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Screenshot of higher IOPS when running Native NVMe stack on Windows Server 2025.
Windows Server News and Best Practices
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Announcing Native NVMe in Windows Server 2025: Ushering in a New Era of Storage Performance

Yash_Shekar's avatar
Yash_Shekar
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Dec 15, 2025

Native NVMe support in Windows Server 2025 is a leap forward in storage innovation that will redefine what’s possible for your most demanding workloads. Enable Native NVMe today using a registry key after applying October’s latest cumulative update for WS2025!

We’re thrilled to announce the arrival of Native NVMe support in Windows Server 2025—a leap forward in storage innovation that will redefine what’s possible for your most demanding workloads. Modern ...
Updated Dec 15, 2025
Version 1.0
NVME SSD
storage
windows server
RichTreg2480's avatar
RichTreg2480
Copper Contributor
Dec 18, 2025

This feature counteracts the SQL Server sector size workaround for NVMe drives making it so that SQL Server will no longer run: "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device" /v "ForcedPhysicalSectorSizeInBytes". How are we to see a benefit on SQL Database servers if we can't run SQL server on NVMe drives?

hp18568's avatar
hp18568
Copper Contributor
Dec 19, 2025

I found this article on this topic: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/sql/database-engine/database-file-operations/troubleshoot-os-4kb-disk-sector-size?tabs=registry-editor

 

However, it does seem like something that any NVMe firmware would already resolve on its own. Sector sizes rarely align perfectly and drives these days are usually designed to optimize themselves without a lot of customization, as long as a reasonable sector size is chosen. Back in the old days, companies like Oracle would not certify NAND drives for use with tools like Hyperion EPM and its various databases. These days, I don't think they do that anymore.