSAN made our whole operation much easier and added a lot of particularly useful features. 

In our highly virtualized environment, we had a requirement for high flexibility due to our wide spectrum of services. 

StarWind vSAN was very easy to integrate into our system and ran flawlessly during our entire use time. 

Scaling our systems was something we'd been worried about before due to growing demands and the complicated software we had before. With StarWind vSAN, we could easily accomplish all of our tasks and could benefit from the amazing performance and reliability this software had to offer.

What is most valuable?

The web-user interface was very user-friendly, and it did not take a lot of time to school our employees about this product. 

All administrative tasks could easily be done, and integrating new systems was easier than ever before. 

This saves us a lot of time as even more complicated tasks can be resolved in way less time than before. We used vCenter and were very happy to see a dedicated vCenter plugin for StarWind vSAN. 

It made our whole operation much more smooth and reliable, not to mention the saved time on schooling employees.

What needs improvement?

I would say a point that could be improved upon would be the level of documentation and guides that are available. 

While we had no problems setting the system up, and service technicians from StarWind could assist us very well, they could provide some form of in-depth documentation. User guides would be greatly appreciated by all of us. 

Preferably these documents could be directly in the console. That said, I wouldn't mind having it not as tightly integrated. We have some apprentices that use the console, and we don't want to make them call support every time they don't understand something.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very reliable, and we were confident storing data using StarWind vSAN.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is great. We were able to scale our systems effortlessly.

How are customer service and support?

They were very friendly and helpful, staying professional and competent at all times.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did use another solution. The previous solution was open source, and we needed some kind of real support on the other end to guarantee reliability.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very simple and straightforward. We were able to implement StarWind into our system, and we did not require special help.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it ourselves, in-house.

What was our ROI?

We prefer not to publish our ROI.

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

StarWind vSAN has great value and is definitely worth the price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options. We used other software from StarWind beforehand and were convinced of the quality of their products, so the first thing we looked into was StarWind's solution to our problems.

What other advice do I have?

I highly recommend the solution. It saves a lot of stress, hassle, and time.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Integration Engineer at Insight
Consultant
Top 20
Great data compression, deduplication, and snapshots
Pros and Cons
  • "StarWind Virtual SAN is a highly flexible solution, as it can be deployed on physical servers or on top of virtual machines running on hypervisors such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V."
  • "Geolocation could be better, for example, for site mirroring for DR purposes."

What is our primary use case?

I write this from a value-added reseller (VAR) point of view. 

StarWind Virtual SAN provides us with a number of benefits:

StarWind Virtual SAN is a cost-effective solution, as it does not require additional licensing costs. This can help VARs to offer competitive pricing to their customers.

StarWind Virtual SAN is a highly flexible solution, as it can be deployed on physical servers or on top of virtual machines running on hypervisors such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. This allows VARs to offer a solution that can be tailored to the specific needs of their customers.

How has it helped my organization?

From my point of view, we offer this product and it is installed, tested, and configured on our client hardware, often located in the public and private sectors in the UK. 

StarWind is known for its good technical support and customer service. This helps us to offer a solution that is supported by a reliable vendor, which in turn improves customer satisfaction and ensures sticky and repeat business for future activities. 

StarWind Virtual SAN fills a gap for our clients who can't justify the expensive hardware from Nutanix, HPE etc. Virtual SAN offers an opportunity to repurpose hardware or use non-badged hardware for a very high-end storage solution. This directly benefits my company and me since we are able to cater to this gap in the market.   

What is most valuable?

StarWind Virtual SAN supports both block and file storage protocols, which provides me with more options to choose from when placing Virtual SAN for a given role and client based on my customers' specific use cases and requirements. 

Data compression, deduplication, and snapshots help optimize storage utilization and protect data. 

This helps me to offer a solution that can help our customers to improve storage utilization and protect data at an affordable price, cutting out expensive enterprise-grade hardware.

What needs improvement?

Geolocation could be better, for example, for site mirroring for DR purposes. I would like a future release to explore the possibility of secure, reliable site replication. 

Disaster recovery site mirroring would provide several benefits, including business continuity. A disaster recovery site can be used to restore critical systems and operations in the event of a disaster, ensuring that the business can continue functioning.

The deduplication feature could also be more robust. That said, I am comparing it to the features of an HPE Nimble, which is a really unfair comparison given the cost difference.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for two to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The software is very stable, and I have personally never witnessed downtime if the hardware use exceeds the minimum requirements.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is not too scalable to geo-site redundancy. This could be a future feature.

How are customer service and support?

Support is timely, knowledgeable, and has good availability with lots of different contact options including phone, email, web, etc.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to use VMware vSAN.

How was the initial setup?

The guides and support are very detailed. There is a large community that also runs this in their home labs. They are giving lots of community feedback, ideas, and solutions to problems you may encounter.

What about the implementation team?

I am speaking from a vendor point of view.

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

I would advise users to contact StarWind directly since we have always found they support pre and post-sales and are amazingly knowledgeable.  

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked into various hardware and software offerings from Nutanix, NetApp, and HPE. StarWind fills the void when the budget does not allow for the expensive hardware, and we have older systems we can repurpose.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
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Updated: September 2023
Buyer's Guide
Download our free StarWind Virtual SAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.