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.

In the world of IT, the post-pandemic changes have brought new challenges to the table. An enterprise may employ dozens of remote workers from all over the world, but for security reasons, they may still have to establish network routes through the data center thousands of miles away. Well, thanks to VMware SASE, that'll hardly be a problem anymore.

Read the new article by Alex Samoylenko, a virtualization technology professional, that reviews the VMware Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) infrastructure, which grants remote access within the zero-trust network access (ZTNA) framework.

Lake Erie College, a US higher education institution, had multiple aged hosts with VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V on top that entailed high operational expenses (OpEx). The college sought to build a hyperconverged infrastructure, gain a reliable backup process, ensure Hyper-V live migration, and minimize downtime. Using StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA), Lake Erie College moves to hyperconvergence, cuts its OpEx costs, and satisfies all the demands described above.

You can read about how StarWind could do the same for your company by following this link.

The traditional security model implies combining different solutions to increase safety. However, cyberattacks are constantly developing and becoming more sophisticated, which makes the "layered approach" fairly obsolete. That's why Microsoft has opted to concentrate on the hardware level instead. Meet Microsoft Pluton, a new step in the hardware chips evolution.

Read the article by Brandon Lee, a virtualization expert, that explains what the new Microsoft Pluton security chip actually is and how can it move security standards forward from Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips.

Regina Catholic Schools, a Canadian school division, had no fault-tolerant IT environment that threatened its continuous operations. Its 2 Hyper-V on-prem servers hosted roughly 12-15 VMs that were migrated manually if one of the hosts went down. That took an extremely high amount of time and maintenance costs. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Regina Catholic Schools creates a high availability (HA) cluster with configured live VM migrations options and ensures 24/7 operations.

You can read about how StarWind could do the same for your company by following this link.

For Windows Server users, it’s necessary to run a current OS version to enjoy relevant support from Microsoft. However, some users, for one reason or another, may choose to run an obsolete WS version on a server. In this care, you will need to migrate your Root Certificate Authority (CA) to a newer WS version on a new server to assure everything works properly.

Read the new guide by Paolo Valsecchi, a virtualization expert, on what steps to take to correctly migrate your Microsoft Root CA to a new server.

Windows Autopatch is a new cloud-centric way to streamline the process of updating OS instances across your IT environment. It is meant to take the heavy-lifting and complexity out of applying patches to your Windows clients registered in Microsoft Endpoint Manager. It’s applicable to Windows 10 &11, M365 for Enterprise, MS Edge and Teams.

Read the article by Brandon Lee, a virtualization expert, explaining how to make the OS update processes easier, autonomous, and simplified with Windows Autopatch.

CollectionCenter, Inc., a U.S. accounts receivables management services provider, needed to reduce its project expenses but always was restrained by its IT infrastructure with aging hardware and the lack of redundancy. Using StarWind HCI Appliance, CollectionCenter, Inc. creates a single hyperconverged high availability (HA) Hyper-V cluster with additional redundancy and cuts the overall project costs by half.

You can read about how StarWind could do the same for your company by following this link.

This StarWind video will focus on how you can benefit from adding ZFS to your infrastructure without going through a steep learning curve. Frequently, ZFS-based solutions on the market aren’t easy or straightforward in their integration into a virtualization environment. StarWind tackles that by presenting ZFS features in a streamlined software solution that you can add to your new, existing, or even aging hardware in just a few clicks.

Watch the video in the link to learn how StarWind SAN & NAS provides a simple way to add ZFS to your infrastructure and effectively use it in your virtualization environment.

Windows 11 22H2, aka Sun Valley 2, is the latest release of the Windows 11 Operating System (OS). Bringing new promising features, it provides the users with lots of possibilities that are definitely worth looking at.

Read the new article by Vladan Seget, a virtualization expert, on Windows 11 22H2, the latest major upgrade of Windows 11, and the steps needed to install it.

TrustRadius has awarded StarWind VSAN and StarWind HCI Appliance several Best of Summer 2022 awards. Both products won Best Relationship and Best Feature Set in their respective categories for Software Defined Storage and Hyperconverged Infrastructure. StarWind is proud to receive these awards, as they are based on real-life consumer feedback!

Learn more about the TrustRadius Best of Summer 2022 Award and how StarWind receiving several of them can help your future IT infrastructure decision-making.