Microsoft Active Directory Domain Controllers are responsible for granting or denying user’s access to system-wide resources, such as printers, documents, and network locations using the single name and password. Proper configurations, such as setting up two Domain Controllers and backing up one of them, allow creating a fault-tolerant and highly available environment.
Learn about proper Active Directory Domain Controllers configurations to create a fault-tolerant environment.
Dell Performance Analysis Collection Kit is a free and agentless tool providing the full information on the IT environment performance and estimating opportunities for its virtualization. DPACK analyzes such core parameters as disk IO, throughput, capacity and memory utilization and provides two types of reports: in-depth individual server report and an aggregation of resource needs across disparate servers with a simulation of those workloads when migrated to shared platforms.
Watch our webinar to learn how to properly analyze your environment with Dell DPACK.
Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/dedicated-live-demo-session
The so-called “grid architecture” allows building a high-performing and fault-tolerant cluster without losing the principle of “data locality” for maximum performance. In such cluster topology, nodes are connected into a single grid, delivering a high resiliency rate and allowing the cluster to stay operational even after multiple nodes failure.
Join our Tap Room to learn about the benefits that StarWind Grid Architecture will bring to your IT infrastructure.
Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/dedicated-live-demo-session-next
Microsoft Active Directory allows organizations to store and manage network resources, including users, computers, and services in a centralized and standardized system. Domain controllers are the server computers responsible for user authentication in a Windows domain. To provide fault tolerance of your environment, each domain requires two functioning domain controllers located on different servers.
Watch our webinar to learn useful tips on setting up domain controllers in your infrastructure.
Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/dedicated-live-demo-session
StarWind Virtual Tape Library converts existing hardware into virtual tapes becoming a perfect backup repository solution for Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager. Integrating StarWind VTL with SCDPM 2016 allows to replace slow physical tapes with a virtual tape library and improve the performance of your backup infrastructure while achieving the 3-2-1 backup rule.
Watch our webinar to learn how StarWind VTL and SCDPM combine to increase your backup infrastructure performance.
Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/dedicated-live-demo-session
StarWind Linux-based Virtual Storage Appliance is the best way to test StarWind virtual shared storage features and capabilities without disrupting you Linux-oriented IT infrastructure. StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance simply deploys as a pre-configured virtual machine requiring no Windows licenses. It supports multiple hypervisors, such as KVM, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware ESXi and can be easily managed using StarWind Web Console or thick client.
Watch the video to learn more about StarWind Linux-based Virtual Storage Appliance functionality:
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-storage-appliance-on-linux-video
@DustinB3403 Agree, but in most cases, 4TB HDD will be enough for a small home lab. The key is to build a cluster out of those servers, excluding an additional RAID feature.
Supermicro company, ranking one of the leading positions in server development, has recently released two compact servers: SuperServer E200-8D and SuperServer E300-8D. Delivering powerful characteristics together with minimal deployment space, these servers become a perfect fit for educational purposes, virtualization and running minor networking and firewall applications or security appliances.
Read the full article by Alex Khorolets, a technical support engineer at StarWind to learn more about Supermicro servers
While Linux virtual machines in Amazon Web Services became a widespread practice, Ubuntu decided to go further and released an OS version with a customized kernel for AWS. The AWS-tuned kernel offers up to 30 percent faster kernel boot speed while taking advantage of AWS’s Elastics Network Adapter providing high throughput of up to 20G bps for virtual instances.
Read the full article by Augusto Alvarez, Principal Consultant in Dell EMC to learn more about the AWS-tuned Ubuntu kernel.
In this project, you can find a step-by-step guide on how to build a virtualization IT infrastructure using 2 stackable Cisco Catalyst 3850 switches, 3 HP ProLiant DL 360 G9 servers with VMware ESX hypervisors and StarWind Virtual SAN for storage virtualization. The first two parts show the process from the very beginning – from opening the boxes to configuring Cisco 3850 stack and building the HP DL 360 Generation 9 server.
Watch full videos by itikabc, to see how to build a virtualization infrastructure from scratch:
Part 1: Cisco 3850, HP DL 360 G9, vSphere 6.5 and Starwind Project Part 1
Part 2: Cisco 3850, HP DL 360 G9, vSphere 6.5 and Starwind Project Part 2
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
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 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
@Reid-Cooper Yes, here you go: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san-vsa
An early access before the release 
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
Hi guys,
My name is Oksana and I am super happy to be here 
