StarWind Virtual SAN Free

Software-based VM-centric and flash-friendly VM storage + free version

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Dmitry (staff)
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Thu Mar 31, 2016 12:08 pm

Hi Barry that`s good that your issue is fixed.
About production, you can always ask for a discount and implement your system into production.
tekowalsky
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:17 pm

Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:50 pm

"Configuring HA File Server for SMB NAS", is recommended, for use with the Free License, at the end of the "StarWind Virtual SAN Free Getting Started" guide.

I had no problems, building a test environment, following the steps in "Configuring HA File Server for SMB NAS", but, that may be because I am using a Trial License, not the Free License, at the moment.

Does the Free License allow this configuration?

(The scenario, in "Configuring HA File Server for SMB NAS", uses iSCSI targets, from servers running StarWind, as shared storage, for an external Windows Failover Cluster. The Windows Failover Cluster then provides SMB shares, from the shared storage... )
Dmitry (staff)
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Tue Apr 12, 2016 11:04 am

Hello tekowalsky
You are right, free license does not support Hyper-Converged scenario.
Your configuration support Trial license or commercial license.
More about difference between free and paid you can find here: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/whitep ... s-paid.pdf
But if your environment is not for commercial usage, you can ask for an NFR licensse here: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwi ... ense-users
Have a great day.
oem73
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2016 7:13 pm

Mon Apr 25, 2016 7:17 pm

I have a quick question regarding StartWind Virtual SAN Free... Can you install it on a virtual machine? According to the license, I can only install it on a physical machine. Please confirm and thanks again for your help. --- oem73
Dmitry (staff)
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Tue Apr 26, 2016 10:03 am

Hello oem73,
Yes, you are pretty right. For now StarWind with free license you can only install on a physical server.
FalseTB
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 4:29 am

Sat May 07, 2016 4:33 am

I really wish the phrasing were worded differently. Physical Machine made me incorrectly assume that it would work on Hyper-V 2012 R2. Not the server OS with the Role/Feature installed. Pretty upsetting, we have an entire project centered around Hyper-V 2012 R2, and this was really going to help us out until we get our Microsoft VLA in line so that we can start using 2012 R2 (and beyond).

The Free vs Paid PDF is also a little difficult to understand in that regard. I don't want you guys giving the farm away by any means, but I think there could be a little more clarification here, especially since it has changed.
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anton (staff)
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Sat May 07, 2016 8:13 pm

OK, got it! Please check your e-mail I wrote something to you there on this subject. Thanks! Anton
FalseTB wrote:I really wish the phrasing were worded differently. Physical Machine made me incorrectly assume that it would work on Hyper-V 2012 R2. Not the server OS with the Role/Feature installed. Pretty upsetting, we have an entire project centered around Hyper-V 2012 R2, and this was really going to help us out until we get our Microsoft VLA in line so that we can start using 2012 R2 (and beyond).

The Free vs Paid PDF is also a little difficult to understand in that regard. I don't want you guys giving the farm away by any means, but I think there could be a little more clarification here, especially since it has changed.
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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sergiupol
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:53 am

Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:57 am

Hello,

Is StarWind Virtual SAN FREE iSCSI target limited to 1 gbps throughput?

I see it cannot make more traffic than 1 gbps not even on loopback interface while Windows iSCSI target can make 4 gbps traffic for the same disk. The free-vs-paid pdf states some performance limitation but without any explicit numbers "Reasonably adequate (Similar or better than other Enterprise
SAN and NAS storage appliances)
"
Dmitry (staff)
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Posts: 82
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Fri Jul 15, 2016 9:00 am

Hello,

As you can see from our documentation(https://www.starwindsoftware.com/whitep ... s-paid.pdf_) there is no throughput limitation.

So I would suggest you to double check your configuration.

I think this document should help you:
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/techni ... tarted.pdf

Thank you.
tekowalsky
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2016 6:17 pm

Sat Oct 08, 2016 11:56 pm

Follow up, to the question, I asked, in April. (It's been a busy year!)

