Reference

nvme-connect-all(1)

Discover and Connect to Fabrics controllers.

NAME

nvme-connect-all - Discover and Connect to Fabrics controllers.

SYNOPSIS

nvme [<global-options>] connect-all
                        [--raw=<filename> | -r <filename>]
                        [--device=<device> | -d <device>]
                        [--config=<filename> | -J <cfg>]
                        [--persistent[=<no|auto|force>] | -p]
                        [--quiet]
                        [--no-reuse]
                        [--nbft]
                        [--no-nbft]
                        [--nbft-path=<STR>]
                        [--owner=<NAME>]
                        [<fabrics-options>]
                        [<global-options>]

DESCRIPTION

Send one or more Discovery requests to a NVMe over Fabrics Discovery Controller, and create controllers for the returned discovery records.

If no parameters are given, then nvme connect-all will attempt to find a /usr/local/etc/nvme/discovery.conf file to use to supply a list of connect-all commands to run. If no /usr/local/etc/nvme/discovery.conf file exists, the command will quit with an error.

Otherwise a specific Discovery Controller should be specified using the --transport, --traddr and if necessary the --trsvcid and a Discovery request will be sent to the specified Discovery Controller.

See the documentation for the nvme-discover(1) command for further background.

OPTIONS

-r <filename>, --raw=<filename>

This field will take the output of the nvme connect-all command and dump it to a raw binary file. By default nvme connect-all will dump the output to stdout.

-d <device>, --device=<device>

This field takes a device as input. It must be a persistent device associated with a Discovery Controller previously created by the command "connect-all" or "discover". <device> follows the format nvme*, eg. nvme0, nvme1.

-J <filename>, --config=<filename>

Use the specified JSON configuration file instead of the default /usr/local/etc/nvme/config.json file or none to not read in an existing configuration file. The JSON configuration file format is documented in https://github.com/linux-nvme/nvme-cli/blob/master/libnvme/doc/config-schema.json

-p, --persistent[=<no|auto|force>]

Keep the discovery controller connected after retrieving the discovery log page, instead of disconnecting once it’s done. Because the value is optional, it must be attached directly to the option: --persistent=force for the long form, -pforce for the short form. A value given as a separate argument (--persistent force, -p force) is no value of the option but an extra argument, and the command fails.

• no: never persist. Use this to opt out of the default.

• auto (the default, both when the option is omitted entirely and when --persistent is given with no value): persist a Discovery Log Page entry’s connection only where that entry’s own EPCSD (Explicit Persistent Connection Support for Discovery) flag reports support for it; degrade to non-persistent, with a log message, for entries that don’t.

• force: persist regardless of what EPCSD reports, for a target whose self-reported EPCSD cannot be trusted.

auto and force ask each discovery controller for a keep-alive timeout of 30 seconds, or the --keep-alive-tmo value when it is given. no asks for none, even when --keep-alive-tmo is given.

--quiet

Suppress error messages.

--no-reuse

Always create a new connection, never reuse an existing one.

--nbft

Only look at NBFT tables

--no-nbft

Do not look at NBFT tables

--nbft-path=<STR>

Use a user-defined path to the NBFT tables

--owner=<NAME>

Record NAME as the owner of connected controllers in the NVMe ownership registry, so other orchestrators (and nvme-disconnect-all) leave them alone. See nvme-disconnect-all(1). When --nbft is also given, --owner takes precedence over its default owner of nbft. An empty NAME (--owner=) removes the registry entries instead, leaving the controllers unowned. Without --owner, a controller that was already connected keeps the entry it has.

FABRICS OPTIONS

The following options are common to NVMe over Fabrics commands such as nvme connect:

-a <traddr>, --traddr=<traddr>

Specify the network address of the controller. For transports using IP addressing (e.g. rdma, tcp), this should be an IP address.

--concat

Enable secure concatenation (TCP).

-c <#>, --reconnect-delay=<#>

Set the delay in seconds before reconnect is attempted after a connection loss.

-C <secret>, --kxchap-ctrl-secret=<secret>

Controller authentication secret for bi-directional authentication. If not specified, bi-directional authentication is not attempted.

-S <secret>, --kxchap-secret=<secret>

Host authentication secret (KX-HMAC-CHAP). Must be provided in ASCII format as defined in the NVMe specification.

-C <secret>, --dhchap-ctrl-secret=<secret>

Controller authentication secret for bi-directional authentication. If not specified, bi-directional authentication is not attempted. (deprecated, see --kxchap-ctrl-secret)

-S <secret>, --dhchap-secret=<secret>

Host authentication secret (DH-HMAC-CHAP). Must be provided in ASCII format as defined in the NVMe specification. (deprecated, see --kxchap-secret)

--disable-sqflow

Disable submission queue flow control.

-G, --data-digest

Enable data digest generation/verification (TCP).

-D, --duplicate-connect

Allow duplicate connections to the same subsystem.

-g, --hdr-digest

Enable header digest generation/verification (TCP).

-f <iface>, --host-iface=<iface>

Specify the network interface to use for the connection.

-I <hostid>, --hostid=<hostid>

Specify the host UUID.

-q <hostnqn>, --hostnqn=<hostnqn>

Override the default host NQN.

-w <traddr>, --host-traddr=<traddr>

Specify the source address on the host side of the connection.

-k <#>, --keep-alive-tmo=<#>

Set the keep-alive timeout in seconds.

--keyring=<keyring>

Keyring to use for TLS key lookup.

-n <subnqn>, --nqn=<subnqn>

Specify the NVMe subsystem NQN to connect to.

-i <#>, --nr-io-queues=<#>

Number of I/O queues to create.

