Samsung NVMe drivers for MS Windows Server 2016 ?

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TedB

Active Member
Dec 2, 2016
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Does anybody know how to get or how to install Samsung NVMe drivers for MS Windows Server 2016 ?

Samsung support webpage offers NVMe drivers version 2.1 for Windows 10, while installing on MS Windows Server 2016 it complains that's not supported OS. Tried to extract files from the .exe however managed to get just number of oddly named files, by examining content some text (like eula, xml, etc.) others binary.

MS Windows Server 2016 has native NVMe driver which works, however performance is not what I would expect and also smartctl is not supported. Googling several pages has pointed out that Samsung NVMe driver should rectify both of these issues.
 

Tom5051

Active Member
Jan 18, 2017
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Are you using the 64bit drivers on 2016? Odd because they should work.
 

TedB

Active Member
Dec 2, 2016
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Yes. I have downloaded Samsung NVMe Drivers version 2.1 from Samsung Support website and they are being designated for Windows 7/8/10. So they should work, however installer complains that the host os is not supported.

I have managed to get a ZIP file (no installer) from some driver aggregation page, version 2.4.7 and just right click, install and it worked. System reports them as Samsung NVMe drivers. I don't like to download drivers from third party sites however I wasn't able to find them on Samsung site.

However I don't see much difference in performance but smartctl data is being returned now. Great !

I used diskspd to run numerous test with different variables and there is not much difference in throughput or iops compared to native Microsoft NVMe drivers.
 

intrasight

New Member
May 25, 2017
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Hey, I'm in the same boat. I tried installing Samsung driver v 2.2 and got the "Samsung NVM Express Driver cannot be installed on this operating system" message. Wondered if you have any followup results or advice.

My Samsung 960 Pro is giving lousy results (Seqential Read 1800) with the Microsoft driver and I am considering options - including switching to Windows 10 (I used Windows Server 2016 to avoid all the bloatware that comes with Windows 10)
 

Vidmo

Member
Feb 3, 2017
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Hi All,
I just reinstalled my Server 2016 from scratch and ran into the same thing, but I found a workaround.

Install the Samsung NVMExpress Driver Rev 1.1 first as it does not have the Windows version check in it. After you install that version then you can install any later versions as the installer checks to see if an older version of the NVMExpress Driver has been installed before anything else. When installing a newer version (like 2.3) the installer sees the Rev 1.11 driver so its skips the OS check and you're good to go from there.

If anyone needs the 1.1 driver revision, just let me know.

Vidmo
 
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TedB

Active Member
Dec 2, 2016
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In the end we have decided to sell all of the samsung nvme drives due to these driver problems.
 

Herman F.

New Member
Apr 30, 2018
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Hi All,
I just reinstalled my Server 2016 from scratch and ran into the same thing, but I found a workaround.

Install the Samsung NVMExpress Driver Rev 1.1 first as it does not have the Windows version check in it. After you install that version then you can install any later versions as the installer checks to see if an older version of the NVMExpress Driver has been installed before anything else. When installing a newer version (like 2.3) the installer sees the Rev 1.11 driver so its skips the OS check and you're good to go from there.

If anyone needs the 1.1 driver revision, just let me know.

Vidmo
Hi Vidmo,

I still looking for a working driver for the Samsung 960 EVO in my Windows Server 2016. Can you help e with this. Aswell the Net and Samsung it self are giving me a headache!

Thanks in advance,
Herman F.
 

moblaw

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Jun 23, 2017
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#10 link is dead. I'm still having some issues with samsung nvme in 2016. but the default MS driver works. Although it's probably not the best.
 

JoeP

New Member
Nov 13, 2018
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UPDATE: While you can use the instructions in this reply to unpack and use the Samsung driver on other versions of Windows, in the end it caused me a lot of problems. See reply after zkrr01 for details.

I just ran into this with the Samsung 970 V3.0 driver on a Windows Server 2019 server. The 970 V3.0 driver uses WIX. Other versions might too... I downloaded the WIX binaries zip file from their site Downloads I unzipped that to C:\wix and opened a command window to C:\wix. Then I typed in dark.exe C:\samsung\Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe -x C:\samsung

C:\samsung is the folder that I had downloaded and copied the driver file Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.0.exe to. Once dark.exe finished, I had two subfolders in C:\samsung. One of them is called AttachedContainer. That's where the MSI files are. Then you just run the appropriate MSI file. In my case, I ran Samsung970ProInstaller64.msi and it installed the driver without complaining about the Windows version.

A little messy but it works. Come on Samsung, there are other people that run other versions of Windows that actually want to give you our money!
 
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zkrr01

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Jun 28, 2018
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I had a Samsung 970 pro installed and working on Windows Server 2019 using the Windows driver. I then install the c:\samsung and c:\wix directories as explained above and everything worked as described. However no matter what I try, I cannot get it to use the Samsung 3.0 driver.
What am I doing wrong?
 

JoeP

New Member
Nov 13, 2018
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Hey zkrr01, I think the driver is very sketchy. We just removed the Samsung 970 from our server and returned it. It kept interfering with the Intel RST RAID drivers. After removing the Samsung driver, it actually rendered the server unbootable. We had to go through a good bit to recover the registry and reinstall the RST drivers to get the system running again.

Also, I don't think it was the operating system version/type as much as it was that it collided with the RAID driver somehow. We run the same Intel RAID driver on Windows 10 machines. Had we had the time and a Win10 machine we could sacrifice, I would have tested the theory. So no matter which version of Windows you install the Samsung driver on, I would do a good backup before installing it if you have Intel RST installed.
 

zkrr01

Member
Jun 28, 2018
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Thanks JoeP, your response saves me a lot of time and trouble. I suspect Microsoft is aware of conflicts with the Samsung drivers. We have been using the Samsung SSD products since they first came out and no matter what we tried, Microsoft always used their drivers dated 6/21/2006 Version 10.0.171341 on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.

Our tests show the Microsoft drivers run the Samsung SSD's at their rated speeds, so I am confused at reports about the Samsung 3.0 drivers are faster. I am also confused how others have been able to use the Samsung drivers at all on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2019.
 

zkrr01

Member
Jun 28, 2018
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It appears what I said above is correct for Windows 10 and Windows server 2019, but is NOT true for Windows server 2016 when it comes to supporting the Samsung SSD 970 PRO. Has anyone got the 970 pro working with Windows server 2016?