StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

Our primary use case for StarWind Virtual SAN is to repurpose older servers with substantial disk capacity for use in a three-node vSphere cluster. This setup was for proof of concept (POC) environments for the first time and after to host production workloads.

It allows us to create scalable and cost-effective virtual storage solutions. The integration with vSphere ensures that we can efficiently manage and utilize these resources, enhancing our IT infrastructure while minimizing new hardware and licensing costs.

StarWind Virtual SAN has greatly benefited our organization by reducing hardware and licensing costs through repurposing older servers with significant disk capacity. It has enabled us to extend the lifespan of our existing hardware and align with sustainability goals, all while providing a cost-effective and scalable storage solution. Its seamless integration with vSphere has improved our storage management and operational efficiency in production environments.

It was our first two steps to a hyper-converged solution.

The most valuable features of StarWind Virtual SAN include its cost-effective repurposing of older hardware, seamless integration with vSphere, and high scalability. It enables us to extend the lifespan of existing servers, significantly cut down on licensing costs, and manage our storage environment efficiently. 

Additionally, its flexibility allows us to scale effortlessly by adding nodes (up to 32), which supports our growing storage needs and enhances the adaptability of our production environment.

Areas for improvement in StarWind Virtual SAN include simplifying the setup process, especially for users with limited vSphere expertise. Future releases could benefit from an enhanced configuration wizard to streamline deployment and more robust data migration. There is also a need to address the problem of CentOS's end of life. 

Additionally, incorporating a built-in backup solution would significantly enhance data protection. Improved features for managing and migrating data effectively would further strengthen the product.

I have been using the solution for three years now

The stability of StarWind Virtual SAN is robust. The solution performs reliably with minimal downtime, ensuring consistent operation in production environments. 

In case of the loss of a node, the reconstruction, depending on the amount of data to synchronize, is always made with no data or integrity loss.

However, the reliance on CentOS, introduces potential future stability risks. Despite this, the system has consistently delivered dependable performance and resilience, maintaining stability even under significant workloads.

The solution allows for easy expansion by adding nodes (up to 32), which supports growing storage demands and adapts well to increasing workloads. This flexibility ensures that as our storage needs evolve, we can scale the system efficiently without major reconfiguration or downtime. 

Overall, its scalability is a significant strength, making it a versatile choice for both current and future requirements.

I haven't experienced support since I used the free version. Anyway, I have found plenty of support from StarWind through their forum.

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution. 

It was complex to understand the mechanism of the hyperconverged solution put in place.

The ESXi consumes the virtual disk created by Starwind Vsan from the local disk.
The cabling was not that difficult since I didn't use any for data sync between nodes.

The most difficult part was the usage of PowerShell scripts to create the cluster because the free version doesn't provide a Gui.

The implementation was in-house, in a new data center.

The ROI was excellent because we reused old servers that already had capacity disks.

If you are comfortable with the solution and you feel that you don't need support, you can begin with the free licences for three nodes.

We did not evaluate other options.

Hyperconverged lab and testing environments fulfill several special requirements for use cases. We use it for demonstration environments and for virtualization and containerization. We have a rather smaller footprint, ranging from two to three nodes over the years. 

Mainly, we have an edge use case. Another use case is refurbishing and second lifecycle evaluation, specifically I/O and disaster recovery capabilities, which are important in these lab environments. 

Modernization could also be counted as a use case since modernizing data centers on small-scale or edge deployments is becoming increasingly important, even for smaller businesses.

For my organization, StarWind vSAN has been a first of firsts in hyper-converged storage and has been, first and foremost, a technology demonstrator that should disclose and present the advantages of modern data center constellations. 

Over the years, it has also functioned as a lab environment and customer demonstrator specifically for refurbishing old hardware and educational objects for our internal apprentices, effectively transforming our mindset towards modern data center infrastructure. It also served as a proof of concept for refurbishing and cost-reducing existing infrastructures.

