@PhlipElder said in HCI (Scale, Starwind etc): vm layout:

I'm not sure what "Hyper-V partition" means.

I meant to say the host o/s partition.

@PhlipElder said in HCI (Scale, Starwind etc): vm layout:

We've taken to setting up a dedicated pair of domain controllers in the node's local Hyper-V setup as opposed to making them highly available in our Storage Spaces Direct and disaggregate (Nodes + shared SAS JBOD(s)).

Setting up the DC in the Hyper-V partition?

@scottalanmiller said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

@DustinB3403 said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

I'm pretty positive it requires a windows guest to be supplied the storage, which then gets passed out to the hypervisor.

It used to be Windows based.

Correct, but you still need Windows to manage the Linux version...which makes no sense to me.

@DustinB3403
Looks like you can use Cockpit to do some stuff but you still need the Starwind Management Console (which is Windows)

@DustinB3403
from https://www.vladan.fr/starwind-vsan-for-vsphere-new-release/
StarWind Virtual SAN for vSphere -is a VMware-only Software-Defined-Storage stack. A ready-to-go Linux VM installs on the cluster nodes to share their storage resources.
Once installed, Virtual SAN creates a fault-tolerant storage pool available to the entire vSphere cluster. VSAN users get limitless virtualization capabilities in terms of features, storage capacity, and cost-efficiency. Enterprise-level functionality and performance are available in the infrastructure of your choice.

@DustinB3403 said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

Because the VSAN software is built to use Windows and Powershell to manage the supplied storage.

Starwind vSAN for vSphere is 100% Linux?

@scottalanmiller said in StarWind HCA is one of the 10 coolest HCI systems of 2019 (so far):

KVM is definitely supported, talked to management in the last twelve hours. Just not advertised.

Any specific reason for the non-advertisement of KVM?

Looking at the Starwind vSAN for vsphere notes: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-for-vsphere

You still need Windows to help "manage" the vsphere install...why?

@scottalanmiller said in StarWind HCA is one of the 10 coolest HCI systems of 2019 (so far):

@FATeknollogee said in StarWind HCA is one of the 10 coolest HCI systems of 2019 (so far):

Curious question...what happened to Starwind vSAN for Linux (KVM), is that not a thing anymore?

It is for sure, they talked about it at MangoCon

The Hyper-V and KVM hypervisors are no longer supported in StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance.
To view the guide on installing StarWind VSA with VMware vSphere, please open the following link

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-storage-appliance-installation-guide-with-kvm

@scottalanmiller said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

@FATeknollogee said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

@scottalanmiller said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

@FATeknollogee said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

@taurex said in HCI vendors: software or hardware:

DataCore's Hyper-Converged VSAN. Apparently quite reasonably-priced but I haven't heard much else about it.

Took a quick look, I don't like that it's a 100% Windows even in its VMware flavor!

Not sure what you mean.

Datacore vSAN in VMware ESXi is 2x Windows Server 201x vm's (not 2 Linux vm's)

I see, it's not an appliance but you deploy Windows then install it?

They actually have a PS script that automates the deployment of both Windows Server vms.
https://www.datacore.com/try-it-now/trial/