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.

Buyer's Guide
StarWind Virtual SAN
March 2024
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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.
PeerSpot user
Information Systems Security Officer at Graham Corp
User
Great support, has a smaller footprint, and good data replication
Pros and Cons
  • "StarWind saved us about 80% of our storage costs over our old solution."
  • "The number of different ways you can set it up can make it a little daunting."

What is our primary use case?

Our infrastructure uses VMware vSphere, and we use StarWind as our primary storage solution. We have three hosts and use a hyper-converged setup, so our computing and storage are spread across the same hosts. 

StarWind replicates the data between the hosts giving us 30 TB of usable redundant storage. StarWind allowed us to consolidate our hardware and grow without expanding our data center footprint. It also gave us more peace of mind since there is no single point of failure anywhere in the solution.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind saved us about 80% of our storage costs over our old solution.  

We were also able to avoid a data center expansion as we could combine our computing and storage without losing fault tolerance.  

We were also using another converged storage solution from HPE as well. That solution was strongly tied to ESXi and vCenter, which meant we could not apply WMware updates when they came out until the storage solution updated their product to match without risking compatibility problems.  

Since StarWind isn't tied to the hypervisor, we don't have to worry about how updates to one part of our infrastructure will affect the other.

What is most valuable?

StarWind support is really good. They help you with the initial setup and will support you down the road as well. The support staff really know their product.  StarWind isn't a black box, either. You can see exactly how the storage and replication are configured, so you know what is going on, and can quickly diagnose any problems.   

Many virtualized storage solutions are incredibly picky about what hardware you deploy them on - even down to the model of a hard drive. StarWind allows you to use any hardware, and they will support you on whatever infrastructure you want to deploy it on.

What needs improvement?

The management interface is missing some of the flashier features and hand-holding of other enterprise products.  It might be intimidating to someone without a lot of experience, yet StarWinds setup services are good for walking you through everything. The number of different ways you can set it up can make it a little daunting.  

The documentation on their website isn't bad, and yet it could use some better organization. There is also some feature disparity between the Windows-based solution and their virtual Linux-based solution. I'd love to see deduplication added to the virtual Linux appliance.  

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I only had one stability issue with StarWind. That said, that was down to me not following best practices and not reading their updated documentation. When configure properly, StarWind is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a great option for SMBs. If you start getting into double or triple-digit host count, the increased configuration time may not be worth it.

How are customer service and support?

The StarWind support team is very knowledgeable. When you need support, you speak directly with someone who knows the product well. I was able to get on a Zoom call and have my issue resolved the same day I opened a ticket.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We previously used a traditional SAN from Nimble and the virtual storage solution, HPE Simplivity. Both other solutions were more expensive. HPE was strongly tied to both the underlying hardware and the hypervisor and didn't allow for any flexibility.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was a little more complex than setting up a traditional SAN as additional networking was needed for the replication channels. Planning ahead and help setup help from Starwind makes this manageable.

What about the implementation team?

We did our implementation in-house. We know our infrastructure better than an outside vendor and were confident in our ability to deploy it.

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

StarWind has the most straightforward licensing model of any storage solution we evaluated. Their pricing was also the best.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had experience with HPE Simplivity and VMware vSAN.

What other advice do I have?

In a VMware environment, StarWind works best if you can dedicate the RAID card or the HBA to the storage controller VM, so you should store the hypervisor on a separate RAID card or on an SD card. 

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
Buyer's Guide
StarWind Virtual SAN
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about StarWind Virtual SAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Manager, Network at Burnham Holdings Inc
User
Top 20
Awesome support, very reliable, and excellent High Availability
Pros and Cons
  • "The ROI is great on this product."
  • "The documentation is good yet is still lacking in a few areas."

What is our primary use case?

I was hoping to implement a High Availability and redundant system without sacrificing performance or my budget. Looking at various HCI and vSAN solutions, the cost was a bit prohibitive.  

