Converting to a virtual environment
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@scottalanmiller said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@scottalanmiller said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
I did look @ the free Starwind Virtual SAN, but from what I read, I understand that the free version will allow only storage and not compute, on the same host... That's allowed, only in the paid version... ??
I've never heard of that limitation. that would be a new and surprising one. I'm quite confident that you can put your storage on your compute nodes.
Checking with @KOOLER @StarWind_Software
I'm making this statement, based on my understanding of the Free vs Paid document, found on https://www.starwindsoftware.com/whitepapers/free-vs-paid.pdf
Please look @ the comparison on the second-last page of this PDF... It says, next to Deployment Scenarios , that Hyperconvergence, is available only for Certain User Statuses (Check Status)
that does appear to say that, but goes against hundreds of posts from the company so I think that this might be outdated.
You're absolutely correct! Making long story short: somebody should try real hard NOT to get anything from us! Even if people don't fall down into listed categories and aren't eligible we still give away everything on a personal request. Just because
Referenced from the document link brings here:
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-nfr-license-users
StarWind Virtual SAN Free is a convenient and self-sufficient software, but in comparison with the commercial version, it has restricted functionality and features. It easily turns a pair of commodity servers into fault-tolerant SAN and NAS, but supports only Converged architecture, does not and provides only cloud-based asynchronous replication, etc. The full comparison of StarWind VSAN and VSAN Free can be found here. In case some of the features of the commercial version are needed for test and development, home lab or POC (Proof of Concept), there is still a way to obtain them.
StarWind highly values virtualization specialists and tries to assist them in every possible way, that is why professionals and students of the sphere can get a free license of StarWind Virtual SAN without restrictions and with all features enabled. Here is the list of users who can apply for this license:
Microsoft MVPs
MCTs (Microsoft Certified Trainers)
MCPs (Microsoft Certified Professionals)
SpiceHeads of at least “Jalapeno” level
Consultants
Students
VMware vExperts
VCPs (VMware Certified Professionals)
TrainersMangolassi members of reputation 200+
Bloggers
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@dafyre said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Their Endoint Recovery Free would work for backups in this scenario as well. And with that one, you do get file-level restores.
Unfortunately, it'd have to be loaded per VM, and is Windows only at the moment (Linux version just hit beta).
They are improving greatly and we'll get releases and fully commercially supported versions soon. VERY soon
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@scottalanmiller said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
I did look @ the free Starwind Virtual SAN, but from what I read, I understand that the free version will allow only storage and not compute, on the same host... That's allowed, only in the paid version... ??
I've never heard of that limitation. that would be a new and surprising one. I'm quite confident that you can put your storage on your compute nodes.
Checking with @KOOLER @StarWind_Software
I'm making this statement, based on my understanding of the Free vs Paid document, found on https://www.starwindsoftware.com/whitepapers/free-vs-paid.pdf
Please look @ the comparison on the second-last page of this PDF... It says, next to Deployment Scenarios , that Hyperconvergence, is available only for Certain User Statuses (Check Status)
Please ping me off-line and I'll be happy to help with the keys you need
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@PRPL just checking in for a follow up.
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Hi,
Sorry, was caught-up with some personal issue ... Anyway, it's sorted, and I'm back ...
Dustin, thanks for the follow-up ... I'm yet to hear from the bosses... so, nothings changed ..
@KOOLER said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@scottalanmiller said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
I did look @ the free Starwind Virtual SAN, but from what I read, I understand that the free version will allow only storage and not compute, on the same host... That's allowed, only in the paid version... ??
I've never heard of that limitation. that would be a new and surprising one. I'm quite confident that you can put your storage on your compute nodes.
Checking with @KOOLER @StarWind_Software
I'm making this statement, based on my understanding of the Free vs Paid document, found on https://www.starwindsoftware.com/whitepapers/free-vs-paid.pdf
Please look @ the comparison on the second-last page of this PDF... It says, next to Deployment Scenarios , that Hyperconvergence, is available only for Certain User Statuses (Check Status)
Please ping me off-line and I'll be happy to help with the keys you need
Thanks would be fantastic ... Thanks ...
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Sorry, was caught-up with some personal issue ... Anyway, it's sorted, and I'm back ...
Hope that all is well.
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Yep... all well now .. Thanks :slight_smile:
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Yep... all well now .. Thanks :slight_smile:
Good!
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@KOOLER said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@dafyre said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Their Endoint Recovery Free would work for backups in this scenario as well. And with that one, you do get file-level restores.
Unfortunately, it'd have to be loaded per VM, and is Windows only at the moment (Linux version just hit beta).
They are improving greatly and we'll get releases and fully commercially supported versions soon. VERY soon
Hi,
So, before rolling-out this project, I wanted to get a confirmation from all the vendors, on how their application would perform/react in a Virtualized environment, including vSANs (such as StarWind)... None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues... The surprising response we received from Apogee is that they've never tested their system with vSAN, nor do they have any customer references for the same... Hence, they would not be supporting it ... Major bummer !! :slight_frown:
Also, how are databases affected, when stored on a vSAN ?
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@KOOLER said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@dafyre said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Their Endoint Recovery Free would work for backups in this scenario as well. And with that one, you do get file-level restores.
Unfortunately, it'd have to be loaded per VM, and is Windows only at the moment (Linux version just hit beta).
They are improving greatly and we'll get releases and fully commercially supported versions soon. VERY soon
Hi,
So, before rolling-out this project, I wanted to get a confirmation from all the vendors, on how their application would perform/react in a Virtualized environment, including vSANs (such as StarWind)... None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues... The surprising response we received from Apogee is that they've never tested their system with vSAN, nor do they have any customer references for the same... Hence, they would not be supporting it ... Major bummer !! :slight_frown:
Also, how are databases affected, when stored on a vSAN ?
