StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have met ROI expectations already.

The support package included the setup cost.

We looked at Dell and Nutanix.

We use StarWind to synchronize storage between nodes of our hyper-converged Hyper-V cluster. We then publish the storage to each cluster member via iSCSI.

We run the cluster on a 10GB network (though when we first implemented
it in our testing environment, we were on 1GB and it still worked fine),
with two physical servers. 

The synchronization between nodes is fully synchronous, meaning that if the mirror NICs aren't at least as fast as the front-end NICs (and preferably much faster), it could cause access bottlenecks. We haven't faced that problem though.

We needed to implement a cluster so we could offer VM hosting as a service to our customers. We have implemented clusters for some of our clients and used much more expensive vSAN options there. We were leery about using such a lower-cost alternative, but the other SAN options proved far too expensive for our very modest budget.

We tested with a free version of StarWind (which allows no GUI administration but otherwise is fully-featured), and it was stable enough for our use for about a year for testing and for the client that wanted to be a guinea pig (for an important but not mission-critical system; suitable for testing with). But when we were ready to roll the program out more broadly, we decided that in case of a problem, dealing with the lack of GUI would be an issue. Upgrading to the full GUI-capable version was only a matter of a few clicks, and it did fit into our budget.

We use StarWind as a basic SAN with multi-node synchronization and push the storage out to the cluster nodes via iSCSI. For those basic uses, it's simple to set up and manage, and it seems to do a fine job.

When we were using the free version, adjustments to the storage volumes were difficult and finicky, because we had to use Powershell commands which are unfortunately not documented nearly as well as they should be. However, the GUI administration is easy, at least for the basic administration needs we've had so far.

StarWind doesn't really have any performance reporting, especially compared with other vSAN products we've used, which has spoiled us.

The management console is very simple -- reflecting the limited feature set that StarWind provides. I'm concerned that if sync breaks or we face another kind of major issue and have to fix something, it might be hard to track down the source of the problem. I would very much like to see greater granularity in reporting of active iSCSI channels, for example.

That said, we haven't had any problems yet; that says something in itself.

I've used the solution for just under two years.

We've used other solutions with some of our clients, and while we like them better, they're also an order of magnitude more expensive and didn't fit our budget.

If you know your way around a cluster, setup is easy. Pricing is straightforward, which made this choice a no-brainer.

We did not evaluate other options as the other options were prohibitively expensive.

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

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

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

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

My intention is to have all the physical servers become virtual

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

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

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

I have been using this tool for six months.

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

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

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

Positive

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

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

We handled the setup internally.

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

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

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

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

We were looking to migrate to hyper-converged architecture with an affordable, scalable solution.

StarWind is a fantastic hyper-converged solution for SMBs. The price point and pricing options allow for SMB deployment of a plug-and-play, scalable solution that won't break the bank.

Compared to other options in the HCA space, StarWind stands out. Their monitoring and support are built into the solution and allow for a production-ready environment that doesn't take many resources to manage or deploy.

If you run a Hyper-V environment, their single-pane monitoring command platform will greatly assist the management of the environment.

StarWind allows organizations with a small budget to deploy a modern, robust HCA solution.

Organizations that have a need for remote office deployments can find a resilient solution with Starwind HCA as well.

The ability to scale by simply adding additional nodes to the stack provides a unique opportunity.

A vendor agnostic solutions provide the organization with more purchasing power with other vendors utilizing the hardware.

Migrating from one vendor to another within the HCA opens the possibility to shuttle between costly solutions with market volatility.

The following aspects of the product are very useful:

• The product creates opportunities with hybrid on-premise solutions.
• TCO is lower versus traditional compute, storage, and network architecture.
• Ability to scale with the organization's needs created flexibility.
• Scalability, resilience, and affordability.
• Fantastic hyper-converged solution for SMB. The price point and pricing options allow for SMB deployment of a plug-and-play, scalable solution.
• Without vendor lock, organizations have the ability to migrate as needed based on both needs and costs.

This solution is necessary in today's volatile market.

StarWind Command Center's single-pane management solution only works with Hyper-V. I was disappointed to find there was no disclosure of VMware incompatibility so the single-pane management system was not available in a VMware environment.

Understand your hardware lifecycle and align it with the available options StarWind offers for their HCA. There are options available that could be expanded on regarding hardware. Further options from a hardware perspective would add value to the company and allow for a broader audience.

I've used the product for two years.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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. 

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

Positive

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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. 

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.

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.

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.

We've used the solution for four months.

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.

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.

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.

Positive

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

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.

We handled the initial setup in-house.

I can't speak to the current ROI.

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.

We did not evaluate other options.

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.

Our organization was facing issues with storage. The main challenge was the secure backup and its restoration. 

StarWind Virtual SAN helps us get rid of storage issues within the organization. The best part is StarWind Virtual SAN supports a hypervisor environment and our organization was also using the same platform for infrastructure which makes it easier for us to deploy and implement. 

It also has built-in multifactor authentication which makes it compliant with our local regulations for the banking sector.

Our organization now can easily back up and have the data also available. Our main issue was to have a solution that has high availability of data and this solution solves that problem. In the internal audit, we also observed how helpful it was to have a proper backup solution with high availability which is now achieved by StarWind Virtual SAN. The solution has high performance which means the backups do not suffer from restoration and availability. It also has different storage RAIDs which helps to manage data in a proper way. We can use it without any latency.

The management console of the StarWind Virtual SAN is user-friendly.

You can also manage the storage in different segregated RAIDS.

It has built-in multifactor authentication available.

The performance of the solution is accurate and concise.

It gives great high availability.

The cost of the solution is overall effective.

Reporting is a great tool available in the product to demonstrate it to senior management.