I have found the overall ergonomy and manageability outstanding during normal functioning. Specifically, the console GUI's monitoring and configuring capabilities can be counted towards that. 

Even when not administrated via GUI, the comprehensive Powershell automation module remains, which comes with templates prepopulated for the most common automation tasks. 

Furthermore, the solution provides great performance for the price it is listed with and can even run properly without proper hardware, however, it is even more efficient and performs better when procuring proper hardware is possible.

My impression has been mostly positive. However, there have been some pitfalls. For example, it runs until it does not - and disaster recovery documentation is sparse and mostly unclear. This consequently follows a long learning curve and can take some time until this can be done efficiently. 

The feature log-structured file system has been removed. While I have not used it, I know some colleagues who have reported some performance benefits under certain circumstances. 

Additionally, vSAN does not offer extended SAN features like inline deduplication, compression, or S3-compatible access, which is part of most modern SAN feature sets, also in hyper-converged scenarios.

I have been using several editions of the solution for more than five years.

The stability of this solution is vastly dependent on the hardware procured beforehand. Network hardware is especially important, and bad or glitchy hardware (like the Intel X700 or X800 series) can quickly break things. It runs—until it does not. Be sure to learn or consult about the disaster recovery process, especially if you decide on a witness strategy hosted in vSAN.

The software can be pretty scalable; however, after reaching more and more nodes, one may look at StarWind's hyperconverged appliance instead of going through the hassle of administrating separate systems.

They have only friendly and positive experiences, always a helping hand. Also, they are offering proactive support, which, from the experience of some of my colleagues, is an outstanding experience unusual to many professional service providers.

Neutral

We did not use a different solution beforehand.

The initial setup was very straightforward and easy, although one could deep dive into the specific protocol configuration options. Also, I would have liked it if some features or procedures would have been better documented at the time.

We implemented it through our in-house R&D team.

I will not publish accurate numbers. However, the modernization aspect in terms of lab infrastructure and testing/demonstration environments has an educational benefit, strengthening our consultancy, demonstrating capabilities and our mindset towards data center innovation.

I would highly advise new users to consult the StarWind technical team beforehand. 

Also, consider the paid version if you want the ease of management through the console GUI and not just use it for monitoring. 

You can also apply for a testing or NFR license if you want to test it. StarWind vSAN is, by list price, vastly more competitive than some comparable solutions. The setup may be straightforward, fast, and easy; however, it can break things down if not done properly. Before setup, be sure to procure proper hardware components that are not known to cause instabilities.

Due to budget constraints, Ceph has been evaluated as an alternative. We also took a look at Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and VMware vSAN.

Consider StarWind's proactive support. It improves the software's already high value and defuses the long learning curve of some processes! When clustering resources, deeply consider your witness strategy! Especially when you can not guarantee 100% stable hardware (e.g., through firmware issues), this can break things very quickly if you have a witness device in the same vSAN.

HCI was set up to host our ERP web apps, domain controller, and phone system.  We are using this in production, staging, and development with around 40 virtual machines. We are using Linux and Windows with VMware as the ESXi host. 

Our main use of StarWind HCI is creating a super-smooth virtualized server setup. It blends tech magic, merging storage, networking, and more into one. We were always running into the issues of needing to add more storage and having to pull down our servers, notify customers of the downtime, etc., however, not anymore.

The solution offers failover protection and the ability to expand storage and nodes with no downtime.  Our customers who use our web apps benefit from nearly zero downtime due to hardware failure, hardware replacement, or upgrades. 

Now we are looking at replicating a similar cluster setup for our firewall, switches, and ISP so we can get nearly 0.00% downtime which I know is not possible, however, with the new HCI setup, it is possible to at least almost get there. 

Their support is by far the best enterprise-level support I have come across.

The failover protection and the ability to expand storage and nodes with no downtime are by far the best physical features we have benefited from. Once we requested help from sales, it was a very easy decision compared to VMware where you get lost among the mess of products and low-trained phone techs.

