NVMe

Kernel

NVM Express block device (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NVME) must be activated to gain NVMe device support:

Device Drivers  --->
  <*> NVM Express block device

Device Drivers →
  NVME Support →
    <*> NVM Express block device

Devices will show up under /dev/nvme*.

These are the defaults on other GNU/Linux distributions.

<*> NVM Express block device
[*] NVMe multipath support
[*] NVMe hardware monitoring
<M> NVM Express over Fabrics FC host driver
<M> NVM Express over Fabrics TCP host driver
<M> NVMe Target support
  [*]   NVMe Target Passthrough support
  <M>   NVMe loopback device support
  <M>   NVMe over Fabrics FC target driver
  < >     NVMe over Fabrics FC Transport Loopback Test driver (NEW)
  <M>   NVMe over Fabrics TCP target support

Identifying the device

There are minor differences in the naming scheme for devices and partitions when compared to SATA devices.

NVMe partitions generally show a p before the partition number. NVMe devices also include namespace support, using a n before listing the namespace. Therefore the first device in the first namespace with one partition will be at the following location: /dev/nvme0n1p1. The device name is nvme0, in namespace 1, and partition 1.

I/O testing

Hdparm can be used to get the raw read/write speed of a NVMe device. Passing the -t option instructs hdparm to perform timings of device reads, -T performs timings of cache reads, and --direct bypasses the page cache and causes reads to go directly from the drive into hdparm's buffers in raw mode:

Performance and maintenance

Since NVMe devices share the flash memory technology basis with common SSDs, the same performance and longevity considerations apply. For details consult the SSD article.