I really wanted my cake and to eat it to; however, VMware's vSAN offering and looking at a few HCI solutions (vXRails, Nutanix, etc.) just did not fit my budget. That is when I read a review on StarWind free vSAN, which got me interested, but I knew I wanted (and needed) support.

We set up a three-node cluster on new, identical servers with VMware's vSphere and added StarWind's vSAN product to expand our capabilities.

Our servers started out with 8 HDDs, and after production, we added 4 SSDs which StarWind assisted in getting online in the vSAN.

How has it helped my organization?

We have High Availability, failover, redundancy, and the ability to move workloads on the fly with no impact on the organization. It is great for patching and updates to the servers.

The ROI is great on this product.  We did have to upgrade our licensing to enterprise level as we surpassed the 8TB limit by adding additional storage.  Purchasing a three-year term helped bolster our ROI even further.

We did have a vCenter failure during an upgrade. StarWind support was able to get the systems back online and syncing with no data loss or impact on production (and even improve the installation by moving the critical StarWind components on the Boss Card).

I feel very confident in the support team's abilities.

What is most valuable?

First and foremost, StarWind has awesome support. You work with the same engineer throughout implementation or any issues.  

They explain the process of what and why they are doing whatever it is. You are not left high and dry when looking to implement the vSAN and can solve issues that may arise or even configure additional added storage.

The stability is great. The solution has been running with no issues due to vSAN itself. It is one of those "set it and forget it" types of systems. Perhaps this is a bad thing as you kind of do not think about it.

What needs improvement?

The documentation is good yet is still lacking in a few areas. I would love to see more comprehensive walk-throughs or perhaps even videos. With this being such a critical piece of infrastructure, I do not like to take chances. Fortunately, support will be there to help hold your hand or even perform the process for you, ensuring everything is working.

It would be really nice to have a documented "Best Practices" list to ensure you are doing everything you can to ensure stability and performance. I have to be a bit nitpicky; overall, there is not much I can really add.

For how long have I used the solution?

We demoed the product in early 2021. We have been using it in production for over a year now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is extremely stable thus far. We've been running well over a year without any issues due to StarWind itself.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It offers great performance and has the ability to add additional nodes to your cluster.

How are customer service and support?

I would say StarWind has the best customer service and support. They are quick and aggressive in resolving any issues as quickly as possible. Not enough good things can be said about how they treat customers.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We used an MS 2008r2 Cluster many years ago. Prior to StarWind vSAN, were using static servers.

How was the initial setup?

For a three-node cluster, the setup seemed complex. However, upon purchasing a license, StarWind's excellent support took over and created a PoC install for us.

What about the implementation team?

We worked with the vendor team. They were great to work with. Over multiple days, you work with the same engineer, which is a great way to work versus getting transferred from tech to tech.

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

While you can add nodes later on, I would suggest really putting thought into how many nodes you want to start with, as networking can get challenging if you omit a good 10+GB switch.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I looked at a few HCI (Dell, vxRail, and Nutanix) and the VMware vSAN solution.  It was cost-prohibitive for me

What other advice do I have?

I cannot say enough good things about the support this company gives; more companies need to model this.

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
Adam Charlton - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at Slimming World
Real User
Top 10
Good performance gains, a painless setup, and fantastic support
Pros and Cons
  • "Immediately we noticed huge performance gains, even on older hardware and once we implemented a 10GB link between both servers, the sync was near-instant after the initial sync was complete."
  • "The logs can also become very noisy when there is an issue, which is very infrequent."

What is our primary use case?

After deploying a HA SQL Failover Cluster, we started to notice performance issues due to our storage, which was an off-the-shelf NAS.

I had already heard about StarWind and its VSAN software from previous blogs.

A VSAN solution seems like an ideal solution as we already had the hardware, minus the disks required. We already had two Dell R540's with six available bays in each server.

After reviewing their documentation, the setup process was simple enough to follow and so I decided to run a little test environment.

How has it helped my organization?

I was pleasantly surprised by the performance gains even on spinning disks and the overall setup being fairly painless.

