Intel VROCISSDMOD User Manual
Product brief
Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC)
Industry: Data Center
Scalable RAID Designed for CPU
Attached NVMe* SSDs
Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) – an enterprise RAID solution for NVMe*
SSDs directly attached to Intel® Xeon™ Scalable processors.
Today’s data hungry business processes need access to data quicker than ever.
Quicker access to data means faster decision making, better productivity, and quicker
ROI on IT infrastructure. Therefore, Enterprise data storage solutions are migrating to
higher bandwidth and lower latency NVMe*-based SSDs to address the performance
bottlenecks of legacy SATA/SAS interfaces. With this transition, enterprises also
require R AID data protection for NVMe SSDs.
Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) is a new enterprise RAID solution specically
designed for NVMe SSDs that provides expected reliability, while unleashing
the performance of NVMe SSDs. This is made possible by a new feature in nextgeneration Intel® Xeon™ Scalable processors called Intel® Volume Management Device
(Intel® VMD), an integrated controller inside the CPU PCIe* root complex. Because
the NVMe SSDs are directly connected to the CPU, the full performance potential of
reduced latency and increased bandwidth can be realized. Intel VROC enables this
benet without the complexity, cost and power consumption of traditional hardware
RAID HBA cards placed between the drives and the CPU.
Over 2.4M
Read IOPS
in 4-Disk RAID 0
Scalable RAID for Growth on Demand
A single Intel Xeon Scalable processor using Intel VROC is capable of supporting up
to 12 NVMe SSDs directly attached to the CPU, and up to 6 R AID arrays.2 On dual-
socket system congurations, that amount doubles. In addition, Intel VROC supports
both boot volumes and data volumes, enabling the exibility to use one array for both
system and data volumes, or separating the arrays respectively. Although a boot RAID
array needs to be within a VMD controller, data RAID arrays can span across multiple
Intel VMD controllers, or even span across dierent processors on the same system.
With a multitude of supported congurations, Intel VROC allows NVMe RAID solutions
to start small, then scale simply and cost eectively.
Rich Management Tools for Easy Maintenance
Intel VROC management tools support today’s modernized data center infrastructure.
Intel VROC allows data center administrators to create and delete RAID volumes in
both pre-OS and OS environments. RAID settings can be congured using either a
user interface or command line, plus the arrays can be managed locally or remotely
1
through a web-based RESTful agent.
NVMe-based SSD management has never been easier. There is no need to reboot the
server to replace a failed drive any longer because surprise hot-plug is supported.
Using the status indicator LED, administrators can visually identify the RAID status (i.e.
normal, initialization, degraded, or fail), as well as locate a particular drive in hundreds
of SSDs. Email notication will alert administrator, should any alarming events occur.
Product Brief | Intel® Virtual Raid on CPU (Intel® VROC)
Reliable RAID for Data Protection
For enterprise, it’s critical to protect data when power loss
occurs unexpectedly. Intel VROC takes that a step further. The
data will even be safe when R AID 5 is in degraded state and
power loss occurs at same time. Most RAID solutions avoid
this problem by requiring a backup power unit, which adds
additional cost. Intel VROC solves this double fault challenge
Unleash the Power of NVMe SSDs Today
Quicker access to data means a more ecient business and
upgrading to NVMe SSDs is the rst step to a faster storage
solution. Unleash the full power of these NVMe SSDs with Intel
Virtual RAID on CPU, a complete RAID solution that enables the
unprecedented speed of NVMe SSDs, while knowing that your
data is protected for enterprise applications.
using a patent-pending journaling process without the need of
backup power unit.
Note: Intel® VROC RAID 5 double fault protection feature
depends on state-of-the-art data center NVMe SSDs with
power loss protection.
