How to format an NVMe drive

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The following are concise instructions on how to format NVMe drives in Linux.

First, identify the format required:

nvme id-ns /dev/nvme1n1 | grep LBA
LBA Format  0 : Metadata Size: 0   bytes - Data Size: 512 bytes - Relative Performance: 0x1 Better 

LBA Format  1 : Metadata Size: 8   bytes - Data Size: 512 bytes - Relative Performance: 0x3 Degraded 

LBA Format  2 : Metadata Size: 0   bytes - Data Size: 4096 bytes - Relative Performance: 0 Best  (in use)

LBA Format  3 : Metadata Size: 8   bytes - Data Size: 4096 bytes - Relative Performance: 0x2 Good

Explanation

• Each format has an id: 0, 1, 2, 3 in this example.
• There are two data sector sizes - 512 bytes and 4K. Typically the 4K formats provide the best performance and endurance.
• Metadata - some drives provide the capability to add a few bytes for additional metadata for each sector. This is typically used for T10/DIF CRC.

Format

nvme format /dev/nvme1n1 -l 0

where l represents the LBA format id as listed in nvme id-ns.