-P <#>, --nr-poll-queues=<#>

Number of polling queues to create.

-W <#>, --nr-write-queues=<#>

Number of write queues to create.

-Q <#>, --queue-size=<#>

Queue depth for I/O queues.

-l <#>, --ctrl-loss-tmo=<#>

Maximum time in seconds to retry reconnect attempts after controller loss.

-s <trsvcid>, --trsvcid=<trsvcid>

Transport service identifier (e.g. TCP/rdma port). Default is 4420 for RDMA.

-T <#>, --tos=<#>

Type of service value for the connection (TCP).

-t <trtype>, --transport=<trtype>

Specify the transport type. Supported values include:

+

ValueDescription
rdmaRDMA (RoCE, iWARP, InfiniBand)
tcpTCP/IP
fcFibre Channel (experimental)
loopLocal loopback transport
--tls

Enable TLS encryption (TCP).

--tls-key=<tls-key>

TLS key for the connection. It is recommended to preload keys into the system keyring instead of passing them via the command line.

--tls-key-identity=<identity>

Identity associated with the TLS key.

GLOBAL OPTIONS

The following options are defined at the top-level nvme command and are available to this subcommand:

--dry-run

Print the command that would be executed, but do not actually execute it.

--no-ioctl-probing

Disable probing for 64-bit IOCTL support.

--no-retries

Disable retry logic on transient errors.

-o <fmt>, --output-format=<fmt>

Set the reporting format to normal, tabular, 'json, or binary. Only one output format may be used at a time.

--output-format-version=<version>

Select the output format version. Version 1 uses the original field naming, while version 2 (default) provides more consistent and script-friendly field names. Other versions are rejected.

--quiet

Suppress informational messages. Errors are still reported, and --quiet cancels any --verbose for the library log level.

--set-options=<key=value>[,<key=value>...]

Set libnvme library options for this invocation. Supported keys are force-4k, mi-probe-enabled, test-base-dir and test-sysfs-dir.

--timeout=<ms>

Set the timeout for the command in milliseconds. infinite or -1 waits without a time limit (0xffffffff).

-v, --verbose

Increase the level of detail in the output. May be specified multiple times to further increase verbosity.

These options can also be set as machine-wide defaults in nvme-cli.conf(5). A command-line flag always overrides the file.

EXAMPLES

• Connect to all records returned by the Discover Controller with IP4 address 192.168.1.3 for all resources allocated for NVMe Host name host1-rogue-nqn on the RDMA network. Port 4420 is used by default:

# nvme connect-all --transport=rdma --traddr=192.168.1.3 \
--hostnqn=host1-rogue-nqn

• Issue a nvme connect-all command using the default system defined NBFT tables:

# nvme connect-all --nbft

• Issue a nvme connect-all command with a user-defined path for the NBFT table:

# nvme connet-all --nbft-path=/sys/firmware/acpi/tables/NBFT1

• Issue a nvme connect-all command using a /usr/local/etc/nvme/discovery.conf file:

# Machine default 'nvme discover' commands. Query the
# Discovery Controller's two ports (some resources may only
# be accessible on a single port). Note an official
# nqn (Host) name defined in the NVMe specification is being used
# in this example.
-t rdma -a 192.168.69.33 -s 4420 -q nqn.2014-08.com.example:nvme:nvm-subsystem-sn-d78432
-t rdma -a 192.168.1.4   -s 4420 -q nqn.2014-08.com.example:nvme:nvm-subsystem-sn-d78432
At the prompt type "nvme connect-all".

SEE ALSO

nvme-discover(1) nvme-connect(1)

NVME

Part of the nvme-user suite

History

--concat since Debian 13 (Trixie); --config since Debian 13 (Trixie); --ctrl-loss-tmo since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --data-digest since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --device since Debian 13 (Trixie); --dhchap-ctrl-secret since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --dhchap-secret since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --disable-sqflow since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --dry-run since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --duplicate-connect since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --hdr-digest since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --host-iface since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --hostid since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --keep-alive-tmo since Debian 10 (Buster); --keyring since Debian 13 (Trixie); --kxchap-ctrl-secret since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --kxchap-secret since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --nbft since Debian 13 (Trixie); --nbft-path since Debian 13 (Trixie); --no-ioctl-probing since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --no-nbft since Debian 13 (Trixie); --no-retries since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --no-reuse since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --nqn since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --nr-io-queues since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --nr-poll-queues since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --nr-write-queues since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --output-format since Debian 13 (Trixie); --output-format-version since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --owner since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --persistent since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --queue-size since Debian 10 (Buster); --quiet since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --raw since Debian 10 (Buster); --reconnect-delay since Debian 11 (Bullseye); --set-options since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --timeout since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --tls since Debian 13 (Trixie); --tls-key since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --tls-key-identity since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --tos since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --verbose since Debian 13 (Trixie); -C since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -D since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -G since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -I since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -J since Debian 13 (Trixie); -P since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -Q since Debian 10 (Buster); -S since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -T since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; -W since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -c since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -d since Debian 13 (Trixie); -f since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -g since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -i since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -k since Debian 10 (Buster); -l since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -n since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -o since Debian 13 (Trixie); -p since Debian 11 (Bullseye); -r since Debian 10 (Buster); -v since Debian 13 (Trixie).

--config-file until Debian 12 (Bookworm); --context until Debian 13 (Trixie); --dump-config until Debian 13 (Trixie); --matching until Debian 11 (Bullseye); --tls_key until Debian 13 (Trixie); -O until Debian 13 (Trixie); -m until Debian 11 (Bullseye).