How To Determine Which Intel® Volume Management Device (Intel® VMD) Ports To Enable on Intel® Server Systems

Description

• Do not know which Intel® VMD ports should be enabled.
• A PCIe* add-in card such as an Intel® RAID Controller or Intel® Ethernet Controller is not detected in Windows* Device Manager on Intel® Server System with Intel® VROC (VMD NVMe* RAID) enabled.

Resolution

1. Enable Intel® VMD only on the ports that are connected to NVMe* storage devices:
   • Onboard OCuLink ports that are connected to the Hot Swappable Back Plane (HSBP).
   • PCIe* slots on a Riser that has PCIe* switches or retimers connected to the HSBP.
2. Disable Intel® VMD on all other ports. Otherwise, the corresponding PCIe* slots or OCuLink connectors will not function properly for other usage.
   • Example: An Intel RAID Controller cannot be detected when installed in a PCIe slot with Intel® VMD enabled.
3. Enable/disable Intel® VMD from the UEFI BIOS menu:
   1. Press F2 during the system power on.
   2. Navigate to Advanced > PCI Configuration > Volume Management Device.

Additional information

Refer to the Technical Product Specification of your Intel Server Board or Intel Server System to identify the corresponding Riser/Slot or onboard OCuLink port number and further details on Intel® VMD configuration.

For example, if the PCIe* switch is installed on the top PCIe slot of the riser slot in the middle of the Intel Server Board S2600WF Family, enable the Intel® VMD ports only for Riser #2 Slot#1.