StarWind expandable and scalable iSCSI Target SDK

Key Benefits:

Open Architecture: StarWind SDK completely isolates the storage device emulation module from interactions with the iSCSI core protocol. A plug-in takes care of SCSI or ATA commands processing, thus the iSCSI hard disk implementation is less then 2500 lines of C code; a fully functional iSCSI DVD-ROM is a just over 3000 lines of C code.

Target Platforms: Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, XPe (XP embedded), 2003 Server, Vista and Longhorn are supported. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the StarWind SDK are available.

Development Environments: Natively supports Microsoft Visual C/C++ and ANSI C compiler built into Microsoft WDK (Windows Driver Kit). StarWind plug-ins are nothing more then ordinary DLL (Dynamic-Link Library) modules, virtually any tool capable of producing DLLs can be used with StarWind SDK.

Advanced Support and Customization Services: StarWind SDK comes with one year of FREE support and updates. Both off-line support via public forum and e-mail and on-line support via ICQ/MSN or our "LIVE HELP" system are included. Customization services are available at an additional charge to ensure your StarWind project is completed as soon as possible.

Fully Functional iSCSI Target: StarWind SDK is the only development kit of its kind available on the market. Immediately after purchase you get instant access not only to iSCSI core protocol implementation (with source code license option), and also access to the iSCSI hard disk, iSCSI DVD-ROM and iSCSI RAM disk emulation modules, all provided with the sample source code. The samples are complete and could even be shipped to your end-users even without any additional modifications. It is a simple coding exercise to extend the functionality such as the DVD-ROM module with DVD burner, hard disk with multi-LUN support or advanced RAID features, convert RAM disk to VTL (Virtual Tape Library) emulation.

Choice of User Interface: When building an OEM version of a StarWind-powered iSCSI Target appliance you always have a choice of which user interface to provide. StarWind SDK supports both a Win32 UI application more suitable for desktops and also a Web-based control panel for stand-alone storage appliances.

Years of Experience: Our iSCSI Target software development kit (and the shipping end user version of StarWind) has been distributed through the Internet since 2004. StarWind SDK is currently being used by leading companies within their industries as a backbone for their flagship products.

Key Features:

  StarWind SDK is redistributable as a stand-alone Windows service with a set of DLL (Dynamic-Link Library) modules or as a static library (LIB) built into your application executable. We don't force our customers to use a single hard coded approach. A DLL is generally easier to maintain and updates to new StarWind SDK versions are trivial (only core StarWind service executable needs to be replaced) and a LIB is treated as more "secure".

  StarWind serves virtual storage hardware using the cross-platform iSCSI protocol. Currently StarWind is capable of emulating hard disks and DVD-ROM drives, these modules are shipped with full source code included as StarWind SDK sample source code. iSCSI hard disk, iSCSI DVD-ROM and iSCSI RAM disk features can be added to your virtual storage projects. Future StarWind SDKs will contain an iSCSI VTL (Virtual Tape Library) emulation source code sample.

  Auto-provisioning is fully supported by the iSCSI hard disk emulation sample. There's no need to allocate data until it's needed by the user. This feature is implemented with the help of so-called "sparse" image files.

  Control multiple machines running an StarWind-powered iSCSI Target from a single Management Console. With StarWind SDK you get full source code of both a Windows UI and a Web-based control application, both are easy to customize to meet your requirements.

  StarWind is able to use Serial ATA, Parallel ATA, SCSI, Fibre Channel, USB and FireWire storage hardware. You can export an entire disk or a single file or partition on the hard disk as an iSCSI virtual disk. Supported "out of the box".

  Storage hardware (tape drives, automatic tape libraries, high-performance Blu-Ray and HD-DVD burners, DVD-ROM changers etc.) can be "networked" using StarWind.

  StarWind fully supports iSCSI boot from SAN. This allows you to completely eliminate the need for dedicated hard disk drives installed on client machines. With StarWind SDK you can create "domestic" iSCSI Target boot appliances.

  Software RAID-1 (mirror). With StarWind you don't need to place the iSCSI disk volumes on hardware RAID controlled disks or to create RAID volumes using the operating systems capabilities. A software RAID sample is available upon request from Rocket Division Software.

  StarWind leverages RAM installed on the server. It caches both read and write requests for virtual iSCSI disks. With StarWind SDK you can create a dedicated cache management scheme optimized specifically for your unique application.

  IPv4 and IPv6 supported.

  iSNS integration for easy iSCSI targets look-up.

  IPsec encryption for secure tunelling of private data over insecure WAN IP connections. The entire session content is encrypted. Your company secrets and "know how" will stay secure even if you replicate data at the main site to another continent. With StarWind SDK (core source code license) you can also apply additional private key exchange and symmetric encryption schemes.

  CHAP authentication provides additional security.

  StarWind SDK also supports critical event logging to assist troubleshooting.

  Native 32-bit and 64-bit binaries for x86 and x64 machines.

  Fully conforms to the latest iSCSI Standard 1.0 (former Draft 20).

Supported Platforms:

StarWind SDK is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Longhorn.

System Requirements:

Minimum System Requirements:

  Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 installed)

  800 MHz Intel Pentium III class processor

  512 MB of RAM

  50 MB of disk space for StarWind application data

  Shared disk volume for Windows installation, Windows swap file, StarWind executables and StarWind iSCSI image files

  Fast Ethernet connection

Recommended System Requirements:

  Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 1 installed)

  2 GHz Intel Xeon class processor

  4 GB of RAM

  1 GB of disk space for StarWind application data and log files

  Dedicated disk volumes for Windows installation, Windows swap file, StarWind executables and StarWind iSCSI image files

  Gigabit Ethernet connection

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