devlist

List all NVMe controllers and namespaces along with their device nodes. With the -h argument, use unit suffixes: Byte, Kibibyte, Mebibyte, Gibibyte, Tebibyte and Pebibyte (based on powers of 1024) when showing the disk space. By default, uses Mebibyte.

identify

The identify commands reports information from the drive's IDENTIFY_CONTROLLER if a device-id is specified. It reports IDENTIFY_NAMESPACE data if a namespace-id is specified. When used with disk names, the IDENTIFY_NAMESPACE data is reported, unless the namespace nsid is overridden with the -n flag. Then that namespace's data is reported, if it exists. The command accepts the following parameters:

-n

The namespace ⟨nsid⟩ to use instead of the namespace associated with the device. A nsid of “0” is used to retrieve the IDENTIFY_CONTROLLER data associated with that drive.

logpage

The logpage command knows how to print log pages of various types. It also knows about vendor specific log pages from hgst/wdc, samsung and intel. Note that some vendors use the same log page numbers for different data.

Page 0x01

Drive Error Log

Page 0x02

Health/SMART Data

Page 0x03

Firmware Information

Page 0x04

Changed Namespace List

Page 0x05

Commands Supported and Effects

Page 0x06

Device Self-test

Page 0x80

Reservation Notification

Page 0x81

Sanitize Status

Page 0xc1

Advanced SMART information (WDC/HGST)

Page 0xc1

Read latency stats (Intel)

Page 0xc2

Wite latency stats (Intel)

Page 0xc5

Temperature stats (Intel)

Page 0xca

Advanced SMART information (Intel)

Page 0xca

Extended SMART information (Samsung)

Specifying -v help will list all valid vendors and pages. -x will print the page as hex. -b will print the binary data for the page. -s will set Log Specific Field. -i will set Log Specific Identifier. -r will set Retain Asynchronous Event.

ns

Various namespace management commands. If namespace management is supported by device, allow list, create and delete namespaces, list, attach and detach controllers to namespaces. Each NVM device consists of one or more NVM subsystems. Each NVM subsystem has one or more NVM ports. Each NVM port is attached to one or more NVM controllers (though typically 1). Each NVM controller is attached to one or more namespaces.

After a namespace is created, it is considered “allocated”. All namespaces that have not been created are unallocated. An allocated namespace may be active or inactive. An active namespace is attached to the controller and may be interacted with. A namespace can move from active to inactive when detached. An allocated namespace may be deleted to become unallocated. For more details on the nuances of NVM namespaces, please see section 2 Theory of Operation and section 3 NVM Express Architecture of the latest NVM standard.

ns active

Provide a list of active namespace identifiers for the givne NVM controller.

ns allocated

Provide a list of allocated namespace identifiers for the givne NVM controller.

ns attach

Attach an nsid to a controller. The primary controller is used if one is not specified.

ns attached

Provide a list of controllers attached to a nsid. If only a nvme controller argument is provided, a nsid must also be specified.

ns controllers

Provide a list of all controllers in the NVM subsystem.

ns create

Creates a new namespace.

ns delete

Delete a namespace. It must be currently inactive.

ns detach

Detach a namespace from a controller. The namespace will become inaccessible, but its contents will remain if it is activated again.

ns identify

Print detailed information about the namespace.

nsid

Reports the namespace id and controller device associated with the ⟨namespace-id⟩ or ⟨device-id⟩ argument.

resv acquire

Acquire or preempt namespace reservation, using specified parameters:

-a

Acquire action:

0

Acquire

1

Preempt

2

Preempt and abort

-c

Current reservation key.

-p

Preempt reservation key.

-t

Reservation type:

1

Write Exclusive

2

Exclusive Access

3

Write Exclusive - Registrants Only

4

Exclusive Access - Registrants Only

5

Write Exclusive - All Registrants

6

Exclusive Access - All Registrants

resv register

Register, unregister or replace reservation key, using specified parameters:

-c

Current reservation key.

-k

New reservation key.

