Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) SATA RAID Pre-OS RAID Management Environment
Environment
Intel® VROC for Windows*
The Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) package supports BIOS Control Feature Set (BCFS) as well as ATAPI devices and UEFI information protocols in Pre-OS environments.
Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) Features
The Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) Pre-OS features and functionality are one of the key features of the Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) sub-product. To learn about other key features of this Intel® VROC sub-product, refer to Key Features of Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) SATA RAID for Windows*.
Using the BCFS to Differentiate Platform SKUs
Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) Pre-OS has support for BIOS Control Feature Set (BCFS) to enable platform manufacturers the opportunity to customize the Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) feature offerings. Platform manufacturers can enable/disable the desired features per platform SKU directly in their BIOS code. By clearing or setting the corresponding bits of the Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) Feature Capabilities register in the Intel® chipset’s SATA controller MMIO space, platform manufacturers now have greater flexibility in determining what Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) features will be supported per platform model/SKU.
The following sections explain the use of each of the bits in the BCFS, also known as the Software Feature Mask bits.
Note
This information does not cover details on how to set up a system BIOS. For that level of information, contact the user’s platform’s BIOS vendor.
Configuring the Platform’s RAID Related Features
When the BIOS has set the SATA controller’s mode to RAID, the following bits of the Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) Feature Capabilities register in the Intel® chipset’s SATA controller MMIO space will determine what RAID levels will be supported on the platform SKU:
| BCFS Bit Number | Bit Meaning | Values | Additional Information | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Enable/Disable RAID 0 | Disabled | 0x0 | If all RAID levels are disabled, all BCFS settings will be set back to default and OROM UI delay will be set to 2 seconds. |
| Enabled | 0x1 | |||
| 1 | Enable/Disable RAID 1 | Disabled | 0x0 | |
| Enabled | 0x1 | |||
| 2 | Enable/Disable RAID 10 | Disabled | 0x0 | |
| Enabled | 0x1 | |||
| 3 | Enable/Disable RAID 5 | Disabled | 0x0 | |
| Enabled | 0x1 | |||
| 4 | RESERVED | |||
| 5 | RESERVED | |||
| 6 | Enable/Disable Unlock of HDD in OS | OS cannot unlock HDDs | 0x0 | - |
| OS can unlock HDDs | 0x1 | |||
| 7 | Enable/Disable LED SGPIO | Disabled | 0x0 | - |
| Enabled | 0x1 | |||
| 8 | eSATA RAID Usage | Allow all volume types to span internal and external ports | 0x0 | - |
| Allow only R1 volume type to span internal and external ports. Other volume types allow all eSATA internal disks only if there are enough of them to create the volume. | 0x1 | |||
| 9 | RESERVED | |||
| 10 - 12 | RESERVED | |||
| 13 - 14 | RESERVED | |||
| 15 | RESERVED | |||
Note
Clearing all RAID level related bits to 0 is an unsupported configuration. The Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) Legacy OROM will ignore the BIOS settings and enable all RAID levels.
Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) UEFI Dirty Shutdown Recovery
The Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) UEFI driver will be able to recover from the RAID 5 volume invalid state caused by a Dirty Shutdown condition occurrence if all RIAD 5 disk members are enumerated during system boot.
ATAPI on SATA/sSATA/tSATA Controller
The Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) product will provide support for ATAPI devices connected to the SATA/sSATA/tSATA controller. Pre-OS ATAPI support is handled by the platform system BIOS.
If using an ATAPI device connected to either the sSATA or tSATA controllers to install a Windows* operating system on an Intel® VROC-managed drive or RAID volume on another controller (e.g., SATA controller, Intel® Volume Management Device (Intel® VMD) controller), the installation may be blocked with a pop-up error message in the Windows* pre-install window phase stating that a media driver your computer needs is missing. This is a limitation with Windows* operating systems. If you face this scenario, refer to the below workaround methods:
- If the SATA controller is set to AHCI mode in the BIOS, connect the ATAPI device to that controller (not the sSATA or tSATA controllers) and proceed with the Windows* installation process as usual.
- Set the sSATA or tSATA controller, whichever the ATAPI device is connected to, in the BIOS to RAID mode. Then during the Windows* pre-install phase, load the Intel® VROC driver for that controller. Then proceed with the Windows* installation process as usual.
Support for EFI_ATA_PASS_THRU_PROTOCOL
Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) provides limited support for providing information on the SATA drives managed by Intel® VROC through the EFI_ATA_PASS_THRU_PROTOCOL. This feature will be supported for drives in a RAID volume, pass-thru drives (not in a RAID volume), drives marked as incompatible, drives marked as spares and journaling drives. The following is the list of supported ATA pass-thru commands for RAID members. For any not listed command, the EFI_ATA_PASS_THRU_PROTOCOL.PassThru function will return EFI_UNSUPPORTED status.
CHECK_POWER_MODEDATA_SET_MANAGEMENTDATA_SET_MANAGEMENT_XLDOWNLOAD_MICROCODEEXECUTE_DEVICE_DIAGNOSTICGET_PHYSICAL_ELEMENT_STATUSIDENTIFY_DEVICEIDLEIDLE_IMMEDIATEMUTATE_EXTNCQ_NON_DATANOPREAD_LOG_EXTREQUEST_SENSE_DATA_EXTSECURITY_DISABLE_PASSWORDSECURITY_ERASE_PREPARESECURITY_ERASE_UNITSECURITY_FREEZE_LOCKSECURITY_SET_PASSWORDSECURITY_UNLOCKSET_DATE_AND_TIME_EXTSET_FEATURESSLEEPSMARTSTANDBYSTANDBY_IMMEDIATEWRITE_LOG_EXTDATA_SET_MANAGMENTFLUSH_CACHE_EXT
EFI_ATA_PASS_THRU_PROTOCOL Supported Functions
Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) supports and handles the following EFI_ATA_PASS_THRU_PROTOCOL functions on all drives including RAID member drives:
BuildDevicePath()GetDevice()GetNextDevice()GetNextPort()PassThru()
Intel® VROC (SATA RAID) reports as EFI_UNSUPPORTED for the following EFI_ATA_PASS_THRU_PROTOCOL functions on all drives including RAID member drives:
ResetDevice()ResetPort()