StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews

We provide managed web hosting services, including dedicated servers in physical or virtual configurations, for various customers, including small, medium, and large companies. We started hosting operations in 1995 and operated our own hosting infrastructure in data centers in North Carolina and Virginia, USA.

Our infrastructure included physical and virtual hosting environments based on VMware, which is where our StarWind Virtual SANs were deployed.

With our growing needs and customer requirements and demand, we added virtualization to our infrastructure, based on VMware. Storage requirements for the virtualized infrastructure also grew rapidly. We explored all available options, from hyper-converged solutions to the large "big name" solutions. Our infrastructure was too big for hyper-converged solutions. However, we were not ready for the major investments that a full-sized storage infrastructure would need. StarWind's offerings were a perfect fit for us, and remain so until today, almost ten years later.

Prior to StarWind, we were using "local storage" with each hypervisor, and this had many drawbacks, including size limitations, performance, technical management, and redundancy. 

With StarWind Virtual SAN, we could easily deploy and manage the storage solutions, add additional storage servers when needed, implement automated redundancy and failover, and scale storage allocations as and when needed, including adding high-performance SSD solutions alongside traditional hard disk solutions.

The Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well.

While it is possible to implement disk encryption in StarWind using Windows Bitlocker, such a solution can be a little tricky to manage, for example, when servers are rebooted. Bitlocker solutions require a physical presence in the data center to enter the encryption string on the server's physical console.

Built-in "Data at Rest" encryption would be an important need, especially for customers with sensitive compliance requirements e.g. Government customers, healthcare customers, eCommerce customers, and many other compliance-sensitive application areas.

We have been using the StarWind Virtual SAN product since 2014.

StarWind Virtual SAN is very scalable, simply by adding additional Windows servers and installing the StarWind Virtual SAN software on it.

We did not previously use a different solution.

Compared to similar solutions from NetApp etc., our savings were likely in the tens of thousands of dollars over the years, and we did not need to pay for features that we do not need.

We were very happy and impressed with StarWind's products and the technical support from StarWind's support team. If and when we needed assistance, StarWind's tech support has been very responsive, thorough, and very helpful.

We found the licensing costs and pricing to be very affordable and manageable.

We looked at big-name solutions such as NetApp, Cisco, and others.

Our storage infrastructure had been operating flawlessly with great performance and reliability.

Our use case is to provide a vSAN for Microsoft Windows Server failover clusters. We are a web hosting company that prefers to purchase smaller discrete servers rather than larger and expensive integrated with SAN solutions. However, we still want to provide a high-availability environment for even our small web applications.

We use StarWind vSAN to accomplish this goal without having to use the extremely tightly validated server hardware and networking options required by Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct.

StarWind vSAN has solved the problem of cost-effectively providing a high-availability failover cluster utilizing standard server and networking hardware. We save many thousands when purchasing hardware and the vSAN has never been the cause of any downtime. So, not only have we saved money, we have beaten our internal SLAs that our previous solutions were negatively affecting.

In addition, the highly competent support alleviates stress when we do have questions. Our technology stack has improved since we have started using StarWind vSAN.

First, we have found StarWind to be a "set and forget" type of product. It really is nice to not have to spend administrative time monitoring, tweaking, and configuring a product.

Second, the reliability has been exceptional. In the three years that we have been using StarWind, the product has yet to cause us any problems.

Third, their support team is excellent to work with when we do have questions.

Fourth, the documentation on the product is exceptional, and while not necessarily part of the vSAN product, they publish a lot of helpful information on their blog.

Perhaps more reporting features on the utilization, usage, and performance of the configured high-availability images and underlying physical disks would be helpful.

We have been using StarWind Virtual SAN for three years.

We've never had to handle any problems with the product.

Beyond a three-node direct-attach, some of the cost advantages decrease a little.

The technical support is responsive and competent. If only more companies were like this...

We previously used DFS to synchronize between nodes; however, it did not provide nearly the same level of reliability and is not a true HA solution as a hyper-converged environment with StarWind vSAN.

With the excellent documentation and having their support review our configuration, the initial setup was very easy.

We deployed using our in-house team.

StarWind vSAN has saved us far more than we've ever spent on it.

If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise. 

We tested out Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and priced out other competing traditional SAN options.

We used StarWind's Virtual SAN to create a cluster of hypervisors and databases that utilize iSCSI to access the SAN.  

StarWind's Virtual SAN allowed us to implement a virtual server environment that lets us scale our applications quicker and easier compared to the bare metal environment we had before. The database is also centralized, which makes it more fault tolerant than using a single-node database.

We are able to leverage the HA capabilities that StarWind offers in the event there is an issue with one of the SAN nodes.

