nvme-critical-warning · shipping · also Critical Warning, critical_warning, NVMe SMART warning bitmask

NVMe Critical Warning

NVMe Critical Warning is the SMART / Health Information log bitmask identifying controller warning conditions at the time the log is read.

Related Observatory article: NVMe Critical Warning on hesela.com

NVMe Base 2.3 defines bits 0 through 6: spare below threshold, temperature threshold condition, degraded reliability, all media read-only, failed volatile-memory backup, PMR read-only or unreliable, and indeterminate personality state. Bit 7 is reserved. Bit 6 covers a failed personality-settings change when the previous personality could not be restored. NVMe 1.4a defined bits 0 through 5 with bits 6 and 7 reserved. [1]

Relations

related

nvme-smart-log, nvme-available-spare, nvme-media-data-integrity-errors

Limitations

• The mask is a current-state report, not a persistent event history; several flags can coexist, and a clear mask is not a guarantee against future failure. [1, 2]

Citations

1. NVM Express Base Specification 2.3, section 5.2.12.1.3, Figure 210, p. 214: Critical Warning (accessed 2026-10-14)
2. NVM Express 1.4a, Figure 196, p. 122: historical six-bit Critical Warning layout (accessed 2026-10-14)

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