StarWind Software

in a vmware environment, is windows server edition required for running starwind service?

is starwind linux just a proof of concept instead of a production product?

what is the performance lost running starwind windows in a vmware environment?

Regards,
Steve

Let me try to answer your questions.

in a vmware environment, is windows server edition required for running starwind service?

Yes, Windows Server edition required, starting from 2012 R2. It can be even 2012 R2 and 2016 Hyper-V Server.
You can find more information about configuration here.

is starwind linux just a proof of concept instead of a production product?

StarWind VSA is not for a production environment yet.

what is the performance lost running starwind windows in a vmware environment?

Performance really depends on the system configuration and disks types you will use but performance lost should not be more than 30%

Thanks for reply Oleg.

What if I have two node one packed with SSD for critical VMs and the other with HDD for less critical VMs. will the slower node slowdown everything?

Regards,
Steve

Yes, slower node slowdown everything and both of your nodes will work with the speed of slower HDDs.

But what if I have both SSD volume and HDD volume within a node like those vsan having performance tier and capacity tier?

Plan your infrastructure in a way that all nodes should have the same parameters in terms of disks. If you put 2 SSDs and 10 HDDs into one node, do the same for other nodes.

then. two nodes with similar hardware both have ssd and hdd volume. Will the hdd volumes slow down the sdd volumes?

No, it will not slow down SSD volumes if you create other StarWind device and its replica on HDD volumes.
You can create one StarWind device on HDD volume and another one on SSD volume and replicate them in the same manner.

Thanks Oleg,

Do you recommend raid 0/5/10 on starwind replicated volume on SSD/HDD?

Regards,
Steve

Actually, you can find recommended RAID settings for HDDs and SSDs by following this link.

What is the performance difference between starwind linux running in vmware guest vs starwind running in windows server natively?

Regards,
Steve

Actually, there should not be a big performance difference. It depends on settings and hardware.
But do not forget that StarWind VSA is not for a production environment yet.

just installed VSA and vmware shows.

The guest OS for this virtual machine is currently set to 'Other'. You should specify the correct guest OS to allow for guest-specific optimizations and to enable installation of VMware Tools.

In the command line, run: to check the version of the OS installed.
Feel free to adjust the settings for the guest OS for correct version of VMware Tools to be installed.