# I don't understand what Intel VROC does, i was able to set up RAID 1 and RAID 5 without a VROC key



## terroralpha (Jun 17, 2019)

hello,

it was my understanding that if you wanted to set up anything other than RAID 0 with nVME drive son X299, you have to buy a VROC key. i recently picky some Inland 1TB vNME drives (not intel!) and decided to experiment with it. the BIOS let me create any RAID i wanted (0, 1 and 5) on 3 disks, and i was able to install windows on it. it was able to boot from the RAID arrays with no other disks in the system. after playing around in RAID 5, i settled for RAID 0 because I want the space. 

so, now i'm confused. i thought i would need a VROC key for this. did intel change their minds? or is this a glitch?

my specs are in my profile. running latest BIOS (1.6) and installed windows 1903.


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## Solaris17 (Jun 17, 2019)

It is my understanding that not only may it be specific to intel branded SSDs but that VROC itself is a setting in the software CP like RSTe.



> An Intel VROC HW key is required to use RAID 0/1/5/10 for most SSDs. However, Intel VROC is also designed to provide RAID 0 for eight times Intel® SSDs without requiring an HW key. For instance, the Intel® DC P3608 SSD. For any other regular x4 SSDs, without an HW key, RAID0 may work, but isn't supported. In short, an Intel VROC HW key is required for official support for RAID0 with regular x4 SSDs.











						Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Support on X299
					

Explains Intel® VROC support on X299 systems.




					www.intel.com
				




Otherwise RAID works normally without the use of VROC. I know im using the basic motherboard RAID functionality with no mention of VROC on my machine.

The documentation does not seem very clear though.


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## newtekie1 (Jun 17, 2019)

It was always my understanding that you only needed to worry about VROC if you are running RAID using the PCI-E lanes provided by the CPU.  If you are using the lanes coming from the X299 chipset, then RAID functions as it always has.


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