Their web UI is very basic and that is how it should be. The magic is what their HCI setup does behind the scenes for redundancy and the ability to expand storage without ever having to go offline since another node picks up the storage.

Our company was hoping for deduplication and encryption across HCI. That is currently not supported. They used to have it and was removed. Hopefully, both of these features will be coming in upcoming releases.  

A built-in DR that can be stretched with high latency would be very helpful as well. We were able to purchase VMware 8 for our hosts. It would be nice if they developed their own ESXi OS to compete with VMware as the other options out there are not great. VMware does what it needs, however, their support is not great.

I've been using the solution for one week.

We've had no downtime so far.

You can scale as much as your company will need.

Technical support is good. Somebody is always available 24/7.

Positive

I did not use a different solution.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

We used StarWind in-house support as they do most of the setup before they send it to you.

We've witnessed downtime within two years.

I'd advise new users to have sales walk them through all the options and also ask them about purchasing the hardware for you.

I previously evaluated VMware.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

I've used the solution for three months.

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

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

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

Positive

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.

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

The solution was implemented in-house.

I'm not sure how to quantify ROI.

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.

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

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

StarWind Virtual SAN is a good solution. It helps our organization to fulfill the need for backup and restoration. 

Our organization was implementing a business continuity plan in which there was a need for regulatory compliance. We wanted to implement a solution to do scheduled backup and its restoration when needed. The process of implementing the solution was pretty simple, and it is readily available for use as well. 

As compared to other solutions, we found that it was easily integrated with our current solutions and could easily be deployed. 

We use the solution to improve compliance and risk management for our infrastructure. We also wanted to use it to create internal/operational efficiencies. 

We compared it with other solutions and have found we are able to drive revenue growth from this solution. It is keeping up with our needs and requirements. We found this solution offers good cost management. We also get the desired results of our RPO and RTO. During different operational issues, the backup restoration time of solutions is good. It's easy to use and is feasible in our virtualization environment. 

The performance of StarWind Virtual SAN is fast and effective. Reporting templates and customization have a very intense impact on senior management. 

The backup is readily available for use, and the restoration process is easy. It pulls out maximum IOPS from your existing raw storage with no crazy expensive hardware required. 

Licensing is flexible and transparent without any pitfalls or feature paywalls. 

Its HA deployment model is very easy with zero fault tolerance; we can operate HCI clusters through a unified StarWind web UI.

The management console of StarWind Virtual SAN is pretty complex. Most team members in our organization are new or have less experience with these kinds of complex solutions. It would be better to have a more user-friendly Web UI so that users with even the bare minimum amount of knowledge can also handle the product. 

In my country, it does not have a strong local support partner. If we have any issues or require support, we mostly contact the principal. It would be ideal if Starwind had a strong local partner with solid technical skills. That way, it would be very easy for us to handle any operational issues. 

I've used the solution for two years.

I'd rate stability eight out of ten. 

I'd rate scalability eight out of ten.

I did not use any other solution.

It was easy to set up and not that difficult. I'd rate the solution six out of ten. 

We implemented the solution in-house with the help of a vendor. I'd rate the setup process, and vendor support six out of ten. 

In terms of ROI, we have achieved our RTO and RPO.

I'd advise others to perform a POC before purchase and check whether it meets a company's needs or not.

I was not a part of the evaluation team.

We have a small private cloud for providing hosting to our clients. This allowed us to simplify our architecture in a way that previously required dedicated SAN hardware. 

The ability to migrate data and machines as we would with a central SAN is very helpful and has reduced our overall hardware costs, reduced our management costs, and provided additional uptime for our clients. 

We have two nodes currently with dedicated networking between them. This allows for quick migration and agile upgrades in the future. 

This has allowed us to spend less on hardware yet still have the same functionality of a full SAN. We will be able to provide additional uptime for our clients because of vSAN. 

Previously we were unable to migrate between nodes in our environment. This solution allows us to migrate virtual machines between nodes as if we had a dedicated $100,000 SAN in the mix without the additional cost and management of the SAN. 

