StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance (VHCA) Free provides the fastest route from a bunch of standalone servers to a full-blown hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) cluster. Obtain the exact software that powers our flagship hyperconverged appliance and deep dive into the data center technology trusted by thousands of enterprises worldwide. The good news is, it’s free of charge!
We don’t push you toward a specific choice; the decision is entirely yours. Review the feature comparison below and decide what’s best for you.
| Feature | VHCA Free | VHCA |
|---|---|---|
| Virtualization | ||
| Supported hypervisors | KVM | KVM, Hyper-V, ESXi |
| Management and monitoring | ||
| PowerShell CLI | ||
| Virtual infrastructure management Web UI | ||
| Storage management Web UI | ||
| Multi-cluster fleet management Web UI | ||
| Infrastructure | ||
| Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) Aggregated, compute and storage are running on the same servers | ||
| Converged infrastructure (CI) Disaggregated, compute and storage are running on the different sets of servers | ||
| Scaling | ||
| Scale-Up "Vertical" capacity expansion | ||
| Scale-Out "Horizontal" capacity expansion | ||
| SAN protocols | ||
| iSCSI | ||
| NVMe-oF NVMe over RDMA & NVMe over TCP | ||
| NAS protocols | ||
| CIFS / SMB3 | ||
| NFSv3 / NFSv4 | ||
| Data replication | ||
| Synchronous inter-node replication and instant failover High Availability (HA) | ||
| Local data redundancy | ||
| Hardware RAID | ||
| Software RAID Linux-based CVM and Linux application deployments | ||
| ZFS RAID Linux-based CVM and Linux application deployments | ||
| Data backup and archival | ||
| Seamless integration with Veeam B&R | ||
| Backup Immutability Built-in Veeam Hardened Repository integration | ||
| Technical support | ||
| Support plans | Community | Standard, Premium, ProActive Premium |
| Access to the latest public builds and updates | ||
| Access to private builds | ||
| Use case scenarios | ||
| Evaluation use | Not recommended* | |
| Production use | ||
*The VHCA Free license is perpetual and not time-bombed. Production use is permitted. However, there are certain restrictions in support, including the initial deployment and evaluation period. That’s why if you plan to use VHCA in the commercial environment, it’s strongly recommended to apply for the trial version.
Support via StarWind Community Forums
Support via e-mail, phone, ssh and Zoom remote sessions
Unlimited support tickets
Manual ticket submission
Business hours support
8 hours* response time for Severity 2 issues
4 hours* response time for Severity 1 issues
Support via e-mail, phone, ssh and Zoom remote sessions
Unlimited support tickets
Manual ticket submission
24/7/365 support
4 hours response time for Severity 2 issues
1 hour response time for Severity 1 issues
Support via e-mail, phone, ssh and Zoom remote sessions
Unlimited support tickets
Manual ticket submission
24/7/365 support
1 hour response time for Severity 2 issues
1 hour response time for Severity 1 issues
ProActive automatic issue detection and resolution using telemetry data AI analytics, “call-home”, and automatic ticket submission systems. Up to 90% tickets are generated, submitted and resolved without the customer’s intervention
*Additional information regarding StarWind Support SLA and response times is available here: www.starwindsoftware.com/support
If you find yourself deliberating between our free or paid options, uncertain about our support plans, or curious about how StarWind ProActive Premium Support can take the burden off your shoulders by eliminating up to 90% of the customer-involved support cases by using the AI-powered telemetry, Big Data processing and analytics, combined with an optional “call home” systems... We are here to assist. Let our Sales Engineering Team help you to clarify any doubts. Don’t hesitate and schedule a demo now!
StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance is the perfect match for your servers, whether you snagged them brand-new from your hardware partner or you're repurposing your existing ones. No servers? No problemo, amigo! Our portfolio includes StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA) - a modern data center building block that converges compute, storage, networking, virtualization software, and management into a single hyperconverged platform. HCA provides a very special combination of the hand-picked Enterprise-grade hardware (incl. servers), in-house developed Virtual SAN software, an intuitive web UI, an AI-powered sophisticated telemetry, and “call home” systems. Explore HCA features and check hardware specs now!