We didn't have a SAN solution before StarWind, which meant all of our servers were bare metal. By implementing StarWind's Virtual SAN solution, we were able to transform our bare-metal environment into a hybrid of bare-metal and virtual servers. 

By utilizing virtual servers, we are able to scale and test our applications easier and quicker than by using bare-metal servers. This saved us in cost by not needing to order expensive parts whenever we needed a simple server. Now we can just spin up a VM.

StarWind is very easy to use, even if you have had no experience using a SAN before. It's very easy to create groups, targets, and review logs.

The management software is a clean and simple GUI. During implementation, StarWind's support assisted in getting everything configured properly, quickly, and to their best practices. On the rare occasion when I contact StarWind support, I always get a prompt reply and a quality answer. Having good support is one of the most important things I look for in a vendor, and StarWind excels with this.

The NFS functionality is a Windows-based NFS which has caused issues and forced us to implement a Linux-based NFS solution. You have to do a "full" sync on write-back cache disks instead of a quick sync if there is an issue. This is annoying since, if you have a very large volume, it can take upwards of 30+ hours to do a full sync. With a "fast" sync, you can just sync the difference instead of needing to do a full copy. 

It would be nice if you could control the software via web GUI instead of the desktop application management software.

I've used the solution for over five years.

The solution is very stable.

We can easily add nodes. It is scalable. 

We have had a very good experience with technical support.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward since they did most of the setup for us.

We handled the setup in-house.

StarWind is very reasonably priced.

We previously evaluated FreeNAS.

Our primary use case for StarWind vSAN has been to reinforce networks for our clients in a two-node Hyper V setup by utilizing the Hyperconverged configuration. This enables us to create a failover cluster for a cheaper cost than purchasing a physical SAN (plus adds more redundancy as you technically get two vSANs as each host becomes a vSAN). The Failover Cluster then allows us to live-migrate Virtual Machines when required, for example, for maintenance, or in the event that we suffer hardware failure on one of the hosts.

It enables us to provide more solution options for our clients, with the reassurance that, when implemented, they will be efficient and stable. Unfortunately, due to the cost of it and the size of our clients, we find that we can't always use it. However, it's an option that we know is always available and one that we'd leap to recommend if the scenario can fit it. Personally, it's something I'd always want to implement, as, without it, most clients with two Hyper V hosts can only replicate virtual machines and not live migrate. 

The extra redundancy in a two-node hyper-converged setup has been the most valuable feature. If we wanted this with an actual SAN, we'd need to purchase not only one but two SANs and enable replication between the two. With StarWind, you get the vSAN replicated between the two hosts out of the box. The vSAN also offers fine-tuning options for the replication between these hosts. For example, if there was a host failure and we were to run off one for a period of time, once the secondary host is recovered, it will need to resync with the one that stayed up so that the data is up to date. You can choose whether to prioritize the replication speed or performance of the virtual machines. 

For me, the product could be improved by it being made cheaper. We can't use this as an option for some of our smaller clients. Being able to replicate RAM between the hosts would be a nice feature so that VMs could be live-migrated fully in the event of a full host failure. Currently, the vSAN offers the ability to live-migrate the virtual machine as the VHD is on shared storage, however, if the virtual machine were to be rebooted, it would lose the running configuration (e.g. memory, etc). If this could also be live-migrated, that would be gold. 

I've used the solution for two years.

We didn't have another solution previously. This was our first vSAN experience.

I tend to deal with the technical side more and stay away from the pricing.

I can't recall seeing anything else that caught my eye.

Overall, I really enjoy this product. It's easy to use and support is fantastic.

This is a new product for us, and right now, we are using it in our lab environment, using one HP Z640 workstation and 2xE2267 processor with 64 GB of RAM. 

We have installed StarWind vSan to support our VMware vCenter v7.0.3 infrastructure with 2x2TB HDD. 

We're also using the same ISCSI service for our Veeam and Commvault backup infrastructure. During our tests, we did not notice any problem with the product. 

It was a reliable, simple solution to add more storage on the go and allowed for flexibility. We are truly thinking of using this product in our production.

I have been using Starwind vSan for some time, and the experience is great. In terms of simplicity and the features it offers. It takes little time to set up everything and prepare the system.

It includes every feature that a traditional SAN offers and so much more.

With the flexibility it offers, we can use expand the storage on the go as soon as our backup services need more space. We are not limited the same way were are on physical SAN storage. 

For different services, we use different protocols. SMB, ISCSI, etc.

The ability to add storage on the go without putting down the entire infrastructure is useful. This means SLA improvements for our customers, and the continuity of the services is increased. 

We also like the ability to use it on the cloud, as our clients use also backup services on the cloud, meaning more security for backups of our clients. 

We like the simplicity of setting up the system and making it ready to use for the client. 

