StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

We use StarWind Virtual SAN to create a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective solution for storage requirements. We used it to store data in a VMware environment. 

We have a small setup of servers where we use Starwind Virtual SAN as our primary storage solution to store critical data and applications. We have a 30 TB usable storage where StarWind Virtual SAN provides us with reliable, fast, scalable, and cost-effective features to store and manage critical data and apps. 

It's a scalable storage solution, and in the future, if our requirements expand, we can scale out our storage requirements pretty easily.

It helped us in providing a reliable, fast, scalable, redundant, and affordable storage solution for our VMware-based infrastructure. It's continuously running for the last year or so, which shows its reliability. 

It also helps us reduce maintenance costs as it's working pretty fine for the last year or so. So, we didn't face any issues yet. It's a solution where we can truly say that set up and forget.

I'd like to say that it's one of the best storage solutions for your virtual environment, especially for SMBs.

StarWind Virtual SAN offers high availability and data resilience features to prevent data loss if hardware fails. This feature helps us to save data or any critical application on it. 

You can scale it from a 2-node to a larger, multi-node deployment which makes it a pretty flexible solution for businesses that are growing from time to time. It has very good performance with an improved cache

It has a pretty user-friendly interface that makes it easy to install, configure, and manage storage in any virtualized environment.

While our experience with StarWind Virtual SAN has been positive, we don't have any issues yet. 

The price makes it a pretty perfect and affordable solution as compared to other solutions available in the market for the same deployment scenarios. 

I want to suggest that the complexity of the startup and shutdown procedure needs to be reduced. Another thing that I want to highlight about the documentation that needs some improvement and better organization. Right now, I don't have any other issues in my mind that can be written here.

For the last year or so, I've been using this solution.

We don't have any stability issues. 

Currently, we have a small setup, and in the near future, if we need to scale our setup, StarWind Virtual SAN will help us accordingly.

The technical support experience so far has been positive.

Positive

Yes, I use VMware vSAN and FreeNAS.

The initial setup is simple, and a lot of information is already available.

We implemented it in-house.

We have been using it for the last year or so, and it's working very fine in our environment. 

StarWind Virtual SAN is a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective solution. I highly recommend using this storage solution, especially for SMBs.

I evaluated other options and found StarWind Virtual SAN is a reliable and cost-effective solution.

It's a pretty reliable, cost-effective storage solution for virtual environments.

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. 

I recently underwent a server migration process, which involved converting multiple virtual machines to the QCOW2 format. This challenge required adapting various VMs to ensure a seamless transition, highlighting the importance of flexibility in IT infrastructure management.

StarWind Virtual SAN proved indispensable during our server migration, offering flexibility, high availability, and performance optimization. Its user-friendly interface simplified management and vendor independence ensured adaptability. This software has left a lasting, positive impact on our organization's IT infrastructure, positioning us for future success.

The use of StarWind Virtual SAN during the server migration process and conversion of virtual machines to the qcow2 format provided significant benefits to our organization. The software offered the flexibility needed to smoothly carry out this complex transition. Ensuring high availability and optimizing VM performance, StarWind Virtual SAN improved our IT infrastructure, resulting in more efficient and reliable operations.

One of the standout features of StarWind Virtual SAN was its independence from specific hardware vendors. This vendor independence is a boon in today's dynamic IT environment. It allowed us to make procurement decisions based solely on our organization's needs, free from the constraints of vendor lock-in. This autonomy ensured that our IT infrastructure remained agile and adaptable, capable of swiftly adjusting to emerging technologies and changing requirements.

The ability to keep data accessible even in the event of hardware failures is highly valued, as it ensures business continuity.

A user-friendly and intuitive management interface makes system administration simpler, saving time and resources.

Optimizing the performance of virtualized storage is crucial, ensuring that VMs operate efficiently.

The ability to perform well with multiple hypervisors offers flexibility and avoids vendor lock-in.

Vendor independence allows organizations to choose hardware components that best suit their needs.

Ongoing improvements in read and write performance would help meet increasingly demanding workloads.

A more comprehensive monitoring system with proactive alerts can enhance visibility and responsiveness.

Advanced automation features for storage provisioning and resource management can save time and reduce errors.

Enhancements in disaster recovery capabilities, such as faster failover and streamlined recovery procedures, would be valuable.

Adding support for emerging or less common hypervisors can increase flexibility.

Enhancing security features, such as data encryption and two-factor authentication, to meet stricter compliance requirements.

Integration with cloud storage services for greater scalability and backup options.

I've used the solution for just under one year.

Considering that StarWind Virtual SAN allows for scalability, it is important to plan accordingly as you add more resources and storage capacity, ensuring that the system remains stable through all stages of growth.

StarWind Virtual SAN's performance is impressive and offers scalability as one of its main advantages. The solution is designed to grow with your IT infrastructure needs. This means that as your organization expands and requires more storage resources, you can add additional nodes to your StarWind cluster to accommodate this growth.

I did not use a different solution previously.

The setup is very simple. The tool is very educational.

