Intel® Server System R2000WF Product Family Technical Product Specification
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Figure 66. NVMe* storage bus event/error handling
Intel® VMD handles the physical management of NVMe storage devices as a standalone function but can be
enhanced when Intel® VROC support options are enabled to implement RAID based storage systems. See
section 7.4.3 for more information.
Hardware is integrated inside the processor PCIe* root complex.
Entire PCIe* trees are mapped into their own address spaces (domains).
Each domain manages x16 PCIe* lanes.
Can be enabled/disabled in BIOS setup at x4 lane granularity.
Driver sets up/manages the domain (enumerate, event/error handling)
May load an additional child device driver that is Intel VMD aware.
Hot plug support - hot insert array of PCIe* SSDs.
Support for PCIe* SSDs and switches only (no network interface controllers (NICs), graphics cards,
etc.)
Maximum of 128 PCIe* bus numbers per domain.
Support for MCTP over SMBus only.
Support for MMIO only (no port-mapped I/O).
Does not support NTB, Quick Data Tech, Intel® Omni-Path Architecture, or SR-IOV.
Correctable errors do not bring down the system.
Intel® VMD only manages devices on PCIe* lanes routed directly from the processor. Intel® VMD
cannot provide device management on PCI lanes routed from the chipset (PCH)
When Intel VMD is enabled, the BIOS does not enumerate devices that are behind Intel VMD. The
Intel VMD-enabled driver is responsible for enumerating these devices and exposing them to the
host.
Intel® VMD supports hot-plug PCIe* SSDs connected to switch downstream ports. Intel® VMD does
not support hot-plug of the switch itself.
7.4.2.1
Enabling Intel® VMD support
In order for installed NVMe devices to utilize the Intel® VMD features of the server board, Intel VMD must be
enabled on the appropriate CPU PCIe root ports in BIOS setup. By default, Intel VMD support is disabled on
all CPU PCIe root ports in BIOS setup.
Storage bus event/error handled by
BIOS or OS
.
NVMe* Support w/o Intel® VMD
NVMe* driver
PCIe*
NVMe*
SSDs
OS PCI bus driver
Storage bus event/error handled by
storage driver
.
Intel® VMD-enabled
NVMe* driver
OS PCI bus driver
PCIe*
NVMe*
SSDs
Processor
NVMe* Storage with Intel® VMD
Intel® VMD
