Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2

scottalanmiller

@KOOLER said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

Thank you for this one! we're finalizing the things with our Linux-based ESXi, Xen and KVM appliances so far so no Windows install would be required

Now that would be awesome!

FATeknollogee

@KOOLER said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

Thank you for this one! we're finalizing the things with our Linux-based ESXi, Xen and KVM appliances so far so no Windows install would be required

Will the performance of the appliances be as good or better than the native windows install?

Oles Borys

Thank you for going for it!
Just in case here are the guidances you might find helpful:
VMware 2 node HC
Hyper-V 2 node HC
StarWind HA device configuration

Romo

@scottalanmiller what is the size of the vm's disk?

scottalanmiller

@Romo said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

@scottalanmiller what is the size of the vm's disk?

200GB in this example. You can log in directly and play with it if you want. @Ambarishrh has the login details.

Ambarishrh

Thanks @scottalanmiller for setting this up. Was planning to work on this during the holidays here, but things didn't go as planned. Few other things came up and had to travel. I will be working on this from today and post my feedback. Thanks once again

Ambarishrh

Logged in to the server and checked. Added the SAN storage to the DB1 server for now

http://i.imgur.com/kHBLKs4.png

http://i.imgur.com/g2apxcB.png

http://i.imgur.com/po1dtjx.png

Starwind SAN requires CHAP secret details to be added on the ISCSI connector or else you get won't be able to connect and status shows inactive.
http://i.imgur.com/bPhJlN6.png

http://i.imgur.com/ekwQe8s.png

Then add the drive via Computer Management
http://i.imgur.com/WHf80ED.png

http://i.imgur.com/kbVw3Ww.png

http://i.imgur.com/SCuDeOp.png

http://i.imgur.com/AMn3RkO.png

KOOLER

@dafyre said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

@KOOLER said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

Thank you for this one! we're finalizing the things with our Linux-based ESXi, Xen and KVM appliances so far so no Windows install would be required

O.o Sweet! I'll help beta test!

DEAL

hobbit666

Very interested in seeing a Linux App for the VSAN. Can't say I could BETA test as i'm still trying to get 2 servers to play with lol.

FATeknollogee

Paging @KOOLER Will the performance of the appliances be as good or better than the native windows install?

Romo

@FATeknollogee said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

Paging @KOOLER Will the performance of the appliances be as good or better than the native windows install?

It must be at least as good, why release an inferior product.

FATeknollogee

@Romo Coz that's what they had said in the past.

mlnews

@Romo said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

@FATeknollogee said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

Paging @KOOLER Will the performance of the appliances be as good or better than the native windows install?

It must be at least as good, why release an inferior product.

Much lower cost. And the lower cost all comes from external parties, so more money to spend on Starwind!

KOOLER

@FATeknollogee said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

Paging @KOOLER Will the performance of the appliances be as good or better than the native windows install?

Native implementations, especially ones written with a modern CPUs in mind (user-mode, polling instead of an interrupt-driven I/O, think about Intel SPDK/DPDK) will be faster to anything running inside a VM. There are some ways to "fix" this by SR-IOV network and storage hardware (RDMA-capable NICs and NVMe) right into "controller" VM but hardware partners we're working with (mellanox) have some issues with RDMA inside a VMs so FOR NOW native implementation is going to be faster.

KOOLER

@Romo said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

@FATeknollogee said in Installing a Starwind SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2:

Paging @KOOLER Will the performance of the appliances be as good or better than the native windows install?

It must be at least as good, why release an inferior product.

Nissan has GT-R cracking 0-100 in sub 3 seconds but it doesn't mean Nissan Altima doing same 0-100 in low 10s suck Every product has own target niche.