Users Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC NVDIMM-N Persistent Memory User Guide
- Introduction
- Change list
- NVDIMM-N Overview
- Hardware
- BIOS
- iDRAC NVDIMM-N Management
- Server Behavior with NVDIMM-Ns
- DIMM Configuration Changes
- Windows
- Linux
- ESXi
- General Errata
Storage Spaces Support
Windows Server 2016 supports NVDIMM-N devices that allow for extremely fast input/output (I/O) operations. One attractive
way of using such devices is as a write-back cache to achieve low write latencies. Microsoft blog discusses how to set up a
mirrored storage space with a mirrored NVDIMM-N write-back cache as a virtual drive. To setup storage spaces configuration
on NVDIMM-N, see Configuring Storage Spaces with a NVDIMM-N write-back cache.
Operational and Diagnostics Logging information
The NVDIMM-N bus driver, scmbus.sys, writes its logs to the Microsoft-Windows-Scmbus provider. To see them, open Event
Viewer and navigate to Applications and Services Logs -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Scmbus
The NVDIMM-N disk driver, scmdisk0101.sys, writes its logs to the Microsoft-Windows-ScmDisk0101 provider. To see them,
open Event Viewer and navigate to Applications and Services Logs -> Microsoft -> Windows -> ScmDisk0101
Following is the example NVDIMM-N Disk
Figure 23. Operational and Diagnostics Logging information: NVDIMM-N Disk
By using the UniqueId or serial number one can identify the NVDIMM-N physical location
Figure 24. NVDIMM-N physical location
Storage Class Memory in Windows Server 2019
NVDIMM-N FW Requirement
Windows Server 2019 requires NVDIMM-N devices to support labels in order for the OS to configure namespaces. NVDIMM-N
Firmware 8860 doesn’t have label space functionality and devices with this firmware cannot be configured by Windows Server
2019.
The NVDIMM-N firmware must be updated to FW 9324 or above so that the devices can be successfully configured and used in
Windows Server 2019.
It is also recommended to update BIOS, iDRAC and the Operating System as part of the scheduled update.
Driver Architecture Overview
There are two types of device objects related to persistent memory in Windows Server – Physical NVDIMMs and Logical
Persistent Memory Disks on top of the physical driver.
In Device Manager, physical NVDIMMs appear under "Memory devices", while logical disks are under "Persistent memory disks".
Windows
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