Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Hardware Configurations Support List

Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) is an enterprise RAID solution that unleashes the performance of NVMe* SSDs. Intel® VROC is enabled by a feature in Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors called Intel® Volume Management Device (Intel® VMD), an integrated controller inside the CPU PCIe root complex. NVMe* SSDs are directly connected to the CPU, allowing the full performance potential of fast storage devices to be realized. Intel® VROC enables these benefits without the complexity, cost, and power consumption of traditional hardware RAID host bus adapter (HBA) cards placed between the drives and the CPU.

Below are the configurations and platform limitations supported on Intel® VROC. Keep in mind the following considerations while navigating through the supported hardware configurations below.

What you should know about the Intel® VROC supported hardware configurations

The information below covers what Intel® VROC can support. Platform level constraints may supersede this information. Confirm the support with the platform provider.

General Configuration Limitations

Maximum Drives Supported

• 4 direct attached drives per Intel® VMD domain.
• 24 drives per single Intel® VMD controller when using switches.
• 24 drives per RAID 0/5 array.
• 4 drives per RAID 10 array.
• 2 drives per RAID 1 array.
• 96 NVMe* drives per platform (may require switches).

Platform Considerations

• Up to 2 levels of switches.
• Up to 2 RAID volumes per array.
• Data volumes are supported to span across 1 or more Intel® VMD domain and CPUs. Boot volumes may function when spanning Intel® VMD controllers, but this configuration is not supported.

VMWare* ESXi* Specific Configuration Limitations

Intel® VROC for VMware* ESXi* has specific configuration limitations noted below. Refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) User Guide for VMware* ESXi* for more information.

• RAID 1 boot volume.

• RAID 1 data volume.

• Only 1 volume is supported on a given array of drives. Matrix RAID is not supported.

• RAID 0/10/5 are not currently supported.

• SATA RAID is not supported.

• Boot device and data device may be attached to the same Intel® VMD domain if vSAN is not implemented. Example: If not using vSAN, plug four drives behind one Intel® VMD domain/controller. Create two RAID 1 volumes. Install the operating system on one volume and use the other one for data.

• If vSAN is implemented, the boot volume must be on a separate Intel® VMD domain/controller from the data volume. Example: Boot volume (either a single device or two disk RAID 1 volume) is on a dedicated Intel® VMD domain/controller.

• Additional scenario clarifications:

  • A disk can only be used in one RAID array. If you only use part of the disk in the RAID array, the rest of the disk cannot be used (i.e., no matrix RAID support).
  • There can be more than one vSphere configured datastore on a single RAID array, but there cannot be more than one RAID array using the same disks (i.e., no matrix RAID support).
  • If vSAN is used, you cannot have both a boot datastore and any other datastore on the same Intel® VMD controller. In other words, if you are using vSAN, you cannot have the boot datastore and a data datastore based on the same Intel® VMD controller.
  • If vSAN is not used, you can have a boot datastore and a data datastore based on the same Intel® VMD controller.

Switch Support List

Intel has engaged with the switch vendors listed below in order to support Intel® VMD and therefore Intel® VROC functionality, such as NVMe* drive LED management with RAID. Contact your respective switch vendor to confirm the make/models that support Intel® VMD.

• Broadcom*
• Microsemi*
• Pericom*
• Semtech*