FEATURES AT A GLANCE
Supported Platform Platforms with Intel® Xeon® processor Scalable family
Supported Operating Systems Windows* 2016, Windows* 2012 R2, Windows* 10, Windows* 7
Supported NVMe-based SSDs All Intel® SSDs for Data Center and Professional, with NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express)
Supported Congurations • Up to 24 SSDs per Intel® VMD controller, per R AID array
SKUs Available Intel VROC Standard: RAID 0/1//10; 3rd Party SSD Support
Key Features • Bootable RAID
Red Hat Enterprise Linux* 7.3, 7.4
SUSE Linux Enterprise* 12 SP3
3rd par ty SSDs:
• Samsung* SM951, SM961, PM953, PM961, PM963
• Toshiba* XG3, PX04PMB
• Micron* 9100 Series
• Lenovo* Atsani
• Huawei* ES3600P
• Up to 48 SSDs per system
• Up to 12 arrays per system
• Up to 2 RAID volumes per array
• Up to 2 levels of switches
• Data volume can span across Intel VMD controllers, boot volume cannot span
Intel VROC Premium: RAID 0/1/5/10; 3rd Party SSD Support
Intel VROC Intel SSD Only: RAID 0/1/5/10; No 3rd Party SSD Support
• RAID controller spanning for data volumes
• Management Tools (UEFI CLI, UEFI HII, OS CLI, GUI, Remote Webpage)
• Surprise Hot-plug
• Status LED Indication
• Hot Spare and Auto-rebuild
• Email Notications for RAID events
• RAID 5 Power Loss Protection for Degraded Volume (Double Fault Protection)
• Bad Block Management
• Various Strip Sizes (4k , 8k, 16k, 32k, 64k, 128k)
Learn more at intel.com/VROC
Register and download the VROC software at: intel.com/downloadVROC
Learn more about Intel® SSDs at intel.com/ssd
1 System con guration : Intel Se rver Syst em S2600W FQ family, Inte l® Xeon® 8170 Series Processo rs, 26 cores@ 2.1GHz, 192GB , BIOS Release 12/22/2 017; OS: Red Hat Enterp rise Linux 7.4*, 4x Intel®
SSD DC P4510 2TB, dr ive rmware: VDV10120; BIOS : Hyper-threading enabled, Turbo/S peedStep enabled, Package C-state set to C6, Processor C6 set to ena bled, P-s tates set to default.
Intel® VR OC-5.3. 0; workload generator: FIO versi on- 3.3, random read: workers-16, I/Odepth-256 , no lesystem, CPU A nitized.
2. The av ailabilit y of the numbe r of NVMe* con nections w ill vary wi th the OEM sys tem designs
Intel technologi es’ featur es and bene ts depend on sys tem congura tion and may require enab led hardware, soft ware or serv ice activation. Performance v aries dep ending on sy stem cong uration .
No comp uter syste m can be absolutely secu re. Check wi th your syste m manufac turer or ret ailer or lear n more at intel .com.
Benchmark resu lts were obtained prior to implemen tation of recent soft ware patch es and rmware up dates intended to address ex ploits refe rred to as “Sp ectre” an d “Meltdow n”. Imple mentati on of
these u pdates may ma ke these results inappl icable to your d evice or sys tem.
Tests document per formance of components on a partic ular test , in specic syste ms. Dierences in har dware, so ftwa re, or congu ration will aect ac tual performance. Consult other sources of inf or-
mation to evaluate performance as you consider your purchase.
No lice nse (expres s or implied, b y estoppel o r otherwis e) to any intelle ctual prop erty rights is gra nted by this do cument.
The products described may contain des ign defec ts or errors kno wn as errat a which may cause the pro duct to devi ate from publ ished specicati ons. Current charac terized err ata are available on
request.
Cost red uction scena rios described are inten ded as examples of how a given Intel-based produc t, in the specied circum stances and congur ations, may aect fut ure costs an d provide cos t savings .
Circu mstances w ill vary. Int el does not gua rantee any co sts or cost re duction .
Intel , Xeon, Intel O ptane, an d the Intel logo a re tradema rks of Intel Co rporatio n in the U.S. a nd/or other cou ntries. *O ther names a nd brands ma y be claimed a s the proper ty of other s.
© 2018 Intel Co rporatio n 0618/R A/JG 336156- 005
Loading...