We appreciate the integration with popular hypervisors and backup systems.

I would like to see improvements in the documentation area. Some things need to be clear, although, for some people, the manuals being larger is a big no. That said, it is more important to explain things in detail.

The free version does not offer GUI, and for some people, it will be very difficult to test all the features of the product. They might feel disappointed about the product without a GUI. It would be better to have a trial of the full features for new customers that want to learn about the product. 

Other than that, I have no other improvements to talk about.

I've been using this product for some months now.

The previous solution we used was a traditional SAN.

The first setup was simple and intuitive.

We implemented the solution by ourselves in-house.

I did not see any hidden costs. That said, everyone has to keep in mind that on the cloud, of course, the cost will be higher than using local storage.

We did not evaluate other products before StarWind vSan.

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 have two Windows Servers (2019), and two locations, and needed Virtual SAN so that we can use disks that are installed on each server. With StarWind Virtual SAN, we created multiple SAN disks that helped us create a real-time failover cluster replication service for data and SQL. 

Installation of Virtual SAN from StarWind was very easy, with a pre-ready directory full of PowerShell scripts that you can easily edit to suit your needs and just run them. That way, you create an environment that fits your needs and is something that you can edit very easily or delete.

We have been searching for a Virtual SAN for a long time. When we found the Virtual SAN from StarWind, our problems were fixed. The easy PowerShell scripts are ready to edit and run for everyone. We are using it for GEO Failover Cluster and have now been using it for a few months with no problem. We also have real-time replication that is working great. We've had no errors. The startup when using Windows is working with no problem with StarWind, so we connect very easily.

The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run. It comes with a bunch of free PowerShell scripts that you can edit and run, and also you can create your own with help of PowerShell.

Not so many Virtual SANs work great with a failover cluster as StarWind does; it has no lag, is working great, has no errors, and we can log it easily.

It has minimum hardware usage, which means a lot to us.

The deployment of StarWind Virtual SAN is very easy; they have online manuals that can help you and guide you with your installation.

We are really looking forward to the release of more PowerShell scripts that are easy to use and can be edited by rookies. 

Their support is really fast and reliable. You can get it via email or the there's forum community where you already find a lot of questions/answers to your problems and the community will help and guide you through the problems that you have.

We tried to find a con, however, it's really hard. The product just works. If I had to find something, then it would be the GUI. For someone entering the IT sector with little knowledge of storage, iSCSI, and virtual disks, they might not find the GUI immediately obvious.

I've used the solution for a few months now.

The stability is great.

The scalability is great.

They offer great support.

Positive

The initial setup is easy.

We handled the setup via an in-house IT team.

Our primary use case for StarWind is providing our clients with a cost-effective HA storage solution utilizing existing virtualization technology already installed at the client site.

In the past, we have used other solutions. However, StarWind is our go-to and only virtual SAN solution at this point due to a number of factors which include reliability, simplicity, and the completeness of the offering. 

Further, StarWind has made no moves towards acquisition which was a large concern for us as previous vendors were acquired which ended our relationships.

StarWind has provided us with a top-notch, well-supported, robust vSAN offering when other vendors have moved to hyper-converged solutions that are outside of our average clients' reach from a financial and resource perspective. We are able to roll out solutions with confidence with StarWind as a partner.

StarWind has also provided us with a very stable platform that is extremely well-supported. Their support staff excels at identifying issues and guiding us to best practices ensuring each of our clients receives an excellent experience.

The level of confidence and support within the StarWind organization is second to none.

The simplicity of scaling the StarWind solution has also been a boon for us.  In the past, most solutions relied on a per GB or per TB model while StarWind is a simple licensing structure per node. This has enabled us to scale clients' infrastructure as needed without being concerned about running into an artificial ceiling. 

When StarWind considered a pricing model change we discussed and worked with them to ensure that the solutions and changes prevented did not have a negative impact. They are a true partner.  

We have, in rare cases, received conflicting guidance between different support folks within StarWind. The guidance is always pertinent. However, you can tell there are times when it's just a matter of preference from engineer to engineer. Although not a detriment to the product offering, it creates some minor quandaries within our own organization as to best practices.

Overall a simplified support model where each engineer provides a similar answer and not "what works for them" would be beneficial however the difference in style of each engineer has not had a negative impact on us.

We have been using this solution for five or more years.

We utilized HPE Lefthand vSAN as well as VMware vSAN. As noted previously, these products were simply not a good fit for us or were phased out.

Look at their HA appliances. The cost for these is competitive enough to our own hardware that we have begun to lean on these appliances as opposed to rolling and supporting our own.

We did. We evaluated a number of solutions which I won't name here. StarWind came out on top.

StarWind is an excellent solution with top-tier support.