StarWind Virtual SAN Free

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

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anton (staff)
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Mon Oct 17, 2016 12:35 pm

Ping me off-line if you'd like to participate in an early versions testing. Your feedback is appreciated!!!
dragonsen wrote:Really like the sound of door number 3!
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Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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boozy
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Thu Oct 20, 2016 11:32 am

We are testing the free v8 version of the software. Virtual SAN Free with license key is installed on two servers, we created iSCSI storage and we can configure synchronous replication between two servers. But I don't understand how to create a single point of access to the iSCSI storage (HA ISCSI for Hyper-V cluser). Is it possible in free version of Virtaul SAN? I mean, "High Availability Device" option is not accesible in interface.
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anton (staff)
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Thu Oct 20, 2016 11:41 am

Block iSCSI / iSER (RDMA) is used for backbone traffic within this scenario. Then you create CSV on your SOFS cluster and use SMB3 / SMB Direct (RDMA) and you use Microsoft-blessed file protocol to make your Hyper-V host "talk" to your shared storage.
boozy wrote:We are testing the free v8 version of the software. Virtual SAN Free with license key is installed on two servers, we created iSCSI storage and we can configure synchronous replication between two servers. But I don't understand how to create a single point of access to the iSCSI storage (HA ISCSI for Hyper-V cluser). Is it possible in free version of Virtaul SAN? I mean, "High Availability Device" option is not accesible in interface.
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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boozy
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Thu Oct 20, 2016 12:38 pm

anton (staff) wrote:Block iSCSI / iSER (RDMA) is used for backbone traffic within this scenario. Then you create CSV on your SOFS cluster and use SMB3 / SMB Direct (RDMA) and you use Microsoft-blessed file protocol to make your Hyper-V host "talk" to your shared storage.
In our scenario, a hyper-v cluster nodes are separated from the storage servers. Do i need to use your suggestion in this case?
Is it possible to create HA iSCSI in fully functional version of Virtual SAN.
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Oles (staff)
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Mon Oct 24, 2016 12:22 pm

It applies exactly to your scenario.
You sure can create HA iSCSI in fully functional version of Virtual SAN, also you will be able to build HyperConverged system with it.
henning
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Tue Jan 31, 2017 4:29 pm

Hi guys!

I'm currently evaluating the possibilities for achieving the following setup:
Three servers in sum: A, B, C. Servers A and B are on the same location and C is connected via WAN.

- 2 nodes in a windows failover cluster (servers A and C)
- Servers A and B should provide some local storage for a vSAN and replicate to each other using StarWind Virtual SAN
- The windows failover cluster nodes A and C are connected to the central storage vSAN through SMB3 multipath IO.
- MS SQL Server 2012 Enterprise on node 1 (server A) as an active node and on node 2 (server C) as passive failover target (offsite disaster recovery).

Despite the fact, that the WAN connection is limiting the SQL server operations when switching over to node 2 (server C):
Does the free license even cover this scenario as there is no HyperV involved in any way? There would be "computing" and "storage" involved by installing vSAN and SQL Server 2012 on physical server A.

If not, I would expand the scenario to use anychronous replication for syncing the vSAN to a third SAN node off-site through WAN, which is -as far as I understand- only supported in the commercial version?
As we only have a small IT infrastructure and not so much possibilities hardware and more importantly budget wise, any saved EUR is highly appreciated ;)
Michael (staff)
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Wed Feb 01, 2017 1:43 pm

Thanks for the update.
I believe NFR can be used for Production as any other non-trial license. Yes, unfortunately only for one year.
Netsyst
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Mon May 29, 2017 12:11 am

Hi ! :)

We seems to have an issue with the License of our freshly installed VSAN Free :

The License that we received by email seems to be a Trial one, with a 1 month expire date.

Precisly, we installed VSan Free last Month with the license attached, and since two day, all Attached iSCSI session were disconnected, and we have to restart the service go get the sessions OK

On the LOGs, we can see those two lines juste before all the sessions are shutted-down :

Code: Select all

5/28 0:03:32.260 1cc Srv: *LICENSE* Revalidation - License expired.
5/28 0:03:32.260 1cc Srv: License expired. Refreshing...
And after that, and untill we are restarting the service, the log is fullfilled with

Code: Select all

5/28 0:03:32.386 1cc Srv: *LICENSE* Rejected iSCSI connection
We have regenerated a "Free" License on the Website, and when we are injecting the New License file, the log file still notifying about expired keys :

Code: Select all

5/29 1:34:14.525 f14 Srv: *** LICENSE HAS BEEN EXPIRED. Switching to Core Mode - GUI will be disabled. ***
If we look inside the License Key file, we can explicitly see both of the 'Free' and 'Trial' flags that are turned on with a expiration date ?

<expdate>20170628</expdate>
<FreeLicense>1</FreeLicense>
<TrialLicense>1</TrialLicense>


So we are a little bit confuse.... what have we done wrong, or there is a mistake/misunderstanding somewhere ?

Thanks in advance,
Regards,
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anton (staff)
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Mon May 29, 2017 9:17 am

If you're re-applying your free license over the exiting one with a different permissions it won't work, and this is by design.

You really need to contact "support AT starwind DOT com" with your logs & key under hands and ask for a manual resolve - they'd help you to have seamless upgrade.

Also it's a good idea to spawn a new question rather than have never-ending list of multiple issues inside the same thread :)
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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Netsyst
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Mon May 29, 2017 1:03 pm

anton (staff) wrote:If you're re-applying your free license over the exiting one with a different permissions it won't work, and this is by design.

You really need to contact "support AT starwind DOT com" with your logs & key under hands and ask for a manual resolve - they'd help you to have seamless upgrade.

Also it's a good idea to spawn a new question rather than have never-ending list of multiple issues inside the same thread :)
Sorry for the Reply in a existing thread,

Thanks for your answer, we will contact the support asap :)
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anton (staff)
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Mon May 29, 2017 2:47 pm

NP :)

Good luck!
Netsyst wrote:
anton (staff) wrote:If you're re-applying your free license over the exiting one with a different permissions it won't work, and this is by design.

You really need to contact "support AT starwind DOT com" with your logs & key under hands and ask for a manual resolve - they'd help you to have seamless upgrade.

Also it's a good idea to spawn a new question rather than have never-ending list of multiple issues inside the same thread :)
Sorry for the Reply in a existing thread,

Thanks for your answer, we will contact the support asap :)
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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open
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Fri Jun 16, 2017 8:30 am

Also faced with such a strangeness with the license.
Support re-issued it, I applied it, but the next day everything fell apart again
$ Server.LicenseInfo says about the new license, but ExpirationDate: 2017-06-10 (date from first trial)
That is, as if the license had gone numb.
The fact that she "fresh" tells me LicenseID and UserName
Ivan (staff)
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Fri Jun 16, 2017 7:54 pm

Hello open,
Thanks for your interesting in StarWind solution.
According to this thread https://forums.starwindsoftware.com/vie ... 9&start=15 I would recommend update StarWind vSAN to the latest build.
Also, please let us know if your issue will be resolved.
P.S. Since this forum is International, could you please write posts in English. Thanks!
Hendrik
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Sun Jun 18, 2017 9:56 am

Hi, all

I'm curious about the powershell script for remove replication partner, may I know the powershell command for remove replica partner ?

Thanks,

Hendrik
Ivan (staff)
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Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:12 pm

Hello Hendrik,
Thanks for your interest in StarWind solution.
Unfortunately, right now we do not have any scripts to reconfigure HA device. Currently, it is in our roadmap.
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