StarWind Virtual SAN has very appropriate features available with the solution and it is all in one solution.

Overall the experience with StarWind Virtual SAN is good. One main thing this product needs to work on is reporting. It has all predefined reporting. They should introduce reporting which can be customized according to the organization's needs. 

They need to have local support available for the product which will make response to the support cases easier and more effective.

Overall, the experience with StarWind is good and the product is precise and readily available.

I've used the solution for less than one year.

The solution is overall stable and effective.

The solution is highly scalable.

They have very responsive customer support.

Positive

We did not use a different solution previously. Only the backup was done on local systems.

The deployment is pretty straightforward and we implemented it with the help of the vendor.

The overall vendor team is professional and skillful. They helped us a lot. 

It gives good ROI to the organization since it is cost-effective.

They also offer a free trial version of the product with basic features. An organization should test the product before implementing it.

We have evaluated VMware and found the cost was a bit high compared to StarWind Virtual SAN.

We have a hypervisor environment and it works best with that. If your organization is running any other environment for infrastructure, you need to ensure all features are up and running before implementing them in production.

Our client had very little IT infrastructure in play relating to servers. They had a single Windows 10 low-end workstation that was acting as the controller for their food production assembly line. They were tackling a huge expansion and needed a more robust controller as their current one would go down often. 

StarWind vSAN gave us a cost-effective option to leverage three Dell servers, with two in HA and a third acting as a replica in a separate building on their site. This way, it can tolerate two full server failures and still allow the assembly line controller to run.

The product gave us a cost-effective way to deploy a highly available server environment. This allowed our client to have their food assembly line controller always available, as it costs them a lot of money if it goes down for any more than a few minutes. 

With Hyper-V and StarWind, they can have a quick turnaround in case a server goes down. It also gave us an insight into StarWinds as an alternative for future clients of ours if their server capability requirements ever increase. It's a great tool to have knowledge of and to offer as an option if needed.

The core feature of the entire product is the most valuable aspect. There aren't any features that stand out that provide a lot of value. We just like the ability to have HA storage replicated in real time between two nodes - which is enough for us to be more than satisfied. We do not interface with this product very often, so I can't speak to any feature in particular that stands out as being exceptional and valuable. The value of the product is the services given at a great price which is what drew us to the StarWind Virtual SAN to begin with.

It is not very clear within the StarWind Management Console or the StarWind support documentation how to perform maintenance on a single node in a two-node HA cluster. We had to reach out to support to confirm the process to power cycle a single node, and even then, we had to go back and forth a few times with support to get a clear and concise answer to the question we had. It would be nice to have the option to put a single node in maintenance mode so we know we can safely perform updates and power down the server if required.

We've had the solution for six months in production.

The product is very stable.

I get the impression that this is better geared towards a smaller scale, for example, ad two or four-node cluster. Anything bigger, and it would make more sense to go with the big-name competitor. 

Technical support is Exceptional. They have very helpful and prompt responses.

Positive

We did not previously use a different solution.

The setup is straightforward with the help of the support engineers to fine-tune our deployment.

We had setup help from the vendor team. They were quite knowledgeable. That said, I do recall them doing a few things in a different way than described by their setup guide.

I have not researched ROI.

The cost and licensing are very competitive.

We did not evaluate other options.

We have a  pair of StarWind hypervisor servers that share the internal storage using Starwind's Virtual SAN, eliminating the need for a separate, physical SAN. The primary purpose of this deployment is to provide highly available hypervisors to run file servers, domain controllers, critical servers, and DNS servers.

The vSAN allows us to use Starwind Management Console to confirm the health of the sync. The high availability nature of the deployment means we can fail over VMs without end-users noticing any downtime. While it isn't used for StarWind exclusively, the Remote Console access on the Enterprise iDRAC is invaluable to me in my daily duties. We have had great success live migrating VMs as necessary and adding, removing, backing up, or restoring VMs.  

I like StarWind's high availability. The failover is almost immediate, so the end users have no idea the guest VM moved at all. We can failover all guest VMs onto a single hypervisor, place it into maintenance mode, install updates, and reboot a hypervisor all during the daytime and remotely, with confidence the process will be successful.

The Command Center, a free guest VM for management and monitoring, leaves something to be desired. It could have more accurate real-time information and better reporting visuals, which seem to be an afterthought.

Our inability to use Azure File Sync Share meant we had to deploy a separate hypervisor for a file server that isn't on the Starwind High Availability setup. We could not install SentinelOne EDR on the hypervisors without getting too many warnings in the storage event logs.

We deployed a pair of StarWind vSAN hypervisors in January 2020 and have been using them for more than three years.

StarWind seems highly stable after three and a half years.

StarWind vSAN is highly scalable and easy to configure.

I rate StarWind support 10 out of 10. They are fantastic. The StarWind team proactively alerts us about the latest firmware, including iDRAC and BIOS. They reach out and schedule a remote session when they see warnings on our event logs, such as the time we deployed SentinelOne to the host machine. The StarWind engineers are always knowledgeable and take control to "drive " the session. 

Positive

We used single hypervisors but had never had a failover cluster before StarWind vSAN.

Support walked us through everything after we got the server racked and online.

The in-house team provided access to StarWind support for deployment. After that, we sat back and learned from the support person. StarWind later provided us some training materials.

It is hard for me to quantify the ROI as an IT person, but we would buy it again in an instant.

We underestimated how many guest VMs we would have running on these hypervisors after three years, and would have bought more Windows licenses upfront.

We briefly researched Dell and Microsoft options, but those were physical SAN solutions, not vSAN.

I rate StarWind Virtual SAN 10 out of 10. I recommend purchasing support and contacting them before you install any new agents or sync with Azure File Sync share.