Finally, StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance is available on Linux allowing you to save costs on Windows licensing. Being hypervisor-agnostic, StarWind VSA easily integrates into any IT infrastructure as a fully pre-configured virtual machine ready for deployment and operation. It simply installs in any existing environment requiring no specialized SAN skills and is managed using StarWind Web console or thick client allowing to control the entire storage infrastructure from a centralized console.
Join our Tap Room Meeting on April 27 11 am PT / 2 pm ET to see all benefits of the StarWind Linux-based VSA.
Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/dedicated-live-demo-session

StarWind Virtual SAN Free allows deploying a 2-node cluster providing a highly available storage for your virtual machines to Hyper-V or ESXi hypervisor for free. When deploying multi VSAN Free nodes, the data is synchronized across the network between the nodes. StarWind VSAN Free can be deployed in a hyperconverged model where VSAN Free is installed on hypervisor nodes or in a disaggregated model with separated compute and storage resources. StarWind VSAN Free management capabilities include PowerShell, with StarWind Management console available as a 30-day trial.

Read the full article by Romain Serre, a Senior Consultant at Lyon to learn how to deploy a 2-node StarWind VSAN Free for VMware ESXi 6.5 on Windows Server 2016 Core Edition.

StarWind gets closer to Linux users by providing them with special Linux-based Virtual Storage Appliance version combining the underlying OS and preinstalled StarWind Virtual SAN, allowing to save money on Windows Licensing when it’s unnecessary.
StarWind VSA is compatible with any hypervisor, be it Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESXi, Xen or KVM and can be managed via a Web Management Console while additionally containing a StarWind vCenter plugin allowing to manage the product directly from vCenter Server.

Read the full article by Vladan Seget, IT and Virtualization consultant to learn more about StarWind Virtual SAN on Linux

AlwaysOn Basic Availability Groups (BAG) supported in SQL Server Standard Edition and AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG) introduced in SQL Server Enterprise Edition were designed to create a replicated environment with improved failover capabilities. However, the two types provide different capabilities while also requiring different licensing costs.

Read the full article by Shashank Singh, Microsoft MVP, and SQL Server Architect to learn more about BAG and AG cost and functionality differences.

Migrating your VMs from one hypervisor to another may be quite a complicated task if there’s no decent virtual machine converter at hand. Fortunately, there are various V2V tools allowing to turn this process into a simple thing. But, when choosing a V2V converter, there are several factors you should take into consideration.

Read the full article to learn how to choose a V2V converter that will become a perfect fit for your needs.

StarWind is currently working on the new product - a flexible and customizable web-based platform which will allow users get the full control over their IT infrastructures from a single HTML5 graphical interface including S2D, Failover Clustering and Hyper-V. More information to be found in a nearby thread: https://mangolassi.it/topic/14114/help-starwind-to-pick-the-name-for-the-upcoming-product

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance utilizes Local Reconstruction Codes, Replication, and Grid Architecture to provide an ultimate fault tolerance rate while delivering sustained high performance. With StarWind HCA, the whole infrastructure remains operational even after multiple disk or node failures. In case a failure occurs, applications are automatically recovered to working cluster disks or nodes, allowing to easily withstand a failure of more than 50% of the cluster nodes.

Watch our video to learn how to get uncompromised resiliency with StarWind HCA
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/get-uncompromised-fault-tolerance-of-it-infrastructure-with-starwind-hyperconverged-appliance

With PowerShell, automatic deployment of Hyper-V VMs in Windows Server 2016 becomes a piece of cake
No doubts, commercial software for automatic VM deployment is great, but it may be too expensive comparing to the goals that need to be achieved. That’s where PowerShell kicks in. With PowerShell commands, the creation and configuration of Hyper-V virtual machines in Windows Server 2016 become a fairly simple thing. But, what is more important, you can create a script which deploys VMs of the same configuration automatically.

Read the full article by Boris Yurchenko, a Support Engineer at StarWind, to learn how to automate your VMs deployment with PowerShell in Windows Server 2016.