I decided to go ahead with this solution, got the cost signed off, and implemented it in production.

We had some initial issues, however, their support was extremely helpful in resolving these and was very patient as we deployed this to a secure environment with no internet access. Yet they still offered support and worked closely with a single point of contact.

I then later moved to a different company and implement a similar solution in the Oracle Cloud using their free offering, again this was simple to set up using their collection of PowerShell scripts.

What is most valuable?

Immediately we noticed huge performance gains, even on older hardware and once we implemented a 10GB link between both servers, the sync was near-instant after the initial sync was complete.

In addition, their support contact was fantastic. They spent several hours troubleshooting an issue with me and due to the complexity of our environment this only made it more challenging, yet they were persistent and helped resolved any issues

Additionally, their white papers were a great starting point to get started.

What needs improvement?

The forums can lead to lots of topics with no resolutions.

The logs can also become very noisy when there is an issue, which is very infrequent. However, when they do occur, it makes it very challenging to figure out what the cause is.

A feature that would be helpful, is a way to update the software automatically on all the hosts. Instead, you must find the download link, which in itself can be challenging, and then manually upgrade each server one by one. This process can take a while depending on the time to resync your VDISKS. 

For how long have I used the solution?

For about 3 years, in which I deployed it in 2 companies.

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

Previously we were using a Synology NAS

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

Try the free version and see if it meets your requirements. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did look at purchasing EqualLogic, however, the cost of that hardware would be far greater than StarWind's

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Works with 11-50 employees
Real User
Easy to add SSDs or memory with exceptional support
Pros and Cons
  • "The failover redundancy is why we bought this product and it has never let us down."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is incredibly stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The compute part of it should be more easily scalable.  

How are customer service and support?

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.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

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

How was the initial setup?

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

What about the implementation team?

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

What was our ROI?

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

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

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

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Dell and Nutanix.

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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Global IS Admin at Benshaw, Inc.
Real User
Top 20
Good redundancy, helpful support, and provides good ROI
Pros and Cons
  • "We are able to execute maintenance on one server while the other is still running."
  • "To enable the proactive support capability that is part of our support agreement, I would ask that the terms and conditions be revised and made acceptable to corporate security."

What is our primary use case?

Our organization purchased a hyper-converged platform from StarWind, which significantly increased our RAM, processors, and flash-based storage, strengthening our processing and storage capacities with a Virtual SAN.

It also made it possible for us to use VMware vMotion. This is essential in our manufacturing plant since it enables us to move a virtual machine across hosts without halting operations.

Since the solution was put in place, I haven't had to make any software-related changes, and a few power outages we've had have not caused any hiccups.

How has it helped my organization?

We are able to execute maintenance on one server while the other is still running. Performance was aided by the flash drives' speed, and StarWind's support staff is friendly and competent.

As we made licensing adjustments and transferred virtual servers from the old host to the new ones throughout the migration on the Virtual SAN, we had to interact with technical support a number of times. The response time was quick, and I had no issue following along as we did a screen share to complete the tasks.

What is most valuable?

The Virtual SAN prevented the business from having to buy a separate storage array and associated network hardware. We found that the price of a storage array was higher than what StarWind offered as a solution so made it a somewhat each choice to proceed with.

Peace of mind comes from knowing that the virtual machines will keep running even if one of the servers fails. It also helps to have support close at hand in case of difficulty.

The solution's extensive use of redundancy to guard against failures impressed us.

What needs improvement?

The terms and conditions of the proactive support were the only things that I had an issue with. We were unable to benefit from it due to the fact that our legal department didn't accept them. The heartbeat monitor would help you save time by alerting support to problems as soon as they arise and ideally even before they occurred in our environment.

To enable the proactive support capability that is part of our support agreement, I would ask that the terms and conditions be revised and made acceptable to corporate security.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this for three and a half years so far.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has lasted us over three years so far with no issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We don't intend to scale beyond two servers, however, we like that it's possible.

How are customer service and support?

