New Features Introduced with the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) 8.6 Release for Windows*

The following information lists the new features introduced with the Intel® VROC 8.6 release for Windows*. To learn about the latest updates of Intel® VROC for Windows*, refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Release Notes for Windows*.

Support for Windows Server* 2025 Enterprise

The Intel® VROC 8.6.0.3001 Windows* release package introduces support for Windows* Server 2025 Enterprise.

Support for Windows 11* 24H2

The Intel® VROC 8.6.0.2003 Windows* release package introduces support for Windows* 11 24H2.

Support for Sanitize Command

Intel® VROC 8.6 introduces support for the NVM Express Pass-Thru Protocol command Sanitize.

Storage System Event Changes

With the release of Intel® VROC 8.6, the storage system event ID 4155 has been replaced with the new event IDs 4162, 4163 and 4164. This change has been implemented to define IO failure conditions more clearly: IO issued to an empty ODD, SATA or NVMe* drive.

Local Key Management Support (TPM) for Self-Encrypting Drives

Now with the Self-Encrypting Drive Key Management Support (SED TPM), integration questions and potential issues reported that will occur during implementation of TPM will be examined and allocated resources to root cause and fix.

Enhanced Cryptographic Algorithm for Intel® VROC Self-Encrypting Drive (SED)

Adjustments were made to the cryptographic algorithms to retain industry compliance. In addition, the removal of excess surplus in the solution was done, in which the result lowers the complexity and retains the security solution to SED overall improving support. 

NVMe* Secure Erase in Pre-OS Environment

An interface protocol will provide an interface for the sanitize command allowing only for pass-through NVMe* drives (RAID members excluded). In order to sanitize a RAID member drive, the OEM implementation must firstly delete the RAID volume, and then send the sanitize command to the pass-through drive. Delete RAID volume functionality will be also provided by the Intel® VROC Standard Storage Interface Protocol.

Intel® VROC Out-of-Band (OOB) Integration with AMI BMC

Intel® VROC OOB validation process will be the standard procedure to also be done on AMI firmware. The same validation test cases that are Intel POR are also applied to AMI BMC validation.