NVMe Namespace Management

By: Steve Elwell | November 5, 2018| SANBlaze

Namespace Management is an easy way to create, delete, attach, detach and format namespaces. The SANBlaze VirtuaLUN supports this through the VirtuaLUN web interface and also through the CLI using the nvme-ns-mgmt command. If the drive supports namespace management, you’ll see a table like this on the Controller Actions tab:

The SANBlaze VirtuaLUN makes it easy to manage a single namespace or to handle multiple namespaces at the same time. You can specify the number of namespaces to create, select the size (placing your mouse over the Size entry box will display hover text with more details on allowable values), the format and protection type, and also whether they should be private and/or attached. Similarly, a single namespace can be detached and/or deleted, and all namespaces can be attached, detached or deleted using the AttachAll, DetachAll or DeleteAll buttons, respectively.

All functionality available via the web interface can also be executed via the CLI. To get help on using the nvme-ns-mgmt command, do this:

# nvme-ns-mgmt

usage: nvme-ns-mgmt /iportX/targetY {show|create|delete|attach|detach|format|erase|rescan} [-timeout N]

Each command also has its own help. For example, when doing a format, enter the command without parameters to see the help information for that command:

# nvme-ns-mgmt /iportX/targetY format (where X = NVMe initiator port number and Y = controller number to act upon)

To format, please specify -ns N (or -all) and -lbaf N, and optionally, either -prot N (or -mset N -pi N -pil N), and either -se or -ce

In fact, the nvme-ns-mgmt command gives you even more granularity when specifying the protection, as the “mset”, “pi” and “pil” parameters can be specified instead of using “prot”.

Using the nvme-ns-mgmt /iportX/targetY show -all command is a great way to get a summary of the namespaces currently configured and the number of namespaces still available, and also shows all of the LBAFormat and Protection options available on the drive. The nvme-ns-mgmt /iportX/targetY show -ns Z (where Z = namespace number) command can also be used to see the details of a particular namespace.