-r

Register action:

0

Register

1

Unregister

2

Replace

-i

Ignore Existing Key

-p

Change Persist Through Power Loss State:

0

No change to PTPL state

2

Set PTPL state to ‘0’. Reservations are released and registrants are cleared on a power on.

3

Set PTPL state to ‘1’. Reservations and registrants persist across a power loss.

resv release

Release or clear reservation, using specified parameters:

-c

Current reservation key.

-t

Reservation type.

-a

Release action:

0

Release

1

Clean

resv report

Print reservation status, using specified parameters:

-x

Print reservation status in hex.

-e

Use Extended Data Structure.

format

Format either specified namespace, or all namespaces of specified controller, using specified parameters:

-f fmt

The index fmt of the parameters to use. LBA Format #, as specified in the identification of the namespace using “nvmecontrol identify” command with a namespace specified maps this index into these parameters.

-m mset

Metadata Setting. mset

0

do not transfer metadata with LBA information

1

Transfer the metadata as part of the extended LBA information.

-p pi

Protection Information.

0

Protection Information not enabled.

1

Type 1 information protection enabled.

2

Type 2 information protection enabled.

3

Type 3 information protection enabled.

-l pil

Protection Information Location.

0

Transfer the protection metadata as the last N bytes of the transfer.

1

Transfer the protection metadata as the first N bytes of the transfer.

-E

Enables User Data Erase during format. All users data is erased and subsequent reads are indeterminate. The drive may implement this as a cryptographic erase or it may physically erase the underlying media.

-C

Enables Cryptographic Erase during format. All user data is erased cryptographically by deleting the encryption key, rendering it unintelligible.

When formatting specific namespace, existing values are used as defaults. When formatting all namespaces, all parameters should be specified. Some controllers may not support formatting or erasing specific or all namespaces. The nvme(4) driver does not currently support metadata and protection information transfers.

sanitize

Sanitize NVM subsystem of specified controller, using specified parameters:

-a operation

Specify the sanitize operation to perform.

overwrite

Perform an overwrite operation by writing a user supplied data pattern to the device one or more times. The pattern is given by the -p argument. The number of times is given by the -c argument.

block

Perform a block erase operation. All the device's blocks are set to a vendor defined value, typically zero.

crypto

Perform a cryptographic erase operation. The encryption keys are changed to prevent the decryption of the data.

exitfailure

Exits a previously failed sanitize operation. A failed sanitize operation can only be exited if it was run in the unrestricted completion mode, as provided by the -U argument.

1, 2, 3, 4

nvme-cli compatible -a values for “exitfailure”, “block”, “overwrite”, and “crypto” respectively.

-c passes

The number of passes when performing an ‘overwrite’ operation. Valid values are between 1 and 16. The default is 1.

-d

No Deallocate After Sanitize.

-I

When performing an ‘overwrite’ operation, the pattern is inverted between consecutive passes.

-p pattern

32 bits of pattern to use when performing an ‘overwrite’ operation. The pattern is repeated as needed to fill each block.

-U

Perform the sanitize in the unrestricted completion mode. If the operation fails, it can later be exited with the ‘exitfailure’ operation.

-r

Run in “report only” mode. This will report status on a sanitize that is already running on the drive.

power

Manage the power modes of the NVMe controller.

-l

List all supported power modes.

-p mode

Set the power mode to mode. This must be a mode listed with the

nvmecontrol power -l

command.

-w hint

Set the workload hint for automatic power mode control.

0

No workload hint is provided.

1

Extended idle period workload. The device is often idle for minutes at a time. A burst of write commands comes in over a period of seconds. Then the device returns to being idle.

2

Heavy sequential writes. A huge number of sequential writes will be submitted, filling the submission queues.

Other

All other values are reserved and have no standard meaning.

