Free version

[anton (staff)]

There's no automatic download form for free version. You need to write to sales@starwindsoftware.com telling who you are and why you need free version and guys will be happy to provide you with one.

Hi,
are you ever going to produce a free version again. The button sayint "Free" takes you to a general page where a demo is available or trial.
You said that it was looking good for coming out in march but still no indication of it yet.
Thanks,
Jus

[noobmuppet]

Cheers Anton, just did

[anton (staff)]

Forwarded to sales Dept.

Cheers Anton, just did

[Aitor_Ibarra]

<opnion>

Microsoft have finally reversed their brain-dead decision on only allowing their iSCSI target on OEM supplied Windows Storage Server, which you had to buy with hardware. It's now a free add-on to all editions of Windows Server 2008 R2. There are no license restrictions - you can use it an a commercial production environment.

The Microsoft target is quite limited compared to Starwind, but it is free, and it does come from Microsoft. It's going to turn a lot more people on to iSCSI.

I think Starwind Free should match it in terms of being just as easy for anyone to get hold of, and matching it feature for feature, while also giving a taste of what the paid for versions of can do. So I would suggest:

* unlimited (in number and capacity) basic IMG targets - this will match the bulk of what Microsoft iSCSI can do
* all other features (e.g. mirroring, HA, dedupe etc - limit to one target of each type, and limit the capacity of each target to say, 100GB or so)

This will really help promote Starwind, and enable everyone to test out the advanced features without having a time limit or licensing restrictions. As soon as they really need to deploy an advanced feature they will need to license more capacity/targets.

</opinion>

[anton (staff)]

You're absolutely right. We have already RC of V5.7 we'd publish in sync with our free version. It would be pretty much what you ask for. Including de-duplication for unlimited capacity, snapshots & CDP, iSCSI diskless boot integration and some other "nice" surprises to competitors (including Microsoft).

<opnion>

Microsoft have finally reversed their brain-dead decision on only allowing their iSCSI target on OEM supplied Windows Storage Server, which you had to buy with hardware. It's now a free add-on to all editions of Windows Server 2008 R2. There are no license restrictions - you can use it an a commercial production environment.

The Microsoft target is quite limited compared to Starwind, but it is free, and it does come from Microsoft. It's going to turn a lot more people on to iSCSI.

I think Starwind Free should match it in terms of being just as easy for anyone to get hold of, and matching it feature for feature, while also giving a taste of what the paid for versions of can do. So I would suggest:

* unlimited (in number and capacity) basic IMG targets - this will match the bulk of what Microsoft iSCSI can do
* all other features (e.g. mirroring, HA, dedupe etc - limit to one target of each type, and limit the capacity of each target to say, 100GB or so)

This will really help promote Starwind, and enable everyone to test out the advanced features without having a time limit or licensing restrictions. As soon as they really need to deploy an advanced feature they will need to license more capacity/targets.

</opinion>

[MicroLinkLLC]

I have installed a trial version of StarWind on a server and it's in use in production. We only need the features of the free version for now. Do I need to re-register with the free key? Or will it automatically revert to the free version when the trial license expires? If I have to un-register and re-register with the free key, will that interrupt current connections?

Thanks,
Joel

P.S. A prompt reply would be great as our trial license expires 2012-01-01. Sorry for the rush, we just realized will will need this longer than the trial period, but that the features of the free version are more than enough for us at the time.

[MicroLinkLLC]

Oh, and we downloaded and installed the latest version at the time of installation - 2011-12-01 (yyyy-mm-dd) Looks to be 5.7

[Anatoly (staff)]

Hello,

Yes, you need another key (free license key). You can get it by using this link.