Starwind Virtual San Free - Compute and Storage

[chrisguk]

I want to use the vSAN free for a compute and storage model. But I cannot seem to find any definite guide on how to achieve this. My main questions really is the starting point. For example here is my setup:

2 hosts for the Windows Hyper V role
2 windows storage servers with server 2016 installed
I have 2 domain controllers in production

Where do I install starwind for example? Do I need to install the storage spaces direct and SOFS on the windows storage servers first?

Many thanks
Chris

[Alexey Sergeev]

Actually there is a guide for such scenario: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/comput ... th-hyper-v

But support team told me to use this: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwi ... -v-cluster

Both manuals have the same steps:

1. Install Starwind on your file servers.
2. Configure HA storage on them and connect it with iSCSI initiator.
3. Then create failover cluster with scale-out file server role.
4. Create CA file shares and place your VM's right there.

I've used this model - SOFS cluster + Hyper-V cluster - with free version. But when they released new version recently without any restrictions,
we can use Hyper-V nodes as a shared storage. It's become much easier and faster now!

[Ivan (staff)]

Hello guys,
Thank you for your comment Alexey,
Everything is right.
This guide is most up to date: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwi ... -v-cluster

Do I need to install the storage spaces direct and SOFS on the windows storage servers first?

You can install and configure StarWind vSAN on physical (pure) drives without using any Storage Space Direct or SoFS.