Please see the “NVM Subsystem Workloads” section of the relevant NVM Express Base Standard for details.

selftest

Start the specified device self-test:

-c code

Specify the device self-test command code. Common codes are:

0x1

Start a short device self-test operation

0x2

Start an extended device self-test operation

0xe

Start a vendor specific device self-test operation

0xf

Abort the device self-test operation

wdc

The various wdc command retrieve log data from the wdc/hgst drives. The -o flag specifies a path template to use to output the files. Each file takes the path template (which defaults to nothing), appends the drive's serial number and the type of dump it is followed by .bin. These logs must be sent to the vendor for analysis. This tool only provides a way to extract them.

passthru

The “admin-passthru” and “io-passthru” commands send NVMe commands to either the administrative or the data part of the device. These commands are expected to be compatible with nvme-cli. Please see the NVM Express Base Standard for details.

-o --opcode opcode

Opcode to send.

-2 --cdw2 value

32-bit value for CDW2.

-3 --cdw3 value

32-bit value for CDW3.

-4 --cdw10 value

32-bit value for CDW10.

-5 --cdw11 value

32-bit value for CDW11.

-6 --cdw12 value

32-bit value for CDW12.

-7 --cdw13 value

32-bit value for CDW13.

-8 --cdw14 value

32-bit value for CDW14.

-9 --cdw15 value

32-bit value for CDW15.

-l --data-len

Length of the data for I/O (bytes).

-m --metadata-len

Length of the metadata segment for command (bytes). This is ignored and not implemented in nvme(4).

-f --flags

Nvme command flags.

-n --namespace-id

Namespace ID for command (Ignored).

-p --prefill

Value to prefill payload with.

-b --raw-binary

Output in binary format (otherwise a hex dump is produced).

-d --dry-run

Do not actually execute the command, but perform sanity checks on it.

-r --read

Command reads data from the device.

-s --show-command

Show all the command values on stdout.

-w --write

Command writes data to the device.

Send arbitrary commands to the device. Can be used to extract vendor specific logs. Transfers to/from the device possible, but limited to MAXPHYS bytes. Commands either read data or write it, but not both. Commands needing metadata are not supported by the nvme(4) drive.

discover

List the remote controllers advertised by a remote Discovery Controller:

-t transport

Transport to use. The default is

-q HostNQN

NVMe Qualified Name to use for this host. By default an NQN is auto-generated from the current host's UUID. tcp.

-v

Display the IDENTIFY_CONTROLLER data for the Discovery Controller.

connect

Establish an association with the I/O controller named SubNQN at address. The address must include a port.

An admin queue pair and one or more I/O queue pairs are created and handed off to the kernel to create a new controller device.

-c cntl-id

Remote controller ID to request:

dynamic

Request a dynamic controller ID for controllers using the dynamic controller model. This is the default.

static

Request a dynamic controller ID for controllers using the static controller model.

number

Request a specific controller ID for controllers using the static controller model.

-F

Request submission queue flow control. By default submission queue flow control is disabled unless the remote controller requires it.

-g

Enable TCP PDU header digests.

-G

Enable TCP PDU data digests.

-i queues

Number of I/O queue pairs to create. The default is 1.

-k seconds

Keep Alive timer duration in seconds. The default is 120.

-t transport

Transport to use. The default is tcp.

-q HostNQN

NVMe Qualified Name to use for this host. By default an NQN is auto-generated from the current host's UUID.

-Q entries

Number of entries in each I/O queue. By default the maximum queue size reported by the MQES field of the remote host's CAP property is used.

connect-all

Query the Discovery Controller at address and establish an association for each advertised I/O controller. The -t flag determines the transport used for the initial association with the Discovery Controller and defaults to tcp. All other flags are used to control properties of each I/O assocation as described above for the connect command.

disconnect

Delete the controller device associated with a remote I/O controller including any active association and open queues.

reconnect

Reestablish an association for the remote I/O controller associated with device-id at address. The address must include a port. The flags have the same meaning for the new association as described above for the connect command.

telemetry-log

Extract the telemetry log associated with device-id, using the specified parameters:

-O output-file

Output file for the data. This parameter is mandatory.

-d data-area

The data area is either 1, 2 or 3.