We hope in the long run that we will be able to deploy this to our other nodes and save additional time and expense there. 

The ability to use two servers as a cluster instead of having to have a dedicated SAN environment to achieve the same results has been great. This has allowed us to spend less on hardware yet still have the same functionality of a full SAN. 

We will be able to provide additional uptime for our clients thanks to vSAN. 

Previously we were unable to migrate between nodes in our environment. This product now allows us to migrate virtual machines between nodes as if we had a dedicated $100,000 SAN in the mix without the additional cost and management of the SAN. 

We hope in the long run that we will be able to deploy this to our other nodes and save additional time and expense there.

We ran into an issue with alerts. The system uses email to send alerts, and we are a Microsoft 365 shop. They were not able to send them, thanks to the latest TLS updates at Microsoft. We were able to use a third-party SMTP relay in the meantime, however. 

Additionally, there was no way to send different levels of alerts, from informational to license to critical. This will require us to monitor each log generated as anyone could be critical coming across. They believe this will be incorporated into their next build and releases. 

I've been using the solution for one month.

We use StarWind as redundant, reliable, and fast storage for our two-node cluster in a Hyperconverged Environment. The cluster is a cost-effective way to create a reliable and scalable environment by utilizing all the available hardware while keeping complexity to a minimum. 

StarWind serves as storage for our Hyper-V appliance, ranging from databases to fileservers, which are all critical for the company. The storage has a size of around 70 Terabytes, and all traffic is routed through a redundant switch stack of two units. 

StarWind's task is to provide a reliable, fast, and redundant storage solution for our virtual machines while keeping cost and complexity as low as possible. At the same time, it managed challenges in a two-node environment, such as the feared split-brain scenario. 

With an uptime of 384 days, StarWind has improved overall server reliability. Our downtime over the year went from two reboots a week for maintenance to zero (in combination with the cluster). 

Another improvement is the L1 and L2 cache, which boosts the overall performance of all VMs.

The overall biggest impact on the company, and especially the IT department, is the reduced time investment in maintaining the platform. StarWind has been a "set-up and forget" solution over the past year and already paid itself in the hours it has saved compared to the previous solution.

Three features were extremely important for us as a result of using StarWind since its setup:

Reliability and Maintainability. StarWind has been extremely reliable until now without any software-related downtime. Update-related reboots of the nodes were handled without any issues by StarWind and its Fast-Sync technology, which synchronizes data in the background without the need for a full sync.

Performance. Utilizing StarWind with its L1 and L2 Cache helped us boost a variety of file sizes, ranging from databases to renderings. Additionally, StarWind has a market-leading performance in throughput. Benchmarks in our environment showed a transfer of over 750 MB/s from a Windows Fileserver VM to a client device through a 10Gbit connection.

Community. The StarWind Customer Support was excellent, and it helped us clear any remaining questions regarding the setup. In our case, it was the setup of the SSD cache. A StarWind Technician offered us a personal support session with many follow-ups. 

While we had little to no issues in setting up StarWind and received excellent support from the StarWind technicians, we would have appreciated a clearer guideline for a setup with the free version of StarWind Management Console or, in other words - for the setup with the PowerShell.

Another thing we found out afterward is that StarWind offers several free software solutions to benefit the performance of server infrastructures. One of them is StarWind iSCSI Accelerator/Load Balancer. We would like to ask StarWind to give a more thorough implementation guideline for such free solutions during the setup of storage infrastructure.

I've used the solution since May 2021.

StarWind has been pretty much active for the past year without one error or failure. Server maintenance during office hours and the synchronization afterward have never been an issue. No corruption of the storage, no VM crash, nor split brain has occurred in our two-node setup up until now. The heartbeat interfaces are very reliable and show an error through the Management Console when they are down.

One of the main reasons we bought StarWind was the scalability of the storage. We plan the storage in our Hyperconverged Infrastructure through the addition of storage arrays. Since we have bought the unlimited storage package from StarWind, we are confident that this task will not be an issue.

