How to configure Persistent Memory/NVDIMM on Windows Server 2019 Guest OS

Résumé: The article provide great information on how to configure Persistent Memory/NVDIMM on Windows Server 2019 Guest OS.

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Instructions

On the previous article, "Configuring NVDIMM-N on PowerEdge Servers with Windows Server 2019", you learned about how NVDIMM-N works and how to configure Persistent Memory on Windows Server 2019. This article explains how to configure NVDIMM/PMEM on Windows Server 2019 Guest OS (VM).Example on how to configure NVDIMM on WS2019 Guest OS.

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Configuration
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Server: R740xd fully updated (BIOS, Firmware, Drivers and OS)

2 x CPUs (Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6126T CPU @ 2.60GHz)
2 x NVDIMM-N (16GB DDR4 2666MHz) + 12 x regular RDIMMS (also 16GB DDR4 2666MHz)
BOSS (Boot Optimization Storage Solution) – 2xM.2 SATA SSD in HW RAID used for the OS Installation

DellEMC recommends updating BIOS, firmware, drivers and Operating System as part of your scheduled update cycle. BIOS, firmware, driver and OS updates are intended to improve the reliability, stability and security of your system.

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Storage-Class Memory support for VMs - Limitations
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No VM Migrations
No runtime resizing
No Thin-Provisioning or Snapshots
Implemented through PowerShell

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Configuring NVDIMM/PMEM in a Windows VM
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1. Enable Persistent Memory in the R740xd BIOS.

Figure 1. BIOS Memory Settings

Figure 2. Memory Settings

Figure 3. Persistent Memory Menu

2. Install Windows Server 2019.
3. Install the Hyper-V role.
4. Verify if SCM disk has been detected by the Hypervisor.

Figure 4. Memory Devices on Device Manager

Figure 5. PMEM Devices listed on PowerShell

Figure 6. Physical Disks

5. Create a PMEM Disk.

Figure 7. PMEM Unused Regions

Figure 8. Creating New PMEM disks

Figure 9. PMEM Disks on Get-Physical Disk output

6. Initialize the new PMEM Disks, create new volumes, then format them. Use the parameter -DAX $True in order to properly enable SCM for Hyper-V utilization. You won’t be able to present NVDIMM to VMs if -DAX option is not present.

Figure 10. Identify PMEM Disks only

Figure 11. Initialize Disk, Create New Volume and Format Volume

7. Confirm that DAX is enabled.

Figure 12. DAX Mode Enabled

8. Create a new Gen2 Virtual Machine, then Install Windows Server 2019.
9. Shutdown the VM.
10. Add PMEM Controller to the VM.

Figure 13. Adding VM PMEM Controller

11. Create .vhdpmem file (new file extension). You will need to specify the -Fixed parameter. The vhdpmem disk won’t work with dynamic VHD configuration.

Figure 14. Creating New VHDPMEM VHD

12. Attach VHDPMEM to the VM.

Figure 15. Attaching VHDPMEM Disk to VM

13. Start the VM.
14. Connect to the VM (PowerShell, Console or RDP) and verify if PMEM disks are available.

Figure 16. PMEM in the VM

15. Initialize Disk, create new volume, then format it. For the SQL guys (SQL 2016 or above), if you want to take advantage of NVDIMMs, format the volume as DAX inside the VM (use the -IsDAX $True parameter).

Figure 17. PMEM on VM – Initialize Disk, Create Volume and Format Volume

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Reference Powershell Cmdlets
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#Get PMEM Physical Device Information
Get-PmemPhysicalDevice

#Get Physical Disk Information
Get-PhysicalDisk

#Get PMEM Unused Region and Create New PMEM Disk
Get-PmemUnusedRegion | New-PmemDisk -Atomicity BlockTranslationTable

#Get PMEM Disk Information, Initialize Disk, Create New Partition and Format the Volume in DAX Mode
Get-Disk -FriendlyName Persistent* | Initialize-Disk
Get-Disk -FriendlyName Persistent* | New-Partition -UseMaximumSize -AssignDriveLetter | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -isDAX $True

#Verify if DAX is Enabled
Get-Volume -DriverLetter x,x | Get-Partition | FT DriverLetter,IsDAX

#Get VM, Add PMEM Controller to the VM and Verify PMEM Controller Information
Get-VM
Add-VMPmemController -VMName xxxxxx
Get-VMPmemController -VMName xxxxxx

#Create VDHPMEM File
New-VHD -Path X:\xxxxx.vhdpmem -SizeBytes xxGB -Fixed

#Attach VHDPMEM File to the VM, Get VM Disk Information
Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName xxx -ControllerType PMEM -Path X:\xxxxx.vhdpmem
Get-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName xxxxxx

This article was written by Fabiano Teixeira.
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