VROC™ by Graid Technology Inc. 26.2 VC1 Release Notes for Windows*

Date:5/25/26

Release notes for VROC™ by Graid Technology Inc. for Windows* — VROC 26.2 VC1.

Item	Detail
Release	VROC 26.2 VC1
Operating system	Windows*
Revision	001 — Initial validation release
Date	May 2026

Release Highlights

New features — a UEFI-based licensing mechanism, plus visual and branding updates to the VROC Windows* GUI and UEFI HII menu.
Deprecated features — eight features are deprecated, including Matrix RAID support, Journaling Drive support, and the 90-day trial period. See Deprecated VROC Features.
Issues — 15 known issues are documented; no issues were resolved in this release.
Platforms — VROC (VMD NVMe RAID) supports Intel® Xeon® Scalable (W and SP) and Intel® Xeon® D platforms; VROC (SATA RAID) supports the Intel® W890 chipset.

Introduction

Overview

The VROC family of products provides enterprise RAID solutions for both NVMe* SSD and SATA devices for enterprise servers and workstations:

VROC (VMD NVMe RAID) provides an enterprise RAID solution on platforms that support the Intel® Volume Management Device (Intel® VMD) on Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors.
VROC (SATA RAID) provides an enterprise RAID solution for SATA devices connected to all SATA controllers on the Intel® Platform Controller Hub (Intel® PCH).

"VROC" is a high-level blanket product reference for both VROC (VMD NVMe RAID) and VROC (SATA RAID).

Terminology

Term	Description
AHCI	Advanced Host Controller Interface
BIOS	Basic Input/Output System
GUI	Graphical User Interface
HII	Human Interface Infrastructure
Hot-Plug	The unannounced removal and insertion of a drive while the system is powered on.
Matrix RAID	Two independent RAID volumes within a single RAID array.
MB	Megabyte
Member Disk	An NVMe drive used within a RAID array.
NVMe	Non-Volatile Memory Express
OS	Operating System
PreOS	The VROC images incorporated into the platform BIOS to access the drives, providing the interface to configure the VROC UEFI Drivers.
RAID	Redundant Array of Independent Disks: allows data to be distributed across multiple drives to provide data redundancy or to enhance data storage performance.
RAID1	The data in the RAID volume is mirrored across the RAID array's members.
RAID5	The data in the RAID volume, and parity, are striped across the array's members.
RAID Array	A logical grouping of physical drives.
RAID Volume	A fixed amount of space across a RAID array that appears as a single physical drive to the operating system. Each RAID volume is created with a specific RAID level to provide data redundancy or to enhance data storage performance.
RWH	RAID Write Hole
SSD	Solid State Drive
UEFI	Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
Intel® VMD	Intel® Volume Management Device

Reference OEM Platform Documentation

Refer to your OEM for a full list of available features. If any of the information in this document conflicts with the support information provided by the platform OEM, the platform documentation takes precedence.

Supported Platforms, Chipsets, and SKUs

The VROC package is designed to work on customer platforms that are based on the following Intel reference platforms.

Supported Platforms for VROC (VMD NVMe RAID)

CPU	Platform	VMD 4.0 Device ID	# of VMD
Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor Family – W	Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor family workstation	28C0	6 per CPU †
Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor Family – SP	Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor family server	28C0	6 per CPU †
Intel® Xeon® D Processors Family	Intel® Xeon® D Processor-based platforms	28C0	3 per CPU †

† The number of available VMD controllers depends on the PCIe lane count of the exact CPU model.

Supported Chipsets for VROC (SATA RAID)

Chipset	Platform	RAID Controller Device ID	# of Ports
Intel® W890 series chipset	Platforms containing the Intel® W890 series chipset	2826 (SATA)	8 SATA

Supported Operating Systems

For the latest support matrix for operating systems with VROC, see Supported Operating Systems.

Supported PCIe NVMe* SSDs

All shipping Intel® NVMe* SSDs are supported by the latest version of VROC, except dual-port NVMe* SSDs. For the latest list of supported non-Intel PCIe NVMe* SSDs, see Supported NVMe* Drives.

Platform providers are allowed to self-validate their own list of NVMe* SSDs for use with VROC (VMD NVMe RAID). For more details, contact your platform provider.