It is advisable to conduct a detailed assessment of your infrastructure needs and compare setup costs, pricing, and licensing with alternatives in the market. Take into account scalability, technical support, and your specific environment requirements. Additionally, explore licensing options that best align with your budget and long-term planning. Evaluating your organization's needs and resources is crucial for making an informed decision regarding the investment in StarWind Virtual SAN.

I did not evaluate other options. 

Establish a good relationship with the vendor's support team. They can provide valuable assistance during setup, troubleshooting, and ongoing maintenance.

Keep the software up to date with the latest patches and updates to benefit from security enhancements and performance improvements.

Consider your organization's future growth and ensure the solution can scale accordingly. This avoids potential disruptions due to increased demands.

Implement a robust backup and disaster recovery strategy alongside your virtual SAN solution to safeguard critical data.

Stay informed about industry trends and emerging technologies to ensure your infrastructure remains competitive and efficient.

Invest in training for your IT team to maximize the value of the solution and facilitate knowledge transfer.

Continuously monitor the performance of your virtual SAN to identify and address any issues promptly.

Our organization is currently running StarWind Virtual SAN across two storage nodes for our Cluster Storage environment as the StarWind Virtual SAN is designed to provide high availability for mission-critical workloads. 

We do like the reliability and performance of StarWind software. The product allows us to achieve high availability and reduce downtime since Day One of deployment. Since we have limited IT resources, the service simplifies maintenance, downtime, and administration.

We like their high availability. It reduces the downtime for our entire organization's environment. If one of the servers fails, the virtual machines can seamlessly fail over to another server, minimizing downtime. Currently, we rarely have unnecessary reboots during the year. 

Another improvement is StarWind's cost savings. As we are a non-profit organization, cost-effectiveness is always important. StarWind VSAN leverages existing server hardware, potentially reducing the cost associated with purchasing specialized storage hardware.

StarWind's GUI is simple and works best with a hypervisor environment, especially for a non-profit organization that has limited IT resources. The service simplifies the maintenance and administration time. 

StarWind's service technicians are professional, knowledgeable, and very responsive. Since we are currently using StarWind Premium ProActive services the service responses from the support team are always in a timely manner and never let us and the system down. We are really happy with their technical service.

It is hard to find adequate technical documentation on their support website. However, they have a fantastic technical forum and Premium ProActive email support services. We can find a lot of solutions from geek technical peers from their forums. If we cannot find an adequate solution from the forum, we can also send our request to the StarWind support team. The tech support has provided us with optimal solutions and even released the new builds to us to help fix issues we found in a timely manner.

I've used the solution for four years.

We rarely reboot and have minimal, if any, downtime throughout the year.

StarWind vSAN can easily scale by adding more servers to the cluster. This makes it extremely suitable for growing organizations like ours.

Service technicians are professional, knowledgeable, and very responsive.

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

We handled with the vendor team and I'd rate their assistance four out of five in terms of overall helpfulness. 

The ROI is not bad.

The Premium ProActive service price is a little high, yet worth the price.  

We did not evaluate other options.

We needed a redundant solution that would be able to switch automatically to the backup side if necessary. 

Once StarWind was installed and configured the failover becomes automatic. 

However, it is also easy to do it on the fly manually (even during production hours). This allows you to almost completely eliminate maintenance windows as you can put all of the VMs on one appliance and run maintenance on the remaining appliance. This saves time and money not having to have someone come in off-hours to do said tasks.

It is so easy now to create VMs that have failover if one of the StarWind appliances fails. This nearly 100% uptime has allowed our organization to pretty much eliminate downtime during production hours. In fact, since we deployed StarWind we have had zero downtime during production hours. This peace of mind is priceless.  

We now have automatic failover thanks to StarWind Virtual SAN, on-prem backups, and cloud backups. This has also improved our DR strategy allowing us to recover more easily.

The failover redundancy is why we bought this product and it has never let us down. 

The ease of adding SSDs or memory is a valuable feature too.  

However, the most valuable part of this whole process has been the support.  They are available 24/7. If they notice something wrong, I will get an email, even if it is in the middle of the night or on a weekend or holiday.  

The SLA is about four hours, however, I can't remember a time when it took longer than 30 minutes to get a response. Scheduling them for maintenance or configuration issues is also a breeze.

Scaling the product is fairly easy except for the computing aspect. It would entail another appliance. While not a show stopper, it isn't as easy as dropping in a few extra SSDs.  

When planning to purchase and deploy a StarWind system they monitor your resources for a week and build your StarWind appliance accordingly. It would be smart for the end user to really take into account the anticipated company growth and add on more computing initially. That would be a more streamlined approach.

We have had StarWind for a little over two years now.

The solution is incredibly stable.

The compute part of it should be more easily scalable.  

Customer service and support is the strongest part of this company. I have zero issues with them and wish other vendors would use them as a model.

Positive

We did not use any other solution. StarWind was our first.

The initial setup was fairly complex, however, StarWind support walked us through every step and made it a breeze.

We used StarWind support for setup with one IT person in-house. 

Since installing StarWind, we have not had any downtime. The ROI from not having even one downtime event is immeasurable. 

StarWind is by far going to be your best value for money.

We evaluated Dell and Nutanix.