libnvme VS nvme-cli

nvme-cli: (https://github.com/linux-nvme/nvme-cli) i found this tool a few days ago when i was trying to troubleshoot some issues with Samsung enterprise drives. there is a boatload of features that i would definitely use on a storage server. i was able to use this tool to successfully get detailed smart data and error logs from the controller/firmware of the NVME drive its self not to mention OEM wipe, firmware, and reset commands are natively supported.

nvme (1) in Linux does support vendor specific plugins and as of version 1.16, here are the list of vendors who have supplied them (note that there are additional vendors in the latest nvme-cli package https://github.com/linux-nvme/nvme-cli.git, but I'm using the Ubuntu-installed version here):

Otherwise, if you have access to a Linux box or a bootable Linux USB stick, you can use the nvme-cli tool to send the equivalent command (use nvme list to list all drives, then nvme format -s1 /dev/drive to erase the drive, where /dev/drive is the block name of the device). I have not tested this method personally to see if it leaves any recoverable data, though it is supposed to be equivalent to Secure Erase.

Secure erase is generally incredibly fast. (We are actually just doing an "nvme format", which isn't guaranteed secure. There are options you can pass to it to make it secure, and in my experience don't change the time taken substantially. The nvme-cli program that does this is actually only available on linux. It's on my list to do to see how the options on windows translate to those available on linux.)

As a linux user, I plan to see if nvme-cli (https://github.com/linux-nvme/nvme-cli) sanitize feature works. Otherwise I'll just claim this as a total lost and make sure that's my last spend on Samsung SSD products, unless other vendors are equally terrible at their custom services.