New Features

The following features are introduced in the VROC 26.2 VC1 release.

UEFI Licensing

This release introduces a new UEFI-based licensing mechanism. Each license is tied to a particular baseboard serial number (BSN) and is generated at the time of request.

The generated VROC license can be uploaded into the system BIOS using one of two methods available in this first release (26.2):

The VROC UEFI HII interface
The RCfgVROC.efi shell tool

For more information about the architecture or usage of the VROC UEFI Licensing feature, refer to the Technical Product Specifications or the User Guide for Windows*, respectively.

Note

The VROC hardware (HW) license key is still consumed by the VROC 26.2 driver on Granite Rapids server- and workstation-based platforms. On future platforms, the UEFI licensing mechanism will be required to activate VROC.

VROC Windows* and UEFI GUI Visual Updates

This release introduces several visual changes to the VROC Windows* GUI and the VROC UEFI HII menu.

Windows* — All modifications to the VROC Windows* GUI are visual (product rebranding, color scheme changes, and icon changes). Efforts have been made to maintain familiarity and usability for existing users. See Deprecated VROC Features for related changes.
UEFI — Rebranding (product naming only) has also been done in the VROC UEFI HII menu. The VROC UEFI HII menus for VROC (SATA RAID) and VROC (VMD NVMe RAID) now live under a parent VROC™ by Graid Technology Inc. option at the root of the EDK II menu, which appears once SATA RAID or VMD NVMe RAID has been enabled.

Drivers, Images, and Utilities

The VROC release package is constructed of several components. The following are those components and their corresponding version numbers.

Note

Because the components are different entities (but are all required for the product to work properly), the component version numbers may not match each other and will differ from the package version number. The numbering convention has also changed starting with VROC 26.2 — see the Technical Product Specifications for details.

VROC UEFI Drivers

Component	Version	File
VROC UEFI Driver	26.2.0.1172	`VMDVROC_1.efi`
Intel® VMD UEFI	4.1.0.1009	`VMDVROC_2.efi`
VROC (SATA RAID) SATA UEFI Driver	26.2.0.10016	`SataDriver.efi`

All of these images are required to support VROC (VMD NVMe RAID) and VROC (SATA RAID) functionality as a combined installed package.

VROC Windows* Drivers

Component	Version
VROC Windows* GUI	26.2.0.10016
VROC Windows* Installer Package (`SetupVROC.exe`, bilingual)	26.2.0.20016
VROC (VMD NVMe RAID) Windows* F6 Driver (Win10)	26.2.0.10016
VROC CLI	26.2.0.10016

VROC UEFI Utilities

Utility	File(s)
UEFI-based RAID configuration utility	`RCfgVROC.efi` ; `RCfgSata.efi`
UEFI-based comply utility	`RCmpVroc.efi` ; `RCmpSata.efi`
UEFI-based VROC LED test utility	`LedToolVmdVROC.efi` ; `LedToolSata.efi`
UEFI-based clear metadata utility (SATA only)	`RClrSata.efi`
UEFI-based hardware key verification utility	`HWKeyCheckVROC.efi`

VROC Issues

Resolved Issues in the VROC 26.2 Release

No issues were resolved in VROC™ by Graid Technology Inc. 26.2 VC1.