Installing an HTTPS certificate is just a tip of the iceberg. This certificate has a huge number of options that usually are hidden deep inside config files. Actually, these tiny details allow distinguishing a site that can be rendered vulnerable via HTTPS downgrade attack and the one that is really secure.

Read the full article by Gary Williams, a virtualization, storage, and Windows systems administrator, to achieve the highest security.

StarWind team will take the floor at Storage Field Day 15 to reveal new awesome backup storage technologies: Virtual Tape Library with Cloud and Object storage and backed by ProActive Support! Our speaking slot is the first in line: March 9, 8-10 am PT, don’t miss it!

For Livestream, go to https://www.facebook.com/TechFieldDay/ or watch on http://techfieldday.com/, Livestream.com - includes the entire event.

A failed VM doesn’t have to mean lost data. Explore 5 methods to access and recover the data stored in a VMDK file, using both built-in VMware tools and third-party solutions, from our new article by Kevin Soltow, a Storage Consultant, for StarWind. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/6l

Flagler County Schools, a Florida-based educational institution, faced budgetary constraints with its Nutanix infrastructure. With a limited budget, it was essential to find a more cost-effective solution without compromising performance. By implementing StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA), Flagler County Schools move to hyperconvergence, ensure the high infrastructure performance and reliability required to support their faculty and students, and facilitate better resource allocation for school-wide improvements. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/6i

Are your MDM policies taking too long to update? Microsoft has introduced Config Refresh, a feature that lets you refresh policies more frequently, bringing it closer to the performance of Group Policy. Discover in the new article by Brandon Lee, an IT Consultant, for StarWind, how this can streamline your cloud management. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/6f

RAL Space, a British space research institution, relied on a traditional SAN-based vSphere cluster infrastructure, which posed single points of failure and the need for manual failover during issues. It required a cost-effective and scalable shared storage solution to improve infrastructure performance and operational efficiency. By implementing StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN), RAL Space deploys a 3-node stretched cluster with automatic high availability (HA), eliminates single points of failure and manual intervention, and significantly improves reliability and scalability, thus ensuring the continuity of its ongoing research projects. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/6c

Wadebridge School, an England-based educational institution, faced significant issues with an obsolete and costly HP LeftHand P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance that had no room for storage expansion. The school required a cost-effective and efficient solution that wouldn't disrupt ongoing operations. By deploying StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN), Wadebridge School adds needed storage capacity, and provides a more stable, manageable, and scalable storage infrastructure, thus ensuring the continuity of its educational projects. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/69

Defining and maintaining realistic RTO and RPO targets can make all the difference. Learn from the new PeerSpot article for StarWind how businesses use these key metrics, and see which solutions can minimize downtime and data loss. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/66

How do you ensure your VMware vSphere datastores are running at peak performance? Benchmarking tools are a great way to assess and optimize your storage infrastructure. In our latest article by Vladan Seget, a virtualization expert, for StarWind we discuss three tools that can provide valuable insights into your datastore performance. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/63

Garland Power & Light, a US-based energy and utilities company, faced significant challenges with its existing IT infrastructure, which struggled to deliver shared storage necessary for efficient operations. It needed a robust solution capable of integrating seamlessly with its compute and storage separated scenario. By implementing StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN), Garland Power & Light builds a high-performing virtual storage pool accessible by multiple compute nodes simultaneously, improves resource utilization, enhances performance, and simplifies IT management. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/60

Navigating advanced RAID configurations can be challenging. In Part 2 of our RAID series by Vlad Karaiev, StarWind's Head of Marketing, we dive into RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 50, and RAID 60, breaking down their pros, cons, and best use cases. New to data storage? This guide is your go-to resource. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/5X

Explore a detailed performance comparison of Microsoft S2D and StarWind VSAN on Hyper-V. Check out the in-depth benchmark results in the latest article by Volodymyr Khrystenko for StarWind. Read more here: https://starwind.com/s/5U