We have no issues working with StarWind's customer service department.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We previously had a single server that was out of support.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was complicated and we needed technical support from StarWind.

What about the implementation team?

StarWind provided the support that was needed and was quick and efficient.

What was our ROI?

We have met ROI expectations already.

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

The support package included the setup cost.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at Dell and Nutanix.

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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reviewer189641 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systemadministratör at Hantverksdata Sverige AB
User
Cost-effective, easy to use, and fault-tolerant
Pros and Cons
  • "You can turn your local disk storage into high-availability iSCSI storage."
  • "There is a general lack of documentation, especially up-to-date documentation to get started."

What is our primary use case?

In a Hyper-V environment running Windows Server, we needed high availability in a virtualized environment for our file-share cluster without having to use expensive, external iSCSI storage. Using the built-in VDHX disks, StarWind provides the high availability that we need at a low cost and is relatively easy to manage. We now have a 2-node, fault-tolerant file-share cluster that behaves exactly as we want and it utilizes StarWind to provide the high availability directly on the VMs themselves, rather than connecting an external storage.

How has it helped my organization?

With StarWind Virtual SAN we have a cost-effective, reliable, and easy-to-manage solution without having to spend a lot of money on external SAN or NAS solutions that would have cost a lot more, and would have required more infrastructure to manage. Instead, for a little sum and a setup that took less than a day, the virtual SAN runs directly on the VMs and is easy enough to manage that a single technician can do it. 

Most of the time, you don't even need to check on it as it just works once you have it set up. This saves money and time and you can cut down on your infrastructure needs.

What is most valuable?

Simply put, the best features of StarWind Virtual SAN are its core offerings:

- The fault-tolerant, high availability features using virtualized software. You can turn your local disk storage into high-availability iSCSI storage! It's so good, I can't believe Microsoft doesn't include this natively. Thankfully StarWind does the job.

- Ease of use; once set up, it just works and you don't have to spend a lot of time managing it. 

- It's very cost-effective. There's even a free version license to use with a two- or three-node cluster. You don't have to purchase or manage a costly, external storage infrastructure that would essentially provide a similar service.

What needs improvement?

There is a general lack of documentation, especially up-to-date documentation to get started. This is especially true if you want to trial the software first using the free version, as some of the documentation that exists is sometimes old and certain steps provided might not be very easy to understand. 

The free license only allows you to manage the setup via the CLI (the GUI works, but only provides information), which makes good documentation all the more important. 

The GUI itself as well could use an overhaul; the user experience is a bit lacking until you get the feel for it. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I implemented StarWind Virtual SAN in our environment in early 2023.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Once we had it set up, it just works. I can't remember the last time I had to check on the software to see that all was in order. StarWind seems very stable and reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We only use a two-node cluster. I have not tested the software outside of this configuration, however, if you're building a much bigger cluster, you'd probably be better off investing in an external, dedicated storage solution such as a SAN. 

How are customer service and support?

The one time I had to contact support, they were very good and I got the impression they understand storage and their product.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We did not have any other solutions before this, this was a whole new use case.

How was the initial setup?

We first tried the free edition, and due to some documentation being a little outdated, there were some issues as all we had the CLI to use. Once we went through it again though, it was fairly easy to set up. 

Even for someone who has never used the software before, within a single day it was up and running. If you pay for the license, using the GUI is a breeze, even if the GUI as well takes some time to get used to and understand where to find things.

What about the implementation team?

We (I) did it in-house, and once I got comfortable with it, it was easy to set up.

What was our ROI?

We save money and time on having this solution, as there's less infrastructure to manage, we have high availability where we need it, and it's much more cost-effective than any other option.

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

Try the free version first, as it's perfectly capable to be used and provides the same functionality (without the GUI) as the paid version. You can then simply upgrade. It does take a little bit of time to get used to managing it with the CLI, but once it's set up, it's a breeze.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did check for options, but as we are running Hyper-V natively, there were not a lot of options as we didn't have the budget to go for an expensive hardware solution, and Microsoft does not provide a solution to this problem in the same way that VMWare for example does.