How does that make sense. To the application the server is no different then a physical box. Literally the application can't tell the difference between a VM and a physical machine.
vSAN is just block storage. It is presented no differently then iSCSI or Fibrechannel.
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@coliver said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@KOOLER said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@dafyre said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Their Endoint Recovery Free would work for backups in this scenario as well. And with that one, you do get file-level restores.
Unfortunately, it'd have to be loaded per VM, and is Windows only at the moment (Linux version just hit beta).
They are improving greatly and we'll get releases and fully commercially supported versions soon. VERY soon
Hi,
So, before rolling-out this project, I wanted to get a confirmation from all the vendors, on how their application would perform/react in a Virtualized environment, including vSANs (such as StarWind)... None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues... The surprising response we received from Apogee is that they've never tested their system with vSAN, nor do they have any customer references for the same... Hence, they would not be supporting it ... Major bummer !! :slight_frown:
Also, how are databases affected, when stored on a vSAN ?
How does that make sense. To the application the server is no different then a physical box. Literally the application can't tell the difference between a VM and a physical machine.
vSAN is just block storage. It is presented no differently then iSCSI or Fibrechannel.
Some vendors still stick to specific requirements, like RAID levels and such. I guess they never faced a vSAN before.
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@KOOLER said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@dafyre said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Their Endoint Recovery Free would work for backups in this scenario as well. And with that one, you do get file-level restores.
Unfortunately, it'd have to be loaded per VM, and is Windows only at the moment (Linux version just hit beta).
They are improving greatly and we'll get releases and fully commercially supported versions soon. VERY soon
Hi,
So, before rolling-out this project, I wanted to get a confirmation from all the vendors, on how their application would perform/react in a Virtualized environment, including vSANs (such as StarWind)... None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues... The surprising response we received from Apogee is that they've never tested their system with vSAN, nor do they have any customer references for the same... Hence, they would not be supporting it ... Major bummer !! :slight_frown:
Also, how are databases affected, when stored on a vSAN ?
Basically like a local RAID set. Reads in StarWind vSAN are local to the host. The most important part here: Reads do not need to travel over your NIC to get data from a NAS, so latency is much, much better.
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@KOOLER said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@dafyre said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Their Endoint Recovery Free would work for backups in this scenario as well. And with that one, you do get file-level restores.
Unfortunately, it'd have to be loaded per VM, and is Windows only at the moment (Linux version just hit beta).
They are improving greatly and we'll get releases and fully commercially supported versions soon. VERY soon
Hi,
So, before rolling-out this project, I wanted to get a confirmation from all the vendors, on how their application would perform/react in a Virtualized environment, including vSANs (such as StarWind)... None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues... The surprising response we received from Apogee is that they've never tested their system with vSAN, nor do they have any customer references for the same... Hence, they would not be supporting it ... Major bummer !! :slight_frown:
Also, how are databases affected, when stored on a vSAN ?
I agree with @coliver. If they insist on dictating the hardware platform, they can **** well provide an appliance or go jump off a very tall bridge.
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@coliver said
vSAN is just block storage. It is presented no differently then iSCSI or Fibrechannel.
Yes but they read one of SAMs posts about of context and now anything with SAN in it is bad.
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
Also, how are databases affected, when stored on a vSAN ?
Nothing is affected by vSAN. Block storage is block storage, it's all the same.
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
The surprising response we received from Apogee is that they've never tested their system with vSAN, nor do they have any customer references for the same... Hence, they would not be supporting it ... Major bummer !!
One of the benefits to someone like Starwind using vSAN instead of something else is that you just remove the "v" because a vSAN is ever bit as much of a SAN as something that doesn't have the "v" in front of it. VSAN is a made up name and doesn't mean anything. Tell them it's connected to a SAN, it's just a high availability SAN with replication - and any enterprise SAN is. So if they don't support SAN, what kind of small customers do they have?
It's all how you present it. Their response to you should have made you respond with "you don't support SAN at all?"
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@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues...
This is a red flag about the vendor. This implies that they don't have even basically competent IT staff. So how are they supporting their product at the best of times? I'd be worried that they are not a viable company or that the product has been abandoned internally and they are charging you for something that they cannot support. Is there a reason that this vendor is being used?
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@scottalanmiller said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues...
This is a red flag about the vendor. This implies that they don't have even basically competent IT staff. So how are they supporting their product at the best of times? I'd be worried that they are not a viable company or that the product has been abandoned internally and they are charging you for something that they cannot support. Is there a reason that this vendor is being used?
This, to me, sounds like the vendor is going to do nothing but point fingers and change their mind about supported scenarios every step of the way.
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@coliver said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@scottalanmiller said in Converting to a virtual environment:
@PRPL said in Converting to a virtual environment:
None , except one vendor (Apogee PrePress), seemed to have any issues...
This is a red flag about the vendor. This implies that they don't have even basically competent IT staff. So how are they supporting their product at the best of times? I'd be worried that they are not a viable company or that the product has been abandoned internally and they are charging you for something that they cannot support. Is there a reason that this vendor is being used?
This, to me, sounds like the vendor is going to do nothing but point fingers and change their mind about supported scenarios every step of the way.
Exactly. This is a sign that the vendor is not on your side and you should be concerned about how this process is going to go.
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This is precisely what we were discussing in the "Starting own IT consultancy .." thread ...
This kind of crap happens all the time ..
I recollect an instance, when a vendor went as far as to insist that the compute-name of the Server be a specific one (I think it was the name of their product), or ELSE, the application would not work properly .... Luckily, this was one of the rare occasions when the client backed us, instead of the vendor... I put my sparring gloves on, and TKO'ed the vendor.