Known Issues in the VROC 26.2 Release

Issue ID	Description
14015389340	When using the AtaPassThru protocol to get information on attached devices from the VROC PreOS, the value of GetNextTargetLun may not be successful.
18015334984	The warning message "Warning: The AHCI driver will be updated to the latest Microsoft AHCI driver in the system" does not appear when installing VROC in AHCI mode using the installer.
18020541368	While within SED Manager, unencrypted drives that are unplugged and then selected to have a security key set up may cause a platform hang.
15010088464	When the SATA controller is switched to RAID mode, SATA drive information is displayed in the VROC SATA HII instead. The user can reference the device information in the VROC SATA HII.
18016767645	Within the VROC SED Manager, a physical drive may appear twice.
18012869559	The VROC GUI and CLI may not forbid operations that use self-encrypting drives in a locked state. Creating a RAID volume with a locked member may result in a failed volume state.
18022812016	When the OS performs a TRIM command on a VROC RAID 1 or RAID 10 comprised of drives that perform TRIM activities in different ways, a data inconsistency may occur in the areas that had been TRIMed.
15013821671	The Windows* GUI did not show a "rebuilding" event on disk hot-plug and insertion when the RAID member is only 100 MB.
18029487344	VROC OS interfaces (Windows* GUI/CLI, Linux* mdadm, Linux/Windows OOB) may not forbid operations that use self-encrypting drives in a locked/foreign state. RAID volume operations with a locked/foreign device will fail (for example, RAID volume creation will fail).
18040635664	Certain platforms may not reboot as expected after product installation using the `-s -b` parameters during the GUI installation process.
18037794909	The installation may unexpectedly start with the `-ver` flag and additional parameters during the VROC GUI installation process.
15017580021	Due to potential changes made by Microsoft in the new Windows* installer introduced with Windows* 2025, the VROC NVMe RAID volume may not be recognized after loading the F6 driver during Windows* 2025 OS installation. This can occur with any Windows* 2025 build, regardless of the VROC driver version or the specific version of Windows* 2025. The current workaround is to click "Refresh" five to ten seconds after initially loading the VROC driver.
15018073505	After a sleep cycle, re-enumeration may take longer than expected for certain drives to enumerate.
14024524599	A standard or premium VROC hardware key may show in "pass-thru" mode.
14025503954	Locating a drive within the BIOS HII menu may result in abnormal LED patterns, such as continual blinking, even though the "locate LED" functionality was turned off.

Deprecated VROC Features

The following features are deprecated in the VROC 26.2 release.

OOB limitation with the RAID1-Only SKU

When VROC is running in pass-thru mode or is licensed with the RAID1-Only SKU, PLDM Redfish Device Enablement (RDE) support is limited so that only the Storage Controller Collection and individual Storage Controller resources are returned, allowing basic controller-level discovery. No physical drives or RAID volumes are presented through RDE PLDM, and management and configuration actions are not supported.

Remove Montage IOH support

System-level support for Montage IOH SATA controllers has been removed. They no longer appear as RAID-capable devices in management utilities or the VROC storage layer.

Remove the VROC trial period

The 90-day premium trial feature for the Windows* VROC (VMD NVMe) product has been removed. If no license is installed in the platform, the product operates in pass-thru mode.

Remove the VROC Windows UI (UWP package) from the Microsoft Store

The VROC Windows* UI is no longer available in the Microsoft Store and is only available through the SetupVROC.exe installer.

Remove the managed unplug feature

The managed unplug (eject drive) feature is completely removed from the Windows* VROC user interface and CLI tool. Physically hot-pluggable drives continue to rely on native OS and platform-level hot-plug handling. This change does not affect normal array operation, hot-plug detection, or recovery behavior; it only removes the dedicated GUI and CLI entry points for triggering a managed unplug operation.

Remove Journaling Drive support

Review before upgrading

After upgrading to VROC™ by Graid Technology Inc. from Intel® VROC, any drive previously used as a Journaling Drive (JD) is marked incompatible in all user interfaces and tools, and the associated RAID5 volume switches to Partial Parity Logging (PPL) to maintain RWH closure.

VROC is removing support for the Journaling Drive (JD) feature in RAID5 configurations. User interfaces and tools — including the UEFI HII, the Windows* VROC GUI, and the Windows* VROC CLI — do not display or allow the use of JDs in RAID5 configurations.

Remove Matrix RAID support

Action required before upgrading

Migrate data on existing Matrix RAID arrays to a non-matrix VROC array before upgrading to VROC 26.2, to avoid potential issues.

VROC no longer supports the creation of Matrix RAID configurations. Existing Matrix RAID arrays continue to operate and are not expected to be disrupted, but Matrix RAID is no longer an officially supported or validated feature. This change affects volume creation and support status only.

VROC™ by Graid Technology Inc. Windows Storage Management Application home screen, showing the in-product deprecation banner for Matrix RAID.

Reduction of supported languages in the Windows GUI and Installer

The Windows* GUI and Windows* Installer support only two languages: English and Simplified Chinese. All other previously supported languages are removed from the Windows* GUI and Installer.