What is the StarWind Virtual SAN solution and how is it different from otherstorage solutions? StarWind Virtual SAN(VSAN) for vSphere offers a really unique approach to storage provisioning invSphere environments. It is aprepackaged Linux virtual machine that is configured as a VM on vSphere. The Linux virtual machine creates aVM-centric and high-performance storage pool for VMware vSphere clusters. So, now, there is no need to make use ofWindows Server VMs to host the StarWind solution, saving on both complexity andlicensing costs.
Starwind Virtual San Keygen
The download of StarWind VSAN for vSphere is provided as a .zip file that you download from a StarWind website. Unzip the package and you will have the following files to choose for deploying the Linux virtual appliance:
Skipping ahead in the Linux appliance deployment process,the next screen that you want to specifically pay attention to is the 6. Selectnetworks screen. Here you want toline up your port groups with the respective source networks configuredon the Linux virtual appliances.
Once the Linux virtual appliance is deployed, you will want to add a new VMDK virtual disk for the purposes of presenting as storage to your ESXi hosts. To do this, you simply add a new hard disk to your Linux virtual appliance. Make sure Disk Provisioning is set to Thick Provision Eager Zeroed as per best practice outlined by StarWind.
Once the new disk is added to the StarWind Linux virtual appliance, you are ready to boot up the VM and continue configuration from the web admin console on the Linux virtual appliance itself. Log in to the solution using the default username and password:
One of the important steps in the Linux virtual appliance setup is configuring storage for the solution. When you deploy the Linux appliance, it is not configured with the storage that will be used for block storage which will be attached to your vSphere ESXi hosts.
The Linux Virtual Appliance deploys with three virtual NICs provisioned with the appliance. You need to connect these with the virtual network port group that you want to carry traffic for management, iSCSI, and synchronization traffic.
Now that we have the StarWind VSAN for vSphere solution components installed, including the Linux virtual appliances and the StarWind Management Console, we are ready to begin configuring the solution. This will be done using the StarWind Management Console on your Windows management workstation.
Open the StarWind Management Console and add your Linuxvirtual appliances to it. You will seethe +Add Server button on the dashboard of the management console. Click on the link and enter the IP/FQDN ofyour Linux appliance(s).
To take care of high availability of your data, StarWind uses a replication mechanism that synchronizes your data from one StarWind Linux virtual appliance with another. This can be a synchronous or asynchronous replication. To configure replication, launch the StarWind Management Console. Right-click on your device and select Replication Manager.
The StarWind VSAN for vSphere solution allows you to have a resilient and performant vSphere storage without the need to meet various HCL criteria or buy a physical shared storage device. StarWind works with any hardware as long as it is able to meet the requirements for the Linux virtual appliances.
I found the solution with the Linux virtual appliances extremely easy to configure and manage using the StarWind Management Console. In my opinion, StarWind is definitely a viable option for many different interesting use cases. They certainly will accelerate edge and ROBO environments due to the freedom of using all kinds of hardware. However, the StarWind storage solution will be equally adept backing your core production workloads as well. 2ff7e9595c
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