Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) SKUs and Licensing
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 (VMD NVMe* RAID) is enabled on a platform through a license mechanism that is implemented by the platform provider. The license SKU used mainly impacts the RAID levels available. Intel® VROC supports the below feature sets (SKUs) that requires a licensing mechanism to activate. You can also consult the Data Sheet: Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) SKUs and Licensing Summary.
| Consult with your platform provider |
| Purchase the proper licensing from your platform provider. Consult with the platform provider for their specific licensing details. |
Intel® VROC SKUs
Intel® VROC offers basic functionality included with PCH. Option to add three RAID enabled feature sets (Standard, Premium, RAID1 Only).
| Features | Pass-Thru (included with PCH) | Standard SKU | Premium SKU | RAID1 Only SKU | |
| Intel® VMD | Hot-Plug | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fault Isolation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| LED Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) Key Management | No | No | Yes | No | |
| NVMe* RAID | Bootable RAID | No | Yes | Yes | RAID 1 Only |
| RAID 0/1/10 | No | Yes | Yes | RAID 1 Only | |
| RAID 5 | No | No | Yes | No | |
| SATA RAID1 | SATA RAID on PCH
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 No licensing is needed for Intel® VROC (SATA RAID). Functionality is included with the Intel® Xeon® and chipset purchase.
2 After the Intel® NAND business was acquired by SK Hynix* (Solidigm*), the Intel® VROC Intel SSD Only SKU was removed from this list. See more details in Announcement : End-of-Life (EOL) for the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Hardware Key “Intel SSD Only”.
Intel® VROC Licensing
The following licensing options are offered as mechanisms to acquire Intel® VROC licenses.
Intel® VROC Hardware Key
Hardware key inserted into a motherboard header to enable the desired Intel® VROC feature set.
| SKU | Item Name | Item Description |
| Standard | VROCSTANMOD | Intel® VROC Standard SKU (RAID 0/1/10) |
| Premium | VROCPREMMOD | Intel® VROC Premium SKU (RAID 0/1/5/10) |
| Looking for hardware key installation instructions? |
| Refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Hardware Key Installation Guide for instructions on how to install the Intel® VROC hardware key in the server board. |
| 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) |