The customer support was excellent. We initially opened a post on the official StarWind Support page and received a response from a StarWind technician within two hours. By the end of the week, we had a private support session with him where he solved our issue and checked our config for any weaknesses. Overall great experience, and of the reasons we will be staying with StarWind.

Positive

We did not use another storage solution like StarWind. Rather, we used an array of NAS Servers, which served a combined iSCSI storage. This approach is more professional and in line with the industry.

The initial setup was relatively straightforward. The manual was up to date and with images. The only complaint I have is that the guideline is mostly tailored to the paid version of the StarWind Management Console, and for the free version, you need to use the PowerShell templates. The manual should address them more.

We implemented mainly in-house with the exception of the support of a technician, as mentioned in the next field.

While I can not give an exact number, compared to our old setup and the maintenance we put in, the ROI should be over 100%.

Through StarWind, in combination with HCI, we managed to reduce our overall hardware costs by about 50% through the avoidance of additional servers and software licensing. My recommendation is to utilize the community when setting up StarWind, which is a very good and strong point that speaks to StarWind and is also one of the main reasons we will stay with them.

Yes, we evaluated StorMagic before deciding on StarWind.

When setting up StarWind, it is fine to experiment with the config file; however, do back them up incrementally. Take your time in setting up a redundant infrastructure and meet hardware requirements (such as redundancy for Sync and Heartbeat Interfaces). Having solid ground to set up StarWind helped us to have a headache-free solution in the end. But that should be self-explanatory.

We have been using StarWind in conjunction with Veeam as our backup solution, and the results have been exceptional. StarWind’s seamless integration with Veeam has allowed us to enhance our data protection strategy, providing robust and reliable backups. 

The performance and stability of StarWind have significantly reduced our downtime, ensuring that our critical data is always protected and easily recoverable. The ease of setup and configuration, along with the comprehensive support from the Starwind team, has made the process straightforward and stress-free. 

Starwind’s flexible and scalable architecture perfectly complements Veeam’s advanced backup features, giving us a powerful and efficient backup infrastructure. The combination of these two solutions has greatly improved our data management and recovery capabilities, making it an indispensable part of our IT operations. We highly recommend StarWind for anyone looking to optimize their backup strategy, especially when paired with Veeam.

Implementing StarWind in our organization has been a game-changer, particularly in terms of cost savings. By leveraging StarWind's virtual tape library (VTL) solution, we have been able to use virtual tapes for our backups, which are then saved in Azure Blob storage. 

This approach has significantly reduced our dependency on physical tape hardware, leading to considerable savings in both equipment and maintenance costs. The virtual tapes are not only more cost-effective but also offer enhanced flexibility and scalability, enabling us to manage our growing data needs without substantial additional investment. 

Furthermore, the integration with Azure Blob storage ensures our backups are stored securely in the cloud, providing us with peace of mind and reducing the need for expensive on-premises storage solutions. The combination of StarWind’s VTL and Azure Blob has streamlined our backup process, reduced our overall backup costs, and improved our data management efficiency. We are extremely satisfied with the financial and operational benefits StarWind has brought to our organization.

StarWind's customer service is exceptional. From day one, their support team has been responsive, knowledgeable, and proactive. They quickly address issues, minimizing downtime, and offer tailored solutions that fit our specific needs. The team's professionalism and courtesy make even complex problems manageable. Extensive documentation and resources further enhance our experience. StarWind's commitment to customer satisfaction is evident in every interaction, making their support truly outstanding.

In the next release, StarWind should include enhanced integration with cloud services for more seamless hybrid cloud operations. Advanced analytics and reporting tools would improve monitoring and decision-making. Improved scalability options for growing businesses and enhanced security features, such as advanced encryption and multi-factor authentication, are crucial. Additionally, a more user-friendly interface and expanded automation capabilities would greatly enhance usability and efficiency, further solidifying StarWind's position as a top-tier solution.

We've had Starwind for almost three years now.