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Cmdlets for configuring persistent memory devices for Hyper-V VMs

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Applies to: Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019

This article provides system administrators and IT Pros with information about configuring Hyper-V VMs with persistent memory (aka storage class memory or NVDIMM). JDEC-compliant NVDIMM-N persistent memory devices are supported in Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 and provide byte-level access to very low latency non-volatile devices. VM persistent memory devices are supported in Windows Server 2019.

Create a persistent memory device for a VM

Use the New-VHD cmdlet to create a persistent memory device for a VM. The device must be created on an existing NTFS DAX volume. The new filename extension (.vhdpmem) is used to specify that the device is a persistent memory device. Only the fixed VHD file format is supported.

Example: New-VHD d:\VMPMEMDevice1.vhdpmem -Fixed -SizeBytes 4GB

Create a VM with a persistent memory controller

Use the New-VM cmdlet to create a Generation 2 VM with specified memory size and path to a VHDX image. Then, use Add-VMPmemController to add a persistent memory controller to a VM.

Example:

New-VM -Name "ProductionVM1" -MemoryStartupBytes 1GB -VHDPath c:\vhd\BaseImage.vhdx

Add-VMPmemController ProductionVM1x

Attach a persistent memory device to a VM

Use Add-VMHardDiskDrive to attach a persistent memory device to a VM

Example: Add-VMHardDiskDrive ProductionVM1 PMEM -ControllerLocation 1 -Path D:\VPMEMDevice1.vhdpmem

Persistent memory devices within a Hyper-V VM appear as a persistent memory device to be consumed and managed by the guest operating system. Guest operating systems can use the device as a block or DAX volume. When persistent memory devices within a VM are used as a DAX volume, they benefit from low latency byte-level address-ability of the host device (no I/O virtualization on the code path).

Note

Persistent memory is only supported for Hyper-V Gen2 VMs. Live Migration and Storage Migration are not supported for VMs with persistent memory. Production checkpoints of VMs do not include persistent memory state.