Announcement: Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Support on X299 Platforms
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.
Intel® VROC can be enabled on any platform with processors that support the Intel® VMD feature, which the X299 chipset has. However, Intel® VROC support on High-End Desktop (HEDT) platforms has moved to sustaining mode. Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) is the primary storage solution for the X299 platforms.
Intel® RST is a set of solutions optimized for single user PC clients, focusing on system responsiveness, application load time and system boot time while being conscious of overall power usage. While it is targeted for any client platform, it has a strong use case to drive functionality and performance of HEDT hardware.
| What changed? |
| Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) is targeted as an enterprise product, mainly for servers and workstations. At the beginning, Intel® VROC was also enabled on X299 client platforms. This initial decision was made at the time of launch in 2017. Since then, it has become apparent that Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) is a better product to support RAID on X299 platforms, partly because of the Intel® RST availability, broad SSD support and no need for an extra key license. Intel® RST is free and it supports Intel as well as non-Intel storage devices. Intel® VROC will continue to have its key licensing policies, which are more in line with enterprise product expectations. Intel® VROC support on High-End Desktop (HEDT) platforms has moved to sustaining mode. Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) is the primary storage solution for the X299 platforms. Check with your X299 HEDT motherboard vendor for additional information. |
What is the difference between Intel® RST and Intel® VROC?
- Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) is a client solution set optimized for single user, low I/O queue depth, and low latency that includes RAID functionality among other storage focused features.
- Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) is an enterprise RAID solution primarily targeting server and professional workstation applications optimized for multi-user, multi-thread, and transaction-heavy workloads with higher I/O queue depths.
| Description | Intel® RST | Intel® VROC |
| Target Market Segment | Client PCs (Gaming/Enthusiast, Desktop, AiO, Notebook, 2:1 Laptop, Convertibles, etc.). | Enterprise and Data Center (Server and Workstations). |
| Target Microprocessors | Intel® Core™, Pentium® and Celeron® processors. | Intel® Xeon® processors. For full functional NVMe* SSD support: Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors with Intel® VMD. |
| Target Operating Systems | Microsoft* Client OS, including Windows* 11, 10, 8.1, 7. | Microsoft* Windows* Server OS, Linux* OS, VMware* ESXi*. |
| Key Features |
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| SSD/HDD Support |
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| Workload Optimizations | Single user with applications anchored on latency at low queue depth (QD1-QD4). | Multiple users (workers) and/or multi-depth workloads with queue depth (QD4+). |
| Additional considerations |
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| Related topics |
| Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Supported Configurations |
| User Guides for Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) |
| Resources for Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) |