What other advice do I have?

StarWind is the best, and most cost-effective option that we have found on the market.

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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reviewer0295725 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Engineer at Euro Garages Limited
User
Price competitive with simple pricing and very compatible
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to run a two-node cluster without a dedicated witness has made this an excellent product for small deployments, which is right on target for our needs in regional offices."
  • "The software could benefit from more tooling to help with initial deployment."

What is our primary use case?

We needed an efficient solution to replace SAN-based clustering that we can build and drop into branch offices without consuming too much rack space or requiring a great deal of expertise. Starwind VSAN delivers exactly this alongside best-in-class support services.

The value for money is fantastic, and the product's simplicity makes it accessible even for beginners. It's easy to recommend Starwind for its support, pricing, scalability, and compatibility with both Windows and Linux. 

How has it helped my organization?

We are more confident than ever in the reliability of our office services thanks to the mini-clusters that Starwind has facilitated. We no longer have to plan outages to perform updates, which betters our ability to harden the security in our offices.

Starwind VSAN exceeded our expectations as a two-node cluster storage solution. It offered a cost-effective alternative to expensive hardware SANs and is a great product offering good value for money.

One remarkable feature is the elimination of any single point of failure of storage, which was common with traditional 3-2-1 approaches.

What is most valuable?

The ability to run a two-node cluster without a dedicated witness has made this an excellent product for small deployments, which is right on target for our needs in regional offices.

One of the most crucial aspects of Starwind VSAN is its ability to provide high availability and redundancy across our Hyper-V clusters. By creating a fault-tolerant environment with redundant storage, it ensures that our VMs keep running even if a node or storage component fails. This feature has proven invaluable in maintaining uninterrupted operations, especially during critical times.

What needs improvement?

The software could benefit from more tooling to help with initial deployment. The iSCSI configuration stage would benefit from some sort of bootstrapping to get it set up the way Starwind recommends.

Introducing a centralized web-based management interface would streamline the administration process. A user-friendly web console that allows for easy monitoring and configuration of the entire VSAN infrastructure would be a significant improvement.

While the product currently supports Hyper-V, expanding compatibility to other popular hypervisors like VMware vSphere and KVM would increase its market reach and cater to a wider range of users.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution for four months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Since implementing StarWind VSAN, we've experienced little to no downtime. The system has been running like a champ, handling our workloads without a hitch. I can't stress enough how crucial this stability is for our business operations. Knowing that our critical data and virtual machines are in safe hands brings a sense of relief.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of StarWind Virtual SAN is one of its standout features that really impressed me. It's been a game-changer for our storage needs, allowing us to grow our infrastructure seamlessly as our business expands. The way it handles scaling is just so smooth and efficient.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service and support provided by StarWind were exceptional. Whenever we reached out with questions or concerns, they were quick to respond and genuinely attentive to our needs. 

The support team was knowledgeable and patient and went above and beyond to ensure our issues were resolved quickly. 

Their dedication and responsiveness made us feel valued as customers, and it was a pleasure working with them throughout our journey with StarWind.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We used native Hyper-V replication before this, which didn't provide the high availability we were looking for.

How was the initial setup?

Setting up StarWind Virtual SAN was remarkably smooth and user-friendly. 

The installation process was well-documented, and the setup wizard guided us seamlessly through the steps. Using our existing hardware was a breeze, saving us costs without compromising on the benefits. 

The management console was intuitive, and real-time status updates provided confidence. The support team was responsive and helpful, making the initial setup a positive experience. 

The scale-out architecture allowed us to grow our storage infrastructure effortlessly. 

Overall, StarWind made it easy to deploy a solid and reliable storage solution.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the initial setup in-house.

What was our ROI?

I can't speak to the current ROI.

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

Compared to other vendors in the shared storage space, Starwind is extremely price competitive and has a simple licensing model. I recommend it highly if you're on a budget.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options.

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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Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free StarWind Virtual SAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.