New Features Introduced with the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) 8.5 Release for Windows*

The following information lists the new features introduced with the Intel® VROC 8.5 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*.

Intel On Demand Licensing

With the Intel® VROC 8.5 release, Intel® VROC will support Intel On Demand as an alternate license activation method alongside the license hardware key. The Intel On Demand activation model is a solution managed primarily by hardware providers to enable license-based activation of select CPU features and software throughout Intel® Xeon® CPU lifecycle. Depending on the hardware provider, licenses can be purchased to enable Intel® VROC (available with 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors codenamed Emerald Rapids) during manufacturing or in field as an upgrade.

RAID 1 Only SKU

Intel® VROC now offers a RAID1 Only SKU that allows the user to select a RAID 1 volume creation option for all applicable drives. This SKU is desirable for those users who are only in need of RAID 1 volume configurations.

The Intel® VROC RAID1 Only SKU configuration is enabled when the Intel® VROC RAID1 Only On Demand license is activated on the platform. This SKU has the same behavior as the Intel® VROC Pass-Thru SKU with the addition of support for RAID 1 capability. When the Intel® VROC RAID1 Only license is activated, and Intel® Volume Management Device (Intel® VMD) is enabled, the Intel® VROC (VMD NVMe* RAID) UEFI HII will enable RAID 1 management on all supported NVMe* drives. This functionality applies only to those PCIe slots that have Intel® VMD enabled.

The message displayed in this mode is: Intel® VROC (RAID1 Only).