StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews & Product Details

We implemented StarWind Virtual SAN in our environment, starting with VMware and later transitioning to Proxmox. This setup let us fully leverage our servers’ NVMe storage while keeping it synchronized across just two nodes. After moving to Proxmox, we also benefited from the free version’s web-based management interface, which is particularly helpful if you’d rather not manage volume creation through PowerShell. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With the free version, there’s no web GUI for management when running it as a VMware virtual machine. Support is handled through the community forum, which is understandable and expected for a free product. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about StarWind Virtual SAN is how it delivers enterprise-grade high availability without the cost and complexity of traditional SANs. The ability to mirror storage between just two nodes and provide seamless failover for critical workloads is incredibly valuable—it gives peace of mind knowing that if one server fails, our VMs keep running without interruption.

I also appreciate how straightforward it is to deploy and manage. Unlike some larger, more complex storage platforms, StarWind integrates cleanly with our existing virtualization environment, doesn’t require a separate storage specialist, and allows us to expand storage or tweak settings without complicated processes.

Finally, the performance is impressive. Even with synchronous replication running between nodes, our SQL servers, file shares, and line-of-business applications run smoothly, which shows that the software is well-optimized for real-world workloads. In short, it combines reliability, simplicity, and performance in a way that truly meets our business needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I dislike most about StarWind Virtual SAN is that the management interface can feel a bit dated and not as intuitive as some modern platforms. Certain advanced settings are buried in menus, and it’s not always obvious what the impact of a change will be without consulting documentation or support.

Another point is that alerting and monitoring could be more detailed. While the system notifies you of issues, the messages are sometimes generic, so troubleshooting requires digging into logs or external tools to understand what’s really happening. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Their Professional Support is what I like best. They are great! Within minutes of your StarWind vSAN going offline, they respond with immediate Support and assistance through remote sessions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only thing I disliked was parts of the documentation that were not detailed enough or hard to understand. The majority of the documentation was wonderful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I appreciate most about StarWind Virtual SAN is its impressive high availability and reliability. The solution offers synchronous replication between nodes, which guarantees continuous operation without downtime, even in the event of hardware failures or during maintenance. Furthermore, the management console is user-friendly and intuitive, simplifying both storage setup and ongoing monitoring. I also value its broad compatibility with various hypervisors, which enables smooth integration in both VMware and Hyper-V environments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One aspect I find less appealing about StarWind Virtual SAN is that certain advanced configurations can become quite complex and require significant time, particularly when working in multi-site environments. I have also noticed that resource consumption tends to be high during replication processes or when rebuilding large volumes. Furthermore, the limited native cloud integration makes deploying in hybrid or public cloud scenarios more difficult. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

StarWind Virtual SAN is a powerful and technically solid storage solution. After deploying it on Windows Server, it became clear that the product is designed with enterprise environments in mind. The architecture itself is robust, and once configured, iSCSI targets work reliably and predictably.

The commercial version as i've seen from the software documentation is very easy to use and new user friendly. Every step is guided with wizards and have a very clean UI so there's not much clutter on screen. For organisation that are in nedd of shared storage and have a budget for a licensed version of this software, the StarWind Virtual SAN solution is probably the one to consider first. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Free edition of the StarWind Virtual SAN is not at all new user-friendly. Just to configure the basics of the ISCSI in my case, person, that is trying to figure out how to make a target, how to attach a volume to it will face a really hard reality of free software. To configure a free version you would at least know not the basics, but a bit advanced parts of Microsoft PowerShell, and even with some skills you will face lots of syntaxis errors, etc. As i think, if a person wants to for example show the potential of software to his boss, he will definitely face lots of troubles and spend a significant amount of time. But, even that is kind of benefit, because that is invaluable experience. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Once it’s set up, StarWind vSAN is a stable, reliable alternative to a dedicated SAN server, and it also offers a generous free option. It's great for repurposing old servers for a failover cluster. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With the free version, I found the setup a bit complicated, and the documentation was hard to locate. I assume this is better in the paid version, which provides access to a GUI for setting up and managing the software, instead of relying on a collection of PowerShell scripts. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We were looking for a vSAN solution as an alternative for the highly priced VMware vSAN. We tested the software on older server hardware and were able to fully install and configure the solution - without the support team. The documentation was very helpful. We simulated several hardware and network issues during bigger replication scenarios and did not experience any unsolvable issues. The performance of the running VMs and replication speed was what we expected - very good.

The management of the software is in a small installed software GUI which provides all the needed functions: Adding new server, adding new storage, configuring replication, replication status, overeall system status and reporting functions (eventviewer or E-Mail alerts)

After the test period we bought the software for a customer of us and deployed the software on his new server hardware (two node Hyper-V cluster). The solution is now running for almost a year without any Starwind issues.

We had the need for the support only once (it wasn't a Starwind issue, it was a driver issue for the Intel NICs) - the support was very fast in response and did check the replication status to make sure there were no issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

You need to know which license version you want to use beforehand. Sadly it's not possible to upgrade the existing license afterwards, you have to rebuy it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

StarWind Virtual SAN is a product that is simple to install, easy to manage, and highly reliable. The implementation process is extremely straightforward, and many of the configuration steps are automated, making the overall deployment time very short. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The performance is truly impressive, but the advanced configuration options are limited compared to other solutions. If you don’t have experience with its console, you may have trouble finding the options you need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The StarWind Virtual SAN is a very robust and resilient product. The synchronization between nodes works well and was able to recover and synchronize without any issues when we lost power to our facility during a lightning storm Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

StarWind Virtual SAN consists of proprietary software that is not easily understandable. Given this, having a great support team and a plan is essential for the proper functioning of the system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

VSAN provides enterprise grade high availability without the cost of traditional SAN hardware. The support team is fantastic and was there to guide me through the setup and with the pro active support is also available 24/7/365 in case of any issues. Ongoing day to day management is pretty simple too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We purchase it through the SAAS model which is fine but the license renewal procedure is not the greatest as it has to go through distribution which always takes ages and we are waiting around for a manual license file which then needs to be uploaded into VSAN Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.