Informatics Analyst III at University of Alabama at Birmingham
Real User
2021-01-22T16:20:00Z
Jan 22, 2021
The primary purpose of this software is to create a virtual SAN between local storage on Hyper-V hosts. I find this feature most valuable since it accomplishes this quite well.
PowerShell library is pretty good feature as I created with APC PowerChute a script to put volumes on maintenance mode then turning off the StarWind nodes together with the VM and Hosts when UPS reaches 15 percent, this way after a blackout or electrical problems when turning servers on again, there is no issues for syncing or data loss due to energy interrupts.
IT Supervisor at Area Agency on Aging Region 9, Inc.
Real User
Top 10
2020-07-27T14:42:00Z
Jul 27, 2020
Highly available storage is the most valuable feature. The entire rollout is hyper-converged and requires no extra storage further than the hosts in which Hyper-V is running. Another feature that has been great is the support from StarWind in general. We have their proactive support package on the main cluster that employs Starwind Virtual SAN.
System Engineer & IT Manager at General Computer Italia
Real User
2020-07-10T14:20:00Z
Jul 10, 2020
The ability to run the software virtually on every virtualization platform and the ability to eliminate all storage vendor locking are the most valuable features.
Updates to server hardware are now painless and done during working hours with zero stress. We had a RAID failure a few months back, and nobody in the building even noticed and there was no after hours time used for repair.
Digital Archive System Administrator at Rahvusarhiiv
Real User
2020-06-28T08:57:00Z
Jun 28, 2020
StarWind Virtual SAN for vSphere is a software-defined storage solution that has reduced administration time for storage. It's pretty straightforward to install and setup it and so far it has been robust and worked as advertised from StarWind.
The management interface on the software is very simple. It is insanely simple compared to most SANs. The interface is also powerful when used to complete tasks that an IT administrator needs to complete.
Deputy Director at a government with 11-50 employees
Real User
2019-12-20T06:36:00Z
Dec 20, 2019
When using new (warranty) servers, you can forget about the storage service for several years. The users will not even notice the failure of two servers out of three.
Director of Systems and Security at a wellness & fitness company with 11-50 employees
Real User
2019-12-04T18:12:00Z
Dec 4, 2019
It allows me to configure High Availability and failover clustering with some fault tolerance, at a cost point that doesn’t break the bank for a small business budget.
The most valuable feature for us is having the ability to configure our local storage using a limited number of disks and using the StarWind VSAN software to keep the cluster nodes in perfect sync.
StarWind Virtual SAN is a very easy-to-use solution that can be quickly and easily deployed and configured without intimate and specific knowledge in the virtualization sphere.
Information Systems Manager at a aerospace/defense firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 10
2019-01-31T08:49:00Z
Jan 31, 2019
One of the most valuable features is the way it sets up the virtual SAN, because we don't have to buy a separate appliance for storage. It uses the existing storage on the servers, which is definitely a cost savings for us.
IT Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
2019-01-24T09:35:00Z
Jan 24, 2019
I like the asynchronous replication and failover features. They are what I'm primarily using it for. The asynchronous replication is helpful because our servers are backed up continuously throughout the day. If anything goes wrong we just fail over immediately. That is a very nice feature to have.
It has reduced our overall maintenance and overhead by having to only maintain physical boxes for one cluster instead of having to manage physical boxes for two clusters.
Deputy Director of Technology and Communications at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Real User
2019-01-23T11:26:00Z
Jan 23, 2019
The ProActive support gives me peace of mind because I am a one man shop, but with the technical support behind me, I feel like more than just one person. We spent two to three hours, depending on what we have to do, always on the phone, and they do not push to end the call.
You can build cheap, reliable, replicated virtual machines clusters using simple servers with an all flash disk or SAS\SATA hybrid tiered by performance storage.
The use of the StarWind solution does not have to be just a strictly IT domain. In my case, we needed to find and implement a solution that guaranteed the supervision of security systems in the scenario of a full disaster of our main center of supervision. To achieve that, we needed to use technology that would give us fast and reliable data replication between two supervision centers and would not ruin our security department budget. On the other hand, the solution must be easy to administrate with the tools we had. StarWind Virtual SAN was a bulls-eye. Now, we can transfer the full spectrum of information to remote infrastructure that allows us to ensure continuity, which means better security for the company. The StarWind Virtual SAN management console is intuitive and easy to use.
We have a four-host VMware environment with over one hundred and forty virtual servers that runs everything on our network except for backups and video storage. We are using Dell R730xd servers filled with a combination of hard drives and SSDs, as well as some PCIe storage for high-performance VMs.
The licensing is pretty simple, and the costs are straightforward. Once you buy the license, you are free to build your own hardware solution based on your needs.
PeerSpot’s crowdsourced user review platform helps technology decision-makers around the world to better connect with peers and other independent experts who provide advice without vendor bias.
Our users have ranked these solutions according to their valuable features, and discuss which features they like most and why.
You can read user reviews for the Top 5 Software Defined Storage (SDS) Sol...
PeerSpot takes a user-centered approach to creating product comparisons that help IT decision-makers arrive at informed decisions. Instead of relying on the word of the companies that create the technological solutions, we go to the users themselves. Real users offer true feedback without any of the partiality that vendors may have. This is a place where peers in the tech world unite to help ea...
The most valuable features are high availability and real-time replication between two servers.
In the three years that we have been using StarWind, the product has yet to cause us any problems.
A great feature is that I basically set it and forget it, as everything is automatic.
The primary purpose of this software is to create a virtual SAN between local storage on Hyper-V hosts. I find this feature most valuable since it accomplishes this quite well.
The iSCSI protocol is quite simple to configure.
Quick setup, great support, stability is great
The fact that I can now count on a true failover solution is what is most appealing.
Speed and high availability have been the most valuable for us.
Recovery and maintenance are now less stressful and most importantly, it allows our users to keep working.
PowerShell library is pretty good feature as I created with APC PowerChute a script to put volumes on maintenance mode then turning off the StarWind nodes together with the VM and Hosts when UPS reaches 15 percent, this way after a blackout or electrical problems when turning servers on again, there is no issues for syncing or data loss due to energy interrupts.
Highly available storage is the most valuable feature. The entire rollout is hyper-converged and requires no extra storage further than the hosts in which Hyper-V is running. Another feature that has been great is the support from StarWind in general. We have their proactive support package on the main cluster that employs Starwind Virtual SAN.
The ability to run the software virtually on every virtualization platform and the ability to eliminate all storage vendor locking are the most valuable features.
Updates to server hardware are now painless and done during working hours with zero stress. We had a RAID failure a few months back, and nobody in the building even noticed and there was no after hours time used for repair.
StarWind Virtual SAN for vSphere is a software-defined storage solution that has reduced administration time for storage. It's pretty straightforward to install and setup it and so far it has been robust and worked as advertised from StarWind.
The management interface on the software is very simple. It is insanely simple compared to most SANs. The interface is also powerful when used to complete tasks that an IT administrator needs to complete.
It has a nice, simple control panel. You can clearly see the state and health of storage along with the synchronization.
The most valuable feature is the reliable storage replication, which enables me to create a robust infrastructure to run our business.
It has given the company an almost zero possibility of downtime.
StarWind vSAN is a great solution to create a redundant two-node-only Hyper-V cluster, both for domain or workgroup scenarios.
When using new (warranty) servers, you can forget about the storage service for several years. The users will not even notice the failure of two servers out of three.
We have experienced multiple hardware failures at one site and the fault-tolerant volume worked exactly as expected with zero downtime.
It allows me to configure High Availability and failover clustering with some fault tolerance, at a cost point that doesn’t break the bank for a small business budget.
The most valuable feature of this solution is the support. They are excellent and you can learn a lot from the support team.
Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs.
A typical system administrator with minimal experience in Hyper-V, VMware, or Windows can do VSAN configuration and maintain VSAN operations.
High Availability is the best feature of product.
It has allowed me to effectively and confidently manage the maintenance of hosts where I can power off a host and have its VMs migrate to another one.
In addition to the main functions of the software, I want to note the excellent work of technical support.
The most valuable feature for us is having the ability to configure our local storage using a limited number of disks and using the StarWind VSAN software to keep the cluster nodes in perfect sync.
We can lose a site or even two of our three, and we would lose no data and have no outage.
The most important feature is the ability to experience the loss of one node or one storage device, and not lose the entire cluster.
When we need additional storage but want to keep the size of the SANs manageable, the StarWind Virtual SAN has allowed me to do everything needed.
Active-active work mode leads to true redundancy of storage and allows us to distribute the load between multiple nodes.
The most valuable feature is the fact that the nodes are Active/Active, and allow us to do upgrades on any node without any downtime.
It allows you to use ANY consumer or enterprise HDDs and SSDs, and that's a really great thing!
StarWind allowed us to deploy highly available shared storage within our budget.
This solution has a very good user interface, with simple administration/management.
The most valuable feature is the managed service, which has been an important part of monitoring our critical infrastructure.
The access to our data is quicker and cheaper than it used to be in a traditional storage system.
StarWind Virtual SAN is a very easy-to-use solution that can be quickly and easily deployed and configured without intimate and specific knowledge in the virtualization sphere.
This has helped to improve the reliability of service and operation in all departments, without having to stop in case of emergency situations.
Before VSAN, hypervisor configuration changes and updates resulted in VM outages. Now, downtime is dramatically reduced.
User friendly interface and straight forward implementation.
The StarWind Virtual SAN management console is intuitive and easy to use.
We are able to do maintenance by bringing down one node at a time, rather than having to schedule a complete shutdown.
One of the most valuable features is the way it sets up the virtual SAN, because we don't have to buy a separate appliance for storage. It uses the existing storage on the servers, which is definitely a cost savings for us.
The control panel is nice. It gives you a lot of good feedback as to the status and health of the VSAN.
I like the asynchronous replication and failover features. They are what I'm primarily using it for. The asynchronous replication is helpful because our servers are backed up continuously throughout the day. If anything goes wrong we just fail over immediately. That is a very nice feature to have.
It has reduced our overall maintenance and overhead by having to only maintain physical boxes for one cluster instead of having to manage physical boxes for two clusters.
The ProActive support gives me peace of mind because I am a one man shop, but with the technical support behind me, I feel like more than just one person. We spent two to three hours, depending on what we have to do, always on the phone, and they do not push to end the call.
Their support goes above and beyond with the integration of their software.
The software is easy to setup and manage, and the support is excellent.
You can build cheap, reliable, replicated virtual machines clusters using simple servers with an all flash disk or SAS\SATA hybrid tiered by performance storage.
The best feature is its ease of installation and integration within a current infrastructure.
Active-active HA provides top performance and redundancy.
The product's core feature of virtualizing our storage is by far the most valuable.
Ten gigabit Ethernet compatibility, support, ease of use, and management are some positive features.
The StarWind tech support is extremely helpful, especially during the initial setup.
Integration with Microsoft clustering has been perfect, allowing us to leverage our investment in MS server licensing to the fullest.