Anton,

Our setup is STANDALONE, not HA. Does that still require a "sequencial" install?

Thanks!

Anton,

We ARE on support already. I am not asking if we can buy the upgrade, I am asking if we can just update the existing 5.5 setup by running the 5.8 install? Do we need to do the 5.6/5.7 (updates) first?

Thanks!

I noticed in the release notes for all versions EXCEPT v5.8 that there is a statement saying that (up to and including v5.7) it was possible to upgrade from previous versions. The release notes for 5.8 don't mention this! So, is is possible to upgrade directly from v5.5 to v5.8 in a NON-HA environme...

Dang... do I get one too!!! Can't wait to hear how it runs!

I had a similar challenge with our configuration. However, the ESX 4 server we have, has a dual iSCSI HBA (QLogic) which cannot be teamed. One item to note is that StarWind presents ALL LUNS on ALL NICS, so the only way to present specific LUNs to a NIC is by using access rights (for each NIC) or, i...

The amount of cache on your RAID card is not critical as you will be using StarWind's RAM caching. What IS important is the BBU for the cache card AND one or two UPS units (for each redundant power supply in the server) to keep power while the RAM cache flushes (your RAID card flash is protected by ...

Ok... in short: - Intel server config GOOD - Adaptec RAID controller w/BBU GOOD (server seems to have SAS/SATA expander midplane for 12 drives for you will need a 4-lane cable to connect) - 7 x 2TB OK (single drive failure requires long rebuild time) - HOT SPARE IS A MUST! - INTEL NIC GOOD (I use th...

The thing that makes the biggest difference in RAID performance is the number of spindles (drives). RAID 5 with 23 drives will fly. In fact for maximum redundancy, RAID 50 is often selected (mirror of RAID 5) but the hardware cost is a big hit. The SSDs in this configuration won't really give you mu...

Nice configuration!!! However, it is somewhat overkill.. Here are my thoughts: - Only one instance of the StarWind service can run at a time. You have a total of 8 cores which is totally overkill. You can go with a single quad - Your RAID card has 2GB of cache. StarWind supports RAM caching also but...

Not necessarily "slow" but not as performfing as the production unit. Use two cores, not four, use a 4 disk RAID5 with 7200RPM drives, etc.

We presently have a single Starwind server running with a single ESX 4. We are considering adding a second HA unit or perhaps a less-than-hot standby due to limitied budget. The idea is to put together a lower performance (low cost) StarWind server that can either mirror or be synced to the producti...

We have Starwind 5.2 running on the following config: Supermicro SC216E2-R900U case with X8DTL-iF motherboard (the case has two SAS/SATA expanders) 2 x Intel Xeon E5530 (dual core) processor, 8 GB total RAM Adaptec 5805 PCIe SAS/SATA controller using two SATA multi-lane cables (one per expander in t...

Why do you not think it would be a good solution given a single Starwind server?

Woah!!!! Why did you not show this in the first place!!!! This is very interesting as it allows you to bind a specific target to a specific IQN/IP and to a specific NIC! Am I missing anything here? This basically means on a single iSCSI switch, I can do away with the quasi-failover on ESX and simply...

Constantin, Unfortunately, I may not get a chance to test since the system is in production. However, using access control does not prevent the shares from being presented on all NICs at the same time. So for this to work on a single iSCSI switch (our configuration), each request from the ESX side w...