What is our primary use case?
We purchased StarWind Virtual SAN to replace the no longer supported SAN App. Since the hard drive is outdated, the warranty was expired, and the user interface is poor, we decided to upgrade to a newer system.
We have four server rooms on site, which we equipped with storage servers, each with 45 TB of SSD storage, on which we installed StarWind Virtual SAN software.
With the help of the fantastic support from the StarWind team, we connected five compute servers from our previous SAN setup running Hyper-V. Everything worked smoothly. All of our data is stored on the storage nodes and replicated almost instantly.
How has it helped my organization?
We tried several solutions, such as iSCSI storage and Hyper-V Replication. The results were good yet did not produce the expected results. We had many problems with scheduled and unscheduled failovers. There were also limitations in the application itself.
After some research, I decided to go with the free version of vSAN from StarWind. I followed the instructions and technical support to deploy the SQL cluster using the StarWind vSAN free version. I tested the application with many scenarios. All failover options worked without any interruption.
What is most valuable?
StarWind vSAN has a lot of great features and is a perfect solution for mirroring internal disks and flash between servers. It provides a high-performance mirrored central disk to perform any implantation with high profitability.
In my case, I had a requirement to implement a SQL cluster solution with servers and internal disks.
Without StarWind vSAN there would be a bigger cost for the company, as we would need to buy a lot of disks and, of course, hardware and software, to run everything. That's why we choose StarWind.
What needs improvement?
vSAN's free version does not have a graphical user interface - all options are available from the command line. The graphical user interface is very important when we need to check the status and fix errors quickly, even if it is not a technical expert team.
There are a few other limitations in vSAN's free version. They could release a few premium features to its free-use version, as we believe then there would not be so much of support tickets, and not everyone knows how to use Powershell.
They add auto-update features, so you don't need to do it manually.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution offers great stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability has been great.
How are customer service and support?
We have found that we can get a quick response to questions on the forums.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used an HP solution, however, it was unstable.
How was the initial setup?
In order to do a seamless setup, users need to read the manuals.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the setup with our in-house team.
What was our ROI?
The solution was free to use.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'd advise new users to try the free version first.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We only evaluated StarWind.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.