Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Operating Systems Support List

Content Type: Compatibility | Article ID: 000099710 | Last Reviewed: 06/11/2025

Environment

Intel® VROC

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.

The supported operating systems by Intel® VROC are shown in the following tables. Keep in mind the following considerations while navigating through the supported operating systems list below.

What you should know about the Intel® VROC supported operating systems

The supported operating systems are shown by family: Windows*, Linux* and VMware* ESXi*.
Only 64-bit operating systems are supported.
The specific operating system releases shown below can run on platforms with the given generation of Intel® Xeon® processors. See details in Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Processors Support List.
Other CPU level or OEM level limitations may apply that supersede the Intel® VROC operating system support noted here.
An exception to the lists below is the 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable 4S/8S (-H) Processor. This processor uses Intel® VMD 1.0 technology, and the operating system support for this processor coincides with the operating system support outlined for 1st and 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Processors.
Out-Of-Band (OOB) Support: Intel® VROC OOB management is a new feature introduced with Intel® VROC 8.0 for use with enterprise servers, which is now supported on Windows* and selected Linux* distributions. Refer to your system vendor for more information about the support of this feature.

Windows* Operating Systems

Intel® VROC for Windows* is delivered through a separate software download. Refer to your platform provider download resources for access. For details about platforms and chipsets, refer to Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Platforms and Chipsets Support List.

For Windows 7*, Intel® VROC 5.6 was the last version that supported this operating system. The Intel® VROC 5.6 package for Windows 7 is delivered through the Intel® VROC 6.x installer, but the build is in sustaining mode. As of Intel® VROC 7.5 release, this Windows 7 driver is no longer included.
For Windows* 10, the supported builds are RS4, RS5, 19H1, 19H2, 20H1, 20H2, 21H1, 21H2, 22H2, 21H2. Windows* 10 RS5 introduces/includes WinPE support.
For Windows Server* 2012 R2, Intel® VROC 8.2 was the last version that supported this operating system. Intel® VROC 8.5 and subsequent driver versions do not support Windows Server 2012 R2. Although Microsoft* announced the operating system has reached its end of life, Microsoft* still allows the purchase of Extended Security Updates (ESU) until 2026.

Intel® Chipset Family Matrix

Operating System	Intel® C220/C230/C240 Series Chipset Based Platforms	Intel® C610/C620/C741 Series Chipset Based Platforms



*Windows 10**	Yes	Yes
Windows 11	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2012 R2	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2016	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2019	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2022	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2025	Yes	Yes

Intel® Xeon® Processors Family Matrix

Operating System	Intel® Xeon® Processors Family
	Intel® Xeon® W Processors	Intel® Xeon® E Processors¹	Intel® Xeon® D Processors	Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors
				1st Gen to 4th Gen	5th Gen to 6th Gen
				1st Gen to 4th Gen	5th Gen to 6th Gen
*Windows 10**	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Windows 11	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Windows Server 2012 R2	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Windows Server 2016	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2019	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2022	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows Server 2025	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

¹ Intel® Xeon® E processors support only Intel® VROC (SATA RAID). Support for Intel® VROC (VMD NVMe* RAID) is not available.

Linux* Operating Systems

Intel® VROC for Linux* is mostly delivered through open-source operating system kernel and user space tools, with no additional software download required for specific Linux* distribution releases. It is up to the specific operating system vendor to pull-in Intel® VROC features and patches. The distributions below have Intel® VROC support, with newer releases being more complete.

In the list below, keep in mind the considerations below:

Out-Box: An updated driver/utility package with bug fixes or enhancements from Intel is available. Refer to your platform provider download resources for access.
In-Box: Use native drivers and utilities in the Linux* distribution GA/GM version, without any additional updated package from Intel.

Operating System	Intel® VMD Generation
Operating System	1.0 (1st & 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Processors)	2.0¹ (3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Processors)	3.0 (4th & 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Processors)	4.0 (Intel® Xeon® 6 Processors)
*RHEL 7.3 & 7.4**	Out-Box Only	No	No	No
RHEL 7.5	In-Box	No	No	No
RHEL 7.8, 7.9 & 8.1	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box	No	No
RHEL 8.2	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box	No
RHEL 8.3, 8.4 & 8.5	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box	No
RHEL 8.6 & 8.7	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box
RHEL 8.8	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box
RHEL 8.9	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box
RHEL 8.10	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box
RHEL 9.0 & 9.1	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box
RHEL 9.2	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box
RHEL 9.3	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box
RHEL 9.4	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box
*SLES 12 SP3 & SP4**	In-Box	No	No	No
SLES 12 SP5	In-Box	Out-Box Only	No	No
SLES 15 & 15 SP1	In-Box	No	No	No
SLES 15 SP2	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box	No
SLES 15 SP3	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box	No
SLES 15 SP4	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	No
SLES 15 SP5	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box
SLES 15 SP6	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box
*Ubuntu 18.04.3**	In-Box	No	No	No
Ubuntu 18.04.4	In-Box	In-Box	No	No
Ubuntu 18.04.5	In-Box	In-Box	No	No
Ubuntu 20.04.0 & 20.04.1	In-Box	In-Box	No	No
Ubuntu 20.04.3	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box & Out-Box	No
Ubuntu 22.04.3	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	No
Ubuntu 22.04.4 & later	In-Box²	In-Box²	In-Box²	In-Box²
Ubuntu 24.04	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box	In-Box

¹ Intel® Xeon® D processors (Idaville platform) using Intel® VMD 2.0 support only Ubuntu* 20.04. See more details about Intel® VMD generations in Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Platforms and Chipsets Support List.
² Contact your Intel VROC representative to confirm support status.

CentOS* is a community supported operating system and Intel® VROC is limited in the support options for these distributions. CentOS* is not a validated distributions for Intel® VROC. If a CentOS* issue can be reproduced using the corresponding RHEL release, then the issue can be addressed.
For SUSE Linux* Enterprise, Intel® VROC does not support the specific general-public Xeon-Hypervisor virtualization platform.
For full implementation details in Ubuntu*, refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) User Guide for Ubuntu* 18.04.3/4 LTS Server.
For full implementation details in RHEL*, refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) User Guide for Red Hat Enterprise Linux* (RHEL).

VMware* ESXi* Operating Systems

The VMware® ecosystem is supported with the same pre-OS driver that is used for Intel® VROC. In the OS/Hypervisor, the Intel® VROC driver for ESXi* is supported and RAID 1 boot and RAID 1 data volumes are supported.

Operating System	Intel® Xeon® Processor Generation
Operating System	1st Gen	2nd Gen	3rd Gen	4th Gen	5th Gen	6th Gen
*ESXi 7.0 U3**	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ESXi 8.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ESXi 8.0 U1	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ESXi 8.0 U2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ESXi 8.0 U3	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ESXi 9.0	No	No	Planned¹	Planned¹	Planned¹	Planned¹

¹ Awaiting GA release.

Inbox and async driver options are available for the Intel® VROC driver for ESXi* 7.x and 8.x.
Inbox driver only is provided for ESXi* 9.0 and later. Async drivers are no longer provided for ESXi* 9.0 and later.
Refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) User Guide for VMware* ESXi* for extensive information on the Intel® VROC driver for ESXi*.