Add an NVDIMM Device to a Virtual Machine

Add a virtual NVDIMM device to a virtual machine to enable it to use non-volatile, or persistent, computer memory. Non-volatile memory (NVM), or persistent memory (PMem), combines the high data transfer rates of the volatile memory with the persistence and resiliency of traditional storage. The virtual NVDIMM device is a virtual NVM device that can retain stored data through reboots or power source failures.

If an ESXi host fails or the datastore is no longer accessible, when you add an NVDIMM device to a virtual machine, you can configure vSphere HA to failover all PMem virtual machines on another host.

Note: If a host fails, NVDIMM PMem data cannot be restored. vSphere HA will restart the virtual machine on another host with a new and empty NVDIMM of the same size.

For more information, see the vSphere Resource Management guide.

Prerequisites

Power off the virtual machine.
Verify that the guest operating system of the virtual machine supports PMem.
To add an NVDIMM device to a virtual machine, verify that the virtual machine hardware is of version 14 or higher.
Verify that you have the Datastore.Allocate space privilege on the virtual machine.
Verify that the host or the cluster on which the virtual machine resides has available PMem resources.
To configure vSphere HA for PMem virtual machines:
- Verify that the virtual machine hardware is of version 19 or higher.
- Verify that vSphere HA is enabled on the cluster.

Procedure

Add an NVDIMM device to a virtual machine when you deploy a virtual machine or edit an existing virtual machine.

Option	Action
Create a virtual machine	Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine and select New Virtual Machine. On the Select a creation type page, select Create a new virtual machine, and click Next. Navigate through the pages of the wizard. On the Customize hardware page, click the Virtual Hardware tab. On the Virtual Hardware tab, click the Add New Device button. From the drop-down menu, select NVDIMM.
Edit a virtual machine	Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings. Click the Virtual Hardware tab. On the Virtual Hardware tab, click the Add New Device button. From the drop-down menu, select NVDIMM.

Option

Action

Create a virtual machine

Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine and select New Virtual Machine.
On the Select a creation type page, select Create a new virtual machine, and click Next.
Navigate through the pages of the wizard.
On the Customize hardware page, click the Virtual Hardware tab.
On the Virtual Hardware tab, click the Add New Device button.
From the drop-down menu, select NVDIMM.

Edit a virtual machine

Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
Click the Virtual Hardware tab.
On the Virtual Hardware tab, click the Add New Device button.
From the drop-down menu, select NVDIMM.

The NVDIMM device appears in the Virtual Hardware devices list together with the virtual NVDIMM controller. Each virtual machine can have a maximum of one virtual NVDIMM controller and each NVDIMM controller can have up to 64 virtual NVDIMM devices.

Note: You can change the size of the NVDIMM device at a later time. The virtual machine must be powered off.

In the New NVDIMM text box, enter the size of the NVDIMM device and select the units from the drop-down menu.

Note: Adjust the size of the newly added devices in accordance with the amount of the PMem available to the host. If any part of the configuration requires attention, the wizard alerts you.
Expand the New NVDIMM device section and select the Allow failover on another host for all NVDIMM devices check box.

Note: When you allow the failover process, if you add another NVDIMM device to the virtual machine, the NVDIMM device will have PMem HA enabled. If you want to preserve the NVDIMM content of the virtual machine during a host failure, make sure to deselect the Allow failover on another host for all NVDIMM devices check box.
If you deploy a virtual machine, click Next.
If you edit an existing virtual machine, click OK.

Results

When you power on the virtual machine, you can view the vSphere HA Protection status of the virtual machine in the vSphere HA panel on the Summary tab.