The scenario, I asked about, was "Compute and Storage Separated", with the "compute" side (a 2 node Hyper-V cluster) accessing the "storage" side (a 2 node StarWind Virtual SAN Free cluster), via iSCSI. The unsupported piece, in this scenario, when using StarWind Virtual SAN Free, appears to be iSCSI(?)

If I understand, SMB3 shares, from the StarWind storage cluster, to a separate Hyper-V compute cluster, are supported, when using StarWind Virtual SAN Free.
Is this correct?
:D
John Benz
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2016 12:17 pm

Wed Oct 12, 2016 6:57 pm

tekowalsky wrote:Follow up, to the question, I asked, in April. (It's been a busy year!)

The scenario, I asked about, was "Compute and Storage Separated", with the "compute" side (a 2 node Hyper-V cluster) accessing the "storage" side (a 2 node StarWind Virtual SAN Free cluster), via iSCSI. The unsupported piece, in this scenario, when using StarWind Virtual SAN Free, appears to be iSCSI(?)

If I understand, SMB3 shares, from the StarWind storage cluster, to a separate Hyper-V compute cluster, are supported, when using StarWind Virtual SAN Free.
Is this correct?
:D
Yeah you have got it right.
As far as i know you should deploy SMB3 shares on storage nodes and dat will be your storage for cluster :roll:
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anton (staff)
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Fri Oct 14, 2016 9:48 pm

John is absolutely correct on that! For this scenario we leave iSCSI (and iSER if you got a RDMA capable NICs for backbone connections) for a "private housekeeping" stuff in between the storage nodes and you use SMB3 (including SMB Direct / SMB Multichannel dialect extensions of course) to wire data between your clients and effectively a "shared nothing" SoFS cluster.
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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dragonsen
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2016 10:39 am

Sun Oct 16, 2016 11:05 am

So when you say "2 node StarWind Virtual SAN Free cluster", can the nodes be virtual appliance running on hyper-v or is this simply referring to your software installed on two physical Windows server OS? My problem with that is that I don't have two licenses for Windows server. have been hunting for a cheap or free way to have a ha storage cluster. Thought I could do it with freenas but am starting to see why for one, it can't do failover, and may not be such a great solution anyway. Really had some high hopes in all this zfs talk. But what I gather if I want to implement Starwind free is that I essentially just need 4 servers, 2 for compute (hyper-v), 2 for storage. I'm just not clear on what that storage cluster looks like. From what I am reading it cannot be virtualized because that is considered hyper-converged?
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anton (staff)
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Sun Oct 16, 2016 7:30 pm

There are few ways to go:

1) Use free Hyper-V Server as a host for StarWind storage. See this blog post:

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/p ... -clustered

These are two separate servers building a 'shared nothing' SOFS cluster and feeding shared storage over SMB3 to your Hyper-V / SQL Server / whatever you want client.

2) Ask us for a custom license who'll allow hyperconverged setup. Ping me offline and we'll find out what to do, in what category you fall down (or don't? and w'ell use custom - no problem). General terms are here:

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwi ... ense-users

Again, these are GENERIC terms so if you din't find a suitable license there you don't walk way with a sour taste in your moth, you come to me and we'll find a way to keep everybody happy ;)

3) We'll finalize Linux-based VSAs and these guys won't need any Windows licenses at all. ETA is end of this year.
dragonsen wrote:So when you say "2 node StarWind Virtual SAN Free cluster", can the nodes be virtual appliance running on hyper-v or is this simply referring to your software installed on two physical Windows server OS? My problem with that is that I don't have two licenses for Windows server. have been hunting for a cheap or free way to have a ha storage cluster. Thought I could do it with freenas but am starting to see why for one, it can't do failover, and may not be such a great solution anyway. Really had some high hopes in all this zfs talk. But what I gather if I want to implement Starwind free is that I essentially just need 4 servers, 2 for compute (hyper-v), 2 for storage. I'm just not clear on what that storage cluster looks like. From what I am reading it cannot be virtualized because that is considered hyper-converged?
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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dragonsen
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2016 10:39 am

Mon Oct 17, 2016 10:30 am

Really like the sound of door number 3!
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