Enabling NVMe Memory Tiering on Dell PowerEdge servers using VMware vSphere 9.0
Summary: NVMe Memory Tiering feature enables configuring local NVMe devices on ESXi hosts as tiered memory in addition to Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). This enablement is from VMware vSphere 9.0 and later versions. Dell supports NVMe Memory Tiering for the NVMe devices supported on PowerEdge servers which are listed in the Broadcom Compatibility Guide (BCG) for vSphere 9.0. ...
This article applies to
This article does not apply to
This article is not tied to any specific product.
Not all product versions are identified in this article.
Instructions
Pre-Requisites and limitations
- Dell PowerEdge servers compatible for VMware vSphere 9.0:
- Refer to PowerEdge Compatibility Matrix for vSphere 9.x or Broadcom Compatibility guide (BCG)
- Locally connected NVMe devices on Dell PowerEdge servers:
- Refer to NVMe Devices Requirements for more information
- It is important to review and understand the use cases prior to configuring NVMe Memory tiering. Refer to Capacity planning considerations.
- It is equally important to understand the limitations when NVMe Memory tiering is enabled. Refer to Broadcom documentation on the same.
- Ensure that the NVMe devices to be configured for NVMe memory tier are not configured for Raw Device Mapping (RDM), vSAN Disk Groups, Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) Datastores, and VMDirectpath IO.
Configuring NVMe Memory Tiering
NVMe memory tiering is enabled using multiple methods such as ESXCLI, vCenter, or PowerCLI cmdlets on vSphere 9.0. It is possible to configure this feature for a single node in a given cluster or on all hosts at a cluster level for user flexibility.
NOTES:
- vSphere 9.0 by default allocate 100% of DRAM capacity as Memory tiering from local NVMe Disk. This can be altered using an advanced setting in ESXi. Refer to VMware documentations on the same.
- Upon enabling memory tier using a local NVMe device, hotplug of the same device is not supported.
- Virtual Machines enabled with Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV), Software Guard Extension (SGX), Trust Domain Extension (TDX), VMDirectPath IO, Virtual Machine (VM) suspend, Large VMs having several vCPUs and Memory do not support memory tier.
References
- Advanced Memory Tiering on vSphere 9.0
- Memory Tiering over NVMe
- VMware vSphere ESXi 9.x Release Notes at Dell support detailing known issues around the NVMe memory tier
Affected Products
VMware ESXi 9.xArticle Properties
Article Number: 000396257
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 17 Jul 2026
Version: 3
Find answers to your questions from other Dell users
Support Services
Check if your device is covered by Support Services.