Intel 750 NVMe SSD Driver (IaNVMe.sys) Crashing Windows Server 2012 R2

[PPete7]

I have just purchased two Supermicro SuperServer model http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2u/2028/SYS-2028U-TN24R4T_.cfm SYS-2028U-TN24R4T+ systems with motherboard http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10DRU-i_.cfm X10DRU-i+ and latest BIOS v2.0. Each system has 24 Intel 750 NVMe SSD model http://ark.intel.com/products/86741/Intel-SSD-750-Series-1_2TB-2_5in-PCIe-3_0-20nm-MLC SSDPE2MW012T4X1 disks. The systems have Windows Server 2012 R2 with all updates and https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23929/Intel-SSD-Data-Center-Family-for-NVMe-Drivers Intel 750 SSD driver v1.5.0.1002. None of these disks is used for booting the OS – just for data storage.

The problem is that the Intel driver IaNVMe.sys crashes each system on reboot (see below console screenshot). The only way I can boot into Windows now is to go into SAFE MODE and rename the IaNVMe.sys driver. Then perform a normal boot, which then succeeds by using Microsoft NVMe driver.

On a related note, I installed the https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25771/-Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Enterprise-NVMe-Inte... Intel NVMe SSD RAID driver on just one of these systems. My hope is to use this to create RAID sets from the NVMe disks. It too (IaRNVMe.sys) is crashing the system on reboot. See the second screenshot below.

I have engaged Microsoft and they have collected MEMORY dumps that are being analyzed. We were able to capture the drivers causing the crashes by enabling the https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/244617 Windows Driver Verifier. Microsoft hopes to give me results of the analysis so that I can pass on to Intel if necessary.

Until then, does anyone have any idea why this is happening? Are these known issues? Are there better drivers?

Thanks!

KPA

[idata]

Hello KPA,

We are checking with other resources if there are additional requirements, or any compatibility implications that may be causing this condition.Systems supporting this amount or NVMe drives were recently released, so we would like to confirm if the problem is the driver itself, or something not working well in this configuration. For testing, please setup a simple configuration (such as single backplane with 1 drive) and check if the system boots this way or not. If it works, please start adding more SSD's and test again, then try with the additional backplanes and drives, until we can determine at which point this happens.Also, let us know if when you use the Microsoft driver, the system works well or not.Have you tried using the https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23931/Intel-SSD-Data-Center-Tool Intel® SSD Data Center Tool to manage the drives?You can actually add logs to the thread using the Advanced editor, ir the logs are too big, or if you prefer to do this privately, let us know and we will use other contact method.JB

[PPete7]

Hi JB,

I will plan on reducing the number of drives as you suggested to determine if this has any effect on the crash. I will report back to you. Meanwhile, all 24 drives work fine with the Microsoft driver.

Regarding your question about whether or not I have tried the https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23931/Intel-SSD-Data-Center-Tool Intel SSD Data Center Tool ... what do you want me to test with this tool?

The memory dump and related files that Microsoft generated for this crash is a 52MB zip file. Let me know how you prefer that I send this file.

Thanks.

KPA

[idata]

Thank you for the update, we will be waiting for results of the test about the amount of drives.

We would like to confirm how the SSD's are detected by ISDCT in this condition, so we can get the output of the command: "isdct show –intelssd" in a text file.

We will let you know soon about reviewing the system dumps.

[PPete7]

I have the results of the "isdct show –intelssd" command. It has serial numbers of my SSDs so I don't believe it should be posted here. Please let me know how to send the text file to you. Thanks.

KPA

[idata]

Hello KPA,

Please check